The Way of Balaam — The Bible's Warning About False Teachers

Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures, teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now, here's your host, Les Feldick. Good afternoon to everybody, and for those of you on television, whatever time of the day it may be, good afternoon, good morning, or good evening. We're just glad to have you with us. And for those of you in the studio, we just thank you every time that you put forth the effort. Otherwise, I'm afraid this program just wouldn't amount to much, because I have to have a class to teach. And as I've said before, you know, it's such a comfort to have people out here in front of me that I know, and I know you're praying for everything that we do. Now for those of you again on television who may have never seen our program before, we've started almost two years ago now, back in Genesis 1-1. And so if you've missed all that and you'd like to catch up, we have all the programs available on videotapes. 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So keep that in mind, and if you'd like a booklet, also do the same thing. Call on our 800 number or simply write to us and ask for the booklet number 1. Sometime down the road, number 2 will be ready, but as of now, we just have the first one. And the demand has been beyond our expectations, so if you want a copy, you write for them. All right, so much for announcements, I think, for today. Now we're ready to pick up where we left off, and we're going to hopefully, in these next four programs in our afternoon's taping, finish all the way up to the end of Israel's history. And she goes under the Babylonian captivity, and that will bring us up to the book of Daniel, and we'll finally be starting to teach prophecy. I know a lot of folk out there have been waiting for that, and the Lord willing, after the next four programs, we will be ready for that. But for now, we don't want to skip too much. I'm already skipping a lot for sake of time. Go with me now to Numbers chapter 22. Numbers chapter 22. Now, I've drawn just a makeshift map on the board. I prefer my makeshift even to the professionals, because something like this, any one of you can use if you teach a Sunday school class or something like that without having to have a lot of material. And I don't claim that this is according to scale, but it gives you a rough idea of the Mediterranean Sea coast, and the little land of Israel between the coast and the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. And of course, just off the corner of the Dead Sea is the city of Jericho, and Jerusalem just a few miles inland. Now, remember, this is all tight. This is real close. There's only about 40 miles from the Mediterranean to the Jordan Valley. Israel is a tiny little strip of land. But anyway, and down here at the southern part of what is now Israel, and at the upper end of the Sinai Peninsula was Kadesh, you remember, where they sent in the 12 spies. And then, as a result of their unbelief, God sends them back into the Sinai for 40 years of what we call the wanderings. And for those of you either here or out in television, if you want to get an idea of how many times they took down that tabernacle, packed it on their shoulders, and moved, you read Numbers chapter 33. Numbers chapter 33 gives the whole list of all of their stops and their goings. It's just unreal. But on the other hand, you have to remember that was 39 years plus, because as we're going to see in the next four programs, they're going to come out of the Sinai, they're going to come around in a circuitous route through Moab, and they're going to end up coming into the Promised Land, not from the south, not from the area that would have been closest, but they're going to go clear around the Dead Sea and come in through what is then Moab, just opposite Jericho. Now, I know there are very few average churchgoers who understand that Israel did not come in from the south or from the west, but they went clear around and came in from the east. They crossed the Jordan River, and then just five miles from the Jordan River is the city of Jericho, which, of course, was their first conquest. But for now, while they are in this area of Moab, they have just come out of their 40 years of wandering now, or the 39 plus, and the king of Moab, when he saw that multitude of Israelites, he knew there was nothing he could do militarily. So he said, there's only one way that I can defeat these people, having heard what their God had done for them. He said, it's going to have to be in the area of a spiritual curse. I can't do it, my armies can't do it, but we'll have to somehow put a curse on those people. As a result, he knows that there is an enchanter, there is a man of divination out there in Mesopotamia, which would be out to the east, and he is known for his enchantments. And so he says, I'm going to call him, bring him over, and let him put a curse on these multitudes of Israelites. Now the main reason I stop and take an hour or two in teaching Balaam, and I do it in all my classes, is to point out two basic facts. Number one, that I wasn't kidding when I said there were anywhere from three to seven million people, plus all their livestock. We're going to see that in the text. And then secondly, to see how Balaam is the perfect picture, the perfect example of false teachers. And if ever there has been a day that we have to be aware of false teaching, it's today. We are just literally being overwhelmed by it from every direction. People who are out spouting off about what they think the Word says, and so on and so forth. And