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Revelation 2:13-17

At our house it is rare to get a personal letter in the mail and the letter to the church at Pergamum is not the kind of letter most of us get from anyone today.  But, what if this letter came in your mail, and it was addressed to you and your church; it is from the angel that Jesus Christ has placed over your church.  And in the first few lines it states; “I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is.”  Now that is not good, in fact you may be considering an address change, but the angel goes on to tell you that he knows you have held fast to your faith even when the faithful witness Antipas was killed among you.

That is not the end of the letter, it goes on to say; “But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.”  Who is Balaam and what does he teach?  To find the answer we must go to the book of Numbers, chapter 22 and we find the story of Israel coming out of Egypt and traveling to the plains of Moab and they camped along the Jordan across from Jericho.  The God of Israel had moved against the Amorites and destroyed them, so Balak the king of Moab and all the Moabite people were filled with fear because of the Israelites. 

What do you do when someone bigger and stronger comes to your door, you call 911 for help and that is what Balak did; he sent messengers to summon Balaam “the mercenary Prophet” and this is what is recorded; “A people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the land and have settled next to me. Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me.  Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the country.  For I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed.”   Sounds like a plan, but when the messengers arrived Balaam told them to spend the night and he would bring back the answer the Lord gives to him; and this was the message from God; “Do not go with them.  You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed.”  So Balaam went back with this message, “Go back to your own country, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you.”  Now that is what God calls obedience, do what you are told, when you are told, with the right heart attitude.  And if the story ended we would have a totally different opinion of the prophet Balaam, but the story does not end, and king Balak is like any other man who believes his wealth can buy what he wants, so he sends more distinguished men with bigger titles who offers more money.  Balaam is still on message with this reply; “Even if Balak gave me his place filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the Lord my God.”  And if he had only stopped at that point and said God has spoken on this matter he would not be viewed as “the Mercenary Prophet” but as a man who obeyed the God he served. 

Now the rest of the story, he tells them to spend the night and he will inquire of God if he can go with them, and that night God came to Balaam and said, “Since these men have come to summon, go with them, but do only what I tell you.”  Well it looks good for the king of Moab and it looks like Balaam will have a much bigger 401K when this deal is over.

If you do not remember the account of Balaam’s donkey, you can read about it in Numbers 22:21-35, but it is clear that God was very anger at Balaam and was going to kill him, but for a faithful donkey that could see what Balaam could not see.  Why was God angry, did He not give Balaam the Ok to go with these men?  The answer is obedience, God told Balaam what to do and like many of us, it was not the answer that led him to what he presumed was in his best interest.  Obedience is obeying God when He speaks, and doing it with the right heart attitude.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice