April 5, 2023: 2 Peter 2:15-16: God Does Try to Stop Us from Sinning, but Do we Listen?

“They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.” - 2 Peter 2:15-16

In these two Scriptures, Peter is comparing false teachers in the church to the wicked prophet Balaam from the Old Testament book of Numbers (see Numbers 22:1-41 - 25:1-3). Balaam was a prophet from Mesopotamia, in modern day Iraq. When God was bringing Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land of Canaan, Balak, the Moabite king saw them when they had moved into his territory and he sought Balaam to put a curse on them. He offered Balaam a diviner’s fee, money or valuables, so that Balaam would curse them, and Balak told Balaam, “…for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.” Instead of telling Balak that he absolutely would not put a curse on God’s people, he opened the door for sin to enter into him, for he was tempted by the money that Balak offered him. Balaam responded to Balak, saying, “Lodge here tonight, and I will bring back word to you, as the LORD speaks to me” and the Moabite princes did so. Balaam had let sin enter his house, opening the door for it to come in. Balaam did inquire of God, and God told him, “You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.” The next morning Balaam told Balak, “Go back to your land, for the LORD has refused to give me permission to go with you.” Notice that Balaam didn’t say that God said he should not curse Israel, for they are blessed; rather, he only told Balak that God forbade him to go with Balak and his princes. Why didn’t Balaam tell them all that God said? Again, he left the door open to sin, for his heart was wanting of money and not God.

Balak then decided to send to Balaam more princes and of higher honor than the prior ones, who told Balaam what Balak had said, “Please let nothing hinder you from coming to me; for I will certainly honor you greatly, m and I will do whatever you say to me. Therefore please come, curse this people for me.” Next, Balaam spoke out of both sides of his mouth. With the first side, he rightfully said, “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.” With the next side of his mouth, he left the door open to sin once again, ‘Now therefore, please, you also stay here tonight, that I may know what more the LORD will say to me.” Had God not been crystal clear to Balaam when he came to Him the first time? Didn’t God say that Balaam should not curse Israel? Balaam was demonstrating where his faith was and it wasn’t in God. God came to Balaam at night and told 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.” Balaam then went with them in the morning, riding on his donkey.

Rightfully so, God was angry with Balaam because he had went with them. Balaam knew Balak and his princes’ intent of contacting him in the first place was only to curse Israel and to pay him for doing so. Balaam had become a prophet for hire. While riding the donkey on his way to Moab with his two servants, “the Angel of the LORD took His stand in the way as an adversary against him.” The donkey saw the Angel standing in the way with His sword drawn but Balaam could not see it. The donkey turned aside and went into a field. Balaam then struck the donkey to get him back on the road, but the donkey “pushed herself against the wall and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall; so he struck her again.” The Angel went up ahead to a more narrow place, where the donkey would not be able to turn to the left or the right. The donkey saw the Angel again and this time, she lay down under Balaam, who struck her again. Three times Balaam had struck the donkey. “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 day? Was I ever disposed [accustomed] to do this to you?’ And he said, ‘No.’” God then revealed the Angel standing in the way with His sword to Balaam, who “bowed his head and fell flat on his face.” The Angel asked Balaam why he had struck his donkey three times, and said to Balaam, “Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me. The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also have killed you by now, and let her live.” Balaam acknowledge he had sinned and said if “it displeases You, I will turn back.” The Angel told him to go ahead and go but speak only the words that He would give him. Balaam did go to Balak, who gave Balaam oxen and sheep.

What happened next was a series of seven prophecies by Balaam. Balak took Balaam to the high places of Baal, who was the supreme false god worshipped in Canaan and Phoenicia. What on earth was Balaam thinking of by even going to these places of idol worship? Three times Balaam told Balak to “build seven altars for me here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” Notice that Balam said the altars and sacrifices were for him, not God. Three times God gave Balaam a prophecy of how He would bless Israel. The third time Balaam prophesied, Balak told him, “I called you to curse my enemies, and look, you have bountiful blessed them these three times!” Balaam then gave a fourth prophecy of the latter days, which was a prophecy of the Messiah, who will crush His enemies and have dominion:

“I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Scepter shall rise out of Israel, and batter the brow of Moab, and destroy all the sons of tumult. And Edom shall be a possession; Seir also, his enemies, shall be a possession, while Israel does valiantly. Out of Jacob One shall have dominion.” (Numbers 24:17-19)

Balaam continued to tell Balak the rest of this fourth prophecy, and when he finished, Balaam left and returned home and so did Balak. What the enemy, Satan, had intended for evil, God used for good. Satan intended to curse Israel, and it backfired on him.

Balaam, who was double-minded, eventually gave over to the evil in his heart and found a way to get the diviner’s fee. “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. So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel.” In Numbers 31:16, Moses puts the blame for this clearly on Balaam, “Look, these women caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass against the LORD in the incident of Poor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.” For this plague, 24,000 people were killed by the judges of Israel.

Again, Peter is comparing the false teachers in the church to this wicked prophet, Balaam. God even enabled Balaam’s donkey to restrain him, but Balaam had evil in his heart, though he pretended to be following God. Instead of listening to God the first time when God told him he should not go with the princes of Moab to curse Israel before Balak, Balaam left the door open to sin. Balaam ended up being killed by the sword by Israel when it came into the Promised Land, “The children of Israel also killed with the sword Balaam the son of Beor, the soothsayer [diviner], among those who were killed by them.” (Joshua 13:22) In his farewell address, the Lord God spoke to Israel through Joshua, who had brought Israel into the Promised Land:

“Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose to make war against Israel, and sent and called Balaam the son of Beor to curse you. But I would not listen to Balaam; therefore he continued to bless you. So I delivered you out of his hand.” (Joshua 24:9-10)

Jesus Himself even warned the compromising church in Pergamos:

“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…Repent, or else, I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.” (Jesus Christ; Revelation 2:14, 16)

How many false prophets and false teachers are doing the same things in churches today, putting a stumbling block before those in their congregations, especially in America? False prophets and teachers have always existed but none have ever prevailed against God, and they never will. While God gives them opportunities to turn from their sin and turn to Him, if they don’t, they will receive the due penalty of their sin against Him. There are many false prophets and false teachers in churches today. How many of them are ignoring God’s warnings to them? How many of them are opening the doors to let sin come in instead of firmly rebuking it at the beginning? How many are doing this because they don’t worship the One true God, but worship the god of mammon, money, just as Balaam did? How many will end up as Balaam did, with a donkey being wiser than him, dying with his money and in his sin, because he refused to listen to the words of God?