Revelation 2:14
But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
Who is this Balaam?
Balaam was a Midianite. His story begins in Numbers 22. Let me tell you in simplest form. When the children of Israel came to the east of the Jordan River in preparing to cross over into the land God had promised them, Balak, the king of Moab, was afraid to attack them. To defend his kingdom, he sent messengers to Balaam and offered great riches if he would manipulate the God of Israel and pronounce a curse upon Israel. He intended to weaken the military power of Israel, so that the he might defeat them in battle and chase them out of the land.
Numbers 22:6 - Therefore please come at once, curse this people for me, for they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed. (Numbers 22:6)
This tells us about the reputation of Balaam. Balak sent messengers with a very attractive offer (Numbers 22:7).
Balaam sounded very genuine at first.
Numbers 22:8 - And he said to them, “Lodge here tonight, and I will bring back word to you, as the LORD speaks to me.” So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam.
He got the answer from God as well.
Numbers 22:12 - And God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”
God’s answer was very direct - You shall not go.
Balaam seemed to accept this answer willingly. He answered the messengers saying, ‘“Go back to your land, for the LORD has refused to give me permission to go with you.” (Numbers 22:13).
However, the story does not end here. Balak was not ready to accept that reply from Balaam.
Numbers 22:15 - Then Balak again sent princes, more numerous and more honorable than they.
Sometime worth noticing here was that he now sent some of the most important men of the kingdom to the prophet. Probably, Balak knew the character of Balaam.
They make an even more attractive offer.
Numbers 22:18 - Then Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, “Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do less or more.”
A good answer! He should have sent the messengers right away with that answer. But no! He doesn’t do that. Instead he says:
Numbers 22:19 - Now therefore, please, you also stay here tonight, that I may know what more the LORD will say to me.
Was he trying to change the mind of God? He already has the answer from God. Doesn’t he mean to say, “Lodge here tonight, and I’ll go to God again to check if He has changed His mind”?
Hear the Lord’s reply:
Numbers 22:20 - And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If the men come to call you, rise and go with them; but only the word which I speak to you – that you shall do.”
Has God changed his mind? Definitely not! Then why does God ask him to go with the men now?
This is what is known as the permissive will of God. There are certain things that you can keep nagging God about that He’ll permit you to do. We have many such instances in the Bible.
1. Genesis 17:18 - And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!”
Was Ishmael in the very plan of God? Not at all! Right from the start, the blessing was promised to Abraham through a child that would be born to Sarah. Even at the start of Genesis 17, God appeared to Abram and spoke about the covenant blessing that would come through Isaac. But Abraham makes a prayer to God to bless Ishmael.
God does answer this prayer as well.
Genesis 17: 20 - And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.
Even today, the world is witnessing the strife between the two.
2. God intended to feed the Israelites with manna in the desert. However, the people wept in the hearing of the Lord for meat.
Numbers 11:4-6
Now the mixed multitude who were among them [c]yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat? 5 We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; 6 but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”
God answered their prayers. But was that the direct will of God. No! In fact, the Lord was angry with their cry (Numbers 11:10). Still, he answered their prayers.
Numbers 11:31, 32 - Now a wind went out from the Lord, and it brought quail from the sea and left them fluttering near the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and about a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about two cubits above the surface of the ground. 32 And the people stayed up all that day, all night, and all the next day, and gathered the quail (he who gathered least gathered ten homers); and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.
What was the end result? - But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the wrath of the Lord was aroused against the people, and the Lord struck the people with a very great plague (Numbers 11:33)
Later, the psalmist wrote, “And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul” (Psalm 106:15).
3. When Israelites demanded a king, the request was not pleasing to the Lord. He says to Samuel, “They have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also.” (I Samuel 8: 7, 8)
But still the Lord gave them a king as per the request. Was it the direct will of God? No! He wanted to reign over them. But He let them have a king as per His permissible will.
The result – Samuel warns them - “And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the Lord will not hear you in that day.” (I Samuel 8:18)
Do you want permissive will of God, or His direct will? Do you want Him to answer all your prayer requests, or have His way?
That is why Jesus teaches us to pray like this:
Matthew 6: 10 - Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Here Jesus is referring to the will of God as in heaven. This indicates the direct will of God.
Let’s come back to the story of Balaam:
Balaam was permitted to go but was warned to speak only what the Lord commands him to.
However, now something interesting happens:
Numbers 22:21, 22 - So Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab. Then God’s anger was aroused because he went, and the Angel of the LORD took His stand in the way
Why did God’s anger arouse against Balaam? Did not the Lord ask him to go?
The minute that prophet left and went with Balak’s messengers, he was going astray. He was not within the will of God. He looked forward to the wages of unrighteousness. He was covetous. His mind was filled with iniquity. He somehow wanted the favour promised by Balak.
Listen to what Peter says:
2 Peter 2:16 - But he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.
Even Jude talks about the greediness of Balaam
Jude 11 - Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
Balaam now arrived in the land of Moab. Israel was camping in the valley surrounded by mountains on every side. Balak brought Balaam to a mountaintop overlooking the camp and showed him the people he must curse.
Balaam’s uttered his first prophecy, in fact, one of the greatest prophecies concerning Israel.
Numbers 23: 8, 9 - How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him; There! A people dwelling alone, not reckoning itself among the nations.
Balak was dissatisfied and took Balaam to another mountain peak to curse Israelites from there.
Now hear the second prophetic utterance of Balaam:
Numbers 23: 20, 21 - Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed and I cannot reverse it. He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. The LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a King is among them. (Numbers 23:20, 21)
Again, the third time, Balak asked Balaam to curse Israel. Here comes the third prophetic utterance of Balaam
Numbers 24: 9- Blessed is he who blesses you, And cursed is he who curses you.”
Each time, the Lord did not allow Balaam to curse Israel.
Balak was furious with Balaam, refused to honor him with great riches that he had promised, and Balaam departed. Probably he was worried about the lost wages
He came back to the enemies of Israel with a master plan. He discovered that the Lord of the Israelites was an unchanging God. No efforts to change His plans and purposes would prosper. God would never go back on His Word as per his own prophetic utterance
Numbers 23:19 - “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
So, now Balaam devised an evil plan. He knew that the God of the Israelites was a righteous One who would not tolerate sin and false worship. If Israel could be tricked into sinning against Him and committing idolatry, the Lord Himself would curse them. He would use Israel’s weaknesses of being stiff-necked and their proneness to wander. He had probably learnt from Israel’s history that it would be very easy to turn them from the Lord by rebelling against the Word of God, thereby incurring His wrath. The task of Balaam was easy - to tempt the Israelites to sin such that they would fall under the curse of God. This was an indirect approach by Balaam to bring about the same objective he had failed to achieve directly.
That was exactly what happened.
The Israelites camped themselves on the east of the Jordon in Acacia Grove.
Numbers 25: 1, 2 - Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.
This was the second generation of Israelites who had been wandering in the wilderness for nearly 40 years. However, they were as stiff-necked as their fathers and kept murmuring over several things including the food that they were provided to Moses
Numbers 21:5 - And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.”
At this point, being invited for a good dinner was a temptation that was hard to deny. They willingly took part, not only in the meal, but in the sexual immorality that also was a part of their pagan worship. They committed the terrible sin that the Lord had strictly warned them not to.
Exodus 2:34 - You shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works; but you shall utterly overthrow them and completely break down their sacred pillars.
Exodus 20:14 - You shall not commit adultery
The result was the one Balaam had expected.
Numbers 25:3 - The anger of God came upon the children of Israel.
Those who joined in the pagan worship were commanded to be killed. Apart from that, there was a plague in the camp of Israel that killed 24000 men (Numbers 25:9).
Moses called it the scheme of the Midianites (Numbers 25:17).
Who was the brain behind this scheme? None other than Balaam who was presumably reaping the riches he had been promised before.
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.
It didn’t do him any good, however; God’s final judgment on Balaam was that Balaam was also killed in the war that Israelites waged against the Midianites (Numbers 31:8)
This is the trickery of the devil even today. What he cannot do by cursing and fighting from the outside, he tries to do from the inside. Satan knows that he cannot stop God from blessing His people. So he tries all means to prevent those blessings from reaching us.
This was the doctrine of Balaam that was existing in the church of Pergamos. Jesus warned the church and asked them to repent.
Rev 2:14 - But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.
Throughout the church history, we find that Satan’s attempts to attack the church from the outside failed. Persecution of Christians and martyrdom only resulted in even more widespread Christianity. However, what Satan couldn’t do from the outside he does from within. He introduces the patterns of the world within the church.
Remember that Satan cannot directly stop God from blessing you.
Numbers 24:1 - Balaam saw that it pleased God to bless Israel.
However, God cannot bless us if we are unworthy of it. So, Satan tries to destroy our holiness in whatever way possible to prevent us from being blessed.
Let us today examine ourselves as to what kind of Christians are we today? Have we given ourselves to the way of Balaam (as mentioned by Peter), the error of Balaam (as mentioned by Jude) or the doctrine of Balaam (as mentioned by Jesus) with us? Let us not fall prey to the trickery of Satan.
