THE TALKING DONKEY
An interesting story in Numbers 22 describes Balaam the sorcerer having a conversation with his donkey. Balaam was on his way to attempt putting a curse on the Israelite nation in anticipation of the riches he would receive, when his donkey on which he was riding decided not to move forward, inciting anger and a beating from Balaam.
Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, “What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?” Balaam answered the donkey, “You have made a fool of me!——-”
Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell face down. The angel of the Lord asked him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. (v 28-32)
Balaam was navigator of the spiritual realm and lived his life making money by manipulating the spiritual world. Things went by till he came face to face with the most dominating presence in the spiritual realm- that of God Almighty, who personally came to him and warned him against cursing the Israelites as he was planning to do. Instead of turning away, he persisted with the plan of cursing Israel, hoping to have some worldly gain from it and would have died but for his donkey that refused to