Today we’re going to look at one of the most interesting stories in the Bible, when a donkey, an ass, talked to the prophet Balaam.
In all honesty, I’ve had a hard time figuring this guy out. After reading the story of Balaam and the talking donkey again, I told the Lord, I’m confused about Balaam? Was he really a prophet of yours? Or was he false prophet, a sorcerer, a soothsayer? I mean, Balaam did pronounce some of the most inspired poetic blessings in God’s Name upon God’s people. Lord, you also spoke with Balaam several times and your Spirit came upon him several times. If Balaam was a false prophet, a heathen soothsayer, why did you speak directly with him? Why did your Spirit come upon him? Lord, i’m confused, I don’t get it?
The Lord reminded me of “2 Tim. 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”; 2 Pet 1:20-21 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. I said, O.K. Lord!
The Lord began showing me, how easy it is to believe that Balaam was a not a true prophet of God, but that he certainly was not a fake or false prophet either. The Lord (Yahweh Jehovah) did directly speak to Balaam several times, Num. 22:20: That night God came to Balaam and said…. Num. 23:5 says, The Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth. Num. 23:4, 16 says: The Lord met with Balaam and put a word in his mouth.”
It also tells us, Num. 24:2-4 “the Spirit of God came on him 3 and he spoke his message:“The prophecy of Balaam son of Beor”, the prophecy of one whose eye sees clearly, 4 the prophecy of one who hears the words of God, who sees a vision from the Almighty,
Now, there are only a few references in the O.T., the whole Bible for that matter, where God came to, put His words in the mouth, and His Spirit came upon someone, and each reference is to a prophet of the Lord.
Balaam in this regard, was an authentic prophet of God (Yahweh). Balaam even appeared to speak as a prophet of God, and pronounced one of the most poetic blessings on God’s people Num. 23:18-23 and Num. 24:1-9. Balaam even speaks Godly, Num. 22:12-13:
Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell the messengers you sent me, 13 ‘Even if Balak gave me all the silver and gold in his palace, I could not do anything of my own accord, good or bad, to go beyond the command of the Lord —and I must say only what the Lord says’?
However, throughout the rest of the Holy Bible, Balaam is only spoken of as a wicked prophet who was hired by the King Moab to call down a curse on God’s people. Jesus even speaks of Balaam as a wicked prophet in Rev. 2:14.
Although, Balaam may have been a wicked prophet, he was not a false or fake prophet. That is, God did speak to him directly, His Spirit came upon him, and He did give him prophecies to speak. However, Balaam’s heart was not right with God, and eventually he showed his true colors by betraying Israel and leading them astray.
In Balaam we have one of the most puzzling, and contradictory characters of the Bible. It’s easy to think of Balaam as just an evil, wicked man, condemn him as devoid of principle, full of greed. But when we conceive of Balaam simply as a wicked, evil man only, we miss the real character, the warnings, the lesson, the true essences of what this testimony of Balaam is designed to teach us, show us, warn us. There is a reason why God used Balaam, and he being the only person God opened the mouth of an an animal to speak.
Stay with me, we’re going somewhere!
Now, Jesus Himself spoke of the ways of Balaam, as the doctrine of Balaam in Rev. 2:14
Jesus when speaking to the Church of Pergamos, where He says Satan’s seat is, says: But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
Notice what Jesus calls the “doctrine of Balaam” – It was the teaching or counsel of Balaam to Balak that lead to Israel sacrificing unto idols and committing fornication, and Jesus is not just talking about fornication in terms of sex, but in terms of covenant breaking.
What Jesus calls the doctrine of Balaam, is what I will sub-term the doctrine of “admixture”.
What is “admixture”? The definition of “admixture” is the act of mixing; state of being mixed. Mixing “good” and “evil”. Were not talking about mixing in sin, sinning or being sinful. If that were the case, we would all be Balaam’s. No, admixture is adding an element or ingredient to that which is good, righteous and pure.
