For
the Love of Money………
By Mac
May 22, 2001
This study is based upon the story of Balaam and his talking donkey, found in the book of Numbers. It is one of which we have all heard (or read). It is even talked about in the lessons for the children in the church. The last time I read this story, I got something different out of it, and would like to share it with you.
How many of you enjoy money? How many of you really LIKE money? How about, LOVE money? WORSHIP money? Unfortunately, although we all will claim that we don’t love or worship money, we really do. We spend the majority of our awake moments WORKING so that we can GET money. We covet money. We hoard money. We put money aside for vacations. We work overtime to get MORE money. We give our children allowance money. We take money when people give it to us. Sometimes we may take money when it is NOT given to us. Money, money, money, money.
How many of you enjoy God? How many of you really LIKE God? How about, LOVE God? WORSHIP God? Unfortunately, the reverse is applicable here. Although we claim that we DO love and worship God, we don’t. At least not as much as we do money. We spend more time thinking and worrying about money, than we do thinking and worrying about God. How many hours in YOUR waking hours do you spend working for God, and compared to working for money (I ought to put a capital ‘M” on ‘Money”, and a small ‘g’ on ‘God’. That’s the way it seems anyway.) Is a 30 minute prayer or quiet time all you spend with God on any typical day, while toiling for 8 or more hours for money on that same day?
“Wait a minute”, you say. “I” don’t worship money. I only work to support my family. Okay, I agree. There are some of you out there that do JUST that. And you ought to be commended by men as well as I am sure you are commended by God. I want to talk at the people like me, who seem to be ‘concerned’ (after all, to ‘worry’ is a sin) about money, sometimes more than we are concerned about God and his will for us to do his commands.
“We”, in general, possess several of the traits of this guy called “Balaam”. Turn to the book of Numbers, chapter 22, and we will start in verse 1. I am NOT going to add the entire set of scriptures that tell the story to this paper, but I want you all to read Chapters 22, 23 and 24. When you have finished, come back to this paper and continue……(it is important you (re)read the scriptures to digest the whole story before we continue)…..
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Okay, back? Here goes. Who was Balaam? He was a PROPHET (son of Beor) that lived during the time of Moses and Aaron, and the time when the Israelites were moving into the ‘promised land’. He was a well-known prophet of God, but was also a ‘puppet’ for SATAN. Balak, the King of Moab, knew of Balaam and summoned him to talk about the Israelites who were camped just outside his door. He had seen and heard of the conquests that the Israelites were accomplishing, so he sought help from one who he thought would curse them. Reread, starting in the middle of verse 5, through verse 6: Balak said: "A people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the land and have settled next to me. Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the country. For I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed." (ch. 22, NIV)
When Balaam was told of what Balak said, by his messengers, he instructed them to stay the night while he inquired of God on what to do. An excellent choice! WE do that, do we not, in some circumstances? We seek advise from God. We do that by praying, as well as by posing situations to our spiritual brothers and sisters to obtain THEIR advice. This trait, seeking God first, was admirable of Balaam; and is admirable of us when we do it.
But when we seek advice, do we REALLY listen to what we are being told? Or do we already have our minds made up? Are we impatient? Do we disregard the advice? The answer, of course, is ‘YES, WE DO DISREGARD ADVICE!” A lot of times! Why is that? Probably because we are selfish, prideful, arrogant, and worldly. We think we know better than our brothers and sisters. We also think we know better than God, many times. Going to buy a new car? Move to a different neighborhood? Get a new girlfriend? Most of the times, we have our minds made up BEFORE we even BEGIN to seek help from God or other disciples. We go ahead and do things even though we have been advised not to. Balaam and we share a lot in common. Let’s go back to chapter 22 and read verses 12 through 20. (Again, I am not going to include them here, I ask that you re-open your Bible to re-read those scriptures).
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Notice how admirable and righteous Balaam appears right from the start. Balaam told the messengers that God said ‘No”, so “No” it was. So, when the messengers told Balak that Balaam had refused, Balak sent more messengers (this time, distinguished princes) to entice him. (Verse 17: ….because I will reward you handsomely and do whatever you say.”)
Does Balak, I mean, SATAN, do that to us? Does he keep putting ‘better’ enticements and temptations in from of us to change our minds? Of course he does. We LISTEN, sorta, to advice from God in our prayers, but because of our impatience, many times we give in to greed or other temptations and sins, and we disregard their advice. Balaam DOES that too. Notice how, although he CLAIMS to not want any of the riches promised, he REALLY does. He is playing two masters against each other. His love of ‘money’ (wealth in the form of silver and gold) (HMMM! ---sorry, just had a revelation: “Get the ‘L’ out of GOLD, and you get GOD!” --ya know, GOLD, HELL, GOD.) Sorry about that!
