Jesus in the Old Testament is a series of posts that will offer my readers a chance to consider pictures or shadows of Jesus in the Old Testament. As mentioned in the introduction to this series, some may be obvious, some may be not so obvious, and some may simply be a facet of the Lord those reading may not have considered previously.

I hope as we venture through this series, we will see the Lord in many wonderful pictures throughout the Old Testament.

Balaam was a non Israelite prophet that is reknown as a man with an evil (greedy) eye, as a prophet who forsook the way of righteousness, and who loved the wages of unrighteousness. His greatest failing was that of providing Balak counsel to cripple Israel though committing fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols.

Revelation 2:14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.

Peter also has some very harsh things to say about this man.

2 Peter 2:15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing,

Jude reiterates the rebuke of Peter.

Jude 1:11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.

In all of Balaam’s moral failings and apostacy, he remains a type of Christ in a number of surprising ways.

Our first picture of Christ in Balaam’s life was that He was a stranger to the Israelite. Now before you start to fear that I will seek to argue that Jesus wasn’t a full Jew, let me explain. But first let me establish that Balaam was a stranger to the Jews.

Deuteronomy 23:4 … because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.

Balaam was neither Israeli, nor of the Moabites, yet a prophet that spoke to God and that listened to God (sort of).

Jesus was THE prophet of God, yet His origin was not Israeli, nor of any near neighbor to the Israeli people. He was from far, far away, a Stranger that was brought to the region to prophecy. He spoke to others the Word of God, and we shall see in the following posts that Balaam also spoke the Word of God though in this case Israel’s enemies.

Balaam turned out to be Israel’s greatest enemy of the time, simply by providing counsel of their weakness to the enemy. Thankfully in this regard, Jesus is the Savior of those who are victims of this teaching, bringing holiness, purity and contentment to His followers.

In relation to their origin as related to those who benefitted from their prophecy, both were strangers. One a failed prophet from Mesopotamia, and One a faithful and True prophet from Heaven

Jesus is the Stranger to the Jews who brought salvation and not sin!

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