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There are
references in Scripture to “the way of Balaam” and
to “the teaching of Balaam.” Let’s first look at
the two New Testament references.
2 Peter
2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as
there will be false teachers among you. They
will secretly introduce
destructive heresies…
15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the
way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.
17 These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm.
Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18 For they mouth empty, boastful
words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature,
they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.
“Blackest darkness”
What stands
out here is the punishment that these false teachers in the Church
will suffer: “blackest darkness.” They may suffer
eternal punishment worse than that reserved for unbelievers. This itself
should make sincere believers pause and consider who these false teachers
are. Peter says that at one time they used to follow the straight way
of the Lord, but have wandered off to follow the way of Balaam who
loved the wages of wickedness. “Wages” here literally means “pay(ment)
for service.” These false teachers entice sincere Christians
by appealing to the lustful desires of their sinful human nature, and
for that they will be punished most severely. What is it that they
teach us?
Revelation 2:14 Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You
have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak
to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols
and by committing sexual immorality.
In his
message to the Church in Pergamum in Revelation, Jesus rebukes them.
Some of their people hold to the teaching of Balaam. Before we
look at his teaching, let us focus on the man himself. The man was
a prophet of God for hire; he was willing to be paid to prophesy.
Introducing Balaam, prophet of God
Numbers
22:4 …So Balak son of Zippor, who was
king of Moab at that time, 5 sent messengers to summon Balaam son
of Beor, who was
at Pethor, near the River, in his native land. Balak said:
“A people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the land and
have settled next to me. 6 Now come and put a curse on these people,
because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to
defeat them and drive them out of the country. For I know that those
you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed.” 7 The
elders of Moab and Midian left, taking with them the fee for divination.
Balak wanted to hire Balaam to prophesy for a fee.
10 Balaam
said to God, “Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent
me this message: 11 ‘A people that has come out of Egypt covers
the face of the land. Now come and put a curse on them for me. Perhaps
then I will be able to fight them and drive them away.’”
12 But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. You must not
put a curse on those people, because they are blessed.”
13 The next morning Balaam got up and said to Balak’s princes, “Go
back to your own country, for the LORD has refused to let me go with
you.”
As Balaam prayed to the Lord, God strictly forbade him from going
with the elders of Moab and Midian.
14
So the Moabite princes returned to Balak and said, “Balaam refused to come with us.”
15 Then Balak sent other princes, more numerous and more distinguished
than the first. 16 They came to Balaam and said:
“ This is what Balak son of Zippor says: Do not let anything keep you
from coming to me, 17 because I will reward you handsomely and do whatever
you say. Come and put a curse on these people for me.”
18 But Balaam answered them, “Even if Balak gave me his palace
filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything great or small
to go beyond the command of the LORD my God. 19 Now stay here tonight
as the others did, and I will find out what else the LORD will tell
me.”
“Be on your guard all kinds of greed” (Luke 12:15)
But Balak
refused to give up. He sent more numerous and distinguished princes
to dangle before Balaam a handsome fee in return for his prophetic
services. As a result, even though God had strictly forbidden him to
go, he sought the Lord in obvious hope that He would change His mind.
Balaam had a weakness for money, and the offer from Balak was too sweet
and tempting to give up.
20 That
night God came to Balaam and said, “Since
these men have come to summon you, go with them, but do only what
I tell you.”
21 Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the
princes of Moab. 22 But God was very angry when he went, and the angel
of the LORD stood in the road to oppose him.
When we persist headlong in disobedience, the Lord may allow us to
have our way. But the result will be eventual disaster for us.
37 Balak
said to Balaam, “Did I not send you an urgent summons?
Why didn’t you come to me? Am I really not able to reward you?”
38 “Well, I have come to you now,” Balaam replied. “But
can I say just anything? I must speak only what God puts in my mouth.”
The conflict
within Balaam is clear. He wants to prophesy only what God puts in
his mouth, but he also covets the financial
reward. There
are some prophets today who want to serve God, but who end up prophesying “peace
and prosperity” to believers in return for an offering.
Numbers 24:1 Now when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless
Israel, he did not resort to sorcery as at other times, but turned
his face toward the desert.
Sometimes by sorcery, sometimes by the Holy Spirit
Balaam was a prophet who sometimes prophesied by sorcery, and sometimes
by the Spirit of God. There are also prophets today who can prophesy
what people want to hear, and at other times prophesy by the Spirit
of God.
2
When Balaam looked out and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the
Spirit
of God came upon him 3 and he uttered his oracle: “The
oracle of Balaam son of Beor, the oracle of one whose eye sees clearly,
4 the oracle of one who hears the words of God, who sees a vision from
the Almighty, a who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened: 5 “How
beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!
10
Then Balak’s anger burned against Balaam. He struck his hands
together and said to him, “I summoned you to curse my enemies,
but you have blessed them these three times. 11 Now leave at once and
go home! I said I would reward you handsomely, but the LORD has kept
you from being rewarded.”
Eventually Balaam relented and forfeited the handsome reward Balak
had reserved for him. But he could not shake free from the temptation
that comes from the love of money. Eventually he came back to Balak
with a different strategy to make the Israelites stumble. According
to Revelation 2:14, he taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin
by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.
