Immediately before recording Moshe Rabbeinu’s death the Torah tells us “ViLo Kam Navi Od BiYisrael KMoshe,” “And no other prophet arose in Israel like Moshe” (Devarim 34:10). The Midrash (Bamidbar Rabbah 14:20) observes that the pasuk specifically says that no prophet from Israel was like Moshe, however there was a non-Israel prophet who was a prophet like Moshe, namely Bilaam. The Midrash continues and explains that it was only fair that the nations of the world had a great prophet on the level of Moshe Rabbeinu . After all, how the nations of the world would claim that it is not fair that Bnai Yisrael were given the Torah and are favored by Hashem when they had more of an opportunity. How could the nations have achieved spiritual enlightenment when they had no religious leader to teach them. Therefore Hashem gave Bilaam equal prophetic ability to Moshe to be the teacher and prophet of the nations. In theory, Bilaam should have brought Hashem’s message to the nations of the world. Instead he used his talents and abilities for self enrichment. The obvious question on the Midrash is how giving Bilaam specifically would negate the nations’ claim. If Bilaam doesn’t bring Hashem’s word to the nations, how is it the nations fault if they don’t understand Hashem. The nations’ claim of “you never told us” would not be solved if Hashem’s messenger does not fulfil his role.
To answer this question, let us digress to the story of Shimshon. Shimshon, the most famous Nazir, was sanctified to Hashem even before he was born. As a N]azir from conception, he is granted supernatural strength. With this great power he wages a one man battle against the oppressive Plishtim. Radak at the beginning of Shimshon’s story (comment to Shoftim 13:4) poses a basic question on the Shimshon story: How could it be that Shimshon, who was supposed to be a holy man, intermarried? On multiple occasions he marries a Plishti woman. Radak answers, based on Pesukim, that Shimshon was doing all of this L’sem Shamayim. After all, he needed an excuse to fight and kill the Plishtim, so he used his relationship with Plishti woman. However this is difficult. Why did he need an excuse? Why couldn't he be like previous Shofetim who rallied an army and repelled the invaders? Why did Shimshon need to wage the war by himself? Had he acted like the previous leaders and fought with an army, he would not have needed an excuse to kill Plishtim. Radak answers with a fundamental answer that can help us understand our Bilaam question. Radak explains that Shimshon was not an ideal leader. He was not capable of leading the people like in previous generations. He did not have the skill or talent to rally the troops. All he had was his own strength. And this was not a good thing. A good leader would not have fought by himself. But Shimshon was not an ideal leader. He was just a strong individual. Nonetheless, Hashem sent him. Hashem didn’t send a leader that could completely redeem the people, even though that’s what they wanted and that’s what they needed. Hashem sent the leader they deserved, not the one they wanted or needed. Since the people had not completely removed themselves from worshiping idols, they didn’t deserve to be completely redeemed. They did an incomplete Teshuva so they only got an incomplete leader to give them an incomplete redemption.
To return to our original question. How does Bilaam help the nations of the world? Bilaam was a selfish person interested only in increasing his standing in the world. How can Hashem believe that Bilaam’s prophecy will help assuage any hard feelings that the nations have about the unfair opportunity? They did not have a prophet who was willing to help them, so how was it fair? The answer I believe is that Bilaam was the leader not that they needed or wanted, but he was the one they deserved. Bilaam was exactly what they valued as a person, selfish and greedy. He was someone who looked out for himself, because the nations were also selfish. They were not interested in helping anyone else, so they earned a leader who was selfish. It is true that Bilaam was not of high moral character, but the nations did not deserve that. They were not really interested in spiritual growth so they didn’t get a leader who would show them the correct path. They were interested in money and power so the leader they got was someone who could show them how to do that.