Why was God’s anger kindled?

And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do. And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. And God’s anger was kindled because he went.
	Numbers 22:20–22
Why was God’s anger kindled? Hadn’t He told Balaam to go? When, like Balaam, we beg and insist on our own way, God might say, “Okay.” But it’s not necessarily His plan or His will. If you’re a parent, you will sometimes let your kids go the way they insist on going, even though you know there will be needless pain and heartache down the road. Sometimes God will do the same with His children. That’s why the “name-it-and-claim-it” movement is so frightening to me. I don’t want to name and claim anything God knows isn’t best for me. I want to pray like Jesus: “Father, . . . not My will, but Thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). Pastor Jon Courson

“Are you barren?” the Lord asks you and me

	. . . And at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab. And from thence they went to Beer: that is the well whereof the LORD spake unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water. Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it: the princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their staves. And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah.
	Numbers 21:15–18
The children of Israel sang and water gushed forth. That’s always the way it is. When we come to dry times and difficult days in our pilgrimage, we can either choose to murmur or to make music. Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD. - Isaiah 54:1 “Are you barren?” the Lord asks you and me. “I don’t want you to grumble about your situation. I want you to sing.” An overriding principle seen throughout the Word is that when people are in barren conditions or dry times, power and blessing are released when they choose not to murmur but to praise the Lord. The children of Israel did this, water gushed forth, and they moved on. Pastor Jon Courson