10 Balaam and the Way of False Teachers (2 Peter 2:13-16)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that not only explains what scripture means but teaches you how to figure it out. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is the tenth talk in our series on the book of 2 Peter. The lecture notes for today's talk are on the link below the podcast, and you can find them on our website. Just go to wednesdayintheword.com slash 2 Peter 1 0 or 2 Peter 10. Today we're going to be looking at 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 13 through 16. But as always, I want to start with a little bit of review to make sure you know where we are in the book. Peter is writing to churches which are troubled by false teachers. The false teachers have been distorting the apostolic gospel and they are deceiving believers into leading immoral lives. In chapter one, Peter insisted that the apostolic gospel is a revelation from God, while the message of the false teachers is a message of their own imagination and invention, and that if you believe and follow the gospel, it leads to a certain kind of life, a lifestyle of godliness and pursuing godliness. In chapter two, he has been denouncing the false teachers using some very strong language and writing that they will certainly be judged. We have been looking at some of the difficult interpretive challenges in this second chapter. Peter quotes non-biblical books and he talks about reviling angelic majesties. We have gone through all those. I won't go into all those issues again about what he was doing and what he was saying. You can find those in the previous podcast. Today Peter is going to defend his point using an actual example from Scripture. This is a story from the Old Testament, and in contrast to the previous weeks, I think you will find this one pretty much straightforward, and we will leave with a great deal of confidence that we have understood what he is saying. Fortunately, this time I think his point is quite clear, and his approach to an understanding the Old Testament is very clear and helpful, and I think this is going to go a long way to clarify Peter's main point in the letter, and I have been looking forward to this passage. So let's jump in. We are going to be looking at Second Peter chapter two verses thirteen through sixteen. He is speaking about the false teachers. He writes starting in two hundred thirteen, they count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children, forsaking the right way they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Baor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. But he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrain the madness of the prophet. Okay, Peter refers to Balaam. This is a story that is from the Old Testament. It is recorded in Numbers chapters twenty-two to twenty-four. And we're going to spend a lot of time in numbers today under trying to understand that story. And when we're done, I think we're going to be pretty confident that we have understood Peter. But I do want to spend the time in numbers because we don't want to give this story a cursory reading. I think we want to make sure we really understand it. It is rather unusual. So we're going to spend a lot of time in numbers today, and then we're going to take that understanding back to 2 Peter so that we can understand why Peter would quote this story in this context where he's addressing the false teachers. Before we get to the story of Balaam, let me talk about where this story occurs in biblical history. So I'm going to give you a flyover. The history of the nation of Israel begins with Abraham. God chose Abraham and promised to bless him. He promised to make Abraham's descendants as numerous as the stars, to give them a land and to bless those who blessed Abraham and curse those who cursed him. At the Lord's direction, Abraham leaves his homeland in Ur, which is in Babylon, and moves to what is now Palestine. The story is more involved, but briefly Abraham has a promised son Isaac. Isaac has a son Jacob, and Jacob, who is also called Israel, has twelve sons. Jacob's entire household of twelve sons and wives and children end up in Egypt to escape a famine in the land of Israel. They are in Egypt for over four hundred years, and during that time they multiply into a large tribe and become enslaved to the Egyptians. Then God calls Moses to lead them out of Egypt and back to the promised land, and through a number of miracles, this eventually culminates in what we call the Exodus, where Moses leads the people to the banks of the Red Sea. The Lord miraculously parts the waters and the people cross over the Red Sea on dry land as the Egyptian army is pursuing them, but when the Egyptians try to cross, the waters close up again and drown them. The first time God takes them to the edge of the promised land, the people are afraid and they refuse to go in. So this generation stays in the wilderness for about forty years with the Lord miraculously providing for them, and then it is the next generation that moves into the promised land under the leadership of Joshua. The story of Balaam takes place during that forty years of wandering in the wilderness. In this part of the story, the Israelites are on their way back to the promised land, and as they are approaching, the Lord is giving them victories over their enemies. The Moabites and the Midianites hear the stories of how this large tribe is approaching and how their God is giving them victory over any who attack them, and they are terrified. They believe the Israelites are going to overthrow them as well. And this is where we meet Balaam and Balak, and unfortunately they have very similar names. Balak is the king of Moab, he is referred to as the son of Zapor. Balam, the son of Baor, is a seer or a diviner. So I'm going to pick up in Numbers chapter twenty two, this is verses three through six. So