Introduction

Sometimes everything appears to be good at the beginning, only to find out that everything isn’t so good at the end. That about sums up the complicated place of Balaam in the Bible. Consider three lessons we learn from this guileful figure.

Lesson #1: Remember God’s Righteousness

“O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.” (Micah 6:5)

The prophet Balaam, though a covetous and sinful man (Jude 11; 2 Pt. 2:15), was used by God to bless Israel and spurn Moab. Balak, the Moabite king, summons Balaam to put a curse on Israel. Yet the Spirit of the Lord comes upon Balaam and instead of prophesying disaster, Balaam prophesies blessing on Israel (Numbers 22-24). This makes Balak angry (Num. 24:10). Revelation 2:14 says that Balaam advised Balak to entrap Israel in idolatry and fornication, which then happens in Numbers 25:1-3. God judged Israel and executed the leaders by hanging (Num. 25:4-5).

According to Micah 6:5, you need to remember that story. Why? “That you may know the righteous acts of the Lord” (Micah 6:5). God’s people had forgotten God’s saving acts. Their fixed point of reference wasn’t the grace of God but a false view of God that annoyed them. God’s people are always tempted to forget God’s saving acts when they are surrounded by corruption. When everywhere you look there is dirty politics, rigged academics, manipulation of the masses, leveraging of the media, scientists manufacturing panic, and nameless faceless bureaucrats strangling society like an anaconda, then God’s people are tempted to forget God’s character, goodness, and capacity for mercy.

The Balak story shows that God’s grace is at work even when you don’t know it. Rather than Balaam cursing Israel, God’s kindness intervened so that Balaam blessed them. This is your God, one who protects you even when you don’t know it or understand. God turned Balaam’s curse “into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you” (Dt. 23:5; Josh. 24:9f).

Lesson #2: Remember Balaam’s Corruption

“‘I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.” (Revelation 2:13-16)

The church at Pergamon must be alert to the subtle, insidious presence of heresy. The Apostle John uses the story of Balaam to make his point. Balaam means “conqueror of the people.” But there is more than one way to destroy a people. One way is in open warfare. The advantage of this approach is a quick resolution. The disadvantage is the high risk of loss. Another way is through corruption, like when Balaam manipulates Balak “to put a stumbling block before … Israel” (Rev. 2:14). This approach might take longer but it undermines Israel at its power center by ruining their relationship with God. The acute and painful crisis of Balaam’s philosophy was the binary choice between revolt or reaction. So Balaam advised Balak (Num. 31:16) to induce Israel into idolatry and sexual immorality (Num. 25). The church at Pergamon faced an open threat from Rome (Rev. 2:13) that they steadfastly resisted. However, the threat of subtle corruption from the Nicolaitans, who imitated Balaam, caused the church to compromise with Satan.

False teachers try to destroy Christians by corrupting them. In the first century, that meant enticing Christians to “eat food sacrificed to idols” (Rev. 2:14). The Jerusalem Council explicitly forbade eating things sacrificed to idols (Acts 15:28f). But the Nicolaitan “apostles” taught that it was not sinful to partake nor was it sinful to fornicate. The subtle technique is Satanic (Rev. 2:9) and the Accuser has been successfully running this play on God’s people since the beginning. The serpent tempted Eve by seducing her to eat from the forbidden tree. In Paul’s interpretation, Eve’s idolatry was akin to adultery (2 Cor. 11:2-3).

God makes war against Balaamites and Nicolaitans (Rev. 2:16). The Angel of the Lord met Balaam with a drawn sword (Num. 22:31) and Moses’ men used a sword to kill him (Num. 31:8; Josh. 13:22). This is the predictable end of anyone, even a prophet, who, in the little hope of riches, becomes a rebel.

Lesson #3: Remember The Enemy’s Methods

“For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world” (1 John 2:16)

Balaam couldn’t curse what God had blessed, so he devised a subtler strategy: corrupt them. Seduce the Israelites not by swords, but by smiles. Pleasure, not pain. Through fornication and idolatry, Israel fell not from defeat but from desire. This is Satan’s oldest trick. Some call it “the deep things of Satan” (Rev. 2:24): if you can’t destroy the body, seduce the soul. It worked then, and it works now. The devil is dangerous as a tyrant, especially in influencing governmental institutions. But the devil is just as dangerous as a tempter who uses pleasure to numb the conscience.

Aldous Huxley saw this clearly in Brave New World. His tyranny is not Orwell’s iron boot of 1984, but a velvet pillow. No need for gulags when you have soma. The people are not oppressed; they’re entertained to death. Religion is replaced with distraction. Self-denial is swapped for endless gratification. Like Israel with Baal of Peor (Num. 25:1-3), the church trades their birthright (Col. 1:15-20) for a bowl of pleasure stew. When the state provides everything you want, you are fooled into thinking there is nothing you need. It's slavery disguised as paradise.

Conclusion

Balaam is a soothsayer (Josh. 13:22) disguised as a prophet (Num. 22-24). Had Israel been watching closely they’d have seen a man operating like a pagan magician. Balaam tried to hornswoggle divine outcomes through rituals and sacrifices (Num. 23:1-4, 14f). He tried to swindle the spiritual world for profit (2 Pt. 2:15). He is a man who speaks oracles for lucre (Num. 22:7; Neh. 13:2). Balaam is a spiritual mercenary, a ritual manipulator, and a guide to corruption. God used Balaam; it is true. But he was never truly on God’s side because he was a man of rebellion, greed, and falsehood (Jude 11).

Jason Cherry is an elder at Trinity Reformed Church in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as a teacher and lecturer of literature, history, and economics at Providence Classical School in Huntsville. He graduated from Reformed Theological Seminary with an MA in Religion and is the author of the books The Culture of Conversionism and the History of the Altar Call and The Making of Evangelical Spirituality.

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