Balak, king of Moab, is trying to play God. He wants to pay Balaam to curse the Israelites. On one hand, he recognizes he doesn’t have all the control. He’s feeling a little powerless in the situation when he sees the large number of the Israelites. On the other hand, he wants to take control of the situation by getting his enemy cursed.

It may sound odd to you, but how often do we grasp at straws, doing whatever we can, trying to get control of a situation?

We run to customer service. We run to call the plumber. We run around making sure we’ve packed the sunscreen and every last possible thing we could need. We try to take control of the situation.

You may have convinced yourself you need to take control. If you don’t, who will? Hmmm…who could we let be in control?

How often do you stop and pray before the running around trying to solve the problem, to save the day?

Save the day? Are you trying to be the savior? We already have one. I know this may sound funny, but it’s not. We do this too often.

Acknowledge Him in all your ways. We can quote the platitude, but do we live it? Do we jump in to the rescue instead of turning to God?

When we are trying to get control of a situation, without letting God do it through us or for us, we’re really playing God. It’s the oldest sin from way back in the garden, wanting to be our own god.

We may tease about being a control freak, but it’s not funny to play at being God. It’s not okay to squeeze God out of our day because we want to be in control.

The irony in our story in Numbers is that in Deuteronomy we will read that the Israelites are forbidden from starting a war with the Moabites because God is not going to give them their land. The Moabite’s land goes to the descendants of Lot (Deut. 2:9).

Balak is afraid and puts himself through all the worry and trouble for no good reason.