Talking Donkey’s for Sale

March 10, 2014 by Naphtali 3 Comments

If you are a true skeptic of the Bible, this story is one for the record books. God is creative and enjoys using and performing the extraordinary. He is the Master of Billboard rights; Producer of theatrical plays and Director of taking that which is evil and turning it around for his purposes.

Balaam was a sorcerer; a self-imposed dream interpreter who hated the Jews. He was evil and actually believed he could change God’s mind about Israel.  He joined forces with Balak, the King of the Moabites to curse the Israelites for the slaughter of the Amorites. The battle was a result of this wicked nation trying to stop the Israelites from passing through and their sin.

Balaam tried to use God for his love of money. As he and Balak schemed to curse the Israelites he was met with “fees for his divination” from Balak’s messengers. (Numbers 22:7)

If your donkey all of a sudden began asking you, “why are you beating me? What have I done to deserve such treatment” what would you do?

As the story goes Balaam’s donkey was stopped by an angel Balaam couldn’t see.  How embarrassing. But not for Balaam. As the angel appeared to him he fell on the ground as if to be repentant of his sin, yet sincerity isn’t a positive characteristic of the wicked. It didn’t last long.

God basically forced the words he wanted to come out of Balaam’s mouth to the King of the Moabites. 3 times he blessed the Israelites instead of cursing them.  Balaam told Balak he had to speak blessings; if he didn’t it was probably physically painful.

How many of us need a talking donkey?

Most of us?

The church itself needs a lot of talking donkeys.  The vision of the angel in front of Balaam was invisible to him, but not the donkey. Like us, we can’t see past the donkey ears to what is ahead because we have pushed the angel and God to the side roads or the ditch.

The vision God wants for us is to see the good in everything yet the first thing many see when walking into a freshly painted room is the one spot the painter missed. Where is your focus?

In a beautiful field of flowers many will find the dead one first.

Your harvest of corn is growing better than usual but that one stalk is covered in bugs.

The latest so –called Christian movie is full of the love of God, but don’t go see it because the producers are New Agers.

If God told me to walk into a bee hive even though I am allergic to bees, I would obey him, but that is the only way I would do it.

The Bible is full of bad people. Murderers. Adulterers. False Prophets. Evil Kings. Stupidity. Fearful Prophets. Prostitutes. Hypocrites. Religious Zealots. Betrayers. Money changers. Thieves. Liars. Idol worshippers. Sound familiar?

Did God tell Abraham when he committed adultery “Forget it? That promise I made to you to become the Father of many nations won’t happen now. At least not from you.”

Did God tell David after he became King, stole his best friend’s wife and then murdered him, “You really have blown my plan. My lineage to the Messiah was to come from you, but not now. How could you do something so stupid?”

NO. God went right ahead with his plans and used them anyway. And what happened?

He took the evil and turned it into good.

He took their sins and put them on Jesus.

He took the darkness they were living in and brought them into the light.

Are we limiting God by nit-picking evil out of the good he produces?

Have we stooped so low we believe God isn’t powerful enough to remove the evil so we have to step in and do it for him? Have we become such great believers in ourselves we can dictate to non-believers or the backslidden from going to see a movie or read a book about God that isn’t quite up to what we as Christians believe the Bible wants it to show?

Isn’t God capable enough of revealing the differences of an imperfect movie made by humans to the awesome perfect wisdom and knowledge of his own theatrics?

Give me a break.  Anything we do will be imperfect and God will take that imperfection and do for us the same thing he did for Abraham and David.

Who wants a talking donkey?