“The words of the wicked are a deadly ambush, but the speech of the upright rescues them” (Prov 12:6, CSB).
There is an incident in Numbers 22 that seems confusing. First, God gave Balaam permission to go to Balak, then was angry because he did. What gives? Many times over, the Proverbs warn about those in a hurry to do evil. “Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood” (Prov 1:16). “Do not walk in the way of evil.…For they do not sleep unless they have done evil; and their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall” (4:14, 16). Imagine! They can’t sleep unless they have something evil on their conscience! This seems to be the case with Balaam. At first, the Lord told him, “If the men come to call you, rise and go with them” (Num 22:20). Note to self: Don’t you take the initiative; only respond if they show up at your house. But what do we read? “So Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went…Then God’s anger was aroused because he went” (vv 21-22). Adam Clarke points out a subtlety in the text here. “The pronoun hu is sometimes used to denote a person’s doing a thing out of his own head, without regard to the directions of another. Thus it was in the case of Balaam, when God had allowed him to go with the messengers of Balak if they came in the morning to call him; but he was more hasty than he ought to have been, eager for evil, and went to them instead of staying till they came to him. So it was said of him, not ki halach, that he went, but ki holech hu, i.e., he went of his own head.” Yes, “the Lord hates…feet that are swift in running to evil” (6:16, 18). Our next lesson will show a man more stubborn than his donkey—and that’s really saying something! When we insist on our own way, whatever God thinks, we will lose the argument every time, even if it’s with an Equus asinus!