While the Israelites were camped at Acacia Grove, some of the men defiled themselves by having sexual relations with local Moabite women. These women invited them to attend sacrifices to their gods, so the Israelites feasted with them and worshiped the gods of Moab. In this way, Israel joined in the worship of Baal of Peor, causing the LORD’s anger to blaze against his people. [Numbers 25.1-3]
We should keep in mind that this occurrence followed Balaam's story. Balaam, to at least some degree, participated in sacrifices to the gods of Moab when he ate food Balak (king of Moab) had offered to those gods.
Then Balaam accompanied Balak to Kiriath-huzoth, where the king sacrificed cattle and sheep. He sent portions of the meat to Balaam and the officials who were with him. [Numbers 22.39-40]
In so doing, independent of actual dialog, Balaam's eating food offered to idols inadvertently but effectively "taught" Balak how to trip up Israel. And, as Jesus revealed to John in the book of Revelation, Balaam must have participated in sexual sin associated with, and in conjunction to eating this food offered to Moab's idols.
“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Pergamum. This is the message from the one with the sharp two-edged sword: “I know that you live in the city where Satan has his throne, yet you have remained loyal to me. You refused to deny me even when Antipas, my faithful witness, was martyred among you there in Satan’s city. “But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin. In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching. Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth. [Revelation 2.12-16]
The lesson for Christ-followers today is that our actions sometimes say much more than our words. In Balaam's case, his words were actually the very words of God. However, his indiscretion of eating food offered to idols and apparent associated sexual misconduct gave Balak the idea of how to trip up Israel.
What ideas do our actions give those around us? As with Balaam, our words don't really matter much - in fact, even a donkey can "talk." But it is what we do that is seen by the godless world that plants the seeds of thought in their minds how to further trip us up.
This is worth stopping and thinking about!
Father, help me to be keenly aware of my actions as the world watches... So be it.
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