I’m
not aware of any community of Christians that stand out to the rest of the
world as a blessed people, so much so that the heathens come busting down the
doors wanting to know the secrets of life and Godliness. I’m not saying there
isn’t such a group somewhere, just not that I am aware of. Shouldn’t Christians look so different from
the world that the world wants to be like us? After all, we are servants of the
most high God, the Almighty Creator of Heaven and Earth. Yet somehow we look
much like the rest of the world. There
doesn’t seem to be much distinction anymore.
The plan of the enemy would be to make us look so much like everyone
else that we are ineffective as living epistles. It seems to be that way since the time of
Moses, when he led the children of Jacob out of Egypt, while always having to
deal with witchcraft that was behind the scenes. Balaam was an enemy to Moses and Israel from
Moses’ birth. What we learn though is
that God did make a way out for them as he will for us.
From
the Book of Jasher we can see that Balaam was a thorn to Moses from the days of
Moses’ childhood. Balaam, was the son of
Beor who was the son of Janeas the magician to Pharaoh. Balaam had a long history of magic and sorcery
and he was always against the children of Israel. While we know that Jesus was the one who told
us what Balaam did to cause the children of Jacob to sin from the book of Revelation,
Moses may not have known it was Balaam who suggested this plot, which is why we
don’t see it recorded until the book of Revelation. It would seem that for Moses’ entire life, he
had a sorcerer hounding him. From his
birth until Balaam was finally killed by the Israelites, Moses had this monkey
on his back. Why would we think this is
any different for us? There are probably plenty of sorcerers hiding in the
shadows looking to find a way to trip us up.
It’s the same old story told and retold.
Nothing is new under the sun.
Rev
2:14-15 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that
hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before
the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit
fornication.15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the
Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.KJV
Num
25:1-13 25 And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom
with the daughters of Moab.2 And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their
gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.3 And Israel joined
himself unto Baal-peor: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.4
And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them
up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be
turned away from Israel.5 And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye
every one his men that were joined unto Baal-peor.6 And, behold, one of the
children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in
the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of
Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation.7 And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the
priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in
his hand;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 belly. So the
plague was stayed from the children of Israel.9 And those that died in the
plague were twenty and four thousand.10 And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying,11 Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath
turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my
sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.12
Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace:13 And he shall
have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting
priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the
children of Israel.KJV
Now
let’s read this in the message.
Rev
2:14-15 "But why do you indulge that Balaam crowd? Don't you remember that
Balaam was an enemy agent, seducing Balak and sabotaging Israel's holy
pilgrimage by throwing unholy parties? 15 And why do you put up with the
Nicolaitans, who do the same thing? (from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in
Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)
Num
25:1-9 While Israel was camped at Shittim (Acacia Grove), the men began to have
sex with the Moabite women. 2 It started when the women invited the men to
their sex-and-religion worship. They ate together and then worshiped their
gods. 3 Israel ended up joining in the worship of the Baal of Peor. God was
furious, his anger blazing out against Israel. 4 God said to Moses, "Take
all the leaders of Israel and kill them by hanging, leaving them publicly
exposed in order to turn God's anger away from Israel." 5 Moses issued
orders to the judges of Israel: "Each of you must execute the men under
your jurisdiction who joined in the worship of Baal Peor." 6 Just then,
while everyone was weeping in penitence at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting,
an Israelite man, flaunting his behavior in front of Moses and the whole
assembly, paraded a Midianite woman into his family tent. 7 Phinehas son of
Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw what he was doing, grabbed his spear,
8 and followed them into the tent. With one thrust he drove the spear through
the two of them, the man of Israel and the woman, right through their private
parts. That stopped the plague from continuing among the People of Israel. 9
But 24,000 had already died.(from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary
Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)
Jasher gives a little
more detail about the situation
Jasher 85:50 And when
Balak saw that Balaam would not accede to his wish, he rose up and went home,
and Balaam also returned to his land and he went from there to Midian.51And the
children of Israel journeyed from the plain of Moab, and pitched by Jordan from
Beth-jesimoth even unto Abel-shittim, at the end of the plains of Moab.52And
when the children of Israel abode in the plain of Shittim, they began to commit
whoredom with the daughters of Moab.53And the children of Israel approached
