Imagine you are back in Bible times. You are riding your
donkey down a dirt path with some important men. Then suddenly your donkey
starts acting up. You begin to fall behind. It is important that you keep up
with your group. So, you get off your donkey and start beating it. Suddenly the
donkey begins to talk to you. What would you do?
If you haven’t guessed by now this is the story of
Balaam. For those of you who do not know Balaam he was a diviner, he was called
an oracle (Numbers 22-24). Balaam knew the word, but he chose to turn his back
on it.
The full story of Balaam is that he was asked by the king
of Moab to curse the Israelites; and, in return, Balaam would get money. The
king sent men to come get Balaam and Balaam invited the men to stay for the
night, which was his first mistake. Balaam sought God’s counsel and God told
Balaam not to curse the Israelites and to only do what he told him to do. Then
God told Balaam to go to the Moabite king. So Balaam got on his donkey and
followed the men. Balaam’s sin happens here. He wanted to curse the Israelites
so that he would get money. That’s why God sent the angel to stop him and then
the donkey talked. Then there is a lot of back and forth where the Moabite king
asks Balaam to curse Israel but Balaam can only say what God tells him to say,
which is only blessings on Israel.
That is the end of Balaam’s story in Numbers, but that is
not the last time he is referenced to. See, Balaam was a false prophet. He may
have only said what God told him to say at the time; but looking in later
passages we can see that he also told the Moabite king how to get God to curse
Israel. He told the Moabite king to start influencing the Israelites by introducing
other gods and enticing the Israelites with sexual immorality. In Numbers 31 we
can see the influence Balaam had when the Israelite men go to war against
Midian. The men spare all of the women (v. 15/16). They did this because they
wanted the women for themselves. Even in Revelation we see Balaam mentioned in
chapter 2. A church started to follow the teachings of Balaam, which means they
were eating things sacrificed to idols and committing acts of immorality (v.
14).
Balaam’s sin was a sin of the heart, which means that
mostly only God could see it. He was so greedy that he was willing to turn his
back on God and everything he knew about the truth. There are many people in
this world who are a lot like Balaam. They know the truth; but they manipulate
the truth in order to get what they want. That is why it is vital for
Christians to know the word. If we do not then we could be influenced by a
false prophet.
We also need to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask
ourselves are we committing any sins of the heart. We know exactly what sin is,
it is anything that goes against God. If we are doing anything, or causing
anyone else to stumble, then we are just as bad as Balaam.
So, are you being swayed by any false prophets? Are you
causing others to sin because you may be a false prophet, inadvertently? Are
you sinning, but you are not willing to change your ways? What can you do in
order to stop sinning?
1 John 4:1-6, Hebrews 10:26, Romans 6:1-23
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