All right, good morning, church family.
Let me say Happy Mother's Day to all of our moms in the house.
I don't know how many pastors across America are preaching on
a talking donkey on Mother's Day, but there's at least one.
If you would open your Bibles to the Book of Numbers, chapter 22.
This morning we're going to be in verses 19 to 29.
Numbers 22. We've been going through numbers
for several months continuing our series.
Last week we began a series on the the prophet of Balaam, and
we'll probably be doing at least three 4-5 sermons on him as he
covers the the the next several chapters in the Book of Numbers.
This morning we're going to be in verses 19 to 29.
The title of the sermon this morning is this.
God will get our attention. So let's read the text.
I open this word prayer, and then we'll jump into the sermon
this morning. Numbers chapter 22, beginning in
verse 19. So you 2, please stay here
tonight that I may know what more the Lord will say to me.
And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, If the men have
come to call you, rise, go with them, but only do what I tell
you. So Balaam rose in the morning
and saddled his donkey, and went with the Princess of Moab.
But God's anger was kindled, because he went.
And the Angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his
adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey,
and his two servants were with him.
And the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the road
with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned the side
out of the road and went into the field.
And Balaam struck the donkey to turn her into the road.
Then the Angel Lord stood in a narrow path between the
vineyards, with the wall on either side.
And when the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, she pushed
against the wall and pressed Balaam's foot against the wall.
So he struck her again. Then the Angel Lord went ahead,
stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either
to the right or to the left. When the donkey saw the Angel of
the Lord, she lay down under Balaam, and Balaam's anger was
kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff.
Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said,
Balaam, what have I done to you that you have struck me these
three times? And Balaam said to the donkey,
You have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand
for then I would kill you and we're going to stop right there.
If you will pray with me, Father, this morning as we look
at a text where at first reading, if maybe somebody here
is it's the first time ever reading the story, it seems
crazy, seems impossible. There's no way that a donkey can
talk. But I pray that you would help
us to see that you are a God who can even cause rocks to speak if
you so choose, that Jesus says the rocks would cry out.
So of course we believe that a donkey can speak.
God, you will use whatever means you choose to get our attention.
I pray this morning, God, you would get our attention that
through your word, through the singing of praises, through the
time of community to the fellowship of the Saints, God,
you would get our attention this morning.
I pray this in Jesus name, Amen. You ever had an alarm that would
not wake you up? My wife, she likes to set up for
her alarm on her phone. She likes to set the most
soothing sound that exists in her phone.
She's like, I like to gently, I set the most obnoxious sound.
I find the one that sounds the worst and I that's what I set it
to. Because an alarms purpose is to
get your attention. If God were an alarm, he would
be the most effective alarm in the world.
Because God has a way of getting our attention, doesn't he?
God used a burning Bush to get Moses's attention.
God used a wind and an earthquake and a fire to get
Elijah's attention. God used a parable to get
David's attention and then he used 4 words to really get his
attention. You are the man.
God used the death of his ten children and the loss of
everything he owned to get Bob's attention.
God turned Nebuchadnezzar into a beast for seven seasons to get
Nebuchadnezzar's attention. God used a fish to get Jonah's
attention, and then he used a worm to get his attention again.
God used Peter's failures to get his attention, and God used a
blinding light to get Saul's attention.
And this morning we're going to see that God used a spiritually
seeing donkey and a physically talking donkey to get Balaam's
attention. God will get our attention.
That's what the sermon is about this morning.
So I want to start off by giving context.
If you weren't here last week, we're jumping right into the
middle of the story. We began this series on Balaam
last week in Numbers 22 one through 18.
Let me give the context just to bring us all up to speed, and
then we'll jump into our exposition and application.
Here's the context. The nation of Israel is camping
in the plains of Moab, and the more bike King Balak sees this
great horde of people who are camping right next to his
territory. Now he hears about how Israel
had defeated Sion, King of the Amorites, and upon this news he
is afraid. He's afraid because he thinks
they may come and attack us. So he comes up with a plan.
