Scroll to the bottom for thoughts/discussion questions!
Once-sentence summary: Balak appeals to Balam three times to curse Israel but He blesses them three times instead, Israel is unfaithful to God by intermarrying with the Midianites and worshipping their gods, God sends a plague and 24,000 Israelites die, and God's wrath is abated when Eleazar's son is consumed with zeal for God.
Balaam tells Balak to build seven altars and prepare seven bulls and seven rams, and they make offerings. Then, Balaam tells Balak to stand by the offerings, and that he will go and see if and what the Lord may speak to him. So Balaam goes "to a desolate height," and the Lord meets him. Balaam tells God about the offerings, and the Lord puts a word in his mouth. When Balaam returns, Balak with the princes of Moab are standing by the altars, and Balak tells Balaam to curse Israel. But Balaam says, "How can I curse whom God has not cursed?" He proceeds to praise God for what He has done in Israel. Then, Balak says, "What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and you have blessed them bountifully!" But Balaam says, "Must I not take heed to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?" Balak then begs him to go to another place with a better view and to curse the people from there. So Balaam does the same thing there, having Balak make the seven altars with sacrifices. Balaam goes to meet the Lord again to see what He will say, and the Lord meets him again and puts a word in his mouth, telling him to tell Balak only what He has said. When Balak asks what God has spoken, Balaam says, "God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that He should repent. Has He said and will He not do? Or has He spoken and will He not make it good? Behold, I have received a command to bless. He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it. He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. God brings them out of Egypt. He has strength like a wild ox, for there is no sorcery against Jacob nor any divination against Israel. It now must be said of Jacob and of Israel, 'Oh, what God has done!' Look, a people rises like a lioness and lifts itself up like a lion. It shall not lie down until it devours the prey and drinks the blood of the slain!" So Balak tells Balaam to neither curse nor bless, but Balaam reprimands him and says that he already told him he could only say what God has told him to say. However, Balak is persistent and insists on going to yet another place to see if God might change His mind and let Balaam curse Israel from there. So he takes him to another hight mountain, and Balaam tells Balak again to prepare the altars and the rams. (We wonder why he is entertaining this nonsense, but God uses Balaam's waywardness to receive glory anyway.)
Scripture says here that when Balaam sees that it has pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he "does not go as at other times to seek to use sorcery" but looks toward the wilderness and observes Israel from afar. Then, God's Spirit comes upon him, and he blesses Israel again. (This part is really beautiful, because we see how God sees Israel, which is totally different from how they see themselves or their situation. The imagery involves trees, oxen, arrows, and lions.) Balaam says, "Blessed is he who blesses you (Israel), and cursed is he who curses you." Then, Balak becomes angry at Balaam and says that now he has blessed him enemies three times when he was summoned to curse them. He says the Lord has prevented him from being honored by him. But Balaam again reminds Balak of his original stance and what he said to his messengers at the beginning. Balak tells him to go away to his people, but Balaam says he will first tell Balak what Israel will do to him. He prophesies that "a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel and battle the brow of Moab.. and Edom shall be a possession... out of Jacob, One shall have dominion and destroy the remains of the city." He says that the Amalekites will become last among the nations before perishing. Of the Kenites, he says that although they seem secure, they shall be burned and carried away captive. Then, Balaam goes back to his place, and Balak to his.
Israel begins to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. They invite the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and Israel eats and bows down to their gods and is "joined to Baal," and God's anger is aroused. The Lord tells Moses to take the leaders of the people and hang the offenders out in the open for all to see so that His anger will turn from them. At this time, an Israelite presents a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and all the congregation who are weeping at the door of the tabernacle. When Phinehas, Eleazar's son sees this, he rises up with a javelin and pierces both the man and the woman with it in a tent, "so the plague is stopped [from] among the children of Israel," and 24,000 altogether die in the plague. Then, the Lord tells Moses that Phinehas has turned back His wrath since he was zealous for God's zeal among Israel so that God did not consume them in His zeal. He makes a covenant with Phinehas, a covenant of peace with him and his descendants for an everlasting priesthood. The Lord tells Moses to harrass the Midianites and attack them, since they harrassed Israel with their schemes by seducing the people to marry their daughters.
Thoughts/Discussion Questions:
As I said in my commentary above (end of paragraph 1), although Balaam is a wayward prophet and should not even put up with such nonsense and man-pleasing, God still uses Him to get glory.
It might be difficult to understand God's wrath at Israel's unfaithfulness, but we need to compare it to how a husband would feel if his wife were unfaithful. However, it is way worse, because God is completely holy and worthy of all of us. We tend to think God does not understand our feelings, but He had them first!