Jude cited three well-known illustrations from the Old Testament history to prove his point that disobedience to God leads to disaster. After exhorting Christians “to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (v. 3 NKJV), Jude wrote, “Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit and perished in the rebellion of Korah” (v. 11).
Regarding Cain we read:
And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it” (Genesis 4:3-7).
Regarding Abel we read, “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks” (Hebrews 11:4). God accepted Abel’s gift because it was rendered by faith. Faith comes by hearing God’s word (Romans 10:17). Evidently, God had told both Cain and Abel what offerings they ought to bring. Abel believed God and followed His instructions, but Cain followed his own natural instinct. That is why God told Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted?” He didn’t do well or right; he didn’t do what God had said, and so, his worship was rejected.
Many years later, Jesus spoke of the Jews of His days, “Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honour Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men’” (Matthew 15:8-9). They were worshipping God, but their worship of God was in vain (just as Cain’s worship was in vain) because their worship was according to the teachings and commandments of men. They were not worshipping as they were told in the Old Testament. It is the same today. If we want our worship to be acceptable to God, our worship must be according to the New Testament teaching (John 4:24). We can’t worship God acceptably through books authored by men, such as catechisms, manuals, liturgical orders, common prayer books, books of discipline and confession of faith, etc.
To worship God acceptably today, we must follow what the New Testament teaches. We read in Acts 20:7, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.” The disciples – Christians – came together on the first day of the week to break bread or to partake of the Lord’s Supper, to commemorate Christ’s sacrifice, as Christ had taught (1 Corinthians 11:23-28). They came together on the first day of the week (Sunday), because this is the day on which Christ was raised from the dead. Also, Paul preached God’s Word to them. This is what Christians everywhere must do on every first day of the week in worship of God. The apostle Paul also taught that on the first day of the week when Christians come together they should give their offerings (1 Corinthians 16:1-2). Ephesians 5:19 says, “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” And, of course, as we read in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, we should always be praying to God, giving Him thanks for every blessing. If we want God to accept our worship, we must worship Him according to His will.
Speaking of the error of Balaam, the apostle Peter said, “They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet” (2 Peter 2:15-16). Balaam was a prophet. God had given him a special blessing, so that whomsoever he would bless he would be blessed and whoever he cursed would be cursed. King Balak sent his men to Balaam, as we read in Numbers 22, promising him great a reward if he would come and curse the huge congregation of Israel. He was very afraid of them as it neared his kingdom on the way to the promised land. God told Balaam, “You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed” (Numbers 22:12). Balaam sent back those men to Balak with the words that God told him.
This was commendable, but did Balaam mean it? In fact, he was soon about to do a very foolish thing, as Peter later wrote, because he “loved the wages of unrighteousness.” The king of Moab was a good judge of human nature; he knew that the average man would sell out if paid a higher amount. Therefore, Balak sent to Balaam more princes, more numerous and more honourable than before, with the message, “Please let nothing hinder you from coming to me; for I will certainly honour you greatly, and I will do what you say to me. Therefore, please come, curse these people for me” (Numbers 22: 16-17).
Balaam sold out! He told the men, “Now therefore, please you also stay here tonight, that I may know what more the Lord will say to me” (Numbers 22:19). Balaam already knew the will of God in the matter. He had gone to God, and God had told him, “You shall not go with them.” This should have ended the matter forever. It is right to go to the Bible to learn the truth, but it is not proper to go back to the Scriptures hoping to find something that will change the plainly revealed Word of God. The very attitude in such approach to Bible study is itself an insult to God. Such people are not reading the Bible to find the truth; they are not studying the Bible to learn the will of God but to get God’s endorsement or approval to do their own will. For example, Christ, in Mark 16:16, said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved…” Should this not be enough for any individual to understand what one must do to be saved? Again, in Matthew 16:18 Jesus said, “…I will build My church…” How many did He promise to build? People are not satisfied with what the Lord has already said. They are like Balaam; they want to know what more the Lord has said.
We read in Numbers 22:20-22, “And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, if the men come to call you, rise and go with them; but only the word which I speak to you, that you shall do. So Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab. Then God’s anger was aroused because he went, and the Angel of the Lord took His stand in the way as an adversary against him.” Balaam became delusional, because he was more interested in what he wanted to do than in what God wanted him to do. The apostle Paul said, “And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12). God weighs the heart (Proverbs 16:2). He knew what was in Balaam heart. He wanted to go. He was not satisfied with what God had told him already. Hence, God sent him a strong delusion.
Korah was the first cousin of Moses and Aaron (Exodus 6:16-21). God had appointed Moses and Aaron to lead God’s people to the promised land, but Korah didn’t like that. Scripture says:
Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men; and they rose up before Moses with some of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation, representatives of the congregation, men of renown. They gathered together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “You take too much upon yourselves, for all the congregation is holy, every one of them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” (Numbers 16:1-3)
In rebelling against Moses and Aaron, Korah and those with him had actually rebelled against God, since God had made Moses and Aaron their leaders. We read in Numbers 16:28-35 how God punished Korah and his company for their rebellion. The record says “that the ground split apart under them, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their household and all the men with Korah, with all their goods” (v. 31-32).
For the Christian Age, Christ initially appointed apostles to lead His infant church. To them He said, “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18). Our Lord told them in John 14:25-26, “These things I have spoken to you, while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” Again, He said to them, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come” (John 16:12-13). We read about the fulfilment of this promise of Christ to the apostles in Acts 2:1-4.
The apostle John, therefore, wrote and said, “Beloved do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). Continuing in verse 6, he said, “We [the apostles] are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” If we do not believe and practice what the apostles taught (and other Holy Spirit inspired penmen of the New Testament), then, we reject God’s authority. Referring to the church that Christ established in the first century, Acts 2:42 says, “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine…” This is what we need to do today if we want to follow God’s will.
Today, God does not punish people instantly, as He did when the Bible was being written for our learning (Romans 15:4). Instead, “He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given the assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). The apostle Paul noted, “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:11).
