Lessons From a Donkey

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Balaam was a man who knew God, but he loved money even more.  After twice disobeying the will of God, God put his heart to the test and showed it clearly to Balaam.  Spiritually-blind Balaam quickly learned that a talking donkey could see what he himself could not--the angel of God who was standing in the way of the donkey to protect Balaam from a wrong course.  Are you going the wrong way?  How do you respond to someone trying to point out the error of your way.  Let's look at this example from Numbers 22.

Three times the donkey "sees" what is happening in the spiritual realm.  Three times the donkey tries to make a "course correction" on Balaam's behalf.  Three times Balaam strikes the donkey for his "willful disobedience."   Now, let's look at it even more closely.

The angel of God can be likened to the Holy Spirit.  He lives inside of us for many purposes, but one of them is to guide us onto the right paths when we get off course or lose our way.  He stands between us and the consequences that we will face when we disobediently choose to go the wrong way.

The donkey might very well be a spiritual friend with whom we are walking on this spiritual journey.  The Holy Spirit uses them to help us make right decisions, to hear the voice of the enemy when we speak to them about our choices  that are not in line with the Word of God, and to steer us in a more godly direction.  They  speak truth and life into our lives, directing us this way and that way, in order to help us get off of our wrong path.  But we are often too stubborn, and intent on going our own way, to listen to them.  Too many times we lash out at them, despising their wise counsel.  As we walk toward the sin, this friend will do whatever he has to to steer us away from evil.  Look at this progression in the story of Balaam's donkey and his ever increasing desire to help:

• Verse 23:  The donkey is on a road.  Seeing the angel, he turns off the way and goes into a nearby field, wanting to turn around and go back. 

• Verse 24-25:  The donkey is now on a narrow path with walls on either side of the path.  Seeing the angel, he has no where to go, so he presses into the wall.

• Verse 26-27:  The donkey is now in a narrow place with no possibility of turning around.  Seeing the angel, he has no way out, so he just lays down, because he is stuck there.

The donkey warned, but Balaam didn't listen.  The donkey tried to turn Balaam around, move him out of danger, and then just laid down.  All three times dear Balaam struck him!  When we make a wrong choice we, too, can become spiritually blinded to the warnings all around us and put our protection in jeopardy.  As we continue in our poor and sinful choices, the path of destruction NARROWS until we are STUCK in our sin.  

Another thing to consider is Balaam's response to the donkey's question as to why he had been struck.  Balaam tells the donkey, "Because you have made a mockery of me."  The donkey had been ridden by Balaam all of his life and had never let Balaam down by taking him the wrong way.  So why did Balaam lash out at him?  Because the donkey was impeding what Balaam wanted, with all of his heart, to do (to go with the men who where going to pay him lots of money for his divination!)

Translate these truths now to your own life.  How do you receive wise counsel?  Do you just want to go your own way with no intrusion from the real truth?  Have you verbally "struck" the very one who is trying to help you?  We all can learn a valuable lesson from Balaam, but even more from his "godly" donkey!