Balaam (Part 14) – (Num 24:14 – 25:5) – Balaam Teaches Balak How to Destroy Israel

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Num 24:14-25 – Balaam’s prophecy of the fate of Moab

1. After three failed attempts at cursing Israel, Balaam decides it’s time for him to head home, but not before he tells Balak what Israel will do to Moab in the latter days (Num 24:14).
2. Balak is about to reap what he has sown (Gal 6:7).
3. The measure that Moab thought to mete out to Israel will be measured to them (Mat 7:2).
4. God was going to reward Moab with the same punishment that they thought to inflict on Israel (Pro 11:3-6; Est 7:9-10; Dan 6:24).
5. Balaam begins to prophesy (Num 24:15-16).
6. Balaam prophesies that a Star and a Sceptre will come out of Israel will smite Moab and have dominion over them (Num 24:17-19).
7. This happened in the days of king David (2Sa 8:2).
8. This was also a prophecy of Jesus Christ.
9. A star heralded the arrival of Jesus (Mat 2:2,9).
10. Jesus Christ is the bright morning star (Rev 22:16).

iii.    Jesus Christ rules His kingdom with a sceptre (Gen 49:10; Heb 1:8).

1. Jesus Christ has dominion over everything (Eph 1:21-22; Rev 1:5-6).
2. The Moabites were also forbidden from entering the congregation of Israel for 10 generations because they hired Balaam to curse Israel (Deu 23:3-5; Neh 13:1-2).
3. Balaam then prophesies against several other nations (Num 24:20-24).
4. Balaam returns to his place and Balak goes home (Num 24:25).
5. Balak has finally learned his lesson and quits trying to get God to curse Israel.
6. But the devil still has another trick up his sleeve.

Num 25:1-5 – Balaam teaches Balak how to destroy Israel

1. Israel begins to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab and worshiped their idols and ate things sacrificed to them (Num 25:1-2).
2. Balaam taught Balak to entice Israel to commit fornication with his women and to serve their idols (Num 31:16 c/w Rev 2:14).
3. Beware of anyone who holds to the doctrine of Balaam, who would entice you to commit fornication or serve other gods (Rev 2:14).
4. Israel joined themselves to Baal-peor and greatly angered God (Num 25:3).
5. Baal – The chief male deity of the Phœnician and Canaanitish nations; hence, transf. false god.
6. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE) says the following about Baal-peor (Baal).
7. “bā´al̀ (בּעל, ba‛al; Βάαλ, Báal, or Βαάλ, Baál): The Babylonian Belu or Bel, “Lord,” was the title of the supreme god among the Canaanites.” (Baal, ISBE)
8. “The Babylonian Bel-Merodach was a Sun-god, and so too was the Can Baal whose full title was Baal-Shemaim, “lord of heaven.” The Phoenician writer Sanchuniathon (Philo Byblius, Fragmenta II) accordingly says that the children of the first generation of mankind “in time of drought stretched forth their hands to heaven toward the sun; for they regarded him as the sole Lord of heaven, and called him Beel-samēn, which means ‘Lord of Heaven’ in the Phoenician language and is equivalent to Zeus in Greek” Baal-Shemaim had a temple at Umm el-Awamid between Acre and Tyre, and his name is found in inscriptions from the Phoenician colonies of Sardinia and Carthage.” (Baal, ISBE)

iii.    “As the Sun-god, Baal was worshipped under two aspects, beneficent and destructive. On the one hand he gave light and warmth to his worshippers; on the other hand the fierce heats of summer destroyed the vegetation he had himself brought into being. Hence, human victims were sacrificed to him in order to appease his anger in time of plague or other trouble, the victim being usually the first-born of the sacrificer and being burnt alive. In the Old Testament this is euphemistically termed “passing” the victim “through the fire” (2Ki 16:3; 2Ki 21:6). The forms under which Baal was worshipped were necessarily as numerous as the communities which worshipped him. Each locality had its own Baal or divine “Lord” who frequently took his name from the city or place to which he belonged. Hence, there was a Baal-Zur, “Baal of Tyre”; Baal-hermon, “Baal of Hermon” (Jdg 3:3); Baal-Lebanon, “Baal of Lebanon”; Baal-Tarz, “Baal of Tarsus.” At other times the title was attached to the name of an individual god; Thus we have Bel-Merodach, “the Lord Merodach” (or “Bel is Merodach”) at Babylon, Baal-Melkarth at Tyre, Baal-gad (Jos 11:17) in the north of Palestine. Occasionally the second element was noun as in Baal-Shemaim, “lord of heaven,” Baalzebub (2Ki 1:2), “Lord of flies,” Baal-Hammān, usually interpreted “Lord of heat,” but more probably “Lord of the sunpillar,” the tutelary deity of Carthage. All these various forms of the Sun-god were collectively known as the Baalim or “Baals” who took their place by the side of the female Ashtaroth and Ashtrim. At Carthage the female consort of Baal was termed Penē-Baal, “the face” or “reflection of Baal.”” (Baal, ISBE)

1. “Baal-peor בּעל פעור, ba‛al pe‛ōr; Βεελφεγώρ, Beelphegō̇r was god of the Moabite mountains, who took his name from Mount Peor (Num 23:28), the modern Fa‛ūr, and was probably a form of Chemosh (Jerome, Comm., Isa 15:1-9). The sensual rites with which he was worshipped (Num 25:1-3) indicate his connection with the Phoenician Baal.” (Baal, ISBE)
2. Worshiping Baalpeor included eating the sacrifices of the dead (Psa 106:28).
3. Baalpeor was a shame and an abomination (Hos 9:10).
4. It is no wonder that God’s anger was kindled against Israel for joining themselves to Baal-peor.
5. God orders Moses to kill all the men that were joined unto Baal-peor (Num 25:4-5 c/w Deu 4:3).
6. When the devil can’t destroy God’s people with persecution, he will lure them away by their lusts so that God will destroy them.
7. The devil tried to stamp out churches through persecution for centuries, but his tactic appears to have changed in the West over the last couple of centuries.
8. Satan now uses affluence and technology to distract us and pollute our minds.
9. There is nothing new under the sun.
10. Balaam the soothsayer ends up being killed by the people he was trying to get God to curse (Num 31:8; Jos 13:22).
11. The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23).
12. Balaam’s lust for riches conceived sin in his heart, the end of which was death (Jam 1:14-15).
13. Do not error like Balaam, my beloved brethren (Jam 1:16).