Numbers 22 begins the story of Balaam. Balaam was not an Israelite. He is not one of God’s people. He’s not one of God’s prophets.
He’s someone who speaks with spirits and is thought to have powers. The fact that God does speak to Balaam does not in any way endorse speaking to people who speak with spirits. They don’t have the truth. Seek the truth from Jesus, not a soothsayer.
Peter talks about Balaam as someone who worked for the “wages of unrighteousness,” and John records God’s words in Revelation about how Balaam taught Israel’s enemies how to entice them into sin.
Jude lumps Balaam in with Cain and Korah, not good company. Jude warns about ungodly people in the church saying, “Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.”
He wasn’t a good guy. He’s not part of God’s chosen people, either by birth or by choice. The other main player in the story right now is Balak. He’s the king of Moab, and he’s afraid of Israel. He sees their strength in numbers. The Israelites are now camped across the Jordan from them. They have already defeated kings Sihon and Og.
Balak’s fear response is to try and get some power over them. He wants them cursed to give him an advantage over them in battle, and he’s willing to pay for the curse.
Side note: When we lived in Macedonia, this was still a practice. There were people you went to and paid to have curses put on people. They worked with demons, like Balaam did. We know a little about this because while we were there, one of these sorcerers came to Christ. His wife was already a believer in our house church. God came to him in a dream that scared him so badly he came to Christ and burned all his stuff, just like the Ephesians.
Again, just because there are real spirits and people who can actually talk to them does NOT in any way mean that you should ever seek them out to learn from them. Demons are liars. They are not who you go to for truth.
I guess that’s the lesson for this time. Don’t seek out special knowledge from those who speak with demons, even if they call themselves Christians. That’s a danger. Satan is a liar. Jesus is the truth. We don’t seek truth from liars!