But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. (Rev. 2:14)
A prophet of God identified as Balaam, son of Beor, was summoned by Balak, son of Zippor, who was King of Moab at the time of the incident that Jesus is speaking of in Rev. 2:14. The details of their meeting can be found in Numbers 22 and 23. But the basics of it is that Balak wanted Balaam to put a curse on the camp of Israel, and was willing to pay handsomely for the curse.
Balaam was greedy enough to try to please Balak by seeking the Lord several times, hoping each time that perhaps the Lord had changed His mind about blessing Israel and was ready to curse them instead. God told Balaam not to do anything without specific instructions from Him; but greedy Balaam went ahead on his own. God showed His intense displeasure at Balaak's disobedience brought on by lust for money by sending the Angel of the Lord (pre-incarnate Jesus) to meet Balaam on the way to meet Balak.
This prophet of God was unable to see the Angel of the Lord, but Balaam's donkey saw Him with sword drawn ready to strike Balaam. The faithful little donkey maneuvered away from the drawn sword and was beaten three times for it, before the Lord allowed Balaam to see what the donkey saw; at which time Balaam fell on his face before the Angel of the Lord and said he would be glad to turn back if that was what was wanted. (He was very willing to be obedient now that his own life was at risk!)
Three times Balaam sought God with burnt offerings hoping for a different answer, and three times Balaam prophesied the words of God which were all blessing to Israel. A very disappointed Balak went away without his curse being placed upon Israel.
And you would think that would be the end of the story. Yet we know it is not because Jesus says to his church at Pergamos that Balaam taught Balak to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. Yet without searching scripture and finding references to this act in many different places, both Old Testament and New Testament, you would not know the entire story. Thus, the importance of searching all through scripture, and finding all that relates to any one subject or idea.
In 2 Peter 2:14-16 we find:
With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed - an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey - an animal without speech - who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
Thus, we learn that greed and seduction of the unstable were part of Balaam's sin. Who did he seduce? We will see that he seduced the Israelites, and he used the Midianites and Moabites to do so; all for his own gain.
In Numbers 31:1, the Lord commands Moses to take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites.
Numbers 31:7-8 says that:
They fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every man. Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba - the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.
So, we see Balaam killed by the sword of the Lord. This is a judgment against him for his actions against the Israelites...for the Lord said to take vengeance for the Israelites, implying that the Israelites had suffered something at the hands of the Midianites.
The words of Moses in Numbers 31:9-16 clarifies further for us:
The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder. They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps. They took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and the animals, and brought the captives, spoils and plunder to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the Israelite assembly at their camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho.
Moses, Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp. Moses was angry with the officers of the army - the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds - who returned from the battle.
"Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them. "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the Lord's people."
Here we are told something that we are not told at the time of the incident which is located in Numbers 25 and that is that Balaam, obviously due to his desires for riches that Peter speaks of, advised the Midianite women to entice the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord. Most likely, he went to Balak, after having to refuse him the curse he wanted, and said something to the effect of: "I can't curse them for you because the Lord won't allow it, but here's what you can do. Just send some of the best looking women into their camps to seduce them, and they will bring their own curse upon their heads."
In fact, the Lord's blessing of protection was so strong over Israel, that no army and not even seducing women, could bring harm to Israel....unless the Israelites brought trouble upon themselves by their own lusts and sin. I think that applies to us who belong to the Lord as well.
So, while the Balaam and Balak meetings happen in Numbers 22 through 24; it is in Numbers 25:1-9 that we get the rest of the story:
While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women [note: the Midianites, who were nomadic, aligned themselves with the Moabites against Israel so that Midian and Moab are often seen working together] who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods. So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the Lord's anger burned against them.
The Lord said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the Lord, so that the Lord's fierce anger may turn away from Israel." So Moses said to Israel's judges, "Each of you must put to death those of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor."
Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting. When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear into both of them right thought the Israelite man and into the woman's stomach. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
One other interesting detail can be found in Numbers 31:15:
And the name of the Midianite woman who was pu to death was Kozbi daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family.
