Dumber Than A Donkey
By Bruce N. Cameron
It was a cool, clear morning. Balaam was outside sitting on a low rock running his toes through the sand. He was in a funk because he had missed his chance. He had hoped to be on the road to riches. He had hoped to be on the road to honor. But now, he was sitting on a rock, at home in Aram, upper Mesopotamia, getting his toes dirty.Numbers 22 What is the problem? Let me tell you first the background for our story. A couple of years after the children of Israel had made their exodus from Egypt, God told them to head over to Canaan, the Promised Land. But because of unbelief, they were afraid to enter in. So, God had them wandering in the desert for fully forty years. Now, having been told to enter again, they were on the move into the plains of Moab along the jordan river.
Their arrival, as far as the moabites were concerned, was a lot like an alien army visiting from outer space. Remember, the Israelites were
led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (exo. 13:21). Can you imagine a big section of sky lit up by fire at night? That looked supernatural, because that's exactly what it was! Now you get an idea of how King Balak of Moab felt. This army of Israel had shown up out of the wilderness and had already defeated the Amorites.Balaam summoned. The Moabites were scared. We learn from Numbers 22:4 that they thought the Israelites were going to "lick up" everything around them. So king Balak sent messengers to summon Balaam, taking with them the rewards for divination, and asked him to curse the enemies.
Now, put yourself in balaam's place. The king calls you. He says powerful invaders are attacking the country and we cannot defend ourselves against them. You are the man of the hour. You are the one who can save the country, because you have a relationship with God. If you can make that relationship work to save the country, you will be on center stage; you will be a hero! It's worth more money than you can imagine.
The princes arrive carrying the message from the king. Balaam tells them to stay overnight while he asks God what to do. Let's look at his conversation with God:
And God came unto Balaam, and said, What men are these with thee? And Balaam said unto God, Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, hath sent unto me, saying, Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt, which covereth the face of the earth: come now, curse me them; peradventure I shall be able to overcome them, and drive them out. And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed (vv. 9-12).The next morning, Balaam tells the princes of Balak the bad news. Now, you know why Balaam is sitting on a rock, depressed and discouraged. The chance of a lifetime has just slipped through his fingers.But the devil will not let him alone. Balak sends more princes, who are more prestigious, offering more honor and no doubt more money. Listen to what Balaam says in verse 18:
If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more. Now therefore, I pray you, tarry ye also here this night, that I may know what the Lord will say unto me more.Conditional permission. That
sounds very noble, doesn't it. But remember, God has already told him not to go. With that palace of silver and gold dancing in his head, Balaam really wants to go. Otherwise, he would not have told Balak's messengers to stay another night. Knowing that, God comes and says to Balaam in verse 20, "If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do."Very often, God gives us permission to do what we want to do even though we already know from the word of God that it is something we should not do. He lets us learn our lessons the hard way. So, when Balaam begins to go with the princes of Moab, we read in verses 22-29:
And God's anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him. And the ass saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way. But the angel of the Lord stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall: and he smote her again. And the angel of the Lord went further, and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff. And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times? And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.I love this! Balaam doesn't even blink about talking to his donkey. When the donkey talks, Balaam starts arguing with him as though the donkey were one of his servants! And what Balaam says to his donkey gives us a snapshot of the man. He says, "I've been beating you because you are making me look like an idiot! If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now."You see, there are all these important princes around. Balaam is going off to save the nation, advise the king, and now he looks as though he cannot do a simple thing like driving his donkey in a straight line. How is he going to advise the king on controlling their enemies if he cannot control his own donkey?
The truth is, he was dumber than his donkey. Read verses 31-33:
Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face. And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me: And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless
she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive.The Lesson For Us
My friends, I want to talk with you this morning about being dumber than a donkey. I know I have been dumber than a donkey a lot of times. Although it should be one of our goals in life to be at least as smart as Balaam's donkey, we will continue to be dumber than donkeys from time to time in the future if we do not understand the point of Balaam's story. Peter tells us the point in his second letter when he describes Balaam as one "who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet" (2:15,16).He loved the wages of unrighteousness or wickedness. What were those wages? Balaam's problem was that he loved glory and money. The Bible calls it madness. I am convinced that all of sin comes down to just one or two attitudes: pride and greed. Just exactly what Peter tells us were Balaam's problems.
Attitudes of pride and greed make us headstrong and dim our vision for seeing God's leadership. Balaam's problem was that pride and greed made him disloyal to God. He thought the goal was to advance his interests instead of God's interests.
Hypocrisy. You may ask: Didn't he go to God twice? Didn't he ask permission twice? Didn't he refuse to go until God let him?
Friends, the most important lesson we can learn from this account is to understand what the problem here is. It is so subtle, but so lethal. And it is our problem. Jeremiah 29:13 tells us to seek the Lord with all our heart. Paul in Romans 1:9 says he served God with his whole heart. Balaam sought God, but not with all his heart.
The people out in the world do not have this problem. They say they are in charge; they make no pretense of putting God in charge. Balaam made a pretense that God was in charge, but he really wants things done his way. What looked like obedience on Balaam's part was really disloyalty or hypocrisy. He only kept going to God because his will was different than God's will. He knew God's will, but he wanted God to agree with him. Otherwise, he would not have gone back to God to begin with.
Have you ever done this? You know God's will. His will is plain. But you seek something else. You carefully search the Bible for a different answer. You pray up a storm looking for God to tell you what you want to hear. You fool yourself into thinking that you are looking for God's answer. But you really want God to agree with you!
Self-deception. My friends, if you look in the Bible for your own answer, you will find your own answer. If you go to God in prayer looking for your own solution, you will find your own solution. But you would be better off saying, "I'm going to do my will. Forget God's will." That would be better because at least your conscience would pester you. When you make this pretense of seeking God's will, you won't even feel guilty because you have deceived yourself.
As you race around the track of life, you cannot understand why you are not going as fast as you want. It is because God is in charge. If we think we are in charge, we are dumber than
a donkey. God makes this point to us more than once in the Bible. In Isaiah 1:3. God says: "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." God says Israel did not understand what the donkey and ox understand: that God is in charge!Application
What is the application for ourselves? Learn not to beat God's messenger. Let me explain.Consider the loyalty that Balaam's donkey had to his master. Balaam beat his donkey three times. He was so mad, verse 29 says, he would have killed his donkey. Can you imagine how much that donkey had suffered? If Balaam was so angry that he would have killed the animal if he just had the weapon, the beating he administered must have been fierce!
The donkey was being beaten because of his vision. The donkey could see the truth, but Balaam could not. The donkey could see the danger, but Balaam could not. So far, I've had you in Balak's shoes and Balaam's shoes. Now put yourself in the donkey's hooves. If someone were trying to beat you to death, because you were trying to save his life, how long would you argue? After I have gotten whacked a few times in the nose, the lips and the ribs, I know I would say, "you're right Balaam. We really do need to get moving along now."
Godly people. There are times when God uses a godly person to help us walk closely with God. That person may know more about God's will for us than we ourselves do. Now, if we are dominated by pride and greed, we are likely to beat that person, so to speak, instead of heeding his advice. And we would end up doing things that are contrary to the will of God.
We need to understand God's will because He is in charge! Friends, Proverbs 27:17 says, "Iron sharpeneth iron." Silly putty does not sharpen iron. Plastic does not sharpen iron. Iron sharpens iron. It's good to be complimented or even flattered. But that doesn't help us grow in grace. We should welcome scriptural criticism of ourselves so that we can better know how to become more like Christ. Seek God's guidance. Seek to be as wise as Balaam's donkey. o
Bruce N. Cameron, J.D. a constitutional lawyer, is a gifted preacher and teacher of the Word of God. His Internet web site is www. cameronlaw.com.