“Rise, Balak, and hear;
    give ear to me, O son of Zippor:
19 God is not man, that he should lie,
    or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
    Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
20 Behold, I received a command to bless:
    he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.
21 He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob,
    nor has he seen trouble in Israel.
The Lord their God is with them,
    and the shout of a king is among them.
22 God brings them out of Egypt
    and is for them like the horns of the wild ox.
23 For there is no enchantment against Jacob,
    no divination against Israel;
now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,
    ‘What has God wrought!’
24 Behold, a people! As a lioness it rises up
    and as a lion it lifts itself;
it does not lie down until it has devoured the prey
    and drunk the blood of the slain.”

Numbers 23:18-24
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It is utter foolishness to think that we can do anything or succeed in anything that runs contrary to God’s will. Bala is obviously determined to put a curse on Israel because he is scared of them. They intimidate him and his understanding of power and authority. Their mere presence asserts more power than he can muster on his own, and so he sees them as a threat. He tries and tries to involve some sort of supernatural use on them, but repeatedly finds that it’s just not going to happen. And still he pursues it. But why?

When we are living in sin and we encounter the holiness of God, or even the holiness we see imparted to one if His representatives, we take offense at it, because it exposes our biases, our sins and the flaws in our armor. But in the end, only what God says really matters and/or will come to pass. Balak tries to buy a curse, he tries to force a curse, he wants so desperately to force Israel out of the equation, but God will not listen to the plea of the sinful or the heart of the foolish. God’s Word is what stands, and it is what should be our guide.

Balak had ample opportunity to reevaluate his motives, to reassess his situation, but rather than look inward, he only tried to force a hand that he could not deal, and he would up short. Even at the end of all these attempts, he still isn’t quite finished yet, because when we are locked into our sin, when we have fully bought into it, there isn’t much that is going to set our minds and hearts straight outside of a direct intervention by God. And even this does not deter him. In Romans 1 and 2 Thessalonians 2, God turns people over to the lies they have bought into, and Balak has claimed full ownership of the lies that run his life. God is always available, He will always accept a repentant heart, but the desire to change must come from us, He will not force His hand and circumvent our free will that He has given to us.

As Christians, we must maintain an attitude that reflects joy in that decision. We cannot force the appearance of Christian walk, we cannot fake the devotion that comes form a sincere heart. If we a re going to follow after Christ, and GoLove people as He has commissioned us to do, then our faith and following must be sincere. A fake disciple only produces fake disciples. But a sold-out heart works to produce fruit that the Spirit has planted. It is sincere, full of real joy, and that joy cannot be traded for anything while our eyes are on Jesus, and frankly, we shouldn’t want to. We cannot live or succeed in anything that stands apart from God, no mater how much we may try to force His hand.