We have seen that when Balaam was killed by the sword of the Lord, he was in the company of this same Zur, Midianite tribal chief. It was his daughter who Eleazar the priest killed. Why would a prophet of God be living with self-proclaimed enemies of Israel? Because his greed led him there! He was well paid for inciting the actions that brought a plague to Israel that killed 24,000 of their number! He was, perhaps, the honored guest of the Midianites!
The Lord said to Moses, "Treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them. They treated you as enemies when they deceived you in the Peor incident involving their sister Kozbi, the daughter of the Midianite leader, the woman who was killed when the plague came as a result of that incident. (Numbers 31:16-18)
Now, back to the church at Pergamos. Knowing what we know now about Balaam and Balak, what do we know about those in the church at Pergamos that the Lord is against?
We know from Numbers 31 that they are enemies of the believers in the church. We know from 2 Peter that they are false teachers, bringing a false doctrine into the church of Jesus; and that there is some gain to be had by them for leading believers astray. We know that as a result of this false teaching, some of the believers have committed two terrible sins: eating food sacrificed to idols, and indulging in sexual fornication. Since we are aware that Pergamos was where Satan's seat was (center of pagan god worship and all the evil attached to it), we can be assured that these sins occurred when the believers participated in worshiping those false gods.
The warning to the church is this:
Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. (Rev. 2:16)
"Them" refers to those who are holding this doctrine of Balaam, teaching it to the church. For "them" the sword of the Lord will come soon!
The believers themselves must repent as well, or great trouble will come on them (we will see this in the next church letter); yet, Jesus, the shepherd of this flock in Pergamos, focuses first and foremost on those who are attempting to kill his flock. He will protect his flock with his sword. It is better for one who is a stumblingblock to God's little children, to have a millstone tied around his neck and to be cast into the depths of the sea (Matthew 18:6), rather than to bear the wrath of God that lies in store for that one.
The Lord will always take His vengeance on unrepentant false teachers, deceivers of the flock; before then doing whatever is necessary to bring the stray lambs back into the fold.
A prophet of God identified as Balaam, son of Beor, was summoned by Balak, son of Zippor, who was King of Moab at the time of the incident that Jesus is speaking of in Rev. 2:14. The details of their meeting can be found in Numbers 22 and 23. But the basics of it is that Balak wanted Balaam to put a curse on the camp of Israel, and was willing to pay handsomely for the curse.
Balaam was greedy enough to try to please Balak by seeking the Lord several times, hoping each time that perhaps the Lord had changed His mind about blessing Israel and was ready to curse them instead. God told Balaam not to do anything without specific instructions from Him; but greedy Balaam went ahead on his own. God showed His intense displeasure at Balaak's disobedience brought on by lust for money by sending the Angel of the Lord (pre-incarnate Jesus) to meet Balaam on the way to meet Balak.
This prophet of God was unable to see the Angel of the Lord, but Balaam's donkey saw Him with sword drawn ready to strike Balaam. The faithful little donkey maneuvered away from the drawn sword and was beaten three times for it, before the Lord allowed Balaam to see what the donkey saw; at which time Balaam fell on his face before the Angel of the Lord and said he would be glad to turn back if that was what was wanted. (He was very willing to be obedient now that his own life was at risk!)
Three times Balaam sought God with burnt offerings hoping for a different answer, and three times Balaam prophesied the words of God which were all blessing to Israel. A very disappointed Balak went away without his curse being placed upon Israel.
And you would think that would be the end of the story. Yet we know it is not because Jesus says to his church at Pergamos that Balaam taught Balak to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. Yet without searching scripture and finding references to this act in many different places, both Old Testament and New Testament, you would not know the entire story. Thus, the importance of searching all through scripture, and finding all that relates to any one subject or idea.
In 2 Peter 2:14-16 we find:
With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed - an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey - an animal without speech - who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
Thus, we learn that greed and seduction of the unstable were part of Balaam's sin. Who did he seduce? We will see that he seduced the Israelites, and he used the Midianites and Moabites to do so; all for his own gain.
In Numbers 31:1, the Lord commands Moses to take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites.
