“Balaam answered and said to Balak’s servants, ‘Even if Balak gives me a house full of silver and gold, I cannot do anything small or great that would transgress the word of the Lord, my God.” (22:18) because even the lowest awareness of God’s Love can’t acknowledge ego’s materialistic illusions, and this means that all levels of consciousness (higher and lower) ultimately recognize that all Creation comes from God, and is directed by Him: “How can I curse whom God has not cursed, and how can I invoke wrath if the Lord has not been angered? (23:8) and, ultimately, the lowest levels of human consciousness yearn to live and die in Love’s ways and attributes, the ways that Israel are destined to follow and manifest as the Light of the nations (“To be Light of the nations.” [Isaiah 42:6, 49:6]), the Light of the world: “Who counted the dust of Jacob or the number of a fourth of Israel? May my soul die the death of the upright and let my end be like his [Israel’s qualities].” (Numbers 23:10) because even the lower aspects and expressions of our consciousness recognize the goodness of Love manifest by the positive aspects of human consciousness (Israel) that the Creator wants us to live by: “He does not look at evil in Jacob, and has seen no perversity in Israel; the Lord, his God is with him, and he has the King’s friendship.” (23:21) and this “friendship” is our permanent connection with His Love.

In this sense, there is no place for ego’s self-centered and manipulative agenda: “For there is no divination in Jacob and no soothsaying in Israel.” (23:23) simply because ego’s materialistic fantasies and illusions do not dwell in Love’s ways and attributes. When we live under His will, all illusions disappear because it is Love what sustains all, including our illusions. With this awareness we have to reveal Love concealed by illusions and regain Him as our Redeemer from them: “Behold, one people that rise like a lioness, and raise itself like a lion. It does not lie down until it eats its prey and drinks the blood of the slain.” (23:24) because Israel’s mission is to elevate all aspects of consciousness to the ways of God’s Love, and this includes turning the lower traits into vibrant and uplifting ways to proclaim and manifest His Glory, His revealed Presence in the material world. This is the metaphoric meaning of Israel’s strength (lioness/lion) to transform through Love the lower aspects of consciousness (our “animal” nature [the prey] and its soul [its blood]) to fulfill our destiny as God’s will.

God’s Love, our awareness of His Love, is the transforming power for us to turn darkness into Light: “God, who has brought them out of Egypt with the strength of His loftiness He shall consume the nations [the negative aspects of our consciousness] which are his adversaries (Israel’s), bare their bones and dip His arrows.” (24:8) and in this way, “Edom shall be possessed, and Seir shall become the possession of his enemies, and Israel shall triumph.” (24:18) though this victory can’t be achieved if we turn to ego’s illusions of glamour, prestige, sophistication and their fantasies: “Israel settled in Shittim, and the people began to commit harlotry with the daughters of the Moabites.” (25:1), “Israel became attached to Baal Peor, and the anger of the Lord flared against Israel.” (25:3) and, as we explained in “God as Love”, the “anger” of God’s Love is just the anger that we experience when we live the emptiness of our separation from Him after we choose to follow our lower emotions, passions and instincts instead of Love’s ways and attributes.

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Take all the leaders of the people and hang them before the Lord, facing the sun, and then the flaring anger of the Lord will be removed from Israel.” (25:4) because once we think, feel, and act with the highest traits and qualities of our consciousness (the leaders of Israel) and attach them to the permanent awareness of Love and in His Light (“facing the sun”) we indeed return to His Love. In this sense, when our highest traits (the leaders of Israel) fall into the lowest passions (idolatry), they must be elevated (hang them) in order to let Love become our true identity, and be able to live in consonance with God’s Love, and not with the “flaring anger” that we suffer when we separate from Him. In this awareness there is no anger, envy, lust, indolence, greed, cruelty and negative traits that we experience as the result of the sense of lack that cause them.

The haftorah for this portion reaffirms the transmuting power of God’s Love with which all illusions disappear: “And I will destroy sorcery from youryour graven images, and your monuments from your midst. And you shall no longer prostrate yourself to your handiwork. And I will uproot your Asherim [the inhabitants of the land as an allegory to ego’s negative desires] from your midst, and I will destroy your enemies.” (Micah 5:11-13) and the Creator also reminds us that His Love is our sustainer and Redeemer: “O My people that I have made, and how have I wearied you? Respond against Me. For I brought you out from the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and I sent you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.” (6:3-4) and “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what the Lord demands from you is to do justice, to love living-kindness. And to walk in humbleness with your God.” (6:8)