His plan is to weaken the forces of Israel.
And to do this, he's going to hire a Pagan diviner named
Balaam. He's going to hire him to come
and curse Israel, thinking that it will weaken them.
So he sends his elders, and he also teams up with Midian's
elders, and he sends both groups of elders to Balaam with a
divination fee in hand to hire him to come and curse Israel.
When they get there, though, Balaam says, well, let me
consult with the Lord, let me see what he says.
Spend the night and I'll see what he says.
But God gives Balaam very clear instructions.
God says to him, you shall not go with them.
You may not curse them because they are blessed.
So Balaam tells the elders, sorry, the Lord refuses to let
me go with you. Now Balick takes this as a
negotiating tactic. He thinks, oh, he's just
negotiating for a better offer. So he sweetens the deal.
He sends more nobles, more in number, more in honor.
And Balick says something interesting to Balaam.
He says to him, let nothing hinder you from coming to me,
which includes the Lord. He basically tells Balaam, name
your price, whatever it is, I'll pay it.
But Balaam says to him, listen, even if you gave me all of the
King's gold and silver, I could not go beyond the command of the
Lord. You can pay me whatever you
want. I can't go beyond what God tells
me to say. And that's where we left off
last week. So let's pick up in verse 19.
Normally I give expedition at the beginning and then
application at the end. Today I'll be continuing with
what I've been doing the past few weeks of weaving them
together. So there won't be any
application at the end. It'll be woven together
throughout the sermon. Let's start in 18.
So you 2 please stay here tonight that I may know what
more the Lord will say to me. So as I just mentioned, this is
now the second trip. They've already made one trip.
They've gone back to Balak. Balak sends them again.
This is the second trip. And when they get there, Balaam
says to them, spend the night. Let me see what God will say to
me. I want you to consider the
contrast between verse 18 and verse 19.
If you read verse 18, it appears that Balaam wants to obey God.
It appears that he desires to, to do what God wants.
But it what you read verse 19, it reveals where Balaam's heart
truly lies. How do we know this?
Because what Balaam should have told them on trip #2 is this.
Why are you guys here again? You need to go home.
I already told you the first time, I can't go with you.
God gave me instruction, says I can't go with you.
You need to go home. You, you wasted another journey.
That's what he should have said, but that's not what he does.
That's not what he does. What does he do?
He invites them to stay the night.
He says spend the night. Let me go back to the Lord.
Let me see what he says. Or as Paul writes, he makes
provision for his flesh. Brother and sister, don't invite
your flesh or the devil to night.
Don't make provision for your flesh.
A few weeks ago in Sunday school we looked at this passage.
We've been going through Romans and Sunday school, and Paul
gives instructions in Romans 1314 where he says make no
provision for the flesh. Now what that means is don't
give any thought, don't make any plans on how you might indulge
your flesh. But that's exactly what Balaam
is doing here. Balaam is making provision for
his flesh. 1 commentator writes writes it like this.
Kicks the sin off your doorstep and you won't have it in the
house. And yet Balaam does the exact
opposite. Rather than kicking it off the
doorstep, he invites it into his house.
Brother and sister, make sure you are not inviting sin.
You are not inviting the devil to stay the night with you.
Now this can come in the form of alcohol, being alone on the
computer, video games, sports, shopping, gambling, food,
gossip. Make no provision for your
flesh. Now, why did Balaam invite them
to stay the night? Why did he do that?
He. Here's what he says that I may
know what more the Lord will say to me.
I want to draw your attention to that word more.
You might even circle it or underline it or highlight it.
I want to draw your attention to that word more.
What more does God need to say? Did God mix words with his
previous command? Did God speak in a foreign
dialect that Balaam couldn't understand?
God said clearly. God said unequivocally, You
shall not go with them. What more does he need to say?
