Boyce Mouton
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Letter 544English

Letters From Grandpa #544

Boyce Mouton · 2 pages · 951 words

  • LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
  • 544

Dearest grandchild,

Today’s letter will be about the prophet Balaam. We first read about him in Numbers 22 – 24. He is also mentioned in Deuteronomy 23:4-5; Joshua 13:22, 24:9-10; Micah 6:5; and Nehemiah 13:2. He is also mentioned three times in the New Testament Scriptures. Peter said that he “loved the wages of wickedness, but was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey – a beast without speech – who spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.” (2 Peter 2:15-16); Jude warned of “rushing for profit into Balaam’s error” (Jude 11); and John wrote that Balaam “taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality.” (Revelation 2:14)

John Bunyan, in his famous allegory Pilgrim’s Progress, spoke of a prominent man in the town of Fair Speech whose name was Mr. Facing Both Ways. It seems that this would have also been an appropriate name for Balaam. Half of the time he seemed to be serving God, and half of the time he seemed to be serving money.

Here is his story. When the Israelites were on their way to the Promised Land, Balak the King of Moab, sent messengers to hire Balaam to curse the Hebrews. “But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed.” (Numbers 22:12)

When Balak sent more honorable messengers with more money Balaam answered: “Even if Balak gave me all the silver and gold in his palace, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the Lord my God. Now spend the night here so that I can find out what else the Lord will tell me.” (Numbers 22:18-19) Balaam reminds me of the girl who spent the night with her boyfriend trying to decide whether to obey God or not!

When Balaam decided to go with these messengers “God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him.” (Numbers 22:22) That’s when Balaam’s donkey spoke to him and saved his life (Numbers 22:21-35).

When Balaam came to where the Israelites were camped he tried three different times to get God to curse them. Each time when God refused to curse the Israelites, Balaam merely changed the location of his altars and tried again. But the Lord still would not listen to him! So when God refused to curse the Israelites the greedy and deceptive Balaam taught Balak how to trick Israel into cursing themselves. This is specifically stated in Revelation 2:14-15. God condemned the church at Pergamum with these words: “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.” (Revelation 2:14 kjv)

Numbers chapter 24 ends by saying that “Balaam got up and returned home.” Jude 11 seems to suggest that he took his profit with him. The next chapter, Numbers chapter 25, describes how the Israelites committed fornication with the daughters of Moab. This resulted in the death of 24,000 Israelites (Numbers 25:9). Balaam obviously taught Balak how to do it!

The word translated as “stumbling block” in this text is “skandalon” from which we get our English word “scandal”. It refers to the part of a trap to which the bait is attached. A trapper friend

pointed out that he uses three different baits to trap animals, viz. sex, food, and curiosity. It seems that Balaam may have taught Balak to use all three!

  • My friend used gland secretions from a female to trigger the sexual drive of the victim.
  • My friend also used food to bait his trap. He pointed out, however, that a food lure is more powerful when food is scarce.
  • My friend also told me that he once caught a bob-cat by dangling a mirror over his trap. Since the victim had never seen a mirror before “curiosity killed the cat.”
  • Note how all three of these lures applied to the Israelites.
  • First, the Moabites worshiped Baal (Numbers 25:3). This worship involved ritual prostitution. These pagan women were professional sex workers who lured the Israelites to their death like luring an ox to the slaughter (Proverbs 7:21-23).
  • The Israelites were also very hungry. We are told in Numbers 21:5 that they detested the manna they were eating. How easy it would be for the Moabites to prepare savory meat like Jacob loved (Genesis 27:4). When the wind was just right the smell of this delicious meat would lure the Israelites to their death.
  • Curiosity was also a factor as the Hebrews could easily have been enthralled by a new language, a new culture, new food, new music, and a new religion.

Sadly, the pleasure of sin is only for a short time (Hebrews 11:25). In a single day 24,000 Israelites were dead and the survivors were digging graves. Digging 24,000 graves brought no pleasure at all, especially when the people you were burying were your own family and friends.

My dear grandchild! You are more precious to me than words can convey. I pray for everyone of you by name every day! You have been raised in church by parents who want you to go to heaven.. PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW SATAN TO LURE YOU INTO HIS TRAP BY TRICKING YOU INTO DOING THINGS THAT MAKE JESUS WEEP AND BREAK THE HEARTS OF YOUR PARENTS!

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce