Balaam's Error

I have been wandering around the Bible lately studying prophecy.

[Actually I'm surfing around the Biblos Bible Hub web site, which I'm convinced is God's special gift to mankind for these last days.  When else in the history of mankind could a lay person like myself have the best concordances, multiple translations, commentaries, Greek and Hebrew text and dictionary references and more, all available for no charge, only a mouse click away?  History has not always been so kind to Christians seeking the truth.  Roman Catholics authorized by King Henry IV of England burned people at the stake for publishing or translating the Bible.  Thankfully, and owing a huge debt to those who laid down their lives for this privilege, there is a greater opportunity today than ever before for the body of Christ to "rightly divide the word of truth."]

A Canaanite in the House 

So, one verse caught my attention recently:

Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the LORD of hosts; and all who sacrifice will come and take of them and boil in them. And there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts in that day.
Zechariah 14:21 NASB

That thing about the Canaanite no longer being in the house of the LORD just didn't quite click.  To be sure, God was totally opposed to the Canaanites from the day Ham walked in on Noah's hangover.  That's another whole topic.

However, Jesus didn't reject the Canaanites.  After all, the disciple Simon the Zealot was also called a Canaanite (Kananaios) in Matthew 10 and Mark 13.  In Matthew 15 a Canaanite woman had such great faith that Jesus healed her daughter.  So, why won't there be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD?

I had two thoughts (maybe equally valid and possibly both true).  First, is the antichrist a Canaanite?  This could be a prophecy about the day when the antichrist no longer stands in the temple and proclaims himself to be God.

The other thought is a bit deeper and less speculative.  The word for Canaanite here is also the Hebrew word for merchant or trader.  I suppose that because they settled on the Mediterranean coast, the Canaanites became traders and thus their name became synonymous with trade.  Some translations read more like "And there will no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts in that day."

That sheds a whole new light on this verse (and illustrates why you need more than one translation of the Bible when you study deeply).  During the Millennial reign of Christ everything is holy, from the animals to the cooking pots to the people.  There won't be any demand for merchants to sell holy animals and vessels to the people like they were doing when Jesus cleansed the temple.  Merchandising in the temple of God was one thing that made Jesus very, very angry.  Which brings me back to my original topic.

Balaam's Error

But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.
Jude 1:11-13 NASB

Balaam was a merchant in the house of the Lord.  In other words, he offered his prophetic gifts for money.  Worse, he offered to help the enemies of the Lord and curse God's chosen people for money.  Of course, God wouldn't let him do that.  It didn't help Balaam much to be in direct communication with God because he also consulted demons.  Balaam is on Satan's all-star team because he thought he could profit from being a prophet.  In fact, he was blaspheming the Holy Spirit and bringing a curse on himself.

Notice the term "wandering stars" in the verses above.  The Greek is "asteres planetai".  Asteres is the Greek word for star, from which we get the word "asterisk".  The English word planet comes from the Greek word for "wandering".  Astronomers at the time couldn't figure out why planets didn't stay in the same constellations as the other stars, so they called them "wanderers."

The "error of Balaam" in Greek is "plane".  Basically it is the same Greek root, implying that the error of Balaam was to wander away from his gift and into error.  How many of those gifted by God have gone astray into using their gift for obscene financial rewards - and then because of the love of money have introduced error into their message to maintain or magnify their gains?  Like planets, we will drift slowly away into darkness if we are not under the control of the light of truth.

According to John in the book of Revelation, when Balaam could not pronounce a curse on Israel, he taught the Canaanite king Balak how to weaken Israel by enticing them into idolatry and fornication.

The love of money is indeed the root of all kinds of evil, but when the love of money is mixed in the temple of God, Balaam's error is born.  We must be particularly careful to avoid the many snares that are laid for us by those that follow the error of Balaam.