too many people are just simply being brainwashed without realizing that a lot of this stuff does not come from the book. And so that's why I'm going to stop and take these moments of time to study Balaam. All right. Now, if you've got Numbers chapter 22, and I know I probably read more than most preachers or teachers do, and yet I'm not going to apologize, because even in our mail we've had people comment of how the Scriptures have been opened even while I read. Now, I don't know why that is, but even in my classes I've had people tell me over and over. Now, I just read that this afternoon, but tonight when you read it, I understood what it said. Well, now that's not my doing, but for some reason or other the Lord has seen fit to bless that aspect, and that, of course, also answers someone to say, well, how in the world can you teach two hours a night, four nights in a row, in all classes from different areas of the Bible? My stock answer is you just don't know how much of the time I spend reading. I just simply read so much of the classes, and so you don't have to have a lot of notes when you read to people. So anyway, let's start here in chapter 22, verse 1, where the children of Israel set forward and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side, that is, on the east side of Jericho. They're east of the river Jordan. And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. Now you want to remember they've already fought a battle or two down here in the Sinai, one of which was with the Amorite tribes, and they just utterly destroyed them. Now they didn't have radio and television and telephone or telegraph, but word of mouth still spread. As those old camel caravans would go from Egypt up into Mesopotamia, don't think for a minute that they were any different than people today. They gossiped, they told everything they knew, and so by the time they get to Moab, the Moabites had heard all that had happened to these children of Israel, all the way back to their exodus really, as we're going to see when we get into Joshua. But anyway, Balak now, who is the king of Moab, had heard and seen all that Israel had done to those Amorites, and so verse 3, he was sore afraid of the people because they were what? Many. Now I know a lot of people think, well, maybe 5,000 looked like many in that day and time. Don't you kid yourself. Let's read on. And he was distressed because of the children of Israel, and Moab said unto the elders of Midian, Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field. Verse 5, He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam. Now Balaam is this false prophet that we're going to be talking about. The son of Beor to Pethor. Now again, like I said, that was out to the east, probably in the area of Mesopotamia, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, that would be the Euphrates. And so he's going to call Balaam, saying, now watch this again, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt, behold, they cover the face of the earth. Now, of course, that's a play on words. But when he said they cover the face of the earth, do you know what he meant? As far as the eye can see, there's nothing but Israelites. Now what is the average distance to the horizon, 13 miles, 14 miles, something like that. But as far as old King Balak could see, he saw nothing but these Israelites. Now let me show you another verse. Come over to verse 11. But like I said, the main thing I want you to see is the multitude of these Israelites. So he sends word, of course, to Balaam. And now in verse 11, he says, Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt who covereth the face of the earth. Come now and curse me them so I can defeat them. Peradventure I shall be able to overcome them and drive them out. Now again, he makes this offer then to Balaam of tremendous wealth. He will give him just about anything that his kingdom can give him. If he will curse these, sorry, he will curse these Israelites. And by a virtue then of the curse, that God would destroy them for him. Now that's all he's looking at. He just wants to somehow bring the Israelites to the place where God would destroy them. Now we're going to find, when we go through the New Testament here in just a little bit, that there were some things that old Balaam just didn't understand. And number one was that Israel, in spite of her wickedness, in spite of her sin, Balaam didn't understand that the grace of God would always overcome their shortcomings. That was, I think you would say, his error. He thought God should curse them. And we'll look at it in a little bit. Now if you'll turn the page or so and come to, oh let's see, verse 13 now of chapter 23. He's still working on old Balaam, of course, to bring about the curse, and Balaam is having some difficulty. Now the other thing I like to point out as you read these verses is that just because the Lord Jehovah is dealing with Balaam and is speaking with him on a face-to-face basis, that does not mean that Balaam is a valid prophet. He's a false prophet. Now I have to emphasize that because I can remember back several years ago, I had Sunday school material, and they were trying to hold Balaam up as some kind of a prophet who had been misguided a little bit, but that he was a true believer. And I cannot agree with that one iota. He is a false prophet from day one. He uses enchantments, he uses divination, he depends on the power of Satan to do what he's been doing. He is a non-Israelite. One of the sources that I read some, they maintain that he was even a chieftain of the Hittites. And of course the Hittites were in that group