Although Balaam came to know the real situation, seeing that the Angel of Jehovah was standing in the road in front of him, he did not go back. Instead, he kept on going. Balaam knew that it was wrong to go. He said to the Angel of Jehovah, "I have sinned, for I did not know that You stood against me in the road. Now therefore, if it is evil in Your sight, I will go back again" (v. 34). However, the Angel of Jehovah allowed him to go but said to him, "Only the word which I will speak to you, that shall you speak" (v. 35).
When Balaam appeared, Balak welcomed him at the capital of Moab (vv. 36-40). As we will see in the following messages, Balak did not get what he wanted, but God gained what He wanted. Although Balaam was a greedy prophet, he was still under God's control.
The record concerning Balaam in Numbers 22 contains a valuable lesson that we all need to learn today. The lesson here is that we should not seek the Lord's will as long as we have the desire to do certain things. If we have a particular desire, yet still want to seek God's will, the result may be self-deception. We need to learn to seek the Lord's will without having any other desire. This means that we should be able to pray in simplicity, "Lord, I am here seeking Your will. My only desire is to know Your will and do it." If this is our situation, we will eventually know the Lord's will. However, if we seek the Lord's will but are actually inclined to carry out our own desires, we may deceive ourselves, even as Balaam deceived himself.