But Balaam said, OK, stay the night.
Let me see what more he might say to me.
You see, this clearly reveals where Balaam's heart lies.
His heart is not to submit to God's will.
He hopes to change God's will. It's like a common feature you
see in sitcom marriages. We don't really have sitcoms all
that much anymore, but you go back to the 90s and early 2000s
if you watch any sitcoms. There's a common feature in
sitcom marriages where the wife asked the husband for something,
he says no, or the husband asked the wife for something, she says
no, and now the whole episode is he or she figuring out, how do I
get the answer that I want? What do I need to do to get the
answer that I want? Friends, when God says no, be
careful that you don't connive and contrive to get the answer
from God that you want. Look at verse 20.
And God came to Balaam that night and said to him, If the
men have come to call you, rise, go with them, but only do what I
tell you. Now for the second time, God
comes to Balaam. The narrator says that God came
to him at night, implying that perhaps God spoke to him through
a dream. And look at what God said.
God said if the men have come to call you, rise, go with them.
Did you catch that? Now how do we make sense of
this? God's first command to Balaam
was this, You shall not go with them.
But now God says go with them. How do we make sense of this?
Is is God capricious? Is God fickle?
Is God double minded? Is God indecisive?
No, to all the above. What we learned from this story
in this specific passage is that God's will is not set in stone
the way we often think of it being set in stone.
But God's will is mysteriously intertwined with human choices.
Mysteriously, ways that we can't understand.
His will is mysteriously intertwined with human choices.
We might ask the question I asked this question when I read
this text. What was God's will here like?
What was His will? Was it for Balaam to go, or was
it for him not to go? Yes to both.
I want to be clear about what I said last week.
God's original will was for Balaam not to go.
Don't miss that. That was God's original will.
Do not go. But God allowed his will to be
changed based on human choices. Now, I want to be clear about
this though. Make sure you don't miss this.
It's not as though this is Plan B.
It's not as though when I say Plan B, it's not as though God
is scrambling to make things work here.
It's not as though God's like, oh gosh, they're back.
I don't know. I don't want you to go, OK, you
can go it. It's not as though God is
scrambling to figure out how to make this work.
God knows what he's doing. He knows what he's doing here.
And this is important because the same is true for you and me.
How many mistakes have we made in our life?
How many poor choices have we made?
And we wondered, did I mess up God's will for my life?
Ever wonder that it was God's will for my life?
I made some poor choices. I made some mistakes.
I've had a season of rebellion. I had a season of wandering.
I had a season of sin. Did I mess up God's will for my
life? Well, we may not have achieved
His initial will. That's true.
We may not have achieved His initial will.
But hear me when I say this. That doesn't mean that
everything going forward is ruined.
It doesn't. Let me give you an analogy.
Abraham, our oldest son Abraham, celebrated his 16th birthday,
and Lauren made a birthday cake for him.
She made this cake. She put it in the oven.
She got it out. And as she gets it out, she
realized, Oh my gosh, I made a mistake.
She forgot to spray the pan, so when she took the cake out, it
was all crumbly and stuff. It was sticking to the pan and
whatnot. She puts it on the cake stand
and, and she was, you know, sad about it and all that.
And I thought I was like, I bet it tastes great.
It may not look the way that it's supposed to look, but I bet
it tastes great. And it did.
It tastes amazing. I had a piece last night.
Your life may not look the way that it should because of your
choices, but God can still make it taste amazing.
Amen. Now 2 questions come to my mind
when I read this. A Why does God speak to Balaam
at all a second time? Like why did God speak to them
at all? And B, why did God change his
command? Why did he change his command?
Let's take those one at a time. A, why does God speak to Balaam
at all a second time? You ever wondered that?
Why not just keep silent? It's kind of like if, if, if my
son comes and tells me something and ask me something and he's
like, Dad, can I go play outside?