Moab was in great fear because of the people, for they were numerous, and Moab was in dread of the sons of Israel. The people there is referring to the nation of Israel as they're wandering in the wilderness. Moab said to the elders of Midian, Now this horde will lick up all that is around us as the ox licks up the grass of the field. And Balak, the son of Zapor, was king of Moab at the time. So he sent messengers to Balam, the son of Baor at Pathor, which is near the river in the land of the sons of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, a people came out of Egypt, behold they cover the surface of the land and they are living opposite me. Now therefore, please come and curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I may be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed. Balak, the king of Moab, sees the Hebrews, the the Israelites coming. They can they are camping opposite his territory. He knows that their God has been giving them victory, and he sees this as an unfair advantage. So he wants to involve his God to curse the Israelites. Essentially he's calling on his God to intervene to keep Yahweh from blessing Israel. The king believes that the diviner Balaam has the power to do this. You'll notice he says in twenty two six, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed and he whom you curse is cursed. Now we don't know anything about Balaam before this story. We don't know if his reputation is well earned, and we don't know why the king would believe that Balaam is capable of this. We do know that God at times allowed supernatural activity in order to demonstrate that he is sovereign over it. It is possible that God used Balaam in some way before, and that activity gave him this reputation. It's also equally possible that Balaam was just a con man who had tricked others into believing he could speak for the gods. We just don't know. In any case, the King of Moam believes that Balaam can interfere in some way with God blessing the Israelites. At this point in the story, we get the rather famous episode with Balaam and the donkey. But before we look at that, I want to take you to the conclusion and look at what happens after the episode with the donkey. We're going to skip ahead to Numbers twenty-three. King Balak is very anxious for Balaam to get to work and to try to stop Israel. But Balaam says, Hang on, I have to tell you that I will only speak what God tells me to speak. Essentially he's warning the king, this may not turn out the way you expect. I'm going to say whatever God tells me to say. Balaam's first oracle is recorded in Numbers twenty three. He tells the king to build seven altars and prepare seven bulls and seven rams, and they make the offering, and then we read in twenty three five. Then the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, Return to Balak, and you shall speak thus. And Balach does that. He speaks as the Lord commands, and he blesses Israel. He doesn't curse Israel as the king has asked him, instead he says what God tells him to say, which is a blessing. So we see him acting essentially as a true prophet in this situation he is speaking the word God gives him. Skipping down to verse eleven of Numbers twenty three. Then Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have actually blessed them. He replied, and this is Balam replying, Must I not be careful to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth? King Balaam is annoyed and distressed at this, he says, Let's try again. They go to another place from which they can see the Israelite camp, and they prepare another offering, and the king again asks Balam to curse the Israelites from this new vantage point. And then we read in twenty three sixteen. Then the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak. He came to him and behold he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab with him, and Balak said to him, What has the Lord spoken? And again Balaam blesses the people of Israel. And this is Numbers twenty three twenty. Behold, I have received a command to bless, when he is blessed I cannot revoke it. Well now you can imagine the king is really upset. So skipping down to twenty-three twenty-five, he says, Then Balak said to Balaam, Do not curse them at all nor bless them at all. But Balaam replied to Balak, Did I not tell you whatever the Lord speaks that I must do? Then Balak said to Balaam, Please come and I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will be agreeable with God that you curse them for me from there. Well you'd think the king would have learned a lesson, but no he wants to try a third time. For a third time Balaam blesses Israel, and then they try a fourth and final time, and each time Balaam blesses Israel, and finally the king gives up and they part ways. Well if that was all we knew of the story, we might conclude that Balaam's a pretty good guy, because the king of Moab promised him vast amounts of wealth and riches for pronouncing this curse, and yet Balaam refused and pronounced a blessing instead. So if that was all we knew, we might think, well maybe he's a genuine God fearer, one of those non-Israelite believers who trust in Yahweh despite not being a descendant of Abraham. He would appear to trust Yahweh despite the fact that he could pay a heavy price for doing so. But you'll notice Peter does not seem to understand the story this way or in a positive light. Back in Second Peter two fifteen he says Forsaking the right way they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Baor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. Peter does not speak very highly of Balaam, and he is not alone. Other biblical writers also paint this man in a negative light. We find this in Deuteronomy, this is Deuteronomy twenty three, starting in verse three. No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord, none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balam