Balaam and the Talking Donkey

 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