I read a book that reminded the reader that fear was something we should listen to. Fear is a response to stimulus that we may understand, but often don't. Fear isn't a bad thing, I believe it is a gift from God for us in this fallen world. The problem with fear, as with anger, is that they can be good tools or signs but bad masters. As we see in this chapter, Balak is afraid of what he sees. His fear causes him to assume that the only way to deal with Israel is to see them destroyed. It seems to me he didn't see Israel as a possible ally or as someone that he could reason with. He didn't try any solution to his problem other than to try and destroy them using what he would have thought of as magic.
The sad thing is that if Balak had reached out to Israel, then God may have led Israel away from his borders or created an ally. We will never know because Balak allowed his fear to drive him rather than (as I see it) his reason.
Speaking of people not seeing the obvious, Balaam's donkey served him faithfully, and it was just this day something was different. From the interaction with the donkey, the donkey's actions were out of character. Balaam didn't ask himself why his faithful donkey was acting different, he assumed it was being difficult. Personally, I think he knew he wasn't supposed to go and therefore was in a bad mood. In my experience, those who are doing something they know they shouldn't are often one misstep from anger and rarely see how it is there actions, which are the problem.
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