If one does a search of the King James Bible for the word Balaam he'll
get about fifty nine instances of the use of the word. A vast majority
of those instances will be found in three chapters of the Old Testament,
Numbers 22-24. This portion of the Christian Bible also happens to be a
part of the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible) and is accepted
by some Jews. It is also part of the Jewish Torah. Therefore,
Christians and Jews should be familiar with this subject.

In Numbers 22-24 we learn that the Moabites feared the Children of
Israel and attempted to HIRE Balaam, a prophet of God, to CURSE the COI
Children of Israel. (Remember the Patriarchs? The fathers who ruled
their families. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are perhaps the best known of
the patriarchs; but Jacob's twelve sons were also patriarchs. So where
does the name "Children of Israel" come in? In Genesis 32:28, Jacob's
name was changed to Israel! Therefore, he is sometimes referred to as
Jacob/Israel and therefrom comes the phrase "Children of Israel" instead
of "Children of Jacob". So any time you hear the term Children of
Israel you are hearing about the descendants of the patriarchs Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob/Israel.

People often FEAR the things they don't understand. People often CURSE
the things they fear. They also FEAR some of the things they DO
understand.

Balak sought to BRIBE Balaam into CURSING the children of Israel, about
1,000,000 plus strong. These are the same people who went down to Egypt
as about 70 people, the kin of Joseph, who was sold into Egypt as a
SLAVE. The scriptures tell us, in Numbers 22:15-18, "And Balak sent yet
again princes, more, and more honourable than they. And they came to
Balaam, and said to him, Thus saith Balak the son of Zippor, Let
nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto me: For I will
promote thee unto very great honour, and I will do whatsoever thou
sayest unto me: come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people. And
Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, If Balak would give
me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the
LORD my God, to do less or more."

Notice. This king Balak promised the man of God, Balaam, very great
honor and whatever he wanted to CURSE these children of Israel. Balaam,
told him if he gave him a KING'S HOUSE, a PALACE, FULL OF SILVER AND
GOLD, he could only do as God commanded. It really appears that Balaam
didn't want to curse them. He even turned an attempted curse into a
blessing. However, Balaam REALLY WANTED those riches that Balak
promised him. The scriptures seem to imply here that Balaam went home
and did not curse God's people (Num. 24:25). HOWEVER, Balaam DID,
through Balak, curse the children of Israel and, we read in Joshua
13:22, they killed him.

I don't want to minimize the FACT that God turned the curse into a
blessing. This is mentioned more than once in the Scriptures. However,
Balaam is also mentioned in connection with the "wages of
unrighteousness" (2 Peter 2:15), the "error of Balaam" - Jude 1:11 and
the "doctrine of Balaam" in Revelation 2:14.

Rev. 2:14, KJV, "But I have a few things against thee, because thou
hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to
cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things
sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication."

Notice that Balaam cursed the Children of Israel, temporarily, by
TEACHING BALAK to cast a stumbling block before them by getting them to
eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication.

This is were the "Doctrine of Balaam" comes in and also were the
Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus comes in. Josephus tells us
HOW Balaam instructed Balak to curse the children of Israel. This seems
to be supported and reinforced by the references in Second Peter, Jude
and Revelation.

I'll give you a hint, a clue, a tip to save you some time. The Works of
Josephus is a pretty big read for one sitting. Go to Antiquities of the
Jews, Book IV, Chapter 6. He goes into great detail on how to seduce
the children of Israel.

POINT: Do you ever wonder WHY the media, supported by the courts in the
name of free speech, promotes so much ludeness and vulgarity? I'll give
you a hint. "The Doctrine of Balaam !"

Al