Moab, and the children of Moab pitched their tents opposite to the camp of the
children of Israel.54And the children of Moab were afraid of the children of
Israel, and the children of Moab took all their daughters and their wives of
beautiful aspect and comely appearance, and dressed them in gold and silver and
costly garments.55And the children of Moab seated those women at the door of
their tents, in order that the children of Israel might see them and turn to
them, and not fight against Moab.56And all the children of Moab did this thing
to the children of Israel, and every man placed his wife and daughter at the
door of his tent, and all the children of Israel saw the act of the children of
Moab, and the children of Israel turned to the daughters of Moab and coveted
them, and they went to them.57And it came to pass that when a Hebrew came to
the door of the tent of Moab, and saw a daughter of Moab and desired her in his
heart, and spoke with her at the door of the tent that which he desired, whilst
they were speaking together the men of the tent would come out and speak to the
Hebrew like unto these words: 58Surely you know that we are brethren, we are
all the descendants of Lot and the descendants of Abraham his brother,
wherefore then will you not remain with us, and wherefore will you not eat our
bread and our sacrifice? 59And when the children of Moab had thus overwhelmed
him with their speeches, and enticed him by their flattering words, they seated
him in the tent and cooked and sacrificed for him, and he ate of their
sacrifice and of their bread.60They then gave him wine and he drank and became
intoxicated, and they placed before him a beautiful damsel, and he did with her
as he liked, for he knew not what he was doing, as he had drunk plentifully of
wine.61Thus did the children of Moab to Israel in that place, in the plain of
Shittim, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel on account of
this matter, and he sent a pestilence amongst them, and there died of the
Israelites twenty-four thousand men. 62Now there was a man of the children of
Simeon whose name was Zimri, the son of Salu, who connected himself with the
Midianite Cosbi, the daughter of Zur, king of Midian, in the sight of all the
children of Israel. 63And Phineas the son of Elazer, the son of Aaron the
priest, saw this wicked thing which Zimri had done, and he took a spear and
rose up and went after them, and pierced them both and slew them, and the
pestilence ceased from the children of Israel.
Balaam
must have given Balak some ideas that he put into practice. The fact that someone practicing witchcraft,
who knew God, was called by a king, to curse Israel, we have to wonder if we
have that happening to Christians and Churches today. From Jasher we see the women were used to
entice the men, and when they engaged in conversation with them the women
explained how they really were related.
What we want to remember is that the Moabites were descended from Lot
and his daughter. This is another story of manipulation where the daughters of
Lot got him drunk and seduced him so that they would become pregnant. Again the plan to cause someone to do what
they normally would not was birthed in witchcraft and manipulation. Also recognize that people curse others. Christians are probably just as guilty as we
are not taught about cursing and that we have to watch what we say.
Who
are the Nicolaitanes?
Nicolaitanes
— The church at Ephesus (Rev 2:6) is commended for hating the "deeds"
of the Nicolaitanes, and the church of Pergamos is blamed for having them who
hold their "doctrines" (15). They were seemingly a class of
professing Christians, who sought to introduce into the church a false freedom
or licentiousness, thus abusing Paul's doctrine of grace (comp. 2 Peter 2:15,16,19),
and were probably identical with those who held the doctrine of Balaam (q.v.),
Rev 2:14.(from Easton's Bible Dictionary, PC Study Bible formatted electronic
database Copyright © 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Nicolaitans
(followers of Nicolas), a sect mentioned in Rev 2:6,15, whose deeds were
strongly condemned. They may have been identical with those who held the
doctrine of Balaam. They seem to have held that it was lawful to eat things
sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication, in opposition to the decree of
the Church rendered in Acts 15:20,29. The teachers of the Church branded them
with a name which expressed their true character. The men who did and taught
such things were followers of Balaam. 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11. They, like the
false prophet of Pethor, united brave words with evil deeds. In a time of
persecution, when the eating or not eating of things sacrificed to idols was
more than ever a crucial test of faithfulness, they persuaded men more than
ever that was a thing indifferent. Rev 2:13,14. This was bad enough, but there
was a yet worse evil. Mingling themselves in the orgies of idolatrous feasts,
they brought the impurities of those feasts into the meetings of the Christian
Church. And all this was done, it must be remembered not simply as an
indulgence of appetite: but as a part of a system, supported by a
"doctrine," accompanied by the boast of a prophetic illumination, 2
Peter 2:1. It confirms the view which has been taken of their character to find
that stress is laid in the first instance on the "deeds" of the
Nicolaitans. To hate those deeds is a sign of life in a Church that otherwise
is weak and faithless. Rev 2:6. To tolerate them is well nigh to forfeit the
glory of having been faithful under persecution. Rev 2:14,15.(from Smith's
Bible Dictionary, PC Study Bible formatted electronic database Copyright ©
2003, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
These
people seem to have the ideas of Balaam, they try to seduce the church away
from God using pleasure as a tool of manipulation. From the definition of the word Nicolaitians
we can see that they are a group of people that are victorious over people set
toward the destruction of the people. Or
in other words the Nicolaitians were victorious over the destruction of people.
