Mtr Taylor Devine

Good morning,

“Now Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, so he did not go, as at other times, to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness. Balaam looked up and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe.”

When I read yesterday’s Daily Bread by Fr. Mark, I thought “he wrote about Friday’s reading!” Alas, this is one of those repetitive places in the Bible, where the details are critical to the story, but where we can get mired. In today’s reading we are arrive at the fourth time when Balaam speaks about the Israelites in the wilderness. The first three times, he tries to curse Israel on behalf of Balak who has sent him, but the fourth time he gives in, and can’t curse but must bless them, again. He says "If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord, to do either good or bad of my own will; what the Lord says, that is what I will say."

When I come upon a detailed story like this, with repetitions and formulas chock full with meaning, I can get mired in wondering where all of this is going. There are many resources to turn to, Study Bibles, periodicals from throughout the past years and today, etc. One resource that refreshed my understanding of this text is found here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zebxH-5o-SQ Perhaps it will bring fresh eyes to the Book of Numbers for you as well. The image of the wilderness, a place of great possibility and danger, is refreshed in this video, and the order is shown when they are called into a census: "how fair are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel." The community moving through the wilderness period is tended to by God until their ancestors are brought to Canaan.

With gratitude for the creative faithful among us who can tell the story of God afresh in each generation,

Mtr. Taylor