"Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord.”
Here we see what Balaam's counsel was. This wicked man, a man whose eyes had been opened and willfully closed, when he saw that he could not curse the people, counseled Balak how to deceive them. What the enemy could not do with open assault, he would accomplish by stealth. This unfolds the true state of Balaam, for we might have hoped that he was changed by the revelations which he had. But the crafty man knew that if he could get the people to intermarry and then come to the idolatrous feasts, he would bring them down in their practice from the exalted place in which they stood, and then they would reap God's governmental dealings.
Now it is precisely here that we have to be on our guard. Nothing can ever separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are a people of God's choosing and blessing—a heavenly people. But the enemy would tell us that it is not too bad if we mingle with the world, and join in its pursuits.
In the Lord's address to the church in Pergamos we read, "But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication." This period of the Church's history, depicted by Pergamos, is that wherein the Emperor Constantine made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire, and the Church and the world formed an unholy alliance. There were some then who taught that this was not bad, but the Lord tells us it was the doctrine of Balaam. It tells the saints that there is nothing wrong in unholy association with the world, and it is on every hand today. It is the warp and woof of present-day Christendom.
How terribly sad it is when such bad counsel comes from the lips of true children of God. Some have openly advised young Christians to join fraternities and earthly societies of one kind and another when God has said, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." Through bad counsel, even from Christians, many dear young believers have kept company with unbelievers, only to end in an unholy marriage, a linking of light and darkness. Dear young Christian, please remember that all such counsel comes from the enemy of your soul. It has a deeper source than the lips of the one who gives it. And if you follow the counsel of Balaam you will reap sore disappointment from the world, and the government of God in your life.
The devil can never frustrate the purposes of God to bless us. He can never keep us out of heaven, or take away one blessing which we have in Christ up there, but he can spoil your joy and mine, and ruin our testimony for the Lord if we follow the counsel of Balaam. The word "fornication" in Rev. 2 has reference to an unholy alliance between the people of God and the world-a mixture of holy and unholy. Our happiness depends on walking in the good of all that God has given us. May the blessings bestowed on us and the glories that await us so captivate our hearts that the world will have no appeal to us. May the language of this hymn be the expression of our hearts:
"O worldly pomp and glory,
Your charms are spread in vain;
I've heard a sweeter story,
I've found a truer gain.
Where Christ a place prepareth,
There is my loved abode;
There shall I gaze on Jesus,
There shall I dwell with God.”
Let us not trust in our own hearts, "for he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool." Prov. 28:2626He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. (Proverbs 28:26). We have an old nature which is susceptible to the counsel of Balaam. And dear young Christians, beware of the little things. Great matters turn on little affairs. The bait may be small but the hook is large. It is the small edge of the wedge that enters first. The enemy of our souls would like to draw us away from faithful devotedness to Christ, and he will use any means that he thinks will succeed.
There are many practical applications that could be made of shunning the counsel of Balaam. But we leave it to the reader to make his own application in the matters of his daily life. Anything that will draw you away from Christ in heart, anything that will make you compromise the truth, anything that is contrary to the Word of God—shun it. The world is more to be feared when it smiles on us than when it hates us. "The kisses of an enemy are deceitful." Perhaps the devil would dangle financial advantage, or social advance, or any one of a thousand things before your eyes. May God give the reader and the writer spiritual perception to see the tempter's hand in these offers, even though disguised like Jacob's when Isaac said, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau." Gen. 27:2222And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. (Genesis 27:22).
P. Wilson