NT:3531
Nikolaites (nik-ol-ah-ee'-tace); from NT:3532; a Nicolaite, i.e. adherent of
Nicolaus:KJV - Nicolaitane.
NT:3532
Nikolaos (nik-ol'-ah-os); from NT:3534 and NT:2994; victorious over the people;
Nicolaus, a heretic:KJV - Nicolaus.(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers
and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003,
2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
NT:3531
Nikolaitees, Nikolaitou, ho,a Nicolaitan: destruction of the people (from Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Electronic
Database. Copyright © 2000, 2003, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
These
people would be known to use domination and intimidation to influence
people. In this area we have to guard
ourselves as not to use authority over others to make them do what we say or
use fear to inspire people to do what we say.
Domination 1. Controlling power control, power, or
authority over others or another Encarta Dictionary
Intimidation 1. Persuade of dissuade
by frightening to frighten somebody into doing or not doing something, e.g. by
means of violence or blackmail 2.daunt to create a feeling of fear, awe, or
inadequacy in another person Encarta Dictionary
If
the church should not look like the world then why are so many people afraid of
church leadership? Why are people
intimidated by pastors or afraid to speak up when they are prompted by God to
speak up? This is tricky for us to
identify because again while we don’t want someone to get hurt, we should not
use fear to control their thinking.
Preaching hell fire and brimstone may inspire someone to behave for a
time, but it will not inspire them to behave for life. People have to be motivated by love to live
for Christ for their entire life, fear is just the opposite. That is what the church should look like from
the outside, love.
What
we learn from the story of Balaam and Balak is that there is always someone
trying to stop the move of God. Behind
the scenes the devil is inspiring someone like Balak or a group of people like
the Nicolaitians to inhibit the working of God.
Sometimes they use other people to help stop the people of God. At some point God’s people get seduced into
thinking that pleasure out of the bounds God set up is acceptable. The constant struggle then begins in an
individuals’ life as to how far out of bounds is alright. Rationalization takes over and individuals
then set new standards for faith and practice.
There was harsh punishment on the Israelites who let themselves be
seduced by the women of Moab. Remember
Moab was from the lineage of Lot with his daughter after Sodom was
destroyed. Sometimes the people that
hinder us the most are relatives. When a
relative uses scheming ways to keep us from the plan of God we may not realize
it as we tend to believe our relations would not want to harm us. We may be surprised how many times those in
our family tree are used to keep us from doing what we are supposed to. Here the Moabite women used the fact that
they were related to the Israelites to seduce the Israelite men into their
religious practices.
As
we saw, things got greatly out of hand and one man paraded a Midianite woman in
front of everyone possibly in a sexual manner.
I’m sure at that time there were people cheering him on and
laughing. It seems that sometimes there
is a “crowd” mentality that encourages bad behavior and celebrates it. Yet when
Phineas saw what Zimiri was doing he killed him. And while it may seem like that was a harsh
way to deal with the situation, God’s plague, which is also translated
slaughter, killed 24,000 people. Phineas
actually showed righteous judgment and stopped God from killing everyone. We
are all interconnected, your sin affects me, my sin affects you. If a large group of people are in sin, it
affects everyone who is not in sin.
