What Balaam teaches church planters +
I was reading the story of Balaam this morning from Numbers 22-25. I was struck by the way that God protects his people from a direct assault upon them by Balak and Balaam. Barak, king of the Moabites, hires Balaam to curse the Israelites. God tries to prevent Balaam going by sending an angel which at first only Balaam’s donkey sees. Then God allows Balaam to go, but permits only to bless Israel. Time again churches withstand direct assaults - whether through heresy or persecution. But in Numbers 25 we read that Moabite women sed uce the men of Israel and encourage them to worship Baal. The Lord’s anger against this leads ot the of 24,000 Israelites. Revelation 2:14 tells us that Balaam was the instigator of this indirect assault on God’s people.
It is a warning, I think, to us to watch of ual conduct and to guard against se xual temptation. Many ’sound’ churches that have withstood assaults from the world have been devasted by se xual misconduct within the community. Many evangelical leades who have stood against heresy have had their minsitries wrecked by se xual impro priety. We train leaders to guard heresy, but are we training them to guard against se xual temptation?
