Balaam

Balaam was one of the strangest and most interesting characters in all of the Bible. He was a Gentile and yet God had given him the gift of prophecy. For some unknown reason, God gave him a lot of light for his good side, and yet he also had a deep darkness on his evil side.




Contrary to the opinion of some commentators, Balaam never sold his gift of prophecy for money. The Bible never states that he did. Balaam knew better than to sell his prophecy for money because he knew that if he did, God would immediately take it away or kill him. In fact, Balaam's final prophecy in Numbers 24:15-24 is quite sublime, even including a prophecy about Israel's coming Messiah.



Balaam's sin and apostasy occurred after his sublime prophecy. Balaam's sin happened because of his "perverse way" as spoken by the angel in Numbers 22:32. His sin was also called "the counsel of Balaam" in Numbers 31:16, the "way of Balaam" in II Peter 2:15, the "error of Balaam" in Jude 11, and the "doctrine of Balaam" in Revelation 2:14. As described in Numbers 31:16 and Revelation 2:14, the sin of Balaam was that he conspired with Balak, and for wages, to send pagan women into the camp of Israel to seduce Israeli men and lead them into practicing idol worship and thus corrupt the camp of Israel by causing Israel to abandon their faith in God. In this way, Balaam tried to get around the fact that God would not allow him to curse Israel but rather bless them, by devising a plan whereby he would reduce Israel to paganism and thus cause God to curse them. But God protected Israel and Balaam's wicked plot miserably failed and he paid for his sin with his life in Israel's war with Midian. Numbers 31:8.