the son of Baor from Pethor of Mesopotamia to curse you. Nevertheless, the Lord your God was not willing to listen to Balam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you because the Lord your God loves you. And we also see in Joshua, this is Joshua speaking, he's reminding the Israelites about this very event we just read, and this is recorded in Joshua twenty four, verses nine and ten. Then Balak, the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel, and he sent and summoned Balam, the son of Baor to curse you, but I was not willing to listen to Balam, so he had to bless you, and I delivered you from his hand. So there are a couple of reasons why we don't want to see Balaam as a good guy or a hero. The first involves the story of the donkey that we skipped over, and the other is found later on in Numbers. But let's go back to the story of the donkey first. We're backing up now to Numbers twenty two at the beginning of the story. King Balak has sent a message to Balaam asking him to come and pronounce this curse, but Balaam has not yet responded to the king. So that's where we are in the story. This is Numbers twenty two starting in verse seven. So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees of divination in their hand, and they came to Balam and repeated Balak's words to him. And he said to them, Spend the night here, and I will bring word back to you as the Lord may speak to me. And the leaders of Moam stayed with Balam. Then God came to Balam and said, Who are these men with you? Balam said to God, Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent word to me, and then he quotes what the king said, Behold, there is a people who came out of Egypt, and they cover the surface of the land. Now come and curse them for me, perhaps I may be able to fight against them and drive them out. God said to Balaam, Do not go with them, you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed. So Balaam arose in the morning and said to Balak's leaders, Go back to your land, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you. The leaders of Moab arose and went to Balak and said, Balaam refused to come with us. So we still don't have much information about Balaam at this point, primarily what exactly is his relationship to Yahweh and what are his motives? At this point it's unclear from the text, but I think once we get to the end of the story, it's going to become clear that Balaam is not a follower of Yahweh. He does not have a heart that follows and trusts God, and he does not want to submit to nor obey Yahweh. And notice the text does tell us about the money. It says the leaders of Moab and Midian bring him a fee of divination, so they bring him money to pay him to curse Israel. Now it could be that the text mentions the money to tell us, oh Balaam's such a devout, fine upstanding guy, that he wouldn't take a penny to curse Israel. But I think it becomes clear by the end of the story that he would love to take their money. He would love to curse Israel and take that money, but Yahweh keeps telling him not to. It appears that Balaam has had some previous dealings with Yahweh that perhaps earned him this reputation as a diviner, but again, we don't know. Now he is at he is communicating with Yahweh, probably not the first time, and he is asking, will this curse work? All things being equal, I think Balaam would love to take the money and convince Yahweh to stop blessing Israel, but Yahweh is not cooperating with that plan. God says don't go with them. Balaam reports to the men that he can't go, and they leave, presumably taking their money with them. So picking back up in verse fifteen then Then Balak, this is the king of Moab again, then Balak sent leaders more numerous and more distinguished than the former. They came to Balam and said to him, Thus says Balak the son of Zapor, let nothing, I beg you, hinder you from coming to me, for I will indeed honor you richly, and I will do whatever you say to me. Please come then, curse this people for me. Balam replied to the servants of Balak, Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything, either small or great, contrary to the command of the Lord my God. Now please you also stay here tonight, and I will find out what else the Lord will speak to me. And then verse twenty, God came to Balam at night and said to him, If the men have come to call you, rise up and go with them, but only the word which I speak to you shall you do. Now you'll notice Balaam refers to Yahweh in twenty two eighteen as my God, which could suggest at first glance that he's a follower of Yahweh, but I think he's much more opportunistic than that. I think he would work with any god of any people as long as it furthered his own interests. We'll see that as we go on in the story. So this time the king sends even more important men, they bring even more money, and they make bigger promises about how they will reward Balaam. Essentially they're offering him a blank check. In 2217, for I will indeed honor you richly, and I will do whatever you say to me. Please come then curse this people for me. That I will do whatever you say is essentially a blank check. So Balaam talks to Yahweh again, and this time the Lord says, Balaam can go. Well, you have to imagine this must be pretty exciting to Balaam with that blank check dangling before him. They're offering him the world, and the Lord says, Oh, you can go, but there's a provision. The Lord says, You can only say what I tell you to say. Balaam might be thinking that the Lord has changed his mind, and maybe there's some wiggle room here that Balaam can take the money and the Lord won't let Israel attack Moab or just pass them on by or something, some kind of compromise or negotiation we could all work out where everyone could win. At any rate I think Balaam is only looking out for his own interest because look at the next part of the story. This is picking up in verse twenty one of Numbers twenty two. So Balaam arose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the leaders of Moam. But God was angry because he was going, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as an adversary against him. Now he was riding on his donkey and two servants were with him. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand, the donkey turned off from the way and went into the field. But Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back into the way. Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path of the vineyards, with a wall on this side and a wall on that side. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord she pressed herself to the wall and pressed Balam's foot against the wall, so he struck her again. The angel of the Lord went further and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn to the right or the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord she laid down under Balaam, so Balam was angry and struck the donkey with his stick. And the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey and she said to Balam, What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times? Then Balaam said to the donkey, Because you have made a mockery of me. If there had been a sword in my hand I would have killed you by now. The donkey said to Balaam, Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I ever been accustomed to do so to you? And he said, No. Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand, and he bowed all the way to the ground. The angel of the Lord said to him, Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out as an adversary because your way was contrary to me. But the donkey saw me and turned aside from me these three times if she had If she had not turned aside from me, I would surely have killed you just now and let her live. Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, I have sinned, for I did not know that you were standing in the way against me. Now then if it is displeasing to you, I will turn back. But the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, Go with the men, but you shall speak only the word which I tell you. So Balaam went along with the leaders of Balak. And that brings us to the part of the story we looked at before. You probably noticed from twenty two twenty two there's an apparent contradiction. The Lord told Balaam that he could go to the king of Moab. Balaam goes and then the Lord is angry because Balaam is going. Well some critics see this as an error in the story, but it seems much more straightforward to me to think that the author intended for us to notice this discrepancy and to ask why. Like many good authors, he's creating suspense. He expects us to read the entire story to figure out why God might be angry. When Balaam finally sees the angel of the Lord blocking his path, his response is oops, sorry, I'll go back if you want me to. Well if the Lord had truly changed his mind and was angry simply because Balaam was going, you would expect the angel to respond, Great, turn around turn around, that's a good idea, turn around and go back. But that's not what the angel says. The angel again says you can go, but only speak the word I shall tell you. That suggests that Balaam had duplicitous motives and the angel knows it. The angel is impressing upon Balaam that he can only say that which the Lord gives him to say. I think that suggests that Balaam intended to play both sides of the table and to figure out some way to curse the people and take the money. And the Lord is aware that Balaam is being duplicitous and deceiving, and he is taking steps to make sure that Balaam will only speak what he is ordered to speak. I think this whole episode with the donkey is designed to impress upon Balaam that he can only say what the Lord tells him to say, which implies that he intended to say something else, and that's why the Lord is angry with him. The Lord isn't angry that he went, the Lord is angry that he went and intended to do other than what he was commanded. I don't think Balaam intended to obey, he had hidden motives, he was offered this blank check of vast wealth to please the king of Moab, and he's trying to get around the Lord's command and get that big bucket of cash, and God is saying, Nope, you are not gonna do that. Balaam needs to be corrected, and the Lord is correcting him. So the Lord takes Balaam through this episode with the donkey and the angel to break his will. Now when Balaam gets to the king, Balaam is not gonna take the money and he is not going to curse Israel, he is only going to say that which God tells him to say. Now critics of the Bible point out that this story reads like a fable. It has a talking donkey in it, and we usually think that talking animals are reserved for fairy tales. And if that's not strange enough, there's an angel with a sword that the donkey sees and the man does not see. But if you stop and think about it, if we really believe that God is the author and the creator of the universe, he can certainly make a donkey talk if he wants to. This is not outside the possibility of his powers. But more than that, consider the kind of man Balaam is, and the story becomes a kind of living parable that strikes home. Balaam is a diviner, a seer. He is a man who has built his reputation by claiming that he can speak with the gods. He's used to dealing with dreams and visions and whatever other means God decides to use to communicate with him. So he is a seer. He's a man who can see into the mysteries of the divine, and yet here he is riding along on his donkey and he doesn't see anything, but his donkey does. His donkey is the one who sees the angel. His donkey controls whether Balaam lives or dies because his donkey is the one who avoids the angel. And it is his donkey, not Balaam, who is the mouthpiece of the divine. So in this situation the donkey is the