Balaam’s Donkey

 

Cartoon created by Martin Young

Miracles without Faith, part 2


Introduction

Anyone who knows the classic Rex Harrison movies, would be familiar with the movie, Doctor Doolittle. A man who was capable of talking with the animals. There was an updated version, with Robert Downey, Jr., in which you could hear the animals speak to him in the English language.

Although this is simply movie magic, embracing the creativity of a family fun film, an actual event did occur in scripture where an animal spoke to its owner. For this story, we turn to the book of Numbers and chapter 22.

 

The Story of Balaam

Balaam was a well-known soothsayer (Josh. 13:22), a deceiver who “foretold” things for money. If someone wanted an individual, or group, blessed or cursed they would send for him.

Balak, the king of the Moabites, was just that individual who wanted the children of Israel cursed because they encamped next to his kingdom (Num. 22:3-6). He sent messengers to Balaam to complete that task.

When they arrived and consulted with Balaam, he told them to spend the night and he would consult with God on the matter. When he did, God told him not to go with the messengers as the people of Israel were blessed. So, Balaam sent them on their way. (vs. 8-13)

 

The Donkey Speaks!

The messengers return to Balak and then are immediately sent back to persuade Balaam to come with them. This time God tells Balaam to go with them (vs. 15-21).

In the next few verses, the donkey sees an Angel of the Lord, with a sword drawn, standing in its path. Three times the donkey attempts to go a different way or stop altogether, and three times Balaam strikes the donkey for disobedience (vs. 22-27).

Then a curious thing happens. Then the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have abused me. I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would kill you!” So the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden, ever since I became yours, to this day? Was I ever disposed to do this to you?” And he said, “No.” Then the LORD opened Balaam's eyes, and he saw the Angel of the LORD standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face (vs. 28-31).

The story continues in which the Angel of the Lord confronts Balaam about striking his donkey and Balaam begs for forgiveness (vs. 32-35). When you get the chance, read the rest of the story. But, for now, let’s focus on this miracle.

As you read, God opened the mouth of the donkey so that it might speak to Balaam in the human language. Yet, how much faith did the donkey have before this miracle took place? None! Obviously, the donkey is nothing more than a beast of burden. It can’t reason within itself. Being a soothsayer, Balaam most likely didn’t have much faith prior to this miracle taking place. And what of the men who traveled with them? It doesn’t say anything about them, nor does it mention that they heard the donkey speak nor saw the Angel of the Lord.

As we have stated before, faith does not need to be present for a miracle to occur. Faith would be produced after the fact but, not necessarily before.


But, as the apostle Paul writes, So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). We develop our faith when we read the scriptures. As Paul states, For we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). We do not need to see things as proof that God is with us.

 

Conclusion

Paul wrote in Romans 15:4, For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. The things in the Old Testament were written for us to learn from and to know that God used miracles even back then to prove that He is the One True Living God.

We don’t need miracles today to help us believe that Jesus is the Son of God or that God, Himself, is real. It’s through the studying of the scriptures that we become complete individuals (2 Tim. 3:16-17) and obtain faith (Heb. 11:6).

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

09. Number Your Days

Image
  God’s Bucket List for You, part 2   Introduction In Psalms 90:10-12, Moses prayed, The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Who knows the power of Your anger? For as the fear of You, so is Your wrath. So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom. We’re only give so much time here on Earth and it is up to us to make everyday count. Each day breaks down into just 1440 minutes and when you subtract to amount for school/work and sleep, it’s even less. We should appreciate the amount we have daily.   I’ve Got Plenty of Time How often have we said, or heard someone say, that they have plenty of years ahead of them to do this or that? Most young people believe that religion is for the older people; those headed into their twilight years that are “closer to death” than they were in their youth. Yet, they do...
Read more

06. Realize Your Self-worth

Image
  God’s Bucket List for You, part 5  Introduction to the series, click here Introduction One of the problems I suffer from, as do a lot of people, is a low self-esteem. We often make the mistake of basing our self-esteem on our family, friends, occupation, area we live in, and our home. Although all of that factor into our lives, they don’t have to be the main basis of our self-esteem. As part of His bucket list for us, God wants us to realize our self-worth by examining our lives according to His scriptures. If we are not following His word, as written, then we need to change and build up our self-esteem.   Moses’ lack of Self-worth In our previous article , we looked at Moses and the excuses he made to God as he didn’t want to lead his people out of Egypt. One of his excuses was a lack of eloquent speech. Here’s what he said in Exodus 4:10, Then Moses said to the LORD, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant;...
Read more

IMMORTAL (I’m Mortal)

Image
(from 2013) Introduction “Do No Try This at Home” is a phrase generally seen as a disclaimer on certain television shows that feature dangerous stunts or other things in which professionals have been training to do for many years. Teenagers and young adults will attempt to imitate these very same stunts themselves. Why? Because it’s the thrill of the stunt and an opportunity to gain approval of their peers. To them failure is not an option as well as death. It’s a certain level of immortality that young people feel because, to them, their whole life is ahead of them and death only happens to old people. But as a preacher once said, “The Old must die and the young do die.” Definitions of Immortal The dictionary definition for immortal is ‘Exempt from Death’ or ‘Imperishable’.   In other words, you can never die or you live forever. But this is not true and we all, eventually, will die. In addition, the dictionary also defines immortal on the basis of a noun in...
Read more