Balaam 101

Thank you for that special music. I want to jump right into the sermon, since I want to try to end on time, but I have a lot of stuff to try to cover, so I will try to do this as quickly as possible. But I hope you will find this to be an interesting topic. The title of today's sermon is Balaam 101. Balaam 101. This is not a history lesson as much as it is a warning message, a message that we need to be aware of. Three lessons we can all learn from this incredible biblical character that a lot of us may feel a little strange about. Wait a minute. Was God working with him? Was he not working with him? Was he not the only one that he told him? But wait a minute. He was a sorcerer. He was this. But yeah, God was working with him, and God told him this. And it can sometimes be confusing for people to realize what exactly was going on in Balaam's life and in his mind. And it can be confusing. Almost as confusing to me as seeing an obese vegan, which I'm like, okay, why are you obese when you're a vegan? So what are we thinking when we read about this incredible person called Balaam in the Bible? He's actually mentioned 63 times all through different parts of the Bible with lessons for us. And I really wonder whether we understand exactly why God would take time to cover this individual so much in the Bible if it wasn't to teach us and have us learn the incredible lesson that we can from Balaam. Most people know the name, but not a lot about Balaam or his famous ass. Let's go through a quick five-minute picture, if I can, of this questionable character's character.

It's been over 3,000 years since Balaam walked on earth, yet he made an impact on scripture, made an impact that God even had to work with him at different times, and yet the disciples, even 1,200 to 1,400 years later, bring up something about Balaam. We know that Balaam existed because there are findings, like in 1967 in Jordan, they found the oracle of Balaam, which dated back to 7th and 8th century BC, that gave the words of Balaam.

That oracle was obviously preserved or dated back then because he lived a few centuries before that. Balaam was a man of renown. He was known. Balaam was a Midianite, a sorcerer, seer, prophet. If you want to say that, he was a self-employed prophet who we find he did things for money.

Shock existed 3,000 years ago. People were motivated by money and gold and silver and animals and so forth. Yes, we find that out through the scripture. So if I could go back to Balaam's time, I would probably find that he would even have a sign in his front yard that might say, profit for sale, because basically he was for sale for the biggest of the largest bidder.

The Smith's Bible dictionary actually says that the son of Beor, as Balaam was, a man endowed with the gift of prophecy. Balaam was so renowned for his power and prophetic abilities that Beelik, the son of the king of Moab, sent for him and wanted to hire him to come down and curse the children of Israel, God's people. Now you might find this interesting.

The thing I did was where Moab was was 300 to 350 miles south of where Balaam lived. So it wasn't just a jog down the road. He had to send somebody way up there to bring him way down, traveling by donkey, to come down to earn his money, you might say, because Balaam was a money-grubbing man whose profit, whose main job was, what, to make a profit, to earn money, to get money, to get rich. This is what he was about. So today in Balaam 101, I want to go to lesson number one. Lesson number one, I'm going to ask you, all of you, to take today what I say as a Cliff Notes version, Cliff Notes version of the story of Balaam.

And I'd like you to, after this service, go back to Numbers 22, 23, 24, and 25. Go back there and read the story. Get the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say, so that you can explain this. You know the purpose of Balaam, but you also know why it was written for us here 3,000 years later, for us to be watching, watching, to make sure that the spirit of Balaam doesn't find its way to us.

And it makes for an incredible read. So lesson number one, beware of false teachers. Okay, have you known any false teachers? This is beware of false teachers. Be on the lookout for, what? The spirit of Balaam that might be in them. Be on the lookout for that. I'd like you to go with me to 2 Peter.

2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2 and verse 1, and 2, or 2 Peter 2 and verse 1. I want to do this because 2 Peter 2.15 reads, they have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of righteousness. Wait a minute, what's Peter talking about? Why is it of unrighteousness? Why is he following this? I want to read to you today from the New Living Translation, the first few verses of chapter 2.

So it sets the scene for what he is talking about here in verse 15. In chapter 2, 2 Peter, verse 1, New Living Translation, Peter is saying, but there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false prophets among you. And he was talking to the brethren.

They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. Many will follow their evil teachings and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. The way of truth will be slandered.

