Seth Gruber
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Diplomacy meant surrender.
Alliances were useless.
And so what does Balak do?
He turns to the spiritual realm.
He summons the seer Balaam and through Balaam delivers multiple oracles.
But each of them reached the same conclusion that Israel cannot be conquered from without.
Their only weakness lay within.
They could only fall.
This is what Balak learns.
Israel could only fall if they abandoned righteousness and polluted their own covenant.
And so armed with this knowledge, what does Balak do?
He abandons armies, he abandons curses, he abandons strategic alliances, and he chooses temptation.
The women of Moab enter Israel's camp at Peor.
drawing people into idolatry and immorality.
And this succeeded where weapons had failed.
Israel was defeated without a battle.
No blades clashed.
No arrows were loosed.
Centuries would pass before Moab could physically conquer Jerusalem.
But that eventual triumph had already been secured.