Dr. Lawrence Butler

The Bridge Church, Pembroke

This is the second in a series of stories dealing with donkeys in the Bible. We know they are slow and cautious decision-makers which means they are considered stubborn in our minds. We realize donkeys are not on the intellectual level of humans, but they are important enough that they appear in the Bible several times. The incident being looked at today reveals how God can use even donkeys.

The people of Israel had been delivered from Egyptian bondage and were travelling to their promised inheritance in the land of Canaan. There were many obstacles which confronted them, but time and again the Lord intervened in miraculous ways to deliver them. Once they were faced with an enemy who took an unusual approach in attempting to destroy the Israelites. He called for a prophet to put a curse on them. He was trying to convince Jehovah to curse the Israelites, not some idolatrous god of the land. The first approach to the prophet did not work as the prophet, whose name was Balaam, was told in prayer not to go with the enemies of Israel. Therefore, the wicked King of the Moabites offered more wealth and honor to Balaam to come and curse Israel.

This time the prophet responded. Without going through all the details of the story the prophet was given a most unusual message by divine intervention. While on his journey, Balaam’s donkey refused to follow the path and ultimately crushed Balaam’s foot against a wall. Balaam beat his donkey each time, but suddenly something astonishing happened. The donkey started talking and defended her actions, challenging Balaam over the beatings. Suddenly the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam and revealed an angel standing in the path about to kill Balaam for his disobedience. The angel told the prophet the donkey saved his life three times by turning aside and disobeying his owner. (Read the story for yourself in Numbers 22.)

If a donkey started talking to me I would probably be so scared I would run. Balaam was actually too afraid to even try to run.

The real point of this is to warn us to obey God before we get into trouble. The Lord warned him in prayer, then with a talking donkey and a sword-wielding angel. Still Balaam persisted and eventually lost his life and his soul. He is given as an example of warning to the church not to allow greed to destroy our souls (see Jude v. 11).