A Talking Donkey

How many of us have had a talking donkey in our life. Or how many of us have ever heard a donkey talk? I think you will be surprised at the answer to that question. Let me explain.
One of the stories in the bible that amazes me of how people saw things in the early days is when the donkey talks to Balaam. Now I do not know about you, but if a donkey started talking to me, I would not argue with it, I would be too dumbfounded at the time. You need to read the story in Numbers. The part of the story I am referring to is when Balaam sets out on his donkey and an Angel of the Lord appears in front of the donkey with His sword drawn 3 times and 3 times the donkey turns away, and 3 times Balaam strikes his donkey. Then the Lord opens the donkey's mouth to speak.

Numbers 22 v 28-30.....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."

Okay, let's stop right there for a minute. Does that not just blow you away that this guy is carrying on a conversation with a donkey? When the donkey opened her mouth and questioned me about striking her, I think I would have fell out. Who but God could cause a donkey to speak? So, I think I might have fell down and repented then. I don't know, let's keep reading.

Numbers 22 v 31-34....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. And the Angel of the LORD said to him, "Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me. The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me, surely I would also have killed you by now, and let her live. And Balaam said to the Angel of the Lord, "I have sinned, for I did not know You stood in the way against me. Now therefore, if it displeases You, I will turn back."....

And there you have it. God knows our intentions when we try to be underhanded about something. When we try to go around the back door so to speak. You can not hide your intentions from God. And when you are doing something wrong and you know it, and that still small voice is trying to tell you don't do it, you had better listen. You see back then they did not have the Holy Spirit living within them to tell them right from wrong. So God had to use the mouth of a donkey to speak to them. To open their eyes so to say. Notice, Balaam said, (and I am paraphrasing here) I'm sorry Lord, I did not know that you were the one stopping the donkey. In other words, had I known you were watching I would have behaved differently. Isn't that true? Don't we sometimes respond to things differently when we know we are being watched? Well, my point is, God is always watching, so we should not have to have a donkey speak to us to tell us when we are doing wrong, we should be listening to our inner man, the Holy Spirit living within us. If our inner man is telling us not to do or say something, then we need to listen, in other words don't argue with the donkey. And we need to be sure that when we listen to God, it is God that we are listening to, and not question Him when He tells us to do something. Don't try to go around the back door to make something right that is wrong. That would be arguing with the donkey. You know what is right and what is wrong, so don't anger God and cause Him to send a donkey to speak to you, because you won't listen to the Holy Spirit. AMEN!

I hope this story helps us the next time we get ready to do something that is a little underhanded, we will stop and rethink what we are about to do or say and not do it. Amen!
Neta