seer, and Balaam is the blind, dumb animal. That's got to be humbling and humiliating. And I think that's the lesson Balaam was intended to learn. Here he considers himself as having these great mystical powers, he has a direct conline to the Lord, but the Lord is showing him I can grant great mystical powers to a donkey if I want to. And the Lord is showing him that he can withhold those powers from Balaam if he wants to. I think the strangeness of the story is intended to force Balaam to see his true situation. If God has revealed anything to Balaam in the past, it's not because Balaam is such a great, wonderful, mystical person, it is because God decided to let him play that role. The Lord can use anyone to make himself known, even a donkey. And Balaam would do well to humble himself before such a god. That's the lesson he's supposed to learn. And all of that suggests that Balaam's motives are not pure as the wind driven snow, but are in fact duplicitous. God has to go to these great lengths to teach Balaam that he has no hope of thwarting the Lord's plans. Balaam has only one choice, and that is to say only what God tells him to say, no making up your own words, no creating your own prophecies. He is to say that and only that which God tells him. Thus the story goes on with the part we looked at before, and Balaam says only what the Lord tells him to say. He blesses Israel instead of cursing Israel, not because he's such a devout follower of Yahweh, but because he has learned that God has the power to strike him dead and will do so if he deviates from the words the Lord tells him to speak. I suspect that if Balaam could curse Israel and get away with it, he would do it. But this episode with the donkey has made it clear to Balaam that he is not going to get away with it. Well, there's one more piece of evidence that supports this view. This is in Numbers twenty five. This is after the story of Balaam. We're picking up in twenty five one. When Israel remained at Shatim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab. For they, that's the Moabites, invited the people, that's Israel, to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Paor, and the Lord was angry against Israel. This is the very next story after the story we just looked at with Balaam and the king of Moab. And again it involves the Moabites, the people of King Balak, and later in the story it also involves a Midianite woman. So these are the same two tribes that appeared in the Balaam story, and the key verse here is twenty five two. For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So at the instigation of the Moabites and the Midianites, the people of Israel turn away from the Lord. The Lord told Balaam to pronounce a blessing on Israel, not a curse, but now Israel has turned away and committed idolatry, sacrificing to the gods of the Moabites and the Midianites, so what happens? The Lord himself brings a curse upon Israel. In twenty five nine it says there is a plague that kills twenty-four thousand people, and then the story goes on. I won't go through all the details, but it tells how and why God lifts his judgment. But we might want to ask at this point, was this a trap? Did King Balak say there's more than one way to curse Israel? We don't need Balaam to curse Israel. We know their God will curse Israel all by himself if we can get them to make their God angry. So let's invite them to our feast to worship our gods, and if they take the bait, their God will curse them for us because they will have committed idolatry. In Numbers twenty-five, seventeen, God is referring back to this incident that where they uh played the harlot. And he says, Be hostile to the Midianites and strike them, for they have been hostile to you with their tricks with which they have deceived you. So he's referring back to this incident. He says, The Midianites tricked the people into abandoning the Lord, and therefore the Lord in his judgment abandoned them or judged them for a season. Okay, you might be wondering, what does this have to do with Balaam? Well, skip to Numbers thirty-one. In Numbers thirty one, the Lord tells the Israelites to attack the Midianites because of the way in which they tricked the Israelites. The Israelites obey God and go to war with the Midianites and they prevail, and then in Numbers thirty one, sixteen it says, Behold, these cause the sons of Israel through the council of Balaam to trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor. So the plague was among the congregation of the Lord. So what we see here is that God's instruction, Moses urges the people to be ruthless when they conquer the Midianites, because the Midianites tricked them into turning away from God. So the idea is with forethought and planning and cunning, the Midianites deliberately tricked Israel into committing idolatry and breaking their covenant with the Lord, and they set out to cause Israel to stumble so that the Lord would turn against them, which is the story we looked at, but notice the new detail here. The Midianites tricked the Israelites by following the advice of Balaam. Balaam apparently came up with this trap to separate Israel from her god, and he probably got paid well for it. As soon as he could get away with it, Balaam found a way to get God to curse Israel. He came up with this plan for the Midianites to trick the people into following other gods. Yahweh wouldn't let Balaam curse Israel. Well, Balaam says I can take matters into my own hands and devise this clever little scheme to get God to curse Israel anyway, because if the Israelites turn away from the Lord, then the Lord will turn away from them. So he goes to the Midianites and says, Look, all you have to do is entice them to follow your gods, and they will lose the protection of the Lord. That was Balaam's advice, and in the end he found a way to get paid and to get God to curse Israel and twenty four thousand people