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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
2 Peter 2:13b-16
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
How bad was the matter of ungodliness and false teaching during the time of Peter?
So bad that he dedicates an entire chapter of his second letter to address it as he writes to his brother and sister Christians who were exiled and “scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia” (1 Peter 1:1). His words continue to inform us here in the 21st century.
In yesterday’s message, the first part in this short series, we found Peter calling out those who would choose to blaspheme, disrespect, and dishonor the Lord God Almighty, indeed the very Lord who had created them. In verses 10b through 12 of the second chapter of 2 Peter, we found him providing identifiers for these wicked, sinful people who had infiltrated the church and posed as believers. We learned to look for those who are bold and arrogant, so much so that they would heap insults and abuse on celestial beings, something even the angels wouldn’t do. Further, they would blaspheme in matters they didn’t understand, behaving just as unreasoning animals might. Peter concludes this section by guaranteeing the Lord’s judgment coming on those who would blatantly behave in unholy and unrighteous ways.
Well, as we see in today’s passage, Peter wasn’t done yet in shining a bright spotlight on those who would seek to try and do harm to the church and the Lord’s will for it to make disciples of all nations through speaking His truth. Look again at these words from verses 13b through 16:
Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
Note here that those who have surrendered their hearts to the work of Satan don’t feel obligated to operate in the shadows of darkness. No, we read here that the ungodly within the Christian church reveled in the acts of the flesh in “broad daylight”, enjoying whatever pleasures they desired to “carouse in”. It was the kind of foolish, “I’m doing this in Your face Lord, what are You going to do about it?” behavior that leads to their annihilation as God easily wipes away the “blots and blemishes” that they are.
These evil, vile sinners have “eyes full of adultery”, unfaithful to the Lord and anyone else they might get to trust them. We read how they “never stop” transgressing, seducing “the unstable”, or exercising they expertise “in greed”. All and all, collectively they were “an accursed brood” who stood squarely in the crosshairs of God’s wrath and judgment.
Of interest, this passage ends with a message of hope, a hope from Peter that those he wrote of, those who had “left the straight way and wandered off”, might find intervention as Balaam did, a man who had “loved the wages of wickedness”.
You may remember the story of Balaam found in chapters 22 through 24 of the Old Testament Book of Numbers.
As you read this, you will meet Balak, the king of Moab, and Balaam, a wicked Moabite prophet. The Israelites were encamped right outside Moab’s border and Balak commanded Balaam to place a curse on them but God had other plans. For as Balaam set out to do as he was commanded, riding on his trusty donkey, the Lord placed an angel on the road directly ahead with a drawn sword in hand, an angel only seen by the donkey. To avert the angel, the donkey veered off the road into a field which led to Balaam beating the animal to get it back on the road.
The angel then reappeared, this time in a narrow path through the vineyards, with walls on both sides. The scriptures tell us that when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot against it. Balaam then beat his donkey again.
For a third time, the angel appeared, moving ahead and standing in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. With no option to try and go around the angel, Balaam’s donkey simply laid down under Balaam who became enraged and beat it with his staff.
Then something unbelievable happened. We read where the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth and allowed it to speak to its owner, asking:
“What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”
In reply, Balaam accuses the donkey of making a fool of him and even claimed he would have killed the animal if he had a sword.
With this, the donkey asks Balaam a simple question that I will paraphrase.
“You’re ridden me for a long time. Have I ever done this before to you?”
As soon as Balaam replied, “No”, his eyes were opened to see what only his donkey could see before, the angel of the Lord standing on the road with his sword ready to strike. It led the wicked prophet to fall facedown and after being rebuked by the angel for beating the donkey three times when the animal was only trying to protect its owner. The angel adds that had it not been for the actions of the donkey, Balaam would have surely been killed.
These words cut to the heart of the Balaam and he immediately confessed that he had sinned before placing his next actions in the hands of the angel of the Lord who ordered him to proceed but only to do as the angel would instruct. From that point on, Balaam would only do as God commanded which ended up being the opposite of what Balak wanted. Ultimately, Balaam would bless the Israelites instead of cursing them, a happy ending brought on by the Lord’s intervention to restrain the wicked prophet’s madness.
As mentioned, Peter held out hope that the same thing might happen to those he called out but that would involve a repenting and turn toward godly obedience similar to Balaam’s change in spiritual behavior.
Friends, today we have people within our Christian churches who are repeating the actions of these unrighteous, counterfeit believers who had infected the first century church. Like Peter, let us pray for them asking that they might confess their sins and have their eyes opened as Balaam’s were so that they might truly see the Lord at work and commit themselves to His will and way.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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