Lookahead: I view Balaam as such a sorrowful case—someone who backslid so far that he couldn’t come back.  But as we will see in subsequent verses, just because a heathenish unbeliever—or even a church person—is particularly difficult and exhibiting wicked behavior, we can’t assume that they are Balaams.

But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.  Jude 1:10,11

Two weeks ago we covered Cain and Korah’s sinful behavior that the members of “Jude’s Church” were adapting.  Today we are going to discuss Balaam’s behavior—during which you will see that I saved the worst for last. 

• BALAAM – OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOR:  WORSHIPPING/LURING OTHERS INTO WORSHIPPING…FALSE IDOLS

Midianite King Balak wanted to destroy the Israelites, so he tried to hire the heathen prophet, Balaam, to put a curse on them.  When God disallowed Balaam from pronouncing a spoken curse over Israel, he orchestrated a sneak attack.  Balaam counseled King Balak to send secret agents into the Israelite camp to bring them down.  These agents were desirable heathen women whose secondary mission was to seduce the men of Israel and lure them into serving the heathen false gods.  Because this was an abomination to God, a curse came on the Israelites anyway and Balaam fulfilled his primary mission. 

Numbers 31:16 Look, these women caused the sons of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to turn unfaithfully against the LORD at Peor, so that the plague struck the congregation of the LORD.

My theory, Balaam sold out for the “almighty dollar.”  King Balak had offered major monetary inducements for Balaam’s spoken curse.  But Balak withheld the funds when Balaam would not verbally curse the Israelites: I said I would reward you handsomely, but the Lord has kept you from being rewarded. Balaam’s parting response was that he had to follow the LORD’s command, and, therefore, could not curse Israel.  Then he went back to his home, but I have a feeling that the little wheels were turning in his sorry head all the way, as he engineered a method to curse Israel in spite.  His strategy was effectively to get them to curse themselves.  And I’d be willing to bet that he had dollar signs in his eyes as he was strategizing.  However, the method that Balaam eventually came up with was an absolute abomination to God.  A negative prophecy was nothing compared to manipulating Israel into worshipping false gods. 

Both Peter and John contemporized this sin: 

2 Peter 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.

Revelation 2:14 …Balaam…who instructed Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality…

So, like Adam in Eden, Balaam was listening to the devil.  Eventually, he got on the devil’s payroll—and wound up loving it (who loved the wages (μισθὸν or misthon – pay, wages, salary) of wickedness).  😦

In today’s world, the “difficult people” who exhibit Balaam’s behavior wind up living wicked lives in their service to the devil.  Unfortunately the devil isn’t interested in functional social/church/family/work environments.  He is out for deep, deep dysfunction.  As the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:3), the thief comes not, but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy (John 10:10). 

But I think Balaam’s ultimate sin was being so consumed with serving mammon (“almighty $”) that he didn’t care who he hurt.  And we’ve all known difficult people like that.  I remember attending a church service in which the guest speaker took up five collections (i.e., the equivalent of passing the basket around five times with intervening persuasion/exhortation); the evangelist proclaimed that there were people in the congregation whom God was dealing with—people who were not trusting Him with their finances.  This speaker had a “prophetic word” that…some people needed to put their rent money in the collection basket.  My friend ran forward with hers on the 3^rd or 4^th collection. 

Then when God didn’t pour out a blessing like the slot machine scenario described by the evangelist :-(, I took a financial hit and paid my friend’s rent for her.  I was in a position to absorb that hit.  But my poor friend took a faith hit which was not as easy to absorb.  Five or six years later, God revealed the truth and the evangelist’s ministry self-destructed with the result being an irreparable financial hit. 😦

But it could have been worse.  In Numbers 31:7 the prophet, Balaam, who spoke the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17) while inwardly motivated by mammon died by the sword of the Israelites, that is, the ones whom he hadn’t led astray.    

Going back to Jude 1:10,11, that’s something that needs reinforcement.  In these verses, Jude is referring to the victims of the three classes of wicked people.  In some cases they took a faith hit, but in the more tragic cases, their faith was destroyed…and they eventually took on the toxic behavior themselves and got into pride, self-worship, mutiny, mammon-worship, etc.  

Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.

Side note:It almost appears that the mutinous ones in “Jude’s church” had suffered a penalty already.  However, the more modern translations use the present or future tense for perish.  And another translation gives insight with the phrase “they destroyed themselves” versus “they perished.”  That is, they passed the point of no return when they chose Korah’s way, but judgement hasn’t happened yet.

I’m sure that God wept over Balaam.  He was a heathen (Hittite? Moabite?) who had sought God, and God gave him the anointing to prophesy.  Balaam had a relationship with God—and he frequently listened to/obeyed God’s commands.  He also worshipped God and compelled others to do the same.  The blessing that he spoke over Israel was straight from the Holy Spirit and is spellbinding, to this day.  But Balaam couldn’t let the false god of mammon (ultimately the devil’s lure) go.  And, as Jesus said, No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon.  Matt 6:24

And Paul graphically explains what happens when you choose to love the other instead of God:  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 1 Tim 6:10

I view Balaam as such a sorrowful case—someone who backslid so far that he couldn’t come back.  But as we will see in subsequent verses, just because a heathenish unbeliever—or even a church person—is particularly difficult and exhibiting wicked behavior, we can’t assume that they are Balaams.  From our last Blog Series on Daniel, we learned that even the ruthlessly violent Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar eventually had a genuine conversion after seven years of literal insanity.  And King Darius the Mede was able to see the fruit of his heartfelt prayer and fasting—when God spared his buddy Daniel by closing the lions’ mouths (winning Darius’ allegiance forever in the process).  And yes, Balaam may not have been impressed when God opened the mouth of a donkey and sent an angelic roadblock, but everybody isn’t a Balaam.  More important, God is in the search/rescue business, and He’s the God of the 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, nth chance.  My continual prayer is that I can serve Him in the performance of His mission.