Jude has been sharing the characteristics of false itinerant teachers who have been convincing believers in Jesus Christ that they don't actually know all the truth. He has written of these unbelieving, rebellious, sinful, hating and full of envy prophets, and after using the example of Cain, today our verse shares about how these teachers are like a prophet from the Old Testament in the Bible named Balaam. Jude wrote in verse eleven:
Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
Remember we shared yesterday that Jude says “Woe unto them!” which is a statement of grief which means there is pending doom over them, and then he writes they “ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward.” We read about Balaam in the Old Testament of the Bible in the book of Numbers in chapters twenty-two through the first part of chapter twenty-five. Basically the king of a country called Moab desired to hire Balaam the prophet to curse Israel because he thought Israel to be too great of a foe for him to defeat. Though God told Balaam not to go to Balak, after a greater entourage with promises of silver and gold, Balaam asked God if he could go again. Though God allowed him to go, God was not pleased and even used a donkey to tell him so. The prestigious and honorable men with great promise of rewards were more attractive to Balaam than listening to God Himself. He was greedy, and desired material things.
God would not allow Balaam to curse Israel as Balak desired, and he rather blessed Israel instead. However, Balaam convinced Balak that if he would intermingle his women with the children of Israel's men, they would be conquered from within. Sure enough, when the men of Israel began to have relations with the women of Moab, they also gave in to worshiping the Moabites' gods. This lead to a great slaughter of those fallen Israelite men in the wilderness.
Jude tells us that these itinerant teachers are like the error of Balaam. They desire reward. They are greedy for gain, and their focus is upon the material things. From a book that was famous in the disciples' day called the Didache we learn that if a false prophet asked for a feast to be held, and he took part in it, he was a false prophet. If he ever asked for money, he was a false prophet. In other words, if a teacher came along and was personally advantaged by the prophetic word that he was giving, he was to be known as a false prophet. Obviously there are a few “teachers and prophets” around today who should probably read these things.
The question is, “Why do we do what we do?” Is it for our own profit or for others? Are we following the truth or do we have a propensity toward the error of Balaam? Perhaps when we ponder the story of Balaam we find ourselves aligning with the behaviors or thoughts of Balaam to curse others rather than the thoughts of God to bless them. It is indeed one thing to sit as it were in judgment of Balaam especially when we know the outcome of his behavior and quite another thing to take a look within ourselves. May God convict us all when we follow the error of Balaam for reward rather than listening to and obeying His Holy Word.
Next time we will look at the third example given in Jude eleven, “perished in the gainsaying of Core”, so read this again, and think about it for tomorrow. Here's a hint: the word “Core” is “Korah” in the Old Testament.
Until tomorrow...there is more...
Look for the new devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From Generation to Generation” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ; www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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