Christ Covenant Church

False teachers/prophets have power too (22:1-7; Deu 13:1-3; 2Th 2:9-10; e.g. Exo 7:11, 22, 8:7; Act 8:9-11).Many of those who end up in hell did mighty works in God’s name, claimed Him to be their Lord/God, counted themselves among the upright – even occasionally feared Him and repented of their sins (22:8-21, 31-41 and 23:1-30 and 24:1-24, w/24:25 [notice Balaam “went back to his place” versus becoming a proselyte = Refused to become a part of the covenant community yet claimed God to be “His God”] and 25:1-3 and 31:16 and Rev 2:14; Mat 7:21-23).You are no different than Balaam (i.e. a person who thinks too highly of themselves) if you cannot be loyal/commit yourself to those you did not create and/or cannot control (24:25 – “his place” = ML his family [loyal to those he created] w/25:1-3 and 31:16 [loyal to those he could control; he may have lost his ability to control thru blessing/cursing, but he still yielded the power of corruption and by this would retain his power/control over people like the Midiani