Numbers 22:27 And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he smote the donkey with a staff.
People that know me know I am very much an animal lover. Our dear and precious grand dogs are very important to me. As I look at the story of the talking donkey and Balaam in the Old Testament I can’t help but be a little amused. The donkey had more sense than the human. Doesn’t that seem to be the case much of the time.
That poor donkey!
─Three times the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord trying to stop Balaam from proceeding on and all three times Balaam beats the donkey for stopping. The trouble is, Balaam doesn’t see the angel. The donkey sees the angel and keeps trying to go another way. She turns into a field and gets beaten. She presses close to a wall, crushing Balaam’s foot, and gets beaten again. Finally, she simply sits down. When she is beaten again for this last bit of disobedience, God does a wonderful thing. Before God opens Balaam’s eyes and allows him to see the angel, God opens the donkey’s mouth and lets her speak up for herself! As it turns out, she has saved Balaam’s life, and Balaam acknowledges that his donkey is more righteous than he. He is the prophet of the Lord and she is a donkey, but the donkey could see what he could not. Balaam tried to take things into his own hands when it would have been better for him to stop and wait for God’s guidance.─
Being in the ministry I see that many times men & women in places of position within the church just ride through like Balaam. There are some that try to talk with us about the way they think we may be handling a situation of the path that is being taken but all we do is beat them down. We would never think that God may be using the ‘donkey’ to see something that we do not see. How could that be? I am in _____ position! They should never to speak to me like this! I wonder how many times Balaam was sorry he thought that?
Just as my sweet grand dog, Fleetwood taught me so much about life and love, this story needs to remind us of the humility we need to have. None of us are considered special when it comes to discerning the will or presence of God. He so willing sees us all the same ─ His Child! He sure did use Fleetwood to teach me much and in this story he used the beast of the earth to teach Balaam. So when someone offers you advise or is talking about the things the Lord has shown them ─ maybe they are the ones who can truly see the Lord.
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God does reassemble shattered pieces 