“Lip Service”

“lip service n : avowal of allegiance that goes no further than expression in words.” —Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary

Balaam is probably best known for being the person that carried on a discussion with a donkey. However, there is a much more important distinction that needs to be stressed: Balaam gave lip service to the commands of God while harboring a real desire to do evil.

The story unfolded this way: Balaam was sought by Balak, king of Moab, to curse the Israelites as they were at the outskirts of Canaan. Balaam went with Balak, but continually advised  him that he could only say what God intended for him to say. "Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything, either small or great, contrary to the name of the Lord." These words (and others similar to them in Numbers 22-24)     would be outstanding in any other context, but they were wasted on the very man who uttered them. Balaam later persuaded many of the Israelites  to   worship foreign gods. As a result, many of them died from a plague. Balaam died  at the hands of the Israelites as they attacked the Midianites (Numbers 31:8).

The Bible makes it very clear that Balaam  did  not  intend to  bless the  Israelites, but  God overruled him: "But I (God) was not willing to listen to Balaam, so he had to bless you, and I delivered you from his hand" (Joshua 24:10). Balaam did what God wanted him to do, was even controlled by God when he did take action, yet his heart was not with God and his commands. Note the words of  Peter when he described Balaam as a man who “loved the wages of unrighteousness” (2 Peter 2:15). No matter how many times Balaam blessed Israel, no matter how many times he said that he could only speak what God wanted him to speak,  his heart was not in it.  His heart was far from God.

God’s word is very plain—sometimes, it seems, people need help to misunderstand it. However, I believe there are people  who  give  “lip service” to God’s  commands. They say and do the “right things” because  they  believe  it  is  expected, not because they believe it or want to do it. This kind of thinking will doom a generation (Judges 2:10) and hurt the cause of Christ. Let us all be concerned about speaking “the utterances of God” (1 Peter 4:11)—but even more so, let us be  concerned  that we  also  think  the   “thoughts” of God (Isaiah 55:8,9; Philippians 2:5). 

  —Lance Cordle