Where was I? Oh yeah! Balaam loved money as much as we do. (Hopefully more, but sometimes I doubt it). When he went back to God the second time (verses 19 and 20), he was HOPING that God would let him go to Balak so he could get those riches. Kind of like playing Mom against Dad. Or, trying to worship TWO gods: Money and The Almighty. Doesn’t work. Didn’t for Balaam, and won’t for us. If you now reread verses 21 through 35 in chapter 22, you will see WHY it doesn’t work.
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To sum up what you just read…Balaam’s donkey saw the Angel of God on three occasions, while Balaam could not. His eyes were ‘shut’. The donkey knew of the wrath of God (after all, he could SEE the sword) and wanted to avoid it. Only after being beaten, did the donkey continue on the path to the home of Balak. It was on the third occasion that the Angel finally appeared to Balaam (when Balaam threatened to KILL the donkey). And then after the Angel EXPLAINED to Balaam that the donkey was saving him each time, Balaam finally got it. “I have sinned.”, he said. “I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me.” (Verse 34). He finally understood that HIS sin was his love for money being greater than his love for God.
Is that OUR sin as well. Will it take some DONKEY speaking to us to make us realize that the Lord IS on our paths that lead to destruction? God IS there, and will ‘oppose’ us if we continue along those paths. He doesn’t want us to live a life that leads to Satan, but one that leads us BACK to him.
Balak wanted Balaam to ‘curse’ the Israelites so that they would not overtake his kingdom. The term ‘curse’, is defined as a prayer or an invocation to bring destruction, pain or injury upon someone, or something. Balaam had the power, through God, to ‘curse’ people. I, for one, do not want to be one that is ‘cursed’. It would have meant destruction for the Israelites if God had allowed Balak to get his way. Being ‘cursed’ just doesn’t seem to be any fun. Which brings me to a side issue in this study, about being ‘cursed’. I have included scripture below (so that you won’t have to thumb through your Bible to find it) that talks about being ‘cursed’:
"Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, `How do we rob you?' "In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse--the whole nation of you--because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” Malachi 3: 8–10
What Malachi is saying here is that those who do not TITHE (give to the Lord the first tenth of all you have or earn) will be ‘cursed’. But the flip side is that, for those that DO tithe, he will ‘repay’ with so much that you won’t even have enough room for all the goodness. So, the side issue to this study is: “Don’t be cursed, Tithe!”
One first step in separating your love from money, is to tithe (see above side issue!). The next step is to give. Read this scripture from the book of Acts: “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: `It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" (chapter2, verse 35)
And we ALL know this warning as well: For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (1 Timothy 6:10)
And finally, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Matthew 6:24)
If you recall what you read in the remainder of Numbers chapter 22, and then all of chapters 23 and 24, you see how Balaam continued to show his love for God, instead of for money. I have included verses 12 through 14 from chapter 24 here, because it sums up Balaam’s changed heart after his ‘run in’ with the Angel. Balaam answered Balak, "Did I not tell the messengers you sent me, `Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything of my own accord, good or bad, to go beyond the command of the LORD--and I must say only what the LORD says'? Now I am going back to my people, but come, let me warn you of what this people will do to your people in days to come." He went on with his oracles to describe the downfall of Balak’s and others’ earthly kingdoms.
Balaam was warned by a ‘dumb’ animal about God’s wrath against worshipping things other than God Himself. I hate to think that we need to be warned by a donkey about God. I hope to believe that we are already warned. God IS standing in our paths that lead to destruction. The donkey saved Balaam. I thank God that he has placed HIS Kingdom on earth in the form of His Church. It is from this CHURCH that we can get our warnings. The Bible, the leaders, and from other disciples. WE TOO, can be warned about sin. Please take these warnings seriously, as Balaam did.
Our ‘earthly kingdoms’ are sometimes our homes, our cars, our possessions. All of these things will pass away someday, but God will be forever. MONEY will pass away, but God will be forever. Your LIFE on this earth will pass away, but God will be forever. All donkeys will pass away, but God will be forever. I thank Him for the warnings, so that WE TOO, can ‘be forever’, living in the Heavenly Kingdom alongside our eternal father.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers (and sisters). Amen. (Galations 6:18)