No. And he comes back to me.
He's like, can I go study outside?
Son, you know I don't, I don't have to speak at all.
You, He knows not to even come ask me a second time.
He knows I've already spoken. So why did God speak to him at
all? He gave him instructions.
He was clear in instructions. Why doesn't God just keep silent
anytime the Lord speaks? He has a reason for doing so.
God has a purpose here and that purpose is going to be revealed
in the coming weeks. B.
Why did God change His command to Balaam?
Right? Why did he say don't go and then
now he changed it to go? The answer is found and what he
says next, He says go, but only do what I tell you.
That's the answer. In other words, God is going to
claim Balaam for His purposes. You see, Balik was the one who
was summoning Balaam. Balik was the one who was trying
to hire Balaam. And God comes to Balaam and he
says Balaam Balik is not the one summoning you.
I am now summoning you. Balik is not the one hiring you.
You are working for me. Now.
Balaam Balik may be a king, but I am the king of kings.
And now you're working for me, one of the pieces that led to my
salvation. I've told the story.
If you've been here for a long time, you've heard this before,
but many of you haven't. One of the pieces that led to my
salvation was a very simple statement by a pastor named John
MacArthur. Almost 25 years ago, I was
driving on a route in the middle of like nowhere in Alabama.
I was working for a company called CCI.
I was listening to the radio. This is actually how I became a
pastor because I would listen to preachers all day long on the
radio as I drove. And I was like, I want to do
that. And I was listening to the
radio. And MacArthur said this
extremely simple. God is your king.
Whether you submit to him or not is your king.
And I don't know why, but in that moment as I'm driving my
truck, I realized I would do whatever my boss told me to do
because he's my boss and he gives me a paycheck.
But when it came to God, I thought I had a choice.
God tells me to do things all the time and I'm like, no.
And it hit me, I don't have this choice.
I don't have this choice that I think that I have.
I must do what God tells me to do.
You see, I was living like Balaam.
I was doing my own thing and I needed to hear from the mouth of
God spoken through His modern day prophet.
Only do what I tell you. Look at 21 to 22 a.
So Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with
the Princess of Moab. But God's anger was kindled
because he went, and the Angel of the Lord took a stand in the
way as his adversary. Wow, the story is already taken.
One twist. Now it takes an even more
dramatic twist. God says rise, go with them.
Balaam obeys. He goes with them.
And then in verse 22, we see that God's anger is kindled
because he went with them. You're like, is this some kind
of Jedi mind trick? Like what?
What is you ever have a moment where your boss or your mom or
your dad or your coach told you to do something?
You did it and they're still angry with you.
You're like, I did what you said.
Why are you angry? That's what it seems like here.
God said go, and then he's angry for going.
How do we make sense of this? How do we make sense of this?
There are pages and pages written on this.
Here is my conjecture after reading many of those pages.
Here is my conjecture. Balaam was planning to disobey.
I think he's planning to disobey.
I think he thinks as he begins to go, God has given me the
green light. I think he thinks here is my
chance to get rich. You see, Balaam wasn't planning
to do whatever God told him to do.
I think he was planning to get rich and I think the Lord is
angry with him for his heart. He's not angry with him because
he went, He's angry for his heart and and why he's going now
you're like, where do you get that?
Matt? Let me show you where I get
that. I get that that theory from
three verses 2132 and 35. Let me show them to you.
Look at verse 21. So Balaam rose in the morning,
saddled his donkey, and went with the Princess of Moab.
Now you're like, well, how do you get that from that?
Here's why. It's an argument from silence.
In other words, notice what's missing.
Balaam does not come back to them and tell them what God had
said. Ian Dugwood, A commentator,
writes this. What Balaam did not do this time
was to get up in the morning and tell the Princess of Balak what
the Lord had said. He didn't say to them.
Look, I can come with you if you want, but I can only say what
the Lord says. He told him that the first time.
