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2 Peter 2:15<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Follow the path God leads you on no matter how much fame and fortune are promised you.<\/p>\n Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The words \u201cwandered off<\/span>\u201d are translated from plana\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto roam, to go astray, to leave the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFollow<\/span>\u201d is the translation of the Greek word exakolouthe\u014d<\/span><\/em>, a compound word made up of ex<\/span><\/em>, used here as an intensifier, and akolouthe\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto accompany or to follow.\u201d Hence this word means \u201cto intensely follow\u201d or \u201cto imitate.\u201d<\/p>\n Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n In the close of the last verse and the first part of this verse, Peter said that these false teachers are \u201can accursed brood who have left the straight way and wandered off.<\/span>\u201d <\/span><\/span>The way of righteousness in our traversing this world is often portrayed as walking down a path. We all have the option of following the straight path or of blazing our own path apart from the road God wants us to travel. These false teachers have gone one step farther. Not only have they left the path God has for them, but they have led others off the right way unto their own path. Though it may seem like a better way, it never works out so.<\/p>\n Instead, Peter says, these teachers have followed \u201cthe path of Balaam the son of Beor.<\/span>\u201d Let\u2019s look at this prophet of the Old Testament and see what he did. This event occurred just as the children of Israel were about to enter into the Promised Land. You can read about it in Numbers 22:1-24:25<\/span><\/strong>. The Israelites were in the land of the Moabites just across the Jordan River from Jericho. Balak, the king of Moab, was afraid of the Israelites and called for Balaam to come and curse the Israelites so that the Moabites could attack them and destroy them.<\/p>\n Initially Balaam refused to come because Jehovah had instructed him that these were \u201cblessed\u201d people and they were not to be cursed. When Balak heard that Balaam refused to come, he offered Balaam great wealth and great honor if he would curse the people of Israel. Balaam then agreed to go with them knowing full well that God had forbidden him from cursing the Israelites.<\/p>\n Balaam was more persuaded by wealth and honor than he was by direct revelation from God himself. He was willing to \u201cgo along\u201d with the evil doers even though he knew it to be wrong. It appears that Balaam\u2019s intention was to not curse the Israelites, but he went along anyway because of his fleshly desire for fame and fortune.<\/p>\n There is a very real warning contained in this event. Do not stray from the path that God has laid out for you no matter what the price. Do not let the allurement of fame and fortune turn you from the straight way. Not only will the riches not satisfy you, but you will find that you are acting in direct opposition to God, and He will not bless your actions.<\/p>\n Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The straight path does not always appear to be the easiest or even the best, but we can trust God when he gives us direction. Let us learn to be sensitive to the prodding of the Spirit so that we can overcome the allurements of our own sinfulness and obey the One who knows the best path for us!<\/p>\n In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2009 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n <\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2 Peter 2:15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. Truth to Learn Follow the path God leads you on no matter how much fame and fortune are promised you. Behind the Words The words \u201cwandered off\u201d are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[310,311,312,313,314],"class_list":["post-961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-balaam","tag-balak","tag-fortune","tag-straight-way","tag-wickedness"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-fv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"\/signature.gif\")
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