perished in this plague. However, God judged Balaam for his deceit. We're told in Numbers thirty one eight that Balaam was killed with the sword when the Israelites conquered Midian. So when you look at the story as a whole, you see then that Balaam was a pretty deceitful character. Yes, when his life depended on it, he said only that which the Lord commanded him to say, but as soon as he had the opportunity, he found a way to get the money and to separate Israel from her God. So let's go back to the New Testament. But before we look at Second Peter, I want to look at another place where Balaam is mentioned. This is in Revelation two fourteen. In the early chapters of Revelation, there's a series of letters to seven churches, and this is one of those letters addressed to the church in Pergamon. This is Revelation chapter two verse fourteen. But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. Now the speaker here, who I think is Jesus, but there's a lot about Revelation I don't understand. But at any rate, the speaker is referring back to this event in Numbers in just the way I have described it. Balaam is the one who gives this advice to trick the people into idolatry. And here in Revelation it says that Balaam taught the Midianites to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel. So Balaam went to Israel's enemies and he taught them how to separate God from his people, how to get them to commit idolatry so that God would judge them. And the speaker here in Revelation is suggesting there are some in Pergamum who are doing the same thing. They are teachers like Balaam who are putting a stumbling block before the people of God and enticing them to commit spiritual adultery. Now let's look at the parallel passage in Jude. You'll remember that the book of Jude quotes quite liberally from 2 Peter, and this is the verse where Jude quotes Peter about Balaam. This is Jude verse eleven. Woe to them for they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam and perished in the rebellion of Korah. Jude compares the false teachers to three Old Testament examples Cain, Balaam, and Korah. And without going into too much detail, the story of Cain and his brother Abel is found in Genesis 4. Cain kills his brother Abel, and these false teachers are leading the people they call brothers astray. They are enticing believers to follow them into this way of destruction. The rebellion of Korah is from number 16. Basically, Korah and his followers challenge the leadership of Moses and Aaron. They are essentially start saying, Well, who put them in charge? Why can't we be in charge? And there's a little mutiny. And just as Korah and his followers wanted power for themselves, the false teachers are pushing aside the apostles and setting themselves up as the true leaders and speakers. So those are the other two examples. Then Jude tells us for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam. So like Balaam, they are taking money to entice the people away from the Lord and encourage them to commit idolatry. Like Balaam, they cause the people of God to stumble and turn away from God, and they do it for money. And Judas suggesting that's exactly what the false teachers are doing. They are leading people astray and they are profiting from it. Alright, let's take all that back to Second Peter and keep all that in mind as I read these verses again, that these like Balaam are teachers who are profiting by leading the people astray, separating them from their God. So starting in thirteen, they count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children, forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balam, the son of Baor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey speaking with the voice of a man restrained the madness of the prophet. Now that begins to make sense. Peter says Balaam was motivated by greed, by this desire for wealth. He loved the wages of unrighteousness, which we saw that Balaam really wanted to get the money if he could just figure out a way to do it. And Peter sees the episode of the donkey as a rebuke against Balaam for his transgression. Balaam wanted to go to the king of Moab and take the money and find a way to get God to curse Israel, and God used the donkey to stop him and humble him so that when he got there he would speak only what God wanted him to speak. I think that's what's behind this language restrain the madness of the prophet. Balaam was crazy to think he could thwart the Lord's plans. He was mad to think he could find a way to get King Balak's money and say something other than what God wanted him to say, and it took this donkey to bring him to his senses. So think about why Peter would bring up this story. How are the false teachers like Balaam? And what are we to learn about them? Well I think at least two things. First, they are covetous and greedy. Like Balaam, they seek personal profit and gratification. We saw this earlier in two three, and in their greed they will exploit you with false words. And we see this again in two fourteen, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children. You can also translate that a heart trained in covetousness. They want what they want and they don't care who they bring down in the process. Just like Balaam did not care that he brought twenty four thousand people to their death, he just wanted what he wanted. So they are covetous and greedy, and second, they don't care if they lure the people of God to their destruction as long as they get what they want. We saw this in two one, but false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. And again we see this in thirteen and fourteen. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They don't care who they deceive, they don't care who they confuse, they don't care who they lure to their destruction as long as they get their pay. And this is exactly what we saw in Balaam. For pay he taught the Midianites how to entice the people of God into sinning. He says here they have eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin. I think the idea there is that they are on the lookout for people who they can entice into spiritual adultery. It could be they're looking for women they can fool into joining them in their bed, but I think it's more metaphorical that they're looking for people who they can deceive into committing idolatry or spiritual adultery, like Balaam did. Like Balaam, they're not concerned at all about the spiritual health of their flock. They just want to manipulate and deceive the people so that they can get what they want out of the situation. And this has been Peter's main concern in the letter. He has been very concerned throughout chapter one and chapter two that his readers are going to be tricked into abandoning the true gospel, that they will be deceived by these false teachers into turning away from God. So just as Balaam got the Midianites to trick the people into following other gods, Peter is concerned that these false teachers are tricking the people into following the wrong way, the wrong path. Balaam's not a pagan. He obviously did believe that the God of Israel was a god to be reckoned with. God communicated with him in some way through visions or dreams most likely, and Balaam knew, at least by the end of the story, that this was a God who could not be ignored. But Balaam didn't follow him. Balaam didn't submit to his will or seek to obey him. He didn't humble himself and learn to fear the Lord. He found a way to manipulate the situation to his own advantage, and he didn't care what happened to the people of God or how many people got hurt in the process. And that's the kind of people these false teachers are. They present themselves as believers of sorts. They probably believe in God and Jesus to a point, but they don't fear the Lord. They don't listen to what his Messiah says. They don't restrain themselves from pursuing their own greed and sin. Instead, they find a way to make greed and sin a valid lifestyle choice for followers of Jesus. They don't care about the consequences of their actions, their own sinful choices, and they don't care about the consequences of enticing others to join them in this behavior. Essentially, they've found a way to profit off the people of God and they're enjoying it. Probably they're profiting in financial ways, but it could also be things like power, fame, prestige. At any rate, they present themselves as believers, but they have learned that they can profit off of leading others astray. Now we have obvious examples of these kinds of false teachers in our day. I'm sure you've all heard the stories of millionaire evangelists enticing senior citizens who are living in poverty to send in their last dollars so that the evangelist can buy another Mercedes. I remember getting a letter from such a TV evangelist that opened by telling me, quote, souls will be lost, unquote, unless I send him money. But even worse than swindling people out of money is that they are promising things the gospel never promises. They're teaching people to count on health and wealth and prosperity in this life and promising that God will bless them in ways that God has not promised to bless. It's a kind of God sanctioned covetousness, a God sanctioned greed that leads people astray. We also have other more subtle, more deceptive false teachers today, and these can be harder to spot, but we might ask what's the litmus test? How can we spot them? What can we learn from Peter about how to recognize false teachers? Well, we saw from chapter one that the gospel leads to our pursuit of life and godliness. And we talked about how we have two big problems in this life. We are sinners and God is going to judge sinners. And the gospel of Jesus Christ solves both those problems. The gospel says there is a way to escape judgment. There is a way to find life and find mercy, and it is through trusting that the blood of Jesus paid the price for our sins. There is a way to be forgiven for our sins and to be kept from the day of judgment, and that is through trusting God that through the work of His Holy Spirit, because of the blood of Jesus Christ, he will change us into people who want to follow Him and pursue godliness. The Gospel is all about how we find life, how we find mercy, and so find life. The Gospel is about the hope we have of God working in us to give us this holy character, this life and godliness. That's what the gospel is about, and if we believe the gospel to be true, our lifestyle choices will reflect that. So how can you tell if teaching truly reflects the apostolic gospel? Well, it has to speak to the fact that we're sinners. It has to speak to our need for mercy, it has to speak to our need to be rescued from our sin, and it has to point to the cross of Jesus Christ as the means by which we find that rescue. And it has to urge us to believe in such a way that we change the way we live. Ultimately, the gospel is about how to be rescued from sin through the power of the cross of Christ, and how to find life and godliness through the power of God's Spirit at work in us. That's the heart of the gospel, how to find life and godliness. And the farther any teacher moves from that central core, the more likely it is that he or she is leading you astray. You've been listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also shows you how to figure that out. If you've been blessed by this podcast, I have three favors to ask. Please subscribe to it, rate it and review it in iTunes or your favorite podcast player, and tell a friend. And if you can only do one thing, telling a friend is best. Our theme music is graciously provided by my friend Reggie Coates of Heartfeltmusic.org. Thanks for listening today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I hope you'll join me next week for Wednesday in the Word.