He doesn't tell him the second time.
That's the first argument. Look at verse 32.
And the Angel of the Lord said to him, Why have you struck your
donkey these three times? Behold, I've come out to oppose
you because your way is perverse before me, or you might have a
footnote there. Reckless.
Now the we'll get there next week.
But the Angel Lord looks into his heart and sees that he is
operating in a reckless, perverse way.
Here's one more look at verse 35.
And the Angel Lord said to Balaam, go with the men, but
speak only the word. In other words, the Angel Lord
repeats his command, almost implying I know in your heart
you weren't who aren't planning to do this.
Make sure you only say what I tell you to say.
So I think that God is angry with him because Balaam is
thinking God has given me the green light.
Here come the Moabite riches. I got the go ahead, bring it
King Balak, this bag. I think that Balaam thought that
since God had sanctioned his journey, he was now a free
agent. Balaam thinks the commissioner
has given him the go ahead. I can now decide do I want to
play for Team Israel or Team Moab?
You see, so many Christians believe that once they have made
Team Christianity right out for the team you made Team
Christianity. So many Christians, after they
make Team Christianity, they believe they're free agents.
Free agents, friends, we are not, we are not free agents.
We are sons of the Lord. We're also slaves of the Lord.
Let's not forget that we also like to preach about the fact
that we're sons of the Lord, sons and daughters.
That is 100% true. That's gloriously true.
But don't miss we are also slaves of the Lord, a son and a
slave. We are not free agents.
What we learned from the Lord's anger here is that God's
pleasure is not merely tied to our outward conformity to His
will, but our hearts matter as well.
You see, Balaam doesn't get a pass because he's physically
doing the will of the Lord. You might think, how can God be
angry with him? He's doing what God told him.
He is doing the will of the Lord.
God said go and he's going, No, his heart is not right and doing
the will of the Lord. Outward conformity to God's will
means nothing if our heart is not right.
Now, as a result of his anger, the Lord takes action.
What does he do? God sends the Angel of the Lord
to stand in his way. Now, who or what is the Angel of
the Lord? I don't want to assume that
everybody knows what the Angel of the Lord is.
We could do an entire Bible study on this figure.
I could spend the whole rest of the sermon just talking about
who this is. I won't do that.
I won't bore you on this, but there is quite a bit of mystery
here on who the Angel of the Lord is.
Let me just give you some of the actions of who this figure is.
This. We first see this figure
speaking with Hagar. He he's the figure who tells
Abraham not sacrifice his son when he calls out from heaven.
He appeared to Moses in the Bush.
The one who appears to Moses in the Bush is the Angel of the
Lord. He appeared to Gideon and called
him into God's service. He appeared to Manoah and told
her that she would have a son named Amson strikes down the
Israelites with David's census. When David took an an
unrighteous census and God kills 70,000 Israelites, he is the one
who kills 70,000 Israelites. He meets Elijah in the
wilderness with food. He struck down 185,000 Assyrians
with one swap of his sword. So this is a terrifying figure,
tremendous power. And here he is standing in
Balaam's path. And I want you to notice what
the Angel of the Lord's mission was here.
Look what it says, God sent the Angel of the Lord to stand in
the way as his adversary. Wow.
Do you know what the Hebrew word for adversary is there?
Satan. That's where we get the word
Satan. That's what Satan name means,
adversary. This is actually the first usage
of the word Satan in the Bible. Balaam is on a path of sin.
And I want you to notice what God doesn't do.
He doesn't seek to persuade him. He doesn't seek to cajole him.
He doesn't seek to exhort him. He doesn't seek to encourage
him. God seeks to oppose Him as an
adversary. Brother, sister, when we are on
a path of sin, God and His loving kindness becomes our
adversary. When we are on a path of sin,
God and His loving kindness becomes our adversary.
How many times do we get sick or injured because the Lord is
lovingly calling us to slow down?
