Monday of the Third
Week of Advent
Balaam was a holy man who lived in Palestine just before the Israelites occupied
the territory. When Balak, the king of
the Moabites, saw the oncoming Israeli hordes, he summoned Balaam to curse the
intruders. His hope was that a holy
man’s curse would provide him the margin of victory against the invaders. Balaam, however, did not comply with the king’s
wishes because he saw how God was favoring the Israelites. He interpreted a rising star which he noted
in the heavens as representing the ascendency of Israel’s prominence in the
land.
Just as Balaam recognized the coming of Israel to dominate Palestine, John the Baptist sees one coming
after him who will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit. But he is not sure exactly who the coming one
is, at least as Matthew records the story.
In fact, John seems disillusioned because Jesus’ message almost lacks righteous
indignation with sin. The fire and
Spirit, which John predicted, turn out to be Jesus’ life-giving actions of
forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoral to wholeness. Unlike John, a prophet who speaks under God’s
tutelage, Jesus proclaims the Kingdom with his
own divine authority.
We understand the star that Balaam saw as the same one the
Magi viewed a thousand years later. It points
us to Jesus, the Savior. We must be
careful not to confuse the stars of everyday life with Jesus himself. This happens when we pay more attention to sports
stars or Hollywood starlets than to Jesus.
It takes place when we look at anything that glitters – gold and
diamonds, for example – as if it were what we value most. Finally, the stars of the heavens
representing science or maybe the occult – can compete with the Lord as our primary
concern.
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