"15 Once again Balak sent princes, more in number and more honorable than these. 16 And they came to Balaam and said to him, “Thus says Balak the son of Zippor: ‘Let nothing hinder you from coming to me, 17 for I will surely do you great honor, and whatever you say to me I will do. Come, curse this people for me.’” 18 But Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, “Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the Lord my God to do less or more."
Numbers 22:15-18
The first part of the story is plain and straightforward; and if it could have stopped at 18, all would have been well, for in response to Balak's request Balaam took the only possible ground that could be taken: he waited upon the Lord, to seek His will in the matter. This, we may say, was entirely right and proper; and that will was made quite clear and unmistakable to Balaam in 12. And yet if Balaam had been, as Delitzsch observes, a true prophet and a faithful servant of Jehovah, he would have at once sent the messengers away and refused their request, as he must then have known that God would not curse His chosen people. This is a very valid point: sometimes men make a show of 'seeking the mind of the Lord' on an issue that is really quite plain and obvious, and in which the mind of the Lord has already been declared. And it may well be that even at this point, the essential 'doublethink' in Balaam was striving with what he must have known in his heart of hearts was right. Nevertheless, as we see in 18, Balaam took the right stance, uttering words that are worthy of the highest spiritual standard: 'I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more'. If only he had stayed there, if only that moment of high dedication which we need not doubt was absolutely sincere, so far as it went had been maintained, how different it would have been in the end for him. What a tragedy it is that a man should fall and draw back from the highest he knows!