You ever think about that? You ever wonder if your sickness
or your injury is the Lord actually calling you to slow
down? How many times do we get put it
in a possible situation like why did God give me this?
This is impossible. Why did he give to you?
Perhaps He wants to break our self-sufficiency.
How many times do our dreams die so that our souls don't die when
we're on a path of sin? God will be our adversary in His
loving kindness. Look at verse 22, B to 23.
Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with
him. And the donkey saw the Angel
Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand.
And the donkey turned aside out of the road, went into the
field, and Balaam struck the donkey to turn her into the
road. Balaam is now riding on a
donkey. He has two of his servants with
him, so three humans in total. And the donkey sees the Angel of
the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand.
So it's a female donkey. So she naturally turns the side
out of the road and goes into the field.
Now, of course, Balaam is wondering, why is my donkey
doing this? This prompts him to strike the
donkey. He strikes the donkey to turn
her back into the road. Now the fact that Balaam strikes
the donkey, what does that tell us?
He didn't see the Angel. Had he seen the Angel, he would
know why this donkey is. But he strikes the donkey
because he doesn't see the Angel.
How ironic that all three humans, Balaam and his two
servants don't see the Angel or three humans, 6 pairs of human,
6 eyeballs do not see the Angel of the Lord, but a donkey did.
Why did God open the eyes of the donkey before Balaam?
You ever wonder that why did he open the eyes of the donkey but
not the eyes of Balaam? Why did he do that?
I think Balaam actually answers this question in verse 29.
Look at verse 29. Balaam said the donkey because
you have made a fool of me. I think that's the answer.
I think God wanted to show Balaam what he was a fool.
Brother, sister, do you see more than just with your physical
eyes? I mean, when I ask this, do you
see more than just with your physical eyes when you come to
church? Do you see the spiritual battle
that is going on behind the scenes?
I see it. I see it as I preach.
I can see everyone of you. I can see what you're doing.
I can see when you're stubborn to what's being received.
I can see when you're distracted, when you're on your
phone, when you're sleeping, when you are.
I see it and I don't take it as like a personal I take it as a
spiritual battle that battles going on right now, that Satan
would seek to steal the seed that's trying to be sown right
now in your hearts. Do you see it when you come to
church? Do you see the spiritual battle
that is going on right now? Do you see it, parents, when
you're in your home? Do you see the spiritual battle
for your children's soul? Do you see it?
Do you see the world that would seek to steal your children's
souls? Do you see it, college students?
Do you see the spiritual battle on campus that seeks to destroy
young men and young women that you are in a moldable time in
your life and that the world is going to do everything they can
to try to shape and fashion you before you go work at Amazon or
Microsoft or Google or Boeing, wherever you're going to go in
life, before you get there, the world is trying to steal your
soul. Do you see it?
And if you're saying that, Pastor, you being a little
dramatic here, you don't see it. Then if you think I'm being
dramatic, you don't see it. When you go to work tomorrow
morning, do you see the spiritual battle that seeks to
get you to buy into the idols of this world, the idols of
success, the idols of money, the idols of performance?
Do you see it? Do your eyes see it?
Do you see with more than just your physical eyes?
Now the Angel is not just standing in the road, he's
standing in the road with a sword drawn in his hand.
Now donkeys may not be logical, rational creatures, but they
know enough not to walk into certain death.
So the donkey turns his side out of the road and goes into the
field. Now Balaam assumes the donkeys
just being stubborn stupid. That's what he assumes, which is
ironic because it is him who is being stubborn and stupid.
Look at verse 24 to 25. Then the Angel of the Lord stood
in a narrow path between the vineyards with a wall on either
side. And when the donkey saw the
Angel of the Lord, she pushed against the wall and pressed
Balem's foot against the wall. So he struck her again.
It appears the donkey has now taken a narrow path between two
vineyards. Now vineyards would also be
enclosed by walls, usually to keep animals out and mark
boundaries and so forth. So there appears to be these two
vineyards side by side with a wall, right?
