Sermon Numbers 22:22-36 October 10, 2021
Balaam and the Talking Donkey
The story of Balaam’s donkey sounds more like folklore than a story from the
bible. It seems like something we would watch on Veggie Tales. Or perhaps, it’s
a bit more like Dr Doolittle. Talk to the animals. We wish we could.
if I could talk to the animals, just imagine it
Chatting to a chimp in chimpanzee
Imagine talking to a tiger, chatting to a cheetah
What a neat achievement that would be.
If
we could talk to the animals, learn their languages
Maybe take an animal degree.
I'd study elephant and eagle, buffalo and beagle,
Alligator, guinea pig, and flea.
I
would converse in polar bear and python,
And I Would curse in fluent kangaroo.
If people asked me, can you speak rhinoceros,
I'd say, "Of courserous, can't you?"
If
I conferred with our furry friends, man to animal
think of the amazing repartee
If I could walk with the animals, talk with the animals,
Grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals,
and they could talk to me.
What a world it would be if we could understand all that we are
going through throughout creation not just among humanity. God would be ever so
thrilled to recognize his creation is seeking beyond its own understanding to
be engaged with all its surroundings.
The story of Balaam and the donkey that finally yells out to him
to warn him for the sake of his life is a remarkable story about how
unaware we are of the world beyond our sight.
We constantly think the Old Testament is irrelevant to our life
today. Yet, the Book of Numbers is a book that reminds us of our own wanderings
in the wilderness of life. It consists of stories, laws, travel itineraries,
instructions, worship, altercations, complaining, lots of complaining, lots of
turmoil, and frustrations. The stories in Numbers provide a paradigm for communities
of faith as they face situations that bring turmoil and especially challenging
transitions-Harper Collins. Even the Apostle Paul points out in his
writings that these things were written down for our instruction.
So, what is happening in this story that we
can draw from to help us in our wanderings of faith?
Let’s start with Balaam. He is a professional prophet who makes money
going around cursing groups of people at the king’s command. His actual
existence and the existence of his profession can be found among different archaeological
records. He has a weapon of words that he uses to hurl insults and warnings and
threats to groups of people that the king feels is a threat to his kingdom. We
might say today that this is ridiculous! How can words and curses have
any effect on people? Apparently back then the prophet would curse a group by
calling down fire upon them or sending a plague of boils or crying to the skies
to close up the clouds and create a drought.
This brings me to consider the plague that is causing so much
turmoil among our current world’s people through the war of words and curses
across social media platforms. We’ve never been in a time when the words of
others could cut so deep and could affect the life of another. Suicide has been
directly linked to the cruelty of language across cyberspace. Perhaps there are
still professional prophets out there today who choose to make money off the
innocent unsuspecting participants.
Balaam’s job was to bring havoc among unsuspecting people. The
Israelites are camped along the plains of Moab. They are traveling across the
plains on their way to Canaan, to the Land of Promise. They have no idea
that the king of Moab is afraid of them. They have no idea that their life is
in danger. They have no idea that anything other than their daily
travels as a group of wanderers is going on.
What’s even more remarkable is that they also have absolutely no
idea of God’s intervention on their behalf. They are clueless to the lengths God goes
to block the curse of Balaam. They don’t even know Balaam exists. God is
putting roadblocks all along the path of Balaam to prevent any harm to come to
his people. No matter what Balaam tries to utter, the only words that roll from
his tongue are blessings.
It begs the question for all of us.
How much is happening around us beyond our
sight to keep us safe. To keep us healthy. To keep us surrounded by all that is good. To
keep us sheltered and warm. We are made aware of hurricanes days ahead of time
and people are working overtime doing things we have no clue what they are to prevent
any harm to come to us. We have no idea how many wars have been averted by our
military interventions at the ground level that we will never learn about.
Our children sleep softly and warmly at night unaware of the all-night
vigils their parents have held to streamline finances and budgets to keep the
lights on. Our students have amazing classroom instruction clueless to the all-nighter
their teacher pulled to make sure the experiments worked and the lecture made
sense.
The miracle is that God is at work in realms
beyond our sight and our understanding intervening against the evil that would seek
to harm us.
God stands in the path with a flaming sword to keep us from
harms way. Yet, even with warnings and signs, there are times we do not
know, we do not see, we do not heed what is good for us.
Balaam’s error was his blindness to his mission. God had granted him
permission to go to the king of Moab. But, when he went, God was angered that
he would still follow through on a mission meant to hurt others. To save him,
God put an angel, an adversary, in the middle of the road to block his travel to
the king.
The donkey, the trusted animal of Balaam, saw what was before
him.
Now the donkey had been Balaam’s animal of transport since he
was a child. The writers put this tiny detail in the text to let us know that
they knew each other very well. Donkeys live a long time. They are intelligent creatures.
I’ve been told, they are kept in fields of cattle and sheep because they can
sense danger earlier than other animals can. They can scare off foxes, coyotes,
and wolves. They are worthy creatures. They are truly worth a song of
thanksgiving. So, it is surprising that Balaam didn’t respond positively to his
donkey when he halted in the road.
We are given people, critters, and other trusted beings in our
life for a purpose. Yet, often the task before us blinds us from the wisdom offered
to us by these wise ones. Perhaps, now is an opportunity for us to no
longer take for granted that which we have been given.
Balaam was so blind to his task, he completely disregarded the
one very trusted gift that was carrying him. Three times this dear donkey tried
to save him. And three times he was beaten and yelled at all the more.
If we have people or dogs or cats or whatever that we love and
trust, who are doing everything to get our attention, pay attention, it
could save our life. Our task that we are so determined to be on could be
the very thing that needs preventing. If we are so convinced that we need
to push through the advice and the wisdom to the point of hurting the ones
seeking to help; it might be the very sign we need to know that it is God
seeking to save us.
Our prayer as we go through this week can be sung, Open m
eyes that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for me. Open my ears that I may
hear voices of truth thou sendest clear. Open my mouth and let me bear gladly the
warm truth everywhere.
God sent us Jesus as the visible truth for us to see and to hear
as our living truthful companion on our path of life.
Our friends and our creation that surrounds us is not by
coincidence. We are all guided on a path. We are given direction. We are all on
a journey called by God to be partners in life and in love. This story has so
many layers from which we may pull the lesson of God’s unwavering presence
in times of challenge. We may learn that Dr Doolittle was right to learn to
talk to the animals. We may learn not to take anything for granted. We may just
enjoy a good story with a good ending. Let’ rejoice in the love we have
together in Jesus, now and forever.
Amen.
Resources: NIB Volume 1 Numbers; Harper Collins Bible
Commentary; Henrietta Mears “What the Bible is All About”; Harper Collins Bible
Dictionary
Monica Gould. Sharing is permitted. Please send requests to reprint with permission to mongould@gmail.com
