Joshua 13:15-23 The verses in which Moses gives the Reubenites their inheritance. The territory of the Reubenites consists of all the cities of the tableland and all the kingdom of Shion, king of the Amorites, who Moses defeated. In Chapter 13 of the book of Joshua each tribe's inheritance is laid out in a rather formulaic way. What struck me in these verses was the slight deviation from the formula to point out that Balaam, the soothsayer, was killed here by the Israelites.

Some time ago, my daily reading involved the story of Balaam, who first appears in Numbers 22. At the time, I was having an online discussion on Reddit with someone who was questioning me on how I can be sure my God is the one God, when people of other faiths sincerely believe they hear their God speaking to them. The story of Balaam is the story of a man, a soothsayer, who does not know the God of Israel, but God speaks to him anyway - giving him true prophecies to impart to Balak, king of Moab, who fears the Israelites, and has asked Balaam to curse them. Because Balaam is directly hearing from the one true God, he is unable to speak anything but the truth (i.e., God's word). This obviously causes Balak great anger, and he keeps asking and asking Balaam to curse the Israelites, and Balaam keeps asking for prophecies, and being told by God that the Israelites are not to be cursed; they are blessed and protected by God, and their enemies will be vanquished. When I read the story of Balaam about a year ago, my Reddit friend popped into my head and I shared it with him. God definitely uses these daily passages to guide me!

So today I read the kind of strange aside that Balaam was killed when this land was won by Moses. Why do we need to know that? (The Bible doesn't include anything that we don't need to know!) I am guessing it is a warning - we do not know when or how we are going to die, but we know that we will! If we are lucky enough to hear God speaking to us, as Balaam was, we should not turn our backs on it and go back to our old ways. The last we hear of Balaam before this is "Then Balaam rose, and went back to his place." Numbers 24:25. So it seems, after giving a lengthy oracle that immediately preceded this, in which he says it is "the oracle of one who hears the word of God," Balaam went back home. Did he continue to seek the one true God, with whom he had been speaking, or did he go back to his soothsaying and false prophecies? We don't know. But we do know that sometime later, when his land was conquered, he was slain. So death came for him unexpectedly. Was he ready? "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." Hebrews 3:15.