The Doctrine of Balaam, explained

Ministry Updates

This week’s newsletter begins with two exciting announcements about the “Weird Stuff” ministry.

One, in case you missed it, Weird Stuff in the Bible is getting a website soon! And it won’t be “soon” in the sense that Jesus is coming soon. Well, I hope it is; it would be pretty cool if Jesus came back before the website launches. I wouldn’t complain. But if not, the launch will be the weekend of May 3-4, 2025. A newsletter will go out once the site is LIVE that weekend.

If you did NOT receive last week’s email, perhaps shoot me a message ([email protected]) and let me know. I have a feeling some did not receive it, and I’m curious to investigate why not everyone received that message.

Two, just wanted to celebrate that my Youtube channel passed 1,000 subscribers this past week. I’m really excited to hit that milestone, but it was a long grind, and I hope that the next thousand subs come a lot quicker than that first thousand.

The Youtube channel has both my Weird Stuff (audio only) podcast, as well as my podcast of Bible studies on the Book of Ezekiel and related topics, which are almost concluded. Those have been audio-only as well up until the past few months, when I started experimenting with video studies.

If you’d like to watch one of my recent studies, I’m in a section of Ezekiel that pertains to the millennial reign of Christ. I did an episode on the Second Coming of Christ from the perspective of Ezekiel 14, with an emphasis on how it literally changes the topography of the Middle East when He comes back.

Here’s a warning, though: when it comes to eschatology, I’m a premill dispy, and I know some Christians really don’t go for that kind of thing. So if that’s not your bag, you can pass over this video like the death angel passing over a bloody Egyptian doorpost.

(that’s kind of a gross metaphor, actually)

Alright, now let’s get into this week’s Rabbit Trail…

Rabbit Trail: The Doctrine of Balaam

I’ll assume you listen to this past Wednesday’s episode about Balaam- why he was hired, and what he was probably trying to do when he went up on that mountain to curse Israel.

We came to understand why Balaam was hired in the first place. He understood how the spiritual realm worked. he understood about creating portals for demons, and how to corrupt a gate of heaven.

He was a spiritual terrorist, which is why I called him the “Osama bin Laden” of the Old Testament on a past episode. The incident at Baal of Peor was a “9/11” moment for the Israelites, and 24,000 of their men perished in this story because of Balaam’s plot. He was a terrorist mastermind with a deep understanding of spiritual warfare.

Balaam could not curse Israel directly; God’s protection over those people was too powerful. But Balaam knew that if he could cause Israel to sin, then he didn’t have to curse them, because God would curse them Himself.

And you need to know this story because it parallels how Satan operates in our lives as well. After all, if Balaam knew all this, don’t you think the devil knows it as well? So if you’re going to protect yourself form the enemy, you need to understand this about spiritual warfare also.

Revelation 2 contains some of the letters of Jesus to the 7 churches; today we’ll look at the letter to the church at Pergamus (or Pergamum, as some translations put it).

Revelation 2:13-14 (NKJV) - ¹³ “I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. ¹⁴ 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.

Pergamos is a word that means “mixed marriage.” It is a combination of “per”- which means many or more than one- and “gamos”- which means marriage (think: monogamy or polygamy).

Balaam found a way to get the Israelites to mix their worship with the worship of false gods. In fact, at the lowest point of the story, an Israelite man actually brings one of these Moabite seductresses into the tabernacle of God in the Israelite camp. This union (when Israel was “yoked” or “joined” to the Baal of Peor- see Psalm 106:28) created a mixed marriage, which God could not bless. In fact, God will curse it until He stamps it out.

What Jesus warned the Pergamus church about was that some in the church wanted to mix their worship with worldliness. They wanted to mix their Christianity with pagan practices and fleshly indulgence. This is the doctrine of Balaam.

And so this story of Balaam gives us a lot to chew on. Let’s reflect on who was at fault for this. Who would you say was most at fault or responsible for the incident at Baal of Peor and the deaths of these 24,000 Israelites?

• Were the Israelites at fault because they mixed themselves with the women from Moab?

• Well, they were seduced by the Midianite women, so I guess we could blame the women.

• But they were sent by King Balak, so I guess we could blame him.

• But it was Balaam who gave him the idea, so I guess we could blame Balaam.

And the correct answer, I would say, is “all of the above.”

We are each ultimately responsible for our own actions. And we will each answer for our own actions. And so ultimately, we have to be responsible for ourselves.

We can’t say “the devil made me do it.” If we will live in the fear of the Lord and walk in His ways, we can live under His protection. I’m not saying that means nothing bad will ever happen to you, but your life will go a lot better and you’ll walk in God’s favor.

But if you choose to sin, then it becomes a different story. Now we hurt ourselves. Now we bring ourselves under God’s judgment and discipline. And when we sin, we give the devil a foothold in our lives.

You are a Temple of the Holy Spirit. So be careful what you join yourself to. And be careful that you don’t get mixed up in sin.

The church at Pergamus was the church that had the altar of Zeus- and if you can remember from a past episode, this was an altar to Satan himself- right there in their city.

So there is a major gate of hell right there in the city of Pergamus. Satan had set up his headquarters there in the first century.

And yet God also had a church there. And God told them: “As long as you hold fast to my name, you’re an overcomer. The gates of hell cannot prevail against you.”

But some of them were following the doctrine of Balaam- mixing their Christianity with the world. Bringing idolatry and sexual immorality into it.

And if you do that, then Satan doesn’t even have to touch you, because Jesus will deal with you. In fact, He’ll destroy you with the sword of His mouth.

Now that’s a little hard to square with some of the modern doctrines and beliefs about Jesus as feel-good hippie who was soft on sin and too nice to swat a fly. But that’s exactly what Revelation 2 says.

Don’t give Satan or sin an access to your life. Don’t allow your Christianity or image of Jesus to be polluted by the world.

No newsletter next week! It will be Resurrection Sunday, and I don’t want to make it weird.

-Luke