So Peter is trying to tell the church, wake up, realize what's going on and what is the spirit of Balaam. Let's go back to that same verse in verse 15 after reading verses 1 and 2. 2 and 15. They have forsaken the right way and gone astray. Who have? Well, these men will come into the church, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of what? Unrighteousness. So he's talking about people in the church. We need to be on watch. We need to make sure that we're on top of our game. That we're at one, as we heard earlier in Jeff's message. That we know exactly how God thinks, how Christ thinks, and we need to think that same way. So that when something like this comes up, we're ready to handle it. We know. It doesn't sound right. Not going to buy into that.

We need to be on the ball looking at it. So I'd like to tell you the story of Balaam and his love of money. But first, I'll need a map. Jeff, if you can put a map on the full screen here, I'd like to show you exactly what was going on. So as you can see there, it's a picture of the Middle East at the time of the of the Children of Israel going from the Sinai. And they came up, if you're looking at the map with me, and God was going to take them into the Promised Land. Now it's been 38 years since he had given them the commandments. And so here you come up, and so they're about to enter at the very bottom under Edom. It's actually the Midians. They controlled that area, but then they came up and they were going to go through Edom. And this map doesn't show up, but you can find it on other maps. There is a highway. It's called the King's Highway, and the King's Highway existed at this time and went all the way from the south down Sinai, all the way up to the very top of this map. And it took you up to civilization. And so this was going to be an easy road to take so that they could then come in. As you see just above the Jericho there, that's where they were going to enter the into the Promised Land. But they had to go through Edom, Moab, Ammon, and then come into the Amorite territory where the Amorites were.

But something happened because as they came to Edom, as you can read in your reading your Bibles, they came to Edom and they asked. They wanted to pass through because you can imagine a million people plus going down this highway through your country. They came to Edom, which was the Gregory Rinsome of Esau. So it was actually a brother in another way to them. And Moses came and said, hey, we would like to travel through there. If we take any of your food, if we borrow any of your water, we'll be happy to pay you for that.

We just want to make it through. You've heard what we've gone through. And now we would like to pass through on this highway. And Edom said, no, you're not going down. You're not using our land. You're not coming through there. So they had to skirt around, eat them, and work their way up, which took a longer time. Then they came to Moab. Moab said, no, you're not coming in here. They offered the same thing to Moab and to Ammon. Just let us go through it. We'll be happy to pay you whatever we use. We're just trying to get to above the Dead Sea there. And none of them, they had to skirt around each of those countries, taking them a long way around, the difficult way around, where they had to have water, all the stuff that they needed. But finally, they come up to the top where the Amorites were, and they arrived there. And so Moab actually comes up almost to the top of where Jericho is there by the side. And Ammon was actually defeated. Ammon and Moab were defeated by the Amorites, and they took part of their land that they originally had. So God brought them up here, and now they went to the Amorites and said, hey, we need to camp here. We'd like to do this. And Amorites said, no, we're not letting you through either. As a matter of fact, they wanted to attack them, and we're going to kill them. But what happened? God led them. God led them, and they defeated Sihon. They defeated all the Og. They defeated all the kings there of the Amorites.

And so as they were preparing them to go in and cross and go into Jericho, into the Promised Land, they were settled. And as you can imagine, a million people settled out there. It was a large group. Well, when Moab heard about, oh, wait a minute, look what they just did to the Amorites.

We're afraid of what they're going to do to us. Yet God said, don't cause war. Don't bring war on Edom, Moab or Ammon, since they're your brothers by either Lot or Esau. So what happened?

