Deception In The Church (Part 6)

Jude addresses the attack of deception by referencing two Old Testament stories. He mentions angels who didn't stick to their post. They become distracted in their assignment and become deceived to the point that they fall. They were so full of pride and lust that they are deceived into destruction. The 2nd account is that of Baalam. You can find his story in Numbers 22-25. Moab under the reign of King Balak seeks to hire Balaam to prophesy against Israel as they travel to possess their inheritance Canaan. Five times Balaam is offered gold and he wants to sell out to greed or preach for profit instead of preaching as a prophet. He sincerely tries to design a prophecy to curse Israel and God rebukes him through a donkey and even though he wants to curse Israel he ends up blessing Israel instead. It's good to remember that if God wants you blessed it doesn't matter who wants to curse you!

Since he can't curse Israel Baalam finds another way to bring about destruction. He counsels Balak on how to defeat Israel. He tells the king that since the Israelites are pilgrims, own no land and since they are seeking a land/inheritance the best way to defeat them is to deceive them which will divert them. The scheme he presents to Balak is to get them to intermarry with your sons and daughters and they will lose their pilgrim nature and settle short of possession. When they intermarry they will learn to worship your idols which will in turn cause them to get involved in sexual immorality and they will be so distracted they will never make it to Canaan. The deception worked! In Numbers 25 Israel settled in Shittim and committed whoredoms with the daughters of Moab. They sacrificed to their gods and joined themselves unto Baalpeor. As a result 24,000 Israelites died in judgment of God.

The strategy of the devil was to get the chosen people to settle for less than the best and to stop short of spiritual fullness and inheritance. They lost their pilgrim nature. May I remind you that we too are aliens, strangers, pilgrims! If the enemy recognized that deception could divert and defeat angels and then the chosen ones in the days of Balaam, then Jude wants us to be aware of this ploy today! He knows that we have been promised life more abundant and if the enemy can deceive us, then we like the angels will leave our posts and like the chosen ones we will stop short of reaching that level of living!

How many of us have stopped short and still claim that we are living the blessed life? How many of us who were once on a journey to fulfill all that God has for us have become distracted along the way by bills, status, and materialistic things? Don't let the cares of life we cause you to settle for less. The deception of the devil is you can't seem to find the strength to push forward to fullness. Oh, yes you can. Read Philippians 4:13 and believe. The deceiver will then be put in his place!