(Num 24:12) So Balaam said to Balak, "Did I not also speak to your messengers whom you sent to me, saying, {13} 'If Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the LORD, to do good or bad of my own will. What the LORD says, that I must speak'? {14} "And now, indeed, I am going to my people. Come, I will advise you what this people will do to your people in the latter days." {15} So he took up his oracle and said: "The utterance of Balaam the son of Beor, And the utterance of the man whose eyes are opened; {16} The utterance of him who hears the words of God, And has the knowledge of the Most High, Who sees the vision of the Almighty, Who falls down, with eyes wide open: {17} "I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Scepter shall rise out of Israel, And batter the brow of Moab, And destroy all the sons of tumult.

 

(Num 24:25 NKJV)  So Balaam rose and departed and returned to his place; Balak also went his way.

 

 

(Num 25:1-3 NKJV)  Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. {2} They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. {3} So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel."

 

 

(Rev 2:14 NKJV)  "But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

 

 

(Num 22:12) And God said to Balaam, "You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed." {13} So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Balak, "Go back to your land, for the LORD has refused to give me permission to go with you."

 

 

(Rev 2:14 NKJV)  . . . Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

Balaam has obviously switched sides:

He is supposed to be speaking only what God tells him, but now he has limited this to the blessing and the cursing.

Balaam knows he cannot curse those whom God has blessed.  But he also knows that God will curse those who reject Him, so that is Balaam’s plan, but he doesn’t do the actual act, he gets Balak to do it.  Please notice:

 

(Rev 2:14 NKJV)  . . . Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

 

 

(2 Pet 2:15-16 NKJV)  They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; {16} but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man's voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

 

 

(Num 23:18-21 NKJV)  Then he took up his oracle and said: "Rise up, Balak, and hear! Listen to me, son of Zippor!

{19} "God is not a man, that He should lie,

Nor a son of man, that He should repent.

Has He said, and will He not do?

Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? {20} Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.

{21} "He has not observed iniquity in Jacob,

Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel.

 The LORD his God is with him, And the shout of a King is among them.

 

 

(Prov 6:27-29 NKJV)  Can a man take fire to his bosom, And his clothes not be burned? {28} Can one walk on hot coals, And his feet not be seared? {29} So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife; Whoever touches her shall not be innocent.

This is just one illustration of getting too close to temptation.  Jesus suggested this prayer:

 

(Mat 6:13 NKJV)  And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.

 

We need to avoid warming ourselves over the devil’s fire.

 

(Mark 14:54 NKJV)  But Peter followed Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire.

 

He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He lingered where he should not have been.

 

We need to realize that Satan is looking for a chance to get us.

 

(1 Pet 5:8-9 NKJV)  Be sober; be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. {9} Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

“If Balak had drawn out his armed men against them to fight them, Israel had bravely resisted, and no doubt had been more than conquerors; but now that he sends his beautiful women among them, and invites them to his idolatrous feasts, the Israelites basely yield, and are shamefully overcome: those are smitten with these harlots that could not be smitten with his sword. Note, We are more endangered by the charms of a smiling world than by the terrors of a frowning world.”  Matthew Henry

 

“The Devil made me do it, or Balak made me do it”

 does not excuse us from the judgment of God.

 

(Num 25:3} So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel."  {4}  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the LORD, out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel." {5} So Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor."

There was immediate judgment for those who sinned.  We have the idea that there is always a day of grace—that there is always time to repent, but that isn’t always true.

 

(Num 25:6 NIV)  Then an Israelite man brought to his family 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.

 

I think the NIV makes the situation a bit easier to understand than the NKJV which reads: (Num 25:6) “And indeed, . . .” 

 

I like “then” because I think it helps explain the contrast of what is going on in this verse.  In verse 5, we have: {5} “So Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor."

 

So while God’s judgment is being measured out by the judges of Israel, here is this man who shows up with a Midianite woman. 

 

(Num 25:14) Now the name of the Israelite who was killed, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, a leader of a father's house among the Simeonites. {15} And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of Zur; he was head of the people of a father's house in Midian.

 

Now back to the earlier part where we were:

 

(Num 25:6 NIV)  Then an Israelite man brought to his family 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.

 

So to make bad matters worse, it appears that the “assembly of Israel while they were weeping” for the sins of Israel.  This man is presuming to live as he pleases.

 

(Num 25:7) Now when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand;

(Num 25:8) and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel. {9} And those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand. {10} Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: {11} "Phinehas the son of  Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal. {12} "Therefore say, 'Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace; {13} 'and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.'" [Verses 14 & 15 we covered earlier]

 

What started out as a matter with Moab has now become a matter with the Midianites as well.

 

(25:16 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: {17} "Harass the Midianites, and attack them; {18} "for they harassed you with their schemes by which they seduced you in the matter of Peor and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a leader of Midian, their sister, who was killed in the day of the plague because of Peor."

 

No wonder God remembered Balaam

 

(Rev 2:14 NKJV)  "But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

 

 

Scripture quotations marked "NKJV™" are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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