Your Sons & Daughters Shall Prophesy - Prophetic Gifts Today In The New Testament Church

Madness: What Compelled the False Prophet?

to the payment he had missed ("Is there still the possibility for some gain?"), for he soon returned with devious but accurate advice for Balak. No div ination would work against Israel (note Numbers 23:23), but there was a way! Balaam counseled his client to mingle, not fight. Israel could not be cursed from without, but she herself would bring on God's curse by her own sin and idolatry. Corrupt the nation from within, he advised Balak, thereby inviting divine retribution against her (Deuteronomy 23:3-4). Tents of Midian and Moab suddenly sprouted like poisonous mush rooms on the periphery of Israel's camp, filled with every imaginable enticement for the lusts of men. Israelites flocked to these tents to com mit their whoredom (sexual pleasures carefully intertwined with acts of idolatry), after which the judgment of God broke out on them (Num bers 25). Twenty-four thousand sinners died in the plague, and then an angry Moses sent warriors to take vengeance on the Midianites. Balaam, who had given the cursed advice for "the wages of unrighteousness" (2 Peter 2:15), died by the sword (Numbers 31:8; Joshua 13:22). The soothsayer's treachery, greed and indecision have made him an infamous example of the corruption of heathenism. He was an impostor and betrayer: God did not send him, nor had He given him a message to deliver. He spoke God's word only because he was overpowered and com pelled to do so. He died as a fool and an abomination to God. The ministry of Moses, as exemplified in the exodus from Egypt and the entrance to the Promised Land, brought an all-out declaration of spir itual war against every force that would compete with the prophetic rev elation of God. From that point on all forms of sorcery, divination, sooth saying, witchcraft, necromancy, interpretation of omens and contacting mediums were expressly forbidden (Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 18:10-14). And false prophets weregivendire warning. Surely never again would a case of idolatry, witchcraft or false prophecy ever occur in Israel! But it did, time and again, and the history of the true prophets is the ongo ing story of their battle with idolatry. The term false prophet does not occur in the Old Testament, although Jeremiah said that some prophets "prophesy falsely" (Jeremiah 5:31). It appears eleven times in the New Testament. Jesus and Peter both called the misleading prophets of ancient times "false prophets" (Luke 6:26; 2 Peter 2:1), and Jesus foretold more false prophets during the Church age (Matthew 7:15; 24:11, 24; Mark 13:22). 117 • The False Prophets