Sunday Sermonette: The definition of insanity . . .

 . . . is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. If you accept that, Balak evidently has that diagnosis. However, as I said before, the real reason for this story seems to be to provide a frame for presenting the songs, which come from a lost source. The only other comment I have at this point is to note again the oddity that the people are suddenly on the east side of the Jordan. They came from the west in Egypt, wandered around what was apparently the Sinai and the Negev (although the geography is generally quite vague) and now all of a sudden here they are on the east bank and the proposal is that they will enter the promised land from that direction, by crossing the river. It isn ' t implausible that they got there, the river is shallow and has many fords. Still, it seems odd that there was no mention of crossing. Anyway, we ' ve nearly seen the last of Balaam -- in the near future, God will reward his obedience by having him murdered.24 Now when Balaam saw that it pleased theLord to bless Israel, he did not resort to divination as at other times, but turned his face toward the wilderness.2 When Balaam looked out and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came on him3 and he spoke his message:“The prophecy of Balaam son of Beor,    the prophecy of one whose eye sees clearly,4 the prophecy of one who hears the words of God,    who sees a vision from the Almighty,[a]...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs