having left [the] straight way they have gone astray, having followed in the path of Balaam [the son] of Bosor, who loved [the] reward of unrighteousness;
Peter has been describing false teachers who rise up among Christians. Here he names the man they resemble: Balaam, a prophet who knew God and still sold his services. The verse turns on two moves: a road left behind and a road taken up. Behind both is one motive — love of money.
Peter does not say these men never had light. They left a road that was straight, and one writer names that road as Christ.
"Forsaking the right way" — and surely Christ is that way — "they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam." No warning in the Book of God is more solemn or more fitting. No man ever deceived himself and others more than he did. No other man joined such grand hopes for Israel from the Lord with such subtle efforts to trap them into evil that would compromise and endanger them.
They knew the way they were leaving.
They have willingly left the way that was shown to them as the right way, and they have gone astray on purpose. Their motive is greed. It was Balaam's motive too. He was a false prophet who tried to pass as a prophet of the Lord, while all the time he wanted the wealth that Balak offered him.
Balaam was no open enemy of God. That is what makes him such a dangerous example.
Balaam had a knowledge of God. He even says "the LORD my God" (Num. 22:18). He called Israel's God his God. But he had trained his heart in covetous practices, and he "loved gain from wrongdoing." Peter gives Judas the same character (Acts 1:18). Thirty pieces of silver were "the reward of his wickedness," paid to the man who said to Jesus, "Greetings, Rabbi!" Both men show a mark of religious apostasy, which in the end perishes in its own corruption.
He wanted the money, and he wanted it to come by a religious route.
His heart was bent on going, because it was bent on the silver and gold. At the same time he made a kind of reference to God. It was an appearance of religion, put on as a cloak to cover his covetous practices. He longed for the money, but he wanted to take hold of it in a religious way. Miserable man! most miserable!
Balaam is named three times in the New Testament, and one writer sets the phrases side by side:
"The way of Balaam" in 2 Peter 2:15. "The error of Balaam" in Jude 11. "The doctrine of Balaam" in Revelation 2:14.
Peter's phrase is his way. One writer sums that way up in a single word.
"The way of Balaam" was the way of self-will. He wanted to take a certain course, and it would bring him large gain if he succeeded. But his soul knew nothing of humble submission to the will of God. Let us beware! Above all we must be careful about the teaching we hold and pass on. But we must also let the truth of God humble us and put down every atom of self-will.
The warning still bites wherever money gets mixed with the things of God.
The two mentions of Balaam should make every one of us careful about trading in the things of God for money. Otherwise we may look, in some degree, like those who have forsaken the right way and gone astray, "following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing."
One writer points to a safeguard:
In Paul's first letter to Timothy words like these stand out: "not a lover of money," "not greedy for dishonest gain," "deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain... But godliness with contentment is great gain." If words like these govern us, they will keep us out of this snare.
- Left — these men knew the right way before they left it. One commentator names that way as Christ Himself. They walked away from light; they were not in the dark.
- Loved — the verse turns on one word: loved. Balaam did not just take the wages. His heart wanted them, even while he spoke God's name.
- Cloaked — greed dressed itself up as devotion. Judas shows the same mixture, and it makes Balaam the portrait of religious corruption.
- Followed — Peter calls it a way, Jude an error, and the Lord in Revelation a doctrine. The way itself is self-will that refuses to bow to God.
- Guarded — the safeguard is contentment. Godliness with contentment is great gain, and it keeps money from steering service to God.
but had reproof of his own wickedness -- [the] dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the folly of the prophet.
Peter's warning about false teachers reaches its sharpest point with one name: Balaam, a prophet who worked for pay and was stopped by his own donkey. Two questions follow — what was the "madness," and why did a rebuke this astonishing change nothing.
Peter has already compared the false teachers to unreasoning animals. When he reaches Balaam, one writer notes what was new about him, and how far he sank.
He was not the first person to prophesy for hire… but he appears to have been the first to offer to prophesy in the name of the Lord for hire. With Balaam the supreme question was "Will it pay?" If it was a paying proposition he would prophesy to order — as far as he could. This was terrible madness, involving terrible moral degradation. In verse 12, notice, the false prophets are on a level with "irrational animals"; in verse 15 Balaam is below them. A dumb donkey was able to rebuke him.
The humiliation runs deeper still when you compare what each of them could see.
He boasted that his eyes were open. Yet he did not see what the donkey was given to see. He did not know why she turned aside from the sword drawn in the angel's hand. He did not know why she pushed herself against the wall, so that Balaam might not have his head struck but at most his foot crushed. He did not know why she lay down where there was no other way for her or her master to escape destruction. How much more guilty are false teachers since the Son of God came and gave us understanding to know Him who is true!
The word Peter chooses is not "mistake" or "weakness." One writer spells out what Balaam was trying to do.
Madness indeed, to imagine that he could cancel or change the declared purpose of the Lord concerning His people! Madness to suppose that a kind Creator would allow millions of souls to be destroyed so that a practitioner of spiritism might earn a fee! But what madness are men not capable of when they are ignorant of God?
In Balaam, the pull of money worked underneath a religious surface.
Balaam's heart was all wrong, and we see him in Numbers 22 in the miserable condition of a man pulled two ways at once. His heart was set on going, because it was set on the silver and gold. At the same time he made some reference to God. It was an appearance of religion put on as a cloak to cover his greedy practices. He longed for the money, but he wanted to get hold of it in a religious way.
His knowledge of God was real, one writer notes. That is what makes his end so terrible.
A terrible end for a man who had a real knowledge of God. He also loved honour and reward on earth. That love made him a servant of iniquity and unrighteousness. He deceived himself, and yet he called the Lord his God.
The speaking donkey was an act of restraint on God's part, aimed at a conscience that had gone numb.
God rebuked his iniquity in a startling, miraculous way: He gave a voice to a dumb animal. That should have pierced his hardened conscience, but sadly it bore no fruit. The delusions he preferred had numbed his senses too far. Today too, how shocking is the number of such hardened cases!
Peter's subject is not ancient history. He puts three groups side by side: the false prophets of Israel, Balaam, and the false teachers he expects among Christians.
The false prophets of Israel, the false prophet Balaam, and the false teachers of the Christian world all belong to the same evil family. They shall all receive the just judgment of God.
The test that unmasks them has not changed either. One writer applies it to religious movements that trade on spiritual claims:
Spiritism, and the anti-Christian cults that are really forms of spiritism at bottom, are very largely money-making concerns. That is significant. The devil knows how to play on the greed of the human heart… If there were no "money" in these concerns, we believe they would soon die out.
- Wages. Balaam's driving question was whether it would pay; the love of reward turned a prophet into a hired voice.
- Madness. Peter's word fits. Balaam thought he could reverse God's declared purpose for His people. He thought God would let millions perish so he could collect a fee.
- Blindness. The donkey saw the drawn sword. The man who boasted of open eyes saw nothing. Greed had put him below the animal he rode.
- Mercy refused. God gave a dumb animal a voice to wake a numbed conscience. It bounced off. Miracles do not soften a heart that prefers its delusions.
- Warning. False prophets of Israel, Balaam, and false teachers today are one family with one end. Money still exposes them.