They stayed put. And as they were preparing then to go into Jericho and go into the Promised Land, that's where our story takes place. Because the prince, actually the son of the king of Moab, said, wait a minute, I don't want these people. I'm afraid what they'll do to us. It was out of fear. If they had just worked with them, it wouldn't have been any problem. But they said, no, we're afraid they're going to take over our country. And guess what? I'm the prince. I have all these years ahead of me, and my dad's going to be overthrown, and I won't have anything. So I'm going to do whatever it takes. I'm going to go, and I'm going to find this amazing prophet, 300 miles, no, 350 miles north of us in Iran. And I'm going to have him come down, and he has such power, and everybody believes that he's going to curse these people, and then that will take care of them. And they won't begin to grow, and they won't take over the Promised Land. And they won't come down to our land in Moab. So, as you can see, it was an interesting time, to say the least, to be Joshua, to be these people of the Israelites at that time. So I'd like to now go to lesson two. Now go to lesson two that we are here. Lesson two! Listen to a still, small voice, even if a dumbass are for you city people who didn't grow up using the donkey being called Ass. A donkey is speaking! Shrek's donkey wasn't the only donkey who ever talked. It happened the only time in the Bible we know where an animal actually spoke because God wanted him to speak and put the words in his mouth. But I say lesson two because listen to a still, small voice.

It worked for Elijah. It would have worked for Balaam if he had listened, because God a lot of times works with us in a still, small voice. That still, small voice that comes from God's Holy Spirit. You know, you ever had that small voice? I remember the old Magnum P.I. show. He used to talk. This little voice was telling me. Brethren, we have the power of this still, small voice. When something doesn't sound right, we a lot of times get this still, small voice. When we don't need to be doing something that we're thinking about doing, what do we have? Still, small voice. We've asked God to guide us. We've said, God, you are our God. We will put you first. Guide us. Well, brethren, that's exactly what he's trying to do in your life and my life. We have to understand that, and we have to listen sometimes, meditate to really know God's will for each and every one of us.

In this lesson 2, turn to 2 Peter 2, verse 16. 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2 and verse 16 tells us, as he continues the story here about Balaam, but he was rebuked for his iniquity, a dumb donkey, speaking with a man's voice, restrained the, what? Madness of the prophet. Restrain the madness of a prophet. I want to now read for you. If you pull out your Bibles, if you have them there, you can follow along. I'm not going to put it up here on the words because I want to read this. We have some pictures here that Jeff's going to be showing as I go through this, but I'd like you to turn with me to Numbers 22. Numbers 22. I'll set the backdrop here because I already said that Balak, who was the son of the king of Moab, sent people up to hire Balaam to come down and to curse the children of Israel. Well, he denied them and said, no, I can't because God came to him and said, no, you know, I don't want you doing this. And so then they come all the way back to Moab, and the king says, well, let me send more influential people than this and with more money. And then we can convince this incredible seer, this prophet, to come down and do what I need him to do. And so those men came, and that's where we'll pick up our story here. In Numbers 22, I'll be reading from the New King James Version. Verse 20, And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, If the men come to you, rise and go with them. But only the word which I speak to you, that you shall do. So Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab. And then we have this strange verse to many people in Numbers 22. Then God's anger was aroused because he went. Okay, well, he went. He went with him. Well, God just told him to. Do we have an inconsistent, erratic, moody, thickled, unstable God? Is that who we worship? No! He told him what to do, but to follow him. But you don't speak except what I tell you to speak. You don't say except what I tell you to say. You don't have your own thoughts. I'm sending you on this mission. You want it, I'm going to send you on this mission.

Now, what do you think was going through Balaam's mind? Show me the money. Show me the money.

I'm going to do this, but wait a minute. How can I keep all the money they're offering me and still try to obey God? Hmm, how can I do this? You think that wasn't going through his mind? And God didn't know what was on his mind? Why this was, hey, he had 300 miles on a donkey to think about this thing. So, let's go down. Then God's anger was aroused when he went, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as an adversary against him. And as he was writing on his donkey and his two servants were with him, now the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned aside out of the way and went into the field. So Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back into the road. Then the angel of the Lord stood in the narrow path between the vineyard with a wall and on the side and a wall on that side. And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pushed herself against the wall and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall. So he struck her again. Then the angel of the Lord went further and stood in the narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right or even to the left. And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam. So Balaam's anger was aroused and he struck the donkey with his staff again. Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey. It's a unique story in the entire Bible. We should know it. We should be able to explain it and understand it. And then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey and she said to Balaam, what have I done to you that you have struck me these three times? And Balaam said to the donkey, because you have abused me, I wish there were a sword in my hand. For now I would kill you. So the donkey said to Balaam, am I not your donkey on which you have ridden ever since I became yours? To this very day was I ever deposed to do this to you? And he said, no, no. First I would have thought, how's this donkey talking? But maybe he knew. He was so angry. He wanted his way. He had his mind set on other things. Then the Lord opened Balaam's eyes and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed his head and fell flat on the face. And the angel of the Lord said to him, what? Don't don't fall face down and you don't worship me. I'm just an angel. No, didn't do this because as we heard earlier about the word, the word, the pre-incarnate Christ was this angel. And so that's why he accepted him bowing down and doing this because you don't find that in any other place where it's a regular angel except if it's the angel of the Lord where it is the part of the God family. And the angel of the Lord said to him, why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you because your way is perverse before me. Hmm, he knew what was going on in that mind of Balaam.

The donkey saw me and turned aside from me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely I would have also have killed you by now and let her live. And Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, I have sinned. I have sinned, for I did not know you stood in the way against me. Now, therefore, if it displeases you, I will turn back. Then the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, go with the men. But only the word that I speak to you that you shall speak. So Balaam went with the princes to Balaam. So here we see that God was telling him the things that he must do. And so when Balak said, okay, curse these people, and he took him to the mountains and they overlooked these places because there's this area in which the children of Israel were, they were so spread out all over everywhere that they could look. And so he took him to this lookout, and he took him to this lookout, and he took him to Elizabeth three times, and he said, curse them. And so Balaam knew. He couldn't. All he did was pronounce good on them. He blessed them.

And finally, even the fourth time, he even spoke about the Christ, the Messiah, to come.

But then, in chapter 24, after he did this, of course, Balak was upset. I thought you were going to curse them. And he said, I can't. I can only speak the words. But then, an interesting thing in chapter 24 and verse 25 tells us that then Balak went his way, and Balaam went his. And you're thinking, oh, the end of the story. But it wasn't. But it wasn't, because what goes into Balaam's mind? I'm going to find a way. I'm going to find a way to get my money, do what God asked me to do, and still live the way that I want to live. Sound familiar to people here? They want to put on an act that they are, what, religious, but then they still want their stuff.

What's the first commandment say? It says what we're supposed to be doing. That he's our God. He's the head.

So what happened then? Was that the end of the story? No, but it's also not the end of our lessons. Lesson number three. Lesson number three. Going against God never ends well. It doesn't. Most of us have found that out, but Balaam had to find it out the hard way.

Let me just read you in Numbers 31. If you'll turn there with me, Numbers 31.

Numbers 31 and verse 7. Numbers 31 and verse 7.

And they warred against the Midianites, just as the Lord commanded Moses, and they killed all the males. And then you go down to verse 8, and it says, Balaam, the son of Beor, was also killed with the sword. Many knights came up against them, and here was Balaam. Where did he go? He came back down, obviously. Why? He got his money. He got his money. How'd he get his money? It's amazing how he got his money. It says, and so I said, going against God never ends well. Beware of prestidigitation. Prestidigitation, kind of a big word. Okay, we're going to find out exactly what it's about, because it has to do with this, and it's something that you need to be aware of.

