Having described the false teachers’ insatiable appetite for sin and their predatory targeting of vulnerable believers (2 Peter 2:14), Peter now reaches into the Old Testament for an illustration that encapsulates everything that he has been saying. The figure of Balaam presents one of Scripture’s most unsettling portraits, for he was not an ordinary pagan sorcerer. He knew enough about the true God to seek His counsel and to speak His words on occasion. When the king of Moab hired him to curse Israel, Balaam initially appeared to submit to God’s direction (Num. 22:8–21), and he even uttered some of the most beautiful prophecies about Israel’s future found anywhere in the Old Testament (23:19; 24:17).

For all his apparent obedience, Balaam’s heart was corrupt. He “loved gain from wrongdoing” (2 Peter 2:15). The Old Testament confirms that his corruption went further still, for according to Numbers 31:16, Balaam led others into sin, counseling the Moabites to use their women to entice Israel into idolatry and sexual immorality.

The fees offered by Moab’s king were irresistible to Balaam. Even when God permitted him to go with the Moabite delegation, the Lord’s anger burned against him because his motivations were mercenary, and it took the rebuke of a donkey to expose the madness of a man who claimed to speak for the Almighty (2 Peter 2:16).

Peter sees in Balaam a type of the false teachers plaguing the churches. Like Balaam, these men could speak religious language with apparent fluency. Like Balaam, they participated in the worship life of God’s people. And like Balaam, they were motivated by greed. John Calvin comments that Balaam’s example shows how those who “prostrate themselves before gain” corrupt whatever genuine gifts they may possess, for covetousness blinds the mind and corrupts the will.

Peter’s comparison carries a sharp irony. Balaam was rebuked by a donkey; an animal with no capacity for spiritual understanding proved wiser than a prophet who should have known better. Peter has already compared the false teachers to “irrational animals” (v. 12), and now he shows that in Balaam’s case an actual animal displayed more spiritual sense than the man who presumed to speak for God. The “way of Balaam” is a recurring warning in Scripture (see also Jude 11; Rev. 2:14), describing the path of anyone who uses spiritual gifts, religious position, or theological knowledge as a means to personal gain.