Balaam's way and Balaam's error

(Extract from 'Apocalypse Unfolding Now')

Balak was a king who feared the large numbers of Israelites travelling through his country, so he hired Balaam to pronounce a curse on them. Balaam refused first, but an offer of money changed his mind. Later Balaam influenced the Israelites to turn to idol worship.

Numbers 31:16 " They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord...". Balaam's story, taken alone, would lead us to believe that Balaam was a honest and God-fearing man. But here is the first of much Biblical evidence that Balaam was not the good man he might appear to be.

When God commanded the destruction of the Midianites, Israel took the women as captives, rather than killing them, probably because of the tempting enticements of the Midianites' sinful lifestyle. When Israel later entered the promised land, it was their indifferent attitude to sin that eventually ruined them.

Christ rebuked the church for tolerating those who, like Balaam, lead people away from God.

There are two more important facets in this story, the 'Balaam's way' and 'Balaam's error'.

Balaam's way - 2Peter 2:15:

" They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness."

As mentioned above, Balaam was hired by a pagan king to curse Israel. He did what God told him for a time, but eventually is evil motives and desire for money won out. Like the false teachers of Peter's day, Balaam used religion for personal advancement, a sin that God does not take lightly. The story of Balaam in more detail, is found in Numbers chapter 22 to 24. We are able to understand that Balaam wanted to win the prize offered by king Balak and at the same time to worship God. Impossible! In our present times, there are mercenaries involved in the evangelic ministry for personal gain. It is the spiritual professionalism, everywhere common in the churches everywhere in our present times. There are Christians that change the practices of their Christian lives, individually and collectively, for secularism or pure professionalism.

Mathew 6:24 says:

" No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

Jesus says that we can only have one master. We live in a materialistic society where many people serve money. They spend all their lives collecting and storing it, only to die and leave it behind. Their desire for money and what it can buy far outweighs their commitment to God and spiritual matters. Jesus contrasted heavenly values with earthly values when He explained that our first loyalty should be to those things that do not fade, cannot be stolen or used up, and never wear up.

Balaam's error - Balaam's reasoning from a natural human point of view, lead him to see the existence of sin in Israel and God, being saintly, should curse it.

It's the same in today's human rationalism within the church. it is to want to interpret the things of God - His Word, His doctrine, His church, His ways - only with our minds. It is the total dependence on intellectualism. In present times, where the whole church moves towards more and more knowledge, the danger of human rationalism in God's things are very much present.