There's a wall here and a wall here.
The donkey's travelling down. There's a narrow path in between
these two walls. The Angel of the Lord standing
in this path right here, and so the donkey still sees.
The Angel of the Lord doesn't want to encounter this sword, so
the donkey turns against the wall, trying to squeeze by
around this Angel. But in doing that, Balaam, who
was riding his donkey, gets his foot crushed against the wall.
Donkeys are very powerful creatures.
Crushes his foot. Now he doesn't like getting his
foot crushed. So what does he do?
He strikes the donkey again. The verb, The verb therefore
crushed, it literally means afflicted or oppressed.
The donkey's afflicting or oppressing his foot, so he
afflicts or oppresses the donkey.
He strikes the donkey again. Now here's why this is
important. Remember, Balaam is a prophet in
those days, especially Pagan ones.
They, they, they read into everything.
You know this too, if you, if you've ever been around like
certain kind of mystical religions go to foreign
countries, They read into everything, right?
This, this means this, and this means that, and that means this.
And maybe this happened because of this, right?
As a prophet, he should have stopped to consider, why is my
donkey doing this? As a prophet, he should have
wondered, and we're going to see next week the donkey's like, do
I ever do this to you? Do I have a history of doing
this? The answer is no.
So as a prophet, he should have stopped to consider why is my
donkey doing this? But he is blinded by his own
greed. He's blinded by his own
ambition. When God keeps closing doors,
you ever wanted something? You ever tried for something and
God keeps closing doors? When God keeps closing doors, do
we stop to ask why, or do we just keep punching our way
through? I'm going to make this happen.
I'm going to get this degree. Come hell or high water, I'm
going to get this degree, I'm going to get this, I'm going to
get this house, I'm going to accomplish my dreams.
When God keeps closing doors, do we ever stop to ask why?
Or do we just keep punching our way through?
God closed the door to Balaam 3 times with his donkey and Balaam
never once stopped to ask why is this happening.
He just kept striking the donkey.
Sometimes I think we do the exact same thing.
God closes the door. He closes another door.
He closes yet another door and rather than asking God, God what
are you telling me here, What are you showing me here?
We just keep punching our way through, determined to make it
work. You see, the before the donkey
ever spoke with her words, she spoke with her actions.
The only reason that the donkey spoke with her words is because
Balaam wasn't paying attention to what the donkey was telling
him with her actions. What is God trying to show,
friend? What is God trying to show you?
What is he trying to get your attention?
I assure you, he's trying to get your attention about something.
What is He trying to show you? What is He trying to get your
attention about? There is something.
Look at verse 2627. Then the Angel Lord went ahead
and stood in a narrow place where there's no way to turn
either to the right or to the left.
When the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, she laid down to
Balaam, and Balaam's anger was kindled.
And he's fucked the donkey with his staff.
Now, for the third time, the Angel of the Lord stands in the
way. He stands in a narrow place
where there's no way to turn to the right or to the left.
Now, did you notice the progression there?
There was an open path. There's a narrow path with a
wall on the other side. And now there's a narrow place
where there's no way to turn to the right or the left.
Now, did you notice the progression?
God is closing in on Balaam. He's closing in on him.
He's squeezing Balaam's stubbornness.
You see God as a way of constricting our lives.
Why? Because it's so tempting to
think that the path is broad, isn't it?
It's so tempting to think that there there are all kinds of
Christians on this path. Pastor, there's not just one
path. There's all kinds of Christians
on this path. Jesus makes it clear.
Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is narrow and the way
is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few.
Matthew 713 to 14 Christian do not believe the lie that the
path is broad. It is not.
There is one path, and it is the path that Jesus walked.
And if we're not on that path, we might even be walking a path
that is just to the left of it or the right of it.
If we're not on that path, you know what God will do?
