THE DOCTRINE OF BALAAM
THE DOCTRINE OF BALAAM
The effort of evil is to reduce everything to its own level. We cannot be in a scene of evil, where the spirit of evil rules, and not be sensible of the continued effort or assault made on us to yield to the course of things here, which is the world.
The moment we recognise and are in any measure established in the great fact that we are of God, from that moment according to our progress, must we feel that there is a direct and continued opposition to us in everything around. “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you”. But besides this, there is often, in various ways, an assault planned and prepared by the god of this world, to reduce us from our heavenly or divine status, to the order of things where he can rule without being discovered.
Once we see the existence of this evil spirit and his designs, we are not unprepared for them: but though we are not unprepared, yet it is of deep importance that we should be able to detect how the snare is laid for each of us. We are oftener watching against the result, than against the beginning; though it is hardly necessary to say that if we were guarded against the beginning, we should be preserved from what the beginning would [p. 94] lead to, - the end. The beginning, or first false step, is of immense importance, and we must remember what the object of evil is, in guarding against it. The object is to reduce us to the level of the world. Hence the beginning is to present counsel outside or apart from the word. The first failure of a saint is rebelling against the word, and despising the counsel of God. The counsel of the ungodly is accepted, and appreciated. This is the beginning of the snare. It occurs in various ways. In a matter of business, or step of any kind, one may turn to a very prudent, far-seeing man in the world, who from one cause or another is very friendly, and naturally very dependable. His advice is sought; and when adopted, the snare is successful. A snare is an unseen mode of depriving you of the liberty of action, by pandering to your natural desires. To deprive a saint of the liberty wherewith Christ has made him free, is the master-plot of Satan.
Now once human counsel is accepted and adopted, however amiable and wise it may be, it is simply not of God. I cannot know evil, but as I know good; good is of God, and hence when I am swayed and directed by the counsel of any natural man, however wise he may be, it is not of God, nor is it therefore perfectly good. I cannot see evil but as I see good, therefore I must form my idea of evil, from my idea of good. The divine mind only can fully see evil, and it only can preserve me from it. A soul in seeking or accepting advice from a shrewd kind man of the world, never thinks or intends to drop into the world, when availing himself of his counsel, but it is evident that the counsel, when accepted, must place us on a level with the person who gives it; and if he is worldly, it must be worldly, and once you are on this level you are compromised, you are a captive in the hands of the world; the hair of your Nazariteship is shorn off.
The first advice of wisdom is “Forsake the foolish”. The great effort of the enemy is to draw saints unto a common footing with the man of the world. In the [p. 95] education of our children, and in everything, the bait of the world is “Cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse”. “But he knoweth not that the dead are there”. We sink into bad, that is to say worldly or earthly company; we imbibe the evil of it, so that “evil communications corrupt good manners”. The first effect of it is that the word of God is without any conscious rebellious feeling, turned away from, and man’s counsel is adopted. This is the decoy; but once the saint is here, the descent is sure, however gradual; for he is descending - and the descent is, to do as men do here, and to be as they are. When you are as one of the world here, you have lost your distinctive character for Christ; the purpose of grace is defeated, which is, that each saint should be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ in His great and wonderful path here on earth; walking in the details of daily life and service to man in the truth and wisdom of God. This is defeated when a saint drops down in anything to the ways of the world. Worldliness is when man is the object, in the use of worldly things, while a saint, while he uses things in the world, has Christ as his object in the using of them. His thought is, would it suit Christ, not himself merely. The enemy conceals his rule, while he deceives man to make himself the object in everything; but then God is shut out, and this is the end he desires. The saint, on the other hand, must insist on God being the exclusive object, and this of itself is greater glory to a man because it declares his connection with God.
It is helpful to note the way, as recorded in Scripture, that souls are drawn away from the Lord. The way in which Satan beguiled Eve, ever since has been the principle on which he acts. Setting aside the word of God to occupy the mind with what is visibly attractive - then it is that the worldly influence obtains.
Lot was drawn by natural wisdom to Sodom, and eventually he was mixed up with the inhabitants; he not only shared in their advantages, was involved in their afflictions, but also, some of his family suffered in its [p. 96] judgment, and he himself though miraculously rescued, never regained the place and path of testimony. You must be of the world if you mix in it. It is not enough to refuse or withdraw from the unconverted in assembly fellowship at stated times, if at other times you can be on a level with man naturally.
Balaam’s stumbling-block was on this principle, the master-piece of iniquity. Reduce the people of God to a natural social level with the world, and their overthrow morally is complete. Hence in Revelation 2 it is called the doctrine of Balaam, and it was the great means used by Satan to reduce the assembly to a worldly level. From social intercourse they dropped in their mode of worship, etc. You descend to their moral depths.
This downward course is presented in a very striking way in Proverbs in the figure of a young man first (chapter 7: 7), until eventually he is, when on the brink of ruin, awakened to his danger. The first and chief cause of the failure of Israel in the land, as well as the evidence of their unfaithfulness, was that they did not drive out the inhabitants of the land, and they became snares to them and they learned their ways.
A believer is of Christ, and he is though once of the world, sent into the world to be the follower of Christ here: he is not to be unnatural, but he is to act with a new object here - Christ is his object. Man is the object of the world. The christian has a nature susceptible of the influences of the world; the natural man cheerfully yields to those influences; the child of God is set here to refuse those influences by insisting through the Holy Spirit on everything due to Christ. I shall never be able to know what is worldliness unless I know what suits Christ. Worldliness is what suits man. I am naturally a man, and I am ever and anon solicited by everything here to adopt and follow what suits man, and I cannot resist it unless I am clear as to the truth, and sustained by the Spirit of God in that which suits Christ. If there was no one in the world but myself, and were I in simple [p. 97] happy faith in Christ, I should determine everything by what was due to Him. I do not say that my own selfishness would not work without any example among men, but I should have no support from any fellow creature outside of myself. Among men, among one’s own, the worldly thing is countenanced, my natural tastes are addressed, and it is easy and pleasing to fall in with whatever is most generally approved, which is simply ‘the fashion.’ I must be simple and strong in the Lord, under His rule and supported by Him, or I shall be guided in my habits and ways by the course of those around me. But if I am separate, however domesticated I am with worldly relations, separation morally will ensue if I am faithful; and this is greater than separation positionally; at any rate one who is separate where he is domesticated, would be relieved were it ordered for him to be positionally so. All worldliness proceeds from man being led on secretly by Satan, in opposition to God, and the saint who is sent into the world, to live Christ here, is caught by the world, when he first adopts its counsel or mode of acting, and the end inevitably must be, that he will learn of their ways; and like the children of Israel, lose the enjoyment of his standing in Christ. I must either have Christ for my guide in everything, or the world must influence me. It is not that every saint is out of the world, but the great point is, Am I resisting it, am I seeking to be out of it, or am I submitting to be more and more of it?