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In the book of Numbers, chapter 22, it is written about the king of the Moabites, Balak, and the diviner Balaam, how Balak asked Balaam to curse Israel. Balaam was a diviner, that is, he was a pagan and did not serve the Lord—why was the Spirit of God upon him (Numbers 23:6)?

The Lord Himself, in His conversation with Nicodemus, said: "The wind blows where it wishes." The fact that Balaam did not confess the One God is not yet an obstacle to the working of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, when Balaam himself resisted the will of God, Balaam's donkey submitted to it...

One way or another, a certain capacity to realize the truth of God and hear His word is given to all people, regardless of their religion. The Apostle Paul, in particular, speaks of this in chapters 1-2 of the Epistle to the Romans. However, outside of Revelation, this knowledge of God inevitably remains partial, incomplete, and often distorted.

Finally, it should be noted that the historical Balaam came from Mesopotamia, populated, among other nations, by Semitic tribes. This is the environment from which Terah, the father of Abraham, emerged. Historical data suggests that among these Semitic tribes, from the deepest pre-literate antiquity, the tradition of worshipping the One God was preserved. This tradition goes back at least to Shem and Noah, inheriting, in turn, from Seth and Adam. Speaking of the origin of this tradition of monotheism, it is difficult to remain within historical bounds. However, we can think that the monotheism of the ancient Semites developed in two principal directions. In the Sumero-Babylonian environment, in the north of Arabia and in Mesopotamia, it gradually degraded under the influence of the paganism of neighboring peoples. In the Abrahamic tradition, among the descendants of Abraham, whom God brought out of Mesopotamia, it was strengthened as a result of the reception of God's Revelation to Abraham and Moses.

Traditionally, Balaam (and some other Semites mentioned in the Bible) is considered a bearer of pre-Abrahamic, ancestral Semitic monotheism. In this context, his openness to the action of the One God does not seem so surprising.

The main point is that as a result of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, all humanity, thanks to His Divine-humanity, becomes open to the working of the Holy Spirit. For only this working can lead a person to faith and, as a consequence, to a conscious and purposeful hearing of and obedience to the Holy Spirit.

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