He'll keep constricting us. He'll keep constricting us until
we get on the path. Now for the third time, the
donkey sees the Angel Lord, and Balaam does not.
This is the third time. Donkey 3, Balaam 0.
Now because there is nowhere to turn, there's nowhere for him
to. He can't turn into a field.
There's nowhere for him to squeeze by.
What does he do? He just lays down.
He's like, I'm not walking into my certain death.
He sees the sword. He sees this terrifying figure.
He just, she, she, she just lays down.
And then Balaam. Now Balaam's had it with his
donkey. His anger is kindled, he pulls
out his staff and he strikes the donkey for the third time with
his staff, which is ironic because remember it was first
God's anger that was kindled towards Balaam.
Now it is Balaam's anger that's kindled towards his donkey.
Look at verse 28 to 29. Then the Lord open 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 made a fool of me, I wish I had a sword in my
hand, for then I would kill you. The Lord first open the eyes of
the donkey before he opened the donkey's mouth, he opened the
donkey's eyes. But because Balaam did not
perceive what God was doing through this donkey, now the
Lord says, OK Balaam, I'm going to open the donkey's mouth.
Narrator says, and she said just think about that, talk about
donkey here. And she said, I don't think this
is a metaphor. I don't think this is a dream.
I think this is literal. You may take it otherwise, but I
take this to be literal. I think the donkey spoke
literally spoke to Balaam. I did wonder though, did God
give the donkey the ability to speak Hebrew or did God give
Balaam the ability to understand donkey?
I don't know. My guess is that it's the
former. I can remember one of the most
anxious moments in my life. This is a true story.
I can remember one of the most anxious moments in my life was
when I was taking Hebrew at seminary.
I was like, I'm never going to get there.
This donkey learned Hebrew in one day.
Can you imagine an animal talking to you?
I mean just like stop and think. Can you imagine an animal
talking to you? Can you imagine if your your dog
started speaking Mandarin? I have no problem believing this
because in the garden the serpent spoke as well.
Sounds as though this is the only instance the serpent spoke
in the garden. The donkey asked an interesting
question. The donkey says, what have I
done to you that you have struck me these three times?
Now this is one of those questions that God asked.
This is like, this is essentially God speaking to
Balaam through the donkey. This is a question that God is
asking Balaam. It's and we know it's a God kind
of question because it's one of those questions that are meant
to, to make the person stop and think, to make them think, well,
why have I struck you three times?
But Balaam doesn't do that. Balaam doesn't stop and think
why I've done this. Without missing a beat, he talks
back to the donkey. Now, what I think is crazier, if
you ask me, what's the craziest part of the story, it's not that
the donkey speaks to Balaam. It's that Balaam speaks to the
donkey. He just speaks without.
He doesn't. He doesn't ask.
Wait, what? You can talk.
How are you talking right now? He doesn't schedule an
appointment with his shrink to go get his head checked out.
He doesn't ask his servant, Hey, where did you get those
mushrooms you gave me earlier? He just starts talking back to
the donkey. And look at what he says.
You have made a fool out of me. Other translations you have made
a mockery of me. Or another translation.
You made me look stupid, Balaam says.
I wish I had a sword in my hand, which is kind of funny because
the I can imagine the dog and be like, well, there's one right
there if you want to grab it from the but he's that sword is
for you. It's not for me.
I wish I had a sword in my hand for then I would kill you.
How ironic. How ironic because it was the
donkey who kept Balaam from being killed by the sword.
The donkey is the only thing keeping Balaam alive.
How many times does God give us a trial and we think I just want
this trial to die? I wish I could kill this trial,
just as Balaam wants this donkey to die.
But what if the trial is the only thing keeping us
spiritually alive? What if the trial that you're
going through is the only thing keeping us spiritually alive?
What if God has to crush our foot against a wall and make us
look like a fool to get our attention?
God will get our attention even through a speaking donkey.
Let's pray.