The very next chapter of Numbers gives us the account of what Balaam
succeeded in doing for Balak.
Numbers
25:1 While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge
in sexual immorality with Moabite women, 2 who
invited them
to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before
these gods. 3 So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And
the LORD’s anger burned against them.
Serving both God and Mammon
Now we
understand the man Balaam. He was a prophet of God who could be tempted
to utter false prophecies for hire. Similarly, there are well-known
servants of God today who are hirelings. They charge fees for their
ministry, and will minister only when paid a handsome
honorarium along with other expensive perks. Five or ten thousand
US dollars is not unusual for these ministers.
They justify this practice by saying that they have expenses, that
their ministry is worth it and that in any case God loves them and
wants to bless them. Such ministers would appear to serve both God
and Money. But Jesus taught that we cannot serve two masters. Either
we will hate the one and love the other, or we will be devoted to the
one and despise the other (Matthew 6:24).
Exactly what is the teaching of Balaam?
Jesus referred to his teaching Balak to entice the Israelites to sin
by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality
with Moabite women. Does this warning apply in the Church today?
There is no teaching in the Church today which entices believers to
commit idolatry by sacrificing to and bowing down before false gods.
There is moreover no teaching to speak of which sanctions sexual immorality.
However, the apostle Paul taught that idolatry is more than simply
the act of physically bowing down before an idol.
Colossians 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly
nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed,
which is idolatry.
A servant of God who has greed in his heart is committing idolatry.
What about
the reference to sexuality immorality in the teaching of Balaam?
Strong’s Greek Dictionary tells us that the Greek word
for this term is porneuo. Strong’s tells us that figuratively,
porneuo can also mean “to practice idolatry.” Balaam’s
teaching therefore clearly encourages idolatry. The primary idol in
the church today is the idol of greed for money. Today in the Church
there are servants of God who live according to the teaching of Balaam,
whether knowingly or unknowingly. They live extravagantly, or hope
to. There are also false teachers---“prosperity teachers”---who
tell us that God wants every believer to be rich in terms of earthly
wealth. Some of these may be sincere. But they are sincerely wrong.
For them is reserved blackest darkness.
Why is their judgment so severe?
Only the Lord knows the extent of the damage they have done to His
Church, but let us take an example of what has happened in Africa.
In some
areas of Africa, especially in the south of Nigeria where Pentecostal
Christianity is prevalent, there is a very
unhealthy and
extreme emphasis on financial blessings and financial miracles. This
teaching is more than welcome to people who have been cursed with poverty
and draws the crowds to churches. The teaching of Balaam has infected
pastors and ministers. If a foreign minister comes to speak in a certain
area, they are reluctant to attend the meeting and to bring their people
unless they are promised a “benefit” for their participation.
Now from where does this “benefit” come?
Typically,
offerings are taken from the people at such meetings. Ostensibly
the offerings are to be used for the expenses
of the event, which among
other things can include hotel accommodations and meals for the speaker.
But the offerings are instead divided up and given to the pastors as
their personal “benefit” for supporting the event. One
can see why spectacularly huge crowds can gather for an evangelistic
event in Africa. Pastors will encourage their flocks to come and can
expect to reap a material benefit for themselves in doing so. It is
obvious their integrity before God has been compromised. While there
is no doubt that most African
pastors are needy, there is no justification for such a deceitful practice.
They have forgotten that if they first seek His kingdom and His righteousness,
all these things will be given to them as well.
Imported from the West (again)
This practice
was initiated by an international healing evangelist very well-known
among charismatic circles. While spectacular miracles
of healing have taken place at his hugely attended Crusades and led
to multitudes accepting Jesus Christ, the African Church has been
infected
with the
teaching of Balaam. This is especially true in heavily christianized
areas of the continent where Pentecostalism is widespread.
Now every
foreign speaker---even some missionaries---to these areas of Africa
are expected to follow the same practice. These servants of God can
be underfunded or far less funded than the famous international evangelist
who pioneered the practice.
African pastors are even known to get angry when their personal “benefits” are
threatened or not forthcoming after the meeting or Crusade. One wonders
if this is just the tip of the iceberg of the actual state of the Church
in
certain
areas
of
Africa. Like welfare recipients depending on the government, have African
churches
learned
to depend
on handouts
from
the west and
become helpless to do anything on their own? Can God use such a corrupted
and helpless Church to fulfill the Great Commission in Africa?
Seen in
the light of the Great Commission which according to some interpretations
must be fulfilled before Christ’s return, it
is perhaps not surprising that “blackest darkness” is reserved
for the false prophets and teachers who have infected the Church with
the teaching of Balaam.
1 Timothy 6:9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and
a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into
ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds
of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith
and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Luke 20:46 “Beware of the teachers of the law. They like to
walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces
and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places
of honor at banquets. 47 They devour widows’ houses and for a
show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.”
As
for Balaam, the punishment for his sin was death by the sword.
Joshua
13:22 In addition to those slain in battle, the Israelites had
put to the sword Balaam son of Beor, who practiced divination.
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