Study in the Epistle of Jude # 53: Verse 11

by Chris McCann

EBible Fellowship (http://www.ebiblefellowship.com)

Welcome to the Electronic Bible Fellowship’s Bible study. We are going through the Epistle of Jude. We have come to verse 11, which speaks of Balaam. From there, we have gone to the book of Numbers in the Old Testament, where in chapter 22, we find God going into a detailed account of the experience of Balaam. Balaam was traveling to Moab—at the beckoning of Balak the king of Moab—in order to curse Israel. We have seen that God, at first, told Balaam, “Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed.” Balaam seemingly accepted this response from the Lord and did not go with the princes of Moab whom king Balak had sent, and he refused their offers of money.

If it had been left at that point, we would think that Balaam was a true child of God, a true prophet. However later, Balak the king of Moab sent more princes who were more honorable than the first princes that he had sent, and they came with more riches in order to convince and persuade Balaam to come back with them to curse the Israelites who had come out of Egypt.

We have seen that there is a spiritual picture in all of this. Balak the king of Moab is a type of Satan; the Israelites coming out of Egypt are a picture of the elect of God, the true believers, who are finding their salvation by God’s mercy and are coming out of the world. Moab is being used of God to typify the corporate church. We have seen that Balak is the king of Moab, just as Satan reigns in the church. As Revelation 2 indicates, Satan was seated in the church of Pergamos and was dwelling there. Satan has been ruling over the unsaved in the congregations throughout the Church Age.

Balaam has saddled his ass and has risen with two of his servants to go back with these princes of Moab in order to curse Israel. Numbers 22:22 says:

And God’s anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the LORD stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him.

Immediately, we see that God apparently allowed Balaam to go the second time, after he came to the Lord seeking to find His will on this matter. Yet why would he come a second time after God had made it abundantly clear the first time that he was not to go to curse Israel? “The people are blessed,” God had said; yet Balaam persisted, and God apparently gave him leave to go.

This points to the fact that as those who profess to be the people of God desire to go down a wrong road and desire to sin against God and to continue in rebellion against Him, God allows these things to take place; He allows them to happen. He allows the man to have his sinful desire. God is not the one giving it to him, He is not the one providing the sinful desire at all, but if the man persists in desiring to go down a road that is in error, God will remove His hand and allow that man to go. That is how we can understand verse 20 of Numbers 22, where God does say, “Go with them.” It is really His permissive will that is in view.

Balaam rises up and saddles his ass and goes. Right away, we see that God is angry with him because he went. He was doing something sinful. God, at first, had told him, “Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed,” but Balaam is now on his way to curse those people who are blessed. Of course, God’s anger was kindled against him because he went.

“The Angel of the LORD stood in the way for an adversary against him”—this is important language. The Angel of the Lord is Christ Himself, eternal God. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Christ is the Way—the right Way, the correct Way, the Way that leads to eternal life. However, Balaam is not going that way. If he was traveling down that path, then, of course, the Angel of the Lord would not have been an adversary against him, but he is going another way. Jude 11 started out, “They have gone in the way of Cain,” and then it speaks of Balaam. This is the way of Balaam. 2 Peter 2:15 says:

Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

Balaam is going his own way, and what way is that? 2 Peter 2:2 says:

And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

It is a way that leads to destruction; it is a way of damnation that Balaam is going down. That is the road that he is traveling. Because of this, he is going to be destroyed by the Angel of the Lord, who is an adversary against him. Later on, we will see that that is exactly the case. God says that very thing—if Balaam had gone down that road, He would have slain him.

In the last part of Numbers 22:22, we read:

…Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him.

We have Balaam, the donkey, and two servants riding down that way, that road. Then verse 23 says:

And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.

This is a strange account; it is highly unusual. The ass, the donkey, saw the Angel of the Lord, but Balaam did not. God is a Spirit (John 4:24). Balaam could not see the Angel of the Lord God himself because God is Spirit. However, the donkey was able to see. How is it possible that the donkey could see the Angel of the Lord? That would require spiritual eyesight.

That is just the point that God is going to make with Balaam’s donkey. The donkey had spiritual eyes to see; she could see that the way Balaam was heading was going to end in a catastrophe. The donkey knew that if Balaam continued down that road, he would be killed because the Angel of the Lord had His sword drawn. The Angel of the Lord would have slain Balaam.

The donkey saw these things—she saw the Angel of the Lord with His sword drawn in His hand. The ass turned aside out of the way and went into the field. What was Balaam’s reaction? He could not see the Angel of the Lord; all he saw was that they were going down this path and suddenly his donkey was not following his direction any longer. The donkey was going her own way and taking Balaam where he did not want to go—into some field. Balaam maybe had a stick or rod of some kind, and he took it and smote the ass to turn her back into the way that he was going.

We can see the picture very clearly. It is almost comical. Here is Balaam riding down this path. He has this donkey and the donkey suddenly gets a mind of her own. Suddenly she sees something and darts off into the field. Balaam is angry and he smites the ass and turns her back into the way.

This is interesting and unusual, but what does it mean? What is the point of this? The way we can understand what God is saying here is by understanding who the donkey represents. In Exodus 13:13, we read:

And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem.

God is telling us through this verse and through other passages in the Bible that the donkey is a picture of a sinner who has been redeemed by the lamb, the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The donkey is used by God to represent the true believers. It is the true believers who have their sins redeemed by the lamb, the Lamb of God. It is the child of God who has his sins covered by Christ’s sacrifice. God says the same thing of the firstling of an ass—he was to be redeemed with a lamb—because the firstling of an ass is typifying the true believer. That is why in Numbers 22 the ass has spiritual eyes to see just like true believers do. True believers have been given the gift of spiritual eyesight.

Does not everyone who professes to be a Christian have spiritual eyesight? Does not everyone in the church see spiritually? The answer is no, they do not. We have many people during the Church Age who dwelt together in the churches and congregations; yet through their gospels, some of them began heading down a road that leads to destruction—the “broad way” that Matthew 7:13-14 speaks of. Many follow the road that leads to destruction, but there are few that follow the narrow way that leads to life.

The ass is typifying the true believers who recognize that Balaam’s way, Cain’s way, the way that these false prophets are leading and others are following, is most definitely not the way to go. Why does the ass recognize this? She can see the Angel of the Lord standing in the way. Why is the Angel of the Lord standing there? He has His sword drawn. He is ready to strike; He is ready to slay. In other words, the ass recognizes and sees that this is a way that leads to death, the second death of eternal damnation (Revelation 21:8), so she turns out of the way and into the field.

As we go on to look at Numbers 22:23, we will get a much better understanding of what is going on between Balaam and the donkey spiritually. The donkey represents the true believers that, in a sense, are yoked together with Balaam.

Throughout the Church Age, the believers and the unbelievers dwelt together in the churches as the wheat and the tares. It was very difficult, if not impossible, to discern who was a true child of God and who was not. The believers and the unbelievers worked side by side in getting the Gospel out to the world. Yet more often than not, the unsaved in the churches would rise to positions of leadership and begin leading the congregation astray. They would begin leading the people of God down the wrong path, the wrong road. They were the ones who were in authority, typified here by Balaam as he is riding upon the donkey.

The donkey, the ass, in contrast, is representing the believers in the church that have begun to go down a wrong way. They see what is going on and they recognize, “If we continue with this doctrine, if we continue teaching and following this doctrine, we are going to end up under the wrath of God. We are going to end up under the terrible judgment of God.” What does the ass do therefore? She turns aside out of the way. The ass goes out of the way that leads to destruction and goes into the field.

Why is it the field that she goes into? In Matthew 13, we read about the parable of the wheat and the tares. In the explanation of that parable, Christ says, “The field is the world” (Matthew 13:38). The donkey is turning from the way that will not profit—from the gospel that will not benefit anyone but only lead to destruction—and she is turning into the pathway of the field, into the world, and bringing the true Gospel as believers are called to do. We are called to go into all the world and preach the Gospel (Mark 16:15).

Now this ass did not know any of this. The donkey did not know these things; she had only seen what God had given her eyes to see—the Angel of the Lord—and she turned out of the way. That is the historical picture; but spiritually, the ass’s actions represent believers who turn from the way that leads to destruction and turn into the field. Since Balaam is riding upon this ass, he is forced to go with her. Therefore, for a short period of time, Balaam finds himself upon the donkey in the field.

That is exactly what happened in the Church Age. There would be unsaved individuals who due to the efforts and the teachings of the true believers would find themselves ministering the true Gospel to the world. They did not want to be there; they would much rather, as their whole nature demands, turn back into the way that they were going. They do not like the fact that they had to turn into the field and minister the true Gospel for a period of time. This is evidenced by Balaam’s action of smiting the ass.

This is what happens once believers begin to minister the true Gospel. At that point, there is a conflict going on. Balaam is trying to take the donkey down the road that leads to destruction, which is an abomination to the donkey. The ass turns into the field, but being in the field is an abomination to Balaam who cannot stand to be in the field. Balaam desperately wants to be upon his own road, the road that he is traveling, the road that he thinks will lead to riches and honor and glory even though it leads to destruction. He smites the ass to turn her into the way.

This is the constant battle that was raging within the churches and congregations of the world throughout the more than nineteen hundred years of the New Testament Church Age. Again and again, it was a matter of what direction the church would take. Would they go after false gospels and finally be destroyed? No, because the donkey was there. The donkey, the true believers, were present, and the Spirit of God was helping them. They would be able, for a time, to direct the church into its mission of getting the Gospel to the world.

Then the Balaams of the church would rise up time and time again and smite the ass. They would bring persecution and affliction upon the believers in the church in an endeavor to get the church righted, so they thought. They attempted to get it positioned in what they thought was the correct way, though it was in a manner after their own liking according to their own thoughts and reasonings and doctrines, which ultimately would destroy the church. Nonetheless, this is the way that they demanded the church be brought; therefore, they smote the ass to turn her into the way. Once again, we find that the ass does turn back into the way at Balaam’s demanding.

Then in Numbers 22:24-25, we read:

But the angel of the LORD stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side. And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall: and he smote her again.

We are not going to get into this in this study, but next time, Lord willing, we will look further at this account in Numbers 22, as the Angel of the Lord is there ready to slay Balaam, yet the ass once again had spiritual eyes to see. Next time, we will try to understand the spiritual meaning of why the ass thrust herself unto the wall and crushed Balaam’s foot.