of people that God had already fingered to be destroyed. And so Balaam is not anywheres near a valid prophet. But now then in verse 13 of chapter 23, and he takes him up into a high place. Actually he takes him up to Mount Pisgah in one of these instances. And now in verse 13 of chapter 23, Balaak said unto him, Come I pray thee with me unto another place from whence thou mayest see them, thou shalt see but just a part of them. Now it says the utmost, but what it really indicates is you still can't see them all. And you shall not see them all, and curse them from thence. And he brought them, verse 14, into the field of Zopham to the top of Pisgah. That's a high mountain there in Moab. And even from that mountain view he could not see the end of the children of Israel. Now like I told you, when we were way back there in Exodus chapter 12, and they came out of Egypt in the Exodus, I said, all you have to do is look here in the book of Numbers at how many men of war this little nation was able to put in the field. And that was six hundred and some thousand, and remember that was just a very small percentage of the total. And remember I told you then, you just go home and use pencil and paper, and it's not hard at all. If you start with six hundred and some thousand young single men between the age probably of twenty, and I'll even say as high as thirty, but normally I think twenty-six, you'd have to have three to five million population to bring about that number of young men. And so here we are another forty years later, and I'm sure their numbers haven't been totally decimated. And so I just want you to see that we're not dealing with a few thousand people with just a little perimeter of their tents, but rather we have a multitude of Israelites. Think I used the illustration when we first started teaching this number of three to five, seven million, Dallas-Fort Worth is over, what, three, three and a half million people? Now can you imagine Dallas-Fort Worth moving out in their tents and then all of their livestock besides? I mean, this is hard for us to picture, and yet it's a reality. And see, the miracle working God is bringing them all around now opposite the Jordan River. No wonder old Balak knew he had to have some help. Well, only got a few minutes left and it's already flying, so let's go back to the New Testament for a little bit. I don't know if I can finish it in this half hour, I'm sure going to try. Let's go back to 2 Peter chapter 2. Now I haven't had the time to read the whole account of what went on between Balaam and Balak, but you remember the king offered old Balaam almost anything that he could take from the kingdom, and God immediately told Balaam, don't you do it. And old Balaam converses with Jehovah, and finally Balaam says, well, I can't curse them because Jehovah is blessing them. And old Balak gets all upset, you know. But instead of Balaam saying, ho, out there in Mesopotamia, and just simply telling the messengers of Balak, hey, there's nothing I can do for you, what does he do? He goes with them. He goes with them. Because you see, he can't get out of his craw all the wealth of Moab that is being offered to him for cursing these Israelites. And so he's going to do everything he can to bring it about. Now then, the New Testament gives us a perfect description of the man in three separate categories. The first one is here in 2 Peter chapter 2. In 2 Peter chapter 2, the whole chapter, even as the little book of Jude, deals with false teachers warning us that they're going to come on the scene in the last days. And I'll tell you what, we're seeing them. We are seeing them. They're coming from every direction in every hue and color. And the average believer, the average church member today is totally confused. They don't know what is right, what is wrong. How can they sift out all this rubbish? And I can see, well, we're in a dilemma. And I think that's basically the problem with our beloved nation, is that the people of our nation have just lost all concept of the truth of God's Word. And now let's look at old Balaam, how he's described back here in 2 Peter chapter 2. Like I said, he's talking about the various false teachers and their practices. And I suppose I can jump in at verse 13 of 2 Peter 2. And these false teachers shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime, spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you. Do you see what they're doing? They're coming right in and they're fellowshipping with church people, but they are filled with false teaching. Now verse 14, having eyes full of adultery. Now when the Scripture uses adultery, it doesn't always mean physical sexual adultery. The word adultery is many times ascribed to mixing paganism with true biblical truth. That is adulterating the Word of God. And these people are masters at that. Having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling, confusing, deceiving, unstable souls. You see why I'm always emphasizing people have to be taught? Otherwise they're going to be blown away, like Paul says, with every wind of doctrine. A heart they have exercised with covetous practices, cursed children. Now here it comes in verse 15, who have forsaken the right way and are gone astray following the way of Balaam. Now underline the word way. The way of Balaam, who loved what? The wages of unrighteousness. Remember what I said? Why couldn't he refrain from going back to Moab and curse those people? He saw the wealth that he could gain from whatever he could do to confuse the issue. Why aren't we seeing the same thing today? How many people are using the Word of God to