For example: God’s Word is pure, true and every man a liar. Yet, many say, I believe in God and the Holy Bible, but I also believe in astrological signs, palm reading, eastern mysticism of karma, all of which God calls divination. Some even say they believe God’s Word is true but they believe their being space aliens, evolution, reincarnation and things alike. Even, those who believe in there being many ways to Heaven, there is no real hell, and many other things taught that are contrary to God’s Word. This is but “admixture”, an act of mixing, a state of being mixed of “good” with “evil”. Adding or mixing to God’s truth.
Now, let’s take a closer look at what Jesus is referring to in Rev. 2:14 when speaking of the “doctrine of Balaam”.
Numbers 25:1-3
And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. 2 And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. 3 And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.
Numbers 31:16
Look, these women caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the LORD in the incident of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.
What we know is that Balaam counseled Balak, the king of Moab, on how to use temple prostitutes to seduce the men of Israel through sexual temptation to sacrifice and bow down to their pagan gods in the Moabite region of Peor, where they worshipped the god Ba’al. This is what is meant by “And Israel joined himself unto Ba’alpeor”.
The phrase “joined himself” is the word ????? tsamad (tsaw-mad'); which means to yoke yourself to, or to adopt a way. So, what we see is that they yoked themselves with and adopted Ba’al worship.
The issue was not so much that they had sex or fornicated with the Moabite women, but their taking on Ba’al worship in order to have sex with the women. Let me expound on this:
Let’s take Judah for example, who gave his signet ring and his staff to Tamar for sex, believing she was a prostitute. Judah and Tamar both committed fornication and sinned against the Lord; but, it was not called whoredom or joining with other gods. It was but sin against the Lord.
Samson, another example. Scripture tells us that Samson had sex with prostitutes, but it never says he joined himself, sacrificed or bowed down to other gods.
Let me say it this way. A man and a woman not married, have sex, they have sinned against the Lord by committing fornication, but their act of sinning has to do with lust of the flesh, not in itself joining themselves, sacrificing or bowing down to other gods – “it’s just sinning against the Lord through the temptations and lust of the flesh.”
However, let’s say, the the woman says to the man, I will only have sex with you, if you go and beat up, maim or kill my neighbor. Herein lies the difference between sinning with the flesh, and the joining, yoking and adopting evil. This goes beyond the realm of being enticed and drawn away by your own lust. It is making a willing choice to do or do not what is against their own soul, which is outside the realm of temptation of the flesh, but a matter of the soul.
“they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: “and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.”
Being enticed to pay homage, bow down to a pagan god, was against the Lord whom they knew to be the Creator, the God of all gods, who delivered them from bondage. It was against what they knew of their covenant relationship with Yahweh. They knowingly, willfully, violated the first commandment of not having any other gods besides the Lord – Their acts were not ignorant, not drawn away by a swell of lust, but an open, obvious, knowing, submission unto willful worship of the pagan god Ba’al – the devil!
It did not matter they were called by their sensual desires, they willfully accepted the act of worshipping Ba’al. This was not just the act of sensual pleasure of the flesh, but paying of their soul.
There is a difference between wanting and having mutual sex, and the willingness to sale my soul for it. If, I’m asked to rob, steal and kill to have it or worship demons for it, that is requiring me to sale my soul for it.
Now, Balaam counseled Balak on how to use women’s sexual charms to call to the men to make sacrifices to their god Ba’al. What we see in this is; although, Balaam was prohibited from cursing Israel directly, but like satan, when he can’t get us directly, he finds another approach to backdoor us, to cause us to bring condemnation upon ourselves. Such as, what Balaam did with Israelites, to get the men to both eat things sacrificed to idols, bow down to, and pay homage to these demons before they could have sex with the Moabite women.
In essence, they had to sale their soul, like Esau had to sale his birthright for a morsel of food and was called a fornicator, which had nothing to do with sex. Heb.12:16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. Esau was a fornicator because he sold himself for a morsel of meat. That’s what is meant, not the having sex, but the selling of their souls for sensual desires.
So, the “doctrine of Balaam” had to do with the Israelites being the covenant people of God, and were not to mix themselves with false religions and false gods. Balaam knew this, and he taught Balak to lead the Israelites into mixing “good” and “evil” – admixture.
I hope this brought some understanding and enlightenment to you about the doctrine of Balaam?
