Numbers 22:8
And he said unto them, Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as the LORD shall speak unto me: and the princes of Moab abode with Balaam. And he said unto them, Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as the LORD shall speak unto me: and the princes of Moab abode with Balaam.
Balaam had once been a good man and a prophet of God, but he had apostatized through covetousness, loving gain and the wages of unrighteousness and loving to gain and retain the favor and honor of God's enemies, while still professing to be a prophet and servant of the Most High. When the elders of Moab and Midian came he already knew his duty and what answer to give, that he should refuse Balak's rewards and dismiss them at once. He knew what God had done in behalf of Israel, and he knew his curse could do them no harm while they were true to God, for with God on their side no adverse power of earth or hell could prevail against them so long as they were true to Him.
Instead of refusing he told the princes to lodge with him that night while he would bring back whatever word the Lord should speak to him. In doing so he professed strict obedience to the will of God and called God his master, while greedily entertaining the offered treasures in their hands and the prospect of exaltation, reward, and honor from Balak. The delay in dallying with temptation was not sincere obedience but double-mindedness, for his pride was flattered by being told whom he blessed was blessed and whom he cursed was cursed, and his covetous disposition was excited by costly gifts and prospective exaltation. He sought to please both God and man, professing obedience yet trying to comply with Balak's desire and to please Balak for the promised rewards by cursing Israel.
By asking the messengers to stay overnight to seek counsel instead of giving the refusal he knew was his duty, he gave the tempter room to work. By welcoming the bribe and the messengers instead of rejecting them he left God out of his heart and plans, opened his heart to Satan's control, and became spiritually blind to eternal things, and so through selfishness and covetousness he worked contrary to God. The verse belongs to the account in which influential Moabite dignitaries, influential men, sought him to oppose God's people by cursing Israel, while God remains the supreme authority over what they can do. God forbade the curse so that his magic could not work against His people, angels were present, and God put prophecies of blessing in his mouth, showing that God's word and protection prevail over efforts to harm them.
The same account involves repeated, vain efforts to turn the blessing of Israel into a curse by conducting him from one point to another and from one place to another to pressure him to give up steadfast obedience for compromise. Yet human applause and the fear of man were alike powerless to shake one who was sustained by divine power to speak God's blessing.