line their own pockets? And I think it is just as much an abomination in God's sight as anything else you can think of, where they are using the Word of God for profit. That's why I guess I maintain to this day. I don't want to take a dime out of this ministry. Now I know pastors and preachers, they are due their salaries. I'm not taking that away from them. But what I'm talking about are people who are using the Word of God for no other reason but to enhance their own financial status. That's Balaamism. Balaam was in it for one purpose, and that was to line his own pocket. That's the way of Balaam, thinking that he could cash in on his particular talent or gift, which happened to be divination and enchantments. Now you know, when you get to the New Testament, you have the same thing. Paul had to confront it more than once, where the workers of Satan were constantly confronting the apostle as he was going into those pagan areas with the gospel. All right, now quickly then, if you'll turn over to the little book of Jude, just a few pages to the right, the little book of Jude, and we're going to come across a second description of Balaam. And Jude, again, is almost a carbon copy of 2 Peter, and he too, in fact, I'm going to take a moment or two here to spend just a little time on Jude. You come down to verse 3. He says, "...Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation..." In other words, Jude had evidently intended to write just a little letter concerning the plan of salvation. But the Holy Spirit forbade him to do that. And instead, he said, it was needful, read on now in verse 3, "...instead it was needful for me to write unto you, and to exhort you, that you should earnestly contend for the faith, the faith, the one and only." And we are to earnestly contend. Now we're not to be obnoxious, but we are to take a stand on what we believe and help people to see that this is the truth of the Word of God. I'm not one that says, hey, you can take people by the neck and shove it down their throat. We can't do that. But on the other hand, we have to stand for what we know the Word of God is telling us. And so he says, "...earnestly contend for the faith, which was once delivered to the saints." And then in verse 4, he said, "...for there are certain men crept in..." What's the next word? "...unawares." See, nobody knows what they're up to. They can come into a denomination. They can come into a local church. And they are so deceptive that the average church member just doesn't know what they're doing. "...so they have crept in, unawares, men who were before of old..." God knew before the world was ever created that they were going to do this. "...they were, to this condemnation, they were ordained of old, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying..." Denying. Now, we know that there are a lot of them doing this. "...denying the only Lord God, our Lord Jesus Christ." And then he goes on, and he begins to explain how these false teachers are going to operate. And it's come down now to verse 10. And he says, "...but these..." These false teachers. "...they speak evil of those things they know not. But what they know naturally." Verse 11. "...woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain." Now, I don't have to remind you what Cain's problem was. Remember? No faith. "...they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily..." Here it comes now. "...they have run greedily after the error..." Now the first one said, the way of Balaam. This is the error of Balaam, for reward. And of course, they perished in the gainsaying of Korah, which was another Old Testament event. But now, what was the error of this false prophet Balaam? Well, he thought, he thought that if he could get Israel to lose her separated position with Jehovah and get them to sin openly, what would God have to do? Curse them. Now, we're going to see that he succeeded, if I've got time. Alright, that was the error. He thought that if he could get them to sin, God would annihilate them. Now quickly turn a couple more pages to the right, and come down to Revelation chapter 2. I'm afraid I'm not going to make it, but we're going to try. Revelation chapter 2, verse 14. We're in the seven letters to the seven churches. Here we have in that letter to Pergamos, verse 14, where Jesus is speaking, and he says, I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them who hold the doctrine. Now you've got your three words. Peter calls it the way, Jude calls it the error, and now Jesus in Revelation calls it the doctrine, the teaching of Balaam. And what does Balaam teach? Oh, that they could go ahead and perform and commit fornication. They could lose their separated state, and it wouldn't bother, it wouldn't hurt them. But now listen, have I got time enough? Now come all the way back to Numbers, because I don't want to have to come back to Balaam again in our next program. Come back to Numbers chapter 25, real quickly, Numbers 25. And now some weeks and maybe a few months have gone by, and God hasn't permitted Balaam to get away with it, but yet on the other hand, he did get away with it. Chapter 25, verse 1, And Israel arode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. See what they're doing? They were breaking down their separated state. Now quickly over to chapter 31, Why did the Israelites begin to commit immorality with the Moabites? Here it is in verse 16 of Numbers 31, Behold, Moses says, these caused the children of Israel through the consul, the advice of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord. 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