Num
25:14-18 Now the name of the Israelite that was slain, even that was slain with
the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house
among the Simeonites.15 And the name of the Midianitish woman that was slain
was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head over a people, and of a chief house
in Midian.16 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,17 Vex the Midianites, and
smite them:18 For they vex you with their wiles, wherewith they have beguiled
you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a prince
of Midian, their sister, which was slain in the day of the plague [slaughter]
for Peor's sake.KJV
God
is not afraid to name names. Today we
try and hush bad behavior and we think it is correct not to name names, yet God
has no problem instructing Moses to tell the entire world, from that time on
who did something deplorable in the sight of all people and who did something
to turn the wrath of God away. God has
no problem naming names, in fact we would counter a lot of gossip just by
speaking honestly about situations rather than trying to hide facts and events
and people who participated in a misdeed.
Now
God says to vex the Midianites. Since
the Midianites were asked to help the Moabites, God says to Moses to vex
them.
OT:6887
tsarar (tsaw-rar'); a primitive root; to cramp, literally or figuratively, transitive
or intransitive (as follows):KJV - adversary, (be in) afflict (-ion), beseige,
bind (up), (be in, bring) distress, enemy, narrower, oppress, pangs, shut up,
be in a strait (trouble), vex.(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and
Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006
Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
Vexing
can be physical and it can be spiritual.
Moses was told to vex and smite.
Spiritually bind them up by vexing, and beat them up physically or
smite. As we see with the imprecatory
Psalms, there is a time to bless and a time to curse. You only get the go ahead to curse from God,
but you always have the go ahead to bless.
To look at the imprecatory Psalms we recognize the power that we have in
our tongues. This is why we need to be
taught to use our words carefully and with full recognition of each word. To curse a bad driver on the road in a moment
of frustration is bad, but to bless a bad driver will not get us into trouble
with God. However there are those people
as we have seen who intentionally set out to harm the work of God. What is the work of God for us? Just one
thing, we are to go out making disciples of others. In
that instance, we will come against the most resistance. At times we may think we are doing something
for God, like Paul did, killing Christians, but God puts a stop to what we
do. We have to discern by being in
relationship with God.
The
slaughter or plague happened because Yahweh told Moses to kill the men who
joined themselves to Baal-Peor. Israel
was to be set apart.
Num
25:3 And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor: and the anger of the Lord was
kindled against Israel.KJV
This
is why we are to be set apart. We are
not to look like the other people of the world.
We need to stop trying to be like the world. If we are called as living epistles then we
should look differently than the world. Others who are not of God should notice
that we are different. If we are seduced
to look like everyone else, than the devil has done a good job of hindering
discipleship. A disciple is one who
follows the teachings of Christ.
Therefore we should look so different that we actually stand out. But why would God kill the people who sinned,
rather than send them to counseling or rehabilitation?
Num
25:11 Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my
wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among
them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.KJV
God
is jealous, in that he has a righteous anger that flares when we are seduced by
the enemy. In this case, instead of
talking it out, killing seemed to be the appropriate action. Remember the crowd mentality? The idea that one man could parade a woman
sexually before the congregation while some were weeping at the tabernacle over
what was happening is a very blatant act against God. These people so enjoyed what they were doing
that they joined themselves to Baal-Peor.
This means they walked away from God, having been seduced by lust,
passions, and pleasure. They left
God. Remember we saw from Ezekiel that
God knows who weeps for Him and who makes an allegiance with sin. God told the angel to mark those who grieved
for Israel, while the other angels were to kill those without the mark. God knows if you are swayed by the crowd,
even if you do not partake in the actual sin, your allegiance is either with
Yahweh or with Baal-Peor. Thankfully we live in a time when Jesus paid the
price for our sins, however while we may not be slaughtered in mass for sin, we
will be disappointed when we stand before God, and hopefully he will not say ‘I
never knew you, depart from me”. The key for us is in loving God because if we
truly love Him we will grieve over sin and not be taken in by seduction.
This
is why we have to fight to not be deceived by those who intentionally want to
get us off track. We have to be aware
that there are those people who are sent by the enemy to keep us from making
disciples of others. We have to identify
the schemes and plans of the Balak’s and Balaam’s so we will not be fooled by
them. Pleasures are nice but pleasure is
not our purpose for living. We have to
explore witchcraft further to understand another aspect of it, pharmakeia.
