Lessons from the Path of Balaam

There’s a strange and startling moment in the Old Testament where a donkey sees what a prophet cannot.

That alone should stop us in our tracks.

The prophet’s name is Balaam. He knows the language of God, delivers impressive oracles, and gets paid handsomely for his spiritual insights. And yet—when he's on the road to pronounce a curse for profit, it’s his donkey—not his discernment—that detects the angel of the Lord standing in the way.

It’s a moment of divine irony: “The dumb ass spake with a man’s voice…” (2 Peter 2:16, KJV). And suddenly, Balaam’s inner world is exposed. He may have spoken for God, but his motives were never fully surrendered.

The Balaam Spirit Still Speaks

Centuries later, the apostle Peter doesn’t just retell Balaam’s story—he diagnoses a spirit that still speaks today. It’s persuasive, polished, and cloaked in God-talk. But under the surface? It’s driven by ego, appetite, and greed.

Peter calls it “the way of Balaam,” and it’s not a relic of ancient history. It’s a warning for every generation tempted to confuse charisma for character, popularity for truth, and platform for godliness.

“Balaam was trying to find that sweet spot between the pulpit and the payout.”

This way is dangerous not just because it deceives others—but because it numbs our ability to tell the difference.

A Portrait of Spiritual Rot

2 Peter 2:10b–22 doesn’t offer a checklist—it offers a portrait. False teachers don’t always look like wolves. They might preach eloquent sermons. They may publish devotionals. They may even quote Scripture with ease. But “underneath,” Peter says, “it’s hollow.”

Arrogance. These teachers are “bold and willful,” charging forward with swagger but no reverence. They slander spiritual realities they don’t understand, speaking with bravado where even angels stay silent (2 Peter 2:10–12).

Appetite. They’re described as having “eyes full of adultery” (v.14). That is, every person becomes a potential conquest. They don’t resist sin—they refine it. They may wrap their desires in spiritual language, but it’s just lust in a suit.

Influence. Like expert anglers, they “seduce the unstable” (v.14)—a phrase that literally means “to bait the hook.” They know how to reel people in, especially the vulnerable. Their targets? Those just escaping deception—hurting hearts, hungry souls.

“They promise freedom—while secretly enslaving people to sin.”

Greed. Their hearts are “trained in greed,” Peter says. The word “trained” is from gumnazo—where we get the word gymnastics. In other words, they’ve worked at this. They’ve perfected the art of profiting off spiritual performance.

What Happens When the Donkey Sees More Than the Prophet?

The tragedy of Balaam isn’t just that he was spiritually compromised. It’s that he mistook proximity to truth for submission to it.

He said all the right things—“I can’t say anything except what the Lord tells me”—but his heart was angling for a loophole. He longed for an answer from God that wouldn’t cost him the reward.

It’s possible to sound prophetic and still be perishing.

“He wanted both: the blessing of obedience and the benefits of compromise.”

That’s what makes Peter’s warning so haunting. These people, he says, were close to the truth… but never transformed by it. Like pigs returning to the mud or dogs to their vomit (v.22), they weren’t sanctified—they were just well-behaved for a while.

Why Discernment Isn’t Optional

In a world full of spiritual noise, discernment isn’t a spiritual luxury—it’s a survival skill.

“Discernment is the ability to hear what’s being said, look deeper, and say: ‘That may sound spiritual… but that’s not from God.’”

But discernment dulls over time—especially when we prioritize emotion over truth, personality over purity, and hype over holiness.

There’s a condition called parosmia—a neurological side effect where your sense of taste and smell becomes distorted. People recovering from COVID have described favorite foods tasting like garbage, and familiar smells becoming unrecognizable. One doctor shared: “The real danger isn’t what you can’t enjoy—it’s what you can’t detect anymore.”

That’s the risk of spiritual parosmia.

When truth and lies start to taste the same…When we can’t smell the rot behind polished sermons…When deception feels normal and holiness feels extreme…We’re in danger and don’t even know it.

A Better Way

The good news?

You don’t have to stay there.

There’s another man who rode a donkey—not to pronounce a curse, but to carry the blessing of salvation. He didn’t preach for profit. He didn’t manipulate or seduce. He laid down His life to bring us home.

His name is Jesus.

“You don’t have to fall for the fake—when you walk with the real.”

He restores what compromise has broken. He renews the spiritual senses we’ve dulled. And He helps us taste and see again—that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8).

Walking Forward

So what do we do?

We stay close to the Shepherd.

We stay grounded in His Word.

We pray for eyes that see, ears that hear, and hearts that stay alert.

Because Balaam’s way is real. It’s seductive. It’s even religious.

But it ends in ruin.

And the way of Jesus? It’s narrow. It’s sometimes hard. But it leads to life.