Does anyone know of a convincing explanation of Hashem's behaviour with Bilam? It looks like He couldn't be more inconprehensible if He tried.
First, He starts off by refusing to allow Bilam to go at all. Then after merely being asked again, He allows him to go so long as he recognises that he will have to say what Hashem forces him to say. Then, having allowed him to go, He sends an angel to kill Bilam. For some reason, the angel doesn't actually do this and after Bilam asks whether he should go back, the angel again allows him to go.
What is going on with Hashem? If He didn't want Bilam to go originally, why did He change His mind simply by being asked again? If He didn't care whether Bilam went because He would put the right words in Bilam's mouth, why did He refuse originally? After having allowed Bilam to go, why send an angel to kill him? After having specially sent an angel, why didn't the angel actually do its job and kill him? And after going to all this trouble to intercept him after having giving him permission, why just allow Bilam to carry on as before? The angel doesn't seem to have achieved anything?!
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