Dear Church | Week 3 | Letter 3 - Dinner with Demons (Pergamum) - Audio

Jesus’ letter to the church there is a warning (to them and us) against compromise. There are those in the church at Pergamum that have compromised the Truth of God and accepted the false teaching of Balaam. Balaam was a prophet in the Old Testament book of Numbers that was offered a lot of money by the Moabite king (Balak) to curse the Israelites. He tried 3 times but was unable to curse them. Each time, God only allowed him to bless His people. Balaam said that God’s people cannot be cursed in that way. They are protected. So he faced a dilemma. He couldn’t get the job done and yet he wanted to get paid. So, he came up with a plan. He told the king to send Moabite women to the people of Israel to entice them to sexual immorality. He advised the king to send these women with their idols and sacrifices to those idols to further entangle the Israelites in sin. He knew that although he could not curse them from afar, they could bring themselves under a curse through sin, rebellion, and disobedience. It worked! Because of their sin, the Lord sent a plague on the people of Israel that killed 24,000 people.