THE TALKING DONKEY
The story of the very Old Testament Prophet For Hire - Balaam - would have remained just another old bible story except for two things - both Jesus and Peter mentioned him prominently towards the end of the New Testament? Why? Why would a guy, better known for riding a Talking Donkey, be mentioned in such a prominent way, almost 2000 years after he made an appearance on the plains of Midian?
(The story of Balaam is told here in Numbers Chapters 22-24 when God used Balaam's Donkey to speak to the false prophet and rebuke him, after Balaam would not listen to the Lord).
Peter used this same For-Profit Prophet as an example of many of those false teachers (and now TV preachers) we see who live carnally in the flesh and were never really saved. Read 2 Peter 2 for the full context, but here is a relevant portion from verses 13-14 which shows the current carnal state of Christianity these days! Peter said "They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed."
Even more striking is the Lord Jesus who slammed the church at Pergamum for holding to the teachings of this same Balaam character in Revelation 2:14.
This man with the Talking Donkey is worthy of our study of a Biblical example of false teaching, divination, monetary greed, adultery and sexual sin in the name of Religion. All of this survives today within the realms of certain aspects of modern celebrity religion....where this person follows that pastor.....or that author or this singer. He is also a warning to us to be really careful of what we believe or read or condone!
Therefore, meditate on the following scripture, to avoid being tagged by the Lord for discipline for following a False Faith! Study this to make yourself more approved to be called a true and wonderful servant of the Living God through Christ the King!
1 John 4 (NLT)
1 Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. 2 This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet[a] acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. 3 But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. 4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 5 Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.
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