The Teaching of Balaam

Excerpt from Monte Judah of The Lion and Lamb Ministries:

Jesus says:

But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality.

Revelation 2:14

In particular, Yeshua speaks of a teaching of Balaam that is a stumbling block before the sons of Israel. What exactly is the teaching of Balaam and how is it a stumbling block before the sons of Israel. Who exactly are the sons of Israel He is referring to?

If you recall, Balaam was a prophet hired by Balak to curse the children of Israel under the leadership of Moses. The teaching of Balaam was to get the sons of Israel to marry foreign daughters. This would cause Israel to loose their distinctive definition as being the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This would mix other customs with theirs and thus diminish the value of their heritage. This would change the teaching so that Moses was just one of their teachers and move them gradually to a different point of view. In the end, the counsel was to assimilate Israel and make them just like anyone else, by separating them from one another and removing their identity.

The teaching of Balaam is to tell the sons of Israel that they no longer have a covenant with God through Moses. The teaching of Balaam diminishes and removes the Torah (the teaching of Moses).

Today, the teaching of Balaam is rampant. It comes in the form of the following precept: Jesus Christ came with the purpose to do away with (fulfill?) the temple service, the Torah (Law), and alter the customs of Moses. The teaching of Balaam is to replace (at a minimum to diminish) Israel's identity as the chosen people, the teaching of Moses in the Torah, and to alter the customs of Sabbath and Biblical holidays. Today, a new Christian believer will run right into these stumbling blocks with churchmen disputing Sabbath, holidays, and the idea of keeping the Torah.

The spiritual reality is that holding to Moses and the Torah is in direct conflict with the teachings of Balaam. It follows that those holding to the teachers of Balaam even take issue with the Messiah when He speaks of Moses and the Torah.

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law, until all is accomplished.

Matthew 5:17-18

The Messiah has said that the Torah is still with us and valid. However, this is not enough to convince the followers of Balaam. They dispute the meaning of the word "fulfill." However, it is clear from the context and any basic dictionary that the word "fulfill" is not a synonym for "abolish." The teachers of Balaam teach the opposite of Messiah Yeshua and forms new meanings for words on this point.

Yeshua emphasized that not one part, down to the letters and strokes of letters, would diminish prior to heaven and earth passing away. I would remind everyone that heaven and earth are still with us, therefore, every part of the Torah is still valid and with us. All has not been accomplished yet. That is clearly evident with the subject of the second coming. There is more Scripture about the second coming in the Old Testament than in the New Testament. All has not yet been accomplished.

Jesus Fulfilled/Abolished the Law?

Many (unconscious) modern replacement theologians misinterpret these verses because they believe the law is no longer relevant. However, (Jesus Christ) Yeshua said He came to fulfill it, which does not mean it was lacking something but that the coming of the Messiah completed the picture. The law now “existed as God originally intended” (Bivin & Blizzard 1994:113). But to know what (Jesus Christ) Yeshua really means with “fulfill” and “destroy”, we must go back to the Hebrew culture. “To destroy the law” meant misinterpreting Scripture, while “fulfilling the law” meant correct interpretation – they were technical terms of rabbinic argumentation. What we therefore see in our passage is that (Jesus Christ) Yeshua, having been accused of “destroying”, i.e. misinterpreting, the Tanakh (the Torah and Naviim), gives his counterargument that He is actually “fulfilling”, i.e. correctly interpreting it, and actually establishing the correct interpretation of the Old Testament (Tanakh). Stern goes back to our first interpretation by concluding that these verses “enunciate three ways in which the Torah and the Prophets remain necessary, applicable and in force. The remainder of Chapter 5 gives six specific cases in which Yeshua explains the fuller spiritual meaning of points in the Jewish Law. In fact, this verse states the theme and agenda of the entire Sermon on the Mount, in which (Jesus Christ) Yeshua completes, makes fuller, the understanding of his talmidim concerning the Torah and the Prophets, so that they can more fully express what being God’s people is all about.” (Stern 1999:26)