Numbers 31:7-8 says that:
They fought against Midian, as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every man. Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba - the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.
So, we see Balaam killed by the sword of the Lord. This is a judgment against him for his actions against the Israelites...for the Lord said to take vengeance for the Israelites, implying that the Israelites had suffered something at the hands of the Midianites.
The words of Moses in Numbers 31:9-16 clarifies further for us:
The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder. They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps. They took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and the animals, and brought the captives, spoils and plunder to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the Israelite assembly at their camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho.
Moses, Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp. Moses was angry with the officers of the army - the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds - who returned from the battle.
"Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them. "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the Lord's people."
Here we are told something that we are not told at the time of the incident which is located in Numbers 25 and that is that Balaam, obviously due to his desires for riches that Peter speaks of, advised the Midianite women to entice the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord. Most likely, he went to Balak, after having to refuse him the curse he wanted, and said something to the effect of: "I can't curse them for you because the Lord won't allow it, but here's what you can do. Just send some of the best looking women into their camps to seduce them, and they will bring their own curse upon their heads."
In fact, the Lord's blessing of protection was so strong over Israel, that no army and not even seducing women, could bring harm to Israel....unless the Israelites brought trouble upon themselves by their own lusts and sin. I think that applies to us who belong to the Lord as well.
So, while the Balaam and Balak meetings happen in Numbers 22 through 24; it is in Numbers 25:1-9 that we get the rest of the story:
While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women [note: the Midianites, who were nomadic, aligned themselves with the Moabites against Israel so that Midian and Moab are often seen working together] who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods. So Israel yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor. And the Lord's anger burned against them.
The Lord said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the Lord, so that the Lord's fierce anger may turn away from Israel." So Moses said to Israel's judges, "Each of you must put to death those of your people who have yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor."
Then an Israelite man brought into the camp a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the tent of meeting. When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear into both of them right thought the Israelite man and into the woman's stomach. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped; but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
One other interesting detail can be found in Numbers 31:15:
And the name of the Midianite woman who was pu to death was Kozbi daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family.
We have seen that when Balaam was killed by the sword of the Lord, he was in the company of this same Zur, Midianite tribal chief. It was his daughter who Eleazar the priest killed. Why would a prophet of God be living with self-proclaimed enemies of Israel? Because his greed led him there! He was well paid for inciting the actions that brought a plague to Israel that killed 24,000 of their number! He was, perhaps, the honored guest of the Midianites!
The Lord said to Moses, "Treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them. They treated you as enemies when they deceived you in the Peor incident involving their sister Kozbi, the daughter of the Midianite leader, the woman who was killed when the plague came as a result of that incident. (Numbers 31:16-18)
Now, back to the church at Pergamos. Knowing what we know now about Balaam and Balak, what do we know about those in the church at Pergamos that the Lord is against?
We know from Numbers 31 that they are enemies of the believers in the church. We know from 2 Peter that they are false teachers, bringing a false doctrine into the church of Jesus; and that there is some gain to be had by them for leading believers astray. We know that as a result of this false teaching, some of the believers have committed two terrible sins: eating food sacrificed to idols, and indulging in sexual fornication. Since we are aware that Pergamos was where Satan's seat was (center of pagan god worship and all the evil attached to it), we can be assured that these sins occurred when the believers participated in worshiping those false gods.
The warning to the church is this:
Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. (Rev. 2:16)
"Them" refers to those who are holding this doctrine of Balaam, teaching it to the church. For "them" the sword of the Lord will come soon!
The believers themselves must repent as well, or great trouble will come on them (we will see this in the next church letter); yet, Jesus, the shepherd of this flock in Pergamos, focuses first and foremost on those who are attempting to kill his flock. He will protect his flock with his sword. It is better for one who is a stumblingblock to God's little children, to have a millstone tied around his neck and to be cast into the depths of the sea (Matthew 18:6), rather than to bear the wrath of God that lies in store for that one.
The Lord will always take His vengeance on unrepentant false teachers, deceivers of the flock; before then doing whatever is necessary to bring the stray lambs back into the fold.
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