Now, let’s get into the story of Balaam, I especially want to talk about him talking to a donkey, an ass.
For those of you who want to read the story of Balaam, it’s in Numbers chapters 22-25, but we’re going to go through key points of the story of Balaam.
We first encounter Balaam in Number chapter 22, when Balak the king of Moab Balak saw what happened to the other nations that stood against Israel. The king was so scared, he sought to hire the well known prophet Balaam, who by the way was not an Israelite, but was from Pethor which is in Mesopotamia, which is the modern day Iraq. Balak wanted Balaam to bring a curse against Israel so that the Moabites could defeat them.
The Moabites came to Balaam with the fee of divination and requested he curse Israel. Here’s where Balaam appears to be a real man of God. Num. 22:8-12
“Spend the night here,” Balaam said to them, “and I will report back to you with the answer the Lord gives me. ” So the Moabite officials stayed with him.9 God came to Balaam and asked, “Who are these men with you?” 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. ”
So, we see Balaam took the time to ask God what to do, and he listened when God instructed him not to go with Balak’s men. But notice, how God asked Balaam, “who are these men?” As if God didn’t already know. And then, Balaam speaks to God, as if God didn’t know about the Israelites - “A people that has come out of Egypt covers the face of the land.” 12 But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed. ” This right here should have been a clue to us that there’s something not quite right with this dude Balaam.
Nevertheless, the king sent his men back a second time to Balaam with more money to persuade Balaam to curse Israel, and Balaam seems like a real man of God in his response Num. 22:18
But Balaam answered them, “Even if Balak gave me all the silver and gold in his palace, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the Lord my God.
But wait, what we see in the very next verse is Balaam beginning to be persuaded by the money, greed, and began wavering on doing what God told him not to do. Verse 19:
Now spend the night here so that I can find out what else the Lord will tell me. ”
What we begin to see is, Balaam wants to do what God has told him not to do. We all do that now and then and it’s never a good thing, but God allows us to do what we want to do. That’s called the permissive will of God. It means that He will sometimes allow us to do things that we insist on doing, even when what we want directly opposes His will for us.
Balaam first says he will not disobey God. But then he says he’ll ask God again. You see, this is where everything goes wrong for Balaam. He had asked God to speak to him, God did, and Balaam knew God’s answer. But he didn’t like the answer and went back to God again asking again.
How many times do we find ourselves doing this same thing? How many times do we find ourselves bargaining with God or trying to get our way with the Lord? How many times do we find ourselves ignoring God’s answer, because it’s not the answer we want to hear. Come on now, am I the only one?
God doesn’t want Balaam to go, but in His permissive will, He allows Balaam to go with the men, but tells him to do only what I tell you. God already knows Balaam’s thoughts were on that bounty, money, Balak’s men had brought. As it says in 2 Peter 2:15, Balaam’s way was greed.
Here’s where the story gets funny, Num. 22:21-35
On his way to the Moabite king, Balaam gets mad at the donkey, the ass, he’s riding, and begins to beat him, because it disobeys his lead and wanders off of the road. The donkey opens its mouth and speaks to Balaam, calls him out on his meanness: “Why have you beat me?” Here’s the funny part, Balaam responds to the donkey, as if it was the most normal thing to do. Balaam’s response to the donkey was the first recorded incident of road rage. Listen to what Balaam said to the donkey, “You’ve made me look foolish.” If I had a sword in my hand I would kill you right now.” Listen to the donkey’s response to Balaam:
The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?” “No,” he said.
Even a donkey, an ass, has the discernment to not stand against an angel with a sword in his hand! And apparently, the donkey had more spiritual discernment than the man. Because, Balaam’s focus was on that reward, that money, and he wanted to get to it. So he beat the donkey, who seemingly was not going where he wanted him to go fast enough.
Verse 31: Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown. 32 The angel of the Lord asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. 33 The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared it.”
If it wasn’t for Balaam’s donkey, Balaam would have been slaughtered. But, remember what Balaam first said to the donkey, “You’ve made me look foolish, if I had a sword in my hand I would kill you”. Balaam was more worried about what the messengers of Balak thought of him than his own donkey he had known for quite some time.
Have you ever found yourself treating a stranger better than your own family? Have you ever found yourself worrying so much about what someone you barely know thinks of you that you treat those who knows you the best bad and wrong? There’s something messed up about us, it’s a part of that sin nature inside us, where we worry about our image, worry about what other people think, then those who we are closest to us, those who care for us the most, get our left overs. Not good thing people. This itself is that rebellious nature in us. Love always begins at home first.
Anyway, back to Balaam and his donkey. Once Balaam’s eyes were opened and he saw the whole picture, he knew the donkey was not making him look foolish but was actually saving his life.
How many of us perceive that someone is trying to make us look foolish with the things they say or do for us, only to find out later that they were just tying to help us, save us, steer us away from danger?
This testimony is meant to teach us something. I learned many years ago, If God used a donkey, an ass, to speak to a man to get His point across, then God can use anyone to speak His message to me. Many of us fail to see God, even through the mouth of an ass. God still speaks through donkeys today through the world around us. Your just not listening and can’t see.
Most of us, when someone shares with us, tells us something, and it’s not what or who we expect it to be, we don’t listen or see, and we miss God speaking to us; and therefore, we miss what God is trying to tell us. Many of us, take no heed to what Jesus told us in Matt. 10:41: “receive a prophet in the name of a prophet and receive a prophet’s reward. Receive a righteous man in the name of a righteous man and receive the reward of a righteous man.” This is one of my favorite scriptures. Understand, the reward is yours, not the prophets or the righteous mans. They are but messengers passing on to you what God would have for you; but many of us never receive such rewards because we judge who it comes from rather than who’s message it is! Did you get that? Come on Now! God spoke through an ass to get His message across, and just may speak to you through an ass, but will you receive it? Let that marinate!
Now, what follows in the subsequent chapters in Numbers 23-25, we see that Balaam is forbidden from cursing Israel, but instead blesses Israel. The first blessing is a prophecy that Israel will be multiplied (Numbers 23:7-10) and in the second, he proclaims that with God on their side, Israel is indestructible and that God will not change His promises to Israel (Numbers 23:18-24).
However, while Balaam was prophesying and pronouncing blessings on Israel, he was also consulting with Balak on how to cause Israel to bring God’s condemnation down upon themselves. Balaam counseled Balak to use temple prostitutes of the pagan deity Ba’al to entice the Israelite men into sexual relationships and pagan rituals. Balaam did this presuming God would condemn Israel, and he would in turn collect the reward, the money from Balak. This is what is spoke of in 2 Pet. 2:15-16
“They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong. But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice.”
According to 2 Peter 2:15, Balaam’s “way” is a choice to promote the doctrine of “admixture” for financial reasons. According to Jude 1:11, Balaam’s “error” was his willingness to accommodate pagan beliefs out of greed. Jude 1:4 also refers to the sin of those “who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality.”
Putting these ideas together gives a clear view of the doctrine of Balaam. It is admixture of one still loving and living to the world while still believing their serving God – It tells us in James 4:4: You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
The doctrine of Balaam teaches compromise, mixing worldly believes with the truth of God! As stated earlier, there are some Christians who even compromise certain verses in the Bible, they choose to overlook others, so as not to be socially offensive, and speak on such things as eastern mysticism like karma, even following their horoscope, there are space aliens, palm reading and the like.
A person following the doctrine of Balaam is willing to compromise his beliefs for the sake of economics, worldly knowledge, etc. The doctrine of Balaam is one of the most widely taught doctrines taught in Church today – prosperity teaching and preaching is so followed above all other preaching and teaching from God’s Word? Name and claim it. Rewards of financial blessings, worldly blessing and rewards, and so forth. Yet, they fail to teach the goal set for every Christian is to win the race, be victorious in the conflict in this world to receive blessings in Heaven, not this world.
The prophet Balaam, the doctrine of Balaam is a cautionary testimony for us all. The Lord would have us understand, that even a man or woman of God can be lead astray by greed and admixture, having cares of this world and pride of life. Examine your life, and as Jesus says to the Church of Pergamos, Rev. 2:14 -16
Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam…16 Repent therefore!
