Numbers 23

In the film Ratatouille, directed by the incredible Brad Bird, a Parisian rat named Remy has a zeal for cooking. Needless to say, the last thing any respectable restaurant wants is a rat in its kitchen, so Remy is initially limited in how he can manifest his culinary ardor. A series of wooly vicissitudes give Remy a chance to pursue his passion by teaming up with a hapless chef named Linguini (whose first name, of course, is Alfredo). By pulling on the chef's hair, Remy can control Linguini like a puppet. (Given all the harebrained notions of the film, it's a supreme testament to Bird's consummate storytelling skill that he made the film not just believable, but also sublime).

I wonder if Balaam felt similar to Linguini as God gave him messages that he was forced to utter. Although Balak wants Balaam to curse Israel, God puts "a word in Balaam's mouth" that ends up being a blessing (verse 5). Rather amusingly, after the first blessing, Balak tells Balaam to move further away so that he can see "only the outskirts of the camp" (verse 13), as if location and distance had anything to do with God's influence. Then again, maybe Balak was used to worshipping idols with limited "power."

Balaam probably was ambivalent about Balak's request; his first message, although it comes from God, contains a smattering of Balaam's own voice from which we can discover his point of view. In verse 8, he seems to be speaking to Balak, asking if he can curse or denounce those who have God's favor. He even says in verse 10, "Let me die the death of the righteous / and may my final end be like theirs!" Even this foreign diviner discerns that God has set apart the Israelites for a holy purpose, a purpose of which Balaam wishes to partake himself. OK, maybe he had selfish reasons for wanting to have God's favor, but he does recognize God's sovereign will for the Israelites.

The second message has fewer of Balaam's own interjections and more of God's voice. He stresses God's steadfast nature in verse 19 and in verse 21 uses the wonderfully evocative image of "the shout of the King." God's stentorian, authoritative voice is not one to be disdained or spurned. Verse 24 says, "The people rise like a lioness; / they rouse themselves like a lion." The specific diction used in these paired lines is marvelously apt. Lionesses do all the hunting (as anyone who's seen The Lion King knows); they "rise" out of the savanna to find sustenance for the pride. Lions in general sleep for about 20 hours a day, but when "roused" out of their slumber, they can prove ferocious (and visually formidable, if nothing else). The vampiric line that closes verse 24 is an oddity, though--I can accept that lions drink blood, but the Israelites themselves are specifically forbidden to do so. Such dissonance may betray the tension between God's message and the attitude of the messenger, Balaam. Or I could be overanalyzing it, as English majors are wont to do.