But go with me first to Revelation 2 and verse 14. Revelation 2 and verse 14. Here, Peter, before he died in the the the second Peter 2, had had given us information about Balaam. Well, here John, in the last book of the Bible, brings something up about Balaam. And he says this about one of the churches of God, because I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put stumbling blocks before the children of Israel to eat things, sacrifice the idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Oh, wait a minute. When did Balaam do this? When did Balaam do this? It was before he left, before he left when he got his pay. So here he has to go up with Balak, and he's looking at it, and he has to bless three times the children of Israel, and then he has another blessing. And then before he leaves, he's like, how do I get the money? How do I do this? So he told Balak, I can't curse these people, but here's what I can do, because you pay me all this money. I'll tell you what you can do to them, and God will curse them more than what I could do. And so what did he do? He told Balak what to do, and Balak made it happen. It's part of the doctrine of Balaam. So they did put stumbling blocks in front of the children of Israel. So we must be aware of people who do not have their beliefs grounded from the Bible. I've had people tell me, well, do you know what Billy Graham said? Do you know what Ellen G. White said? No, I don't care what they have to say. My job is to know what Jesus has to say. My job is to know what the Word has to say. That is our job. We must be aware. That's why we must be aware of people who do that. And I want to talk about that not only today, but in two weeks I want to come back with an even stronger sermon about this, of being aware of everything that comes in front of us. So let me turn back to Numbers 25. Numbers 25. Numbers 25, verse 1, New King James, and then Israel, after Balaam had left, because in verse 25 of 24 it says, then Balaam rose and departed and returned to his place, and Balic also went to his place. They were both going to get what they wanted. Then Israel remained in a case of a grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. Why would they do that? They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate, and they bowed down to their gods. Why would they do that? Why would they do that? You see, the doctrine of Balaam is a doctrine of compromise. We must understand that. We must realize that, because here's what happened. The children of Israel are there. Well, the women of Moab come over because Balic wanted them to, and taught them, well, let's go over there and let's talk to them. And so first thing they did, first they invited them to see the sacrifice of their gods. So a lot of the leading men came in there. From Israel came and watched this, and guess what? You can imagine what they said. It isn't hard. Well, yeah, we sacrificed to our god, too.

Wow! Okay, we got this in common, don't we? Well, guess what? Then they offered this food that they had sacrificed and put up to God. I'm sure it was clean, because Balaam, Balaam, Balaic knew they wouldn't eat stuff that wasn't, because they knew what they were trying to set them up for. So what did, even when they slaughtered at the Holy Days, Israel did, what happened? They gave the food out. So they were able to eat. So now, second, they look at it and go, well, this is how we worship our god, too. And then third, they bow down to their gods, as it says. So here's how we worship. So we bow down. Well, we do the same thing. Wow, we're not that different!

And boy, are you women? Definitely good-looking women.

And so what'd they do?

They finished this worship by having sexual intercourse.

You can read in chapter 25. I wish you'd read the rest of the story of Phineas, and how that happened, and how it's easy because it becomes a compromise. And this is what we must do, not do, as the children of God. We cannot compromise and say, well, this is pretty good from the world. We'll pull this in. Well, this is also pretty good. Doesn't mean we have closed minds, but it has, we have minds centered on God and how to worship God. So I bring up the word, as I'm about to close here, the word, presidigitation. Presidigitation. What is it? Well, it's a word that they use for magicians.

And what it actually means is just the sleight of hand, because if you've ever seen that illusion of a certain magician, he'll have the one hand going over here, showing you this, and you're watching this, and really everything's going on in the other hand.

So what did Balaam do? He wanted, oh, here, I'm following God. I'm following God. I'm following God told me, and I'm blessing this, but over here, his mind was like, how am I going to get my stuff?

Brother, you must watch. It happens. It happens, and it happens in the world. Magicians must learn to use the left hand as well as the right hand, so they can kind of let you follow this or bring this up, and then all of a sudden they're over here, and they do this, and you're watching this, and then, oh, wow, here it comes.

Brother, that can happen when it comes to the Word of God. Everything can seem so right. Oh, they're doing this, but guess what? Over here is the real purpose. Haven't you seen that? Haven't you experienced that? Maybe in other churches of God.

In sales, it's called bait and switch. They bring you in to buy this object. It really looks good and cheap and everything, and then once they get you in there, they tell you, well, there it has the existence, but look over here. I've got this other thing over here. We must be careful. We must be careful that we're not buying into something that the world may be selling, and we think it's great. But there's the other side that we won't be able to see till we're too far down. And what happened in Casey Grove? God had a plague come upon the people. He actually killed all the men who went over there and had intercourse with the women. And that's an incredible story about Phineas that I want all of you to read this afternoon. So it will make you strong. So we need to be strong when it comes to obeying God and following God.

And beware and know when Balaam, the spirit of Balaam, is around and our compromise. So I'll leave you with these words. Is the spirit and doctrine of Balaam in your future? It was predicted by Peter. It took place in the book of Revelation, and it didn't end 2,000 years ago. It's alive and well. And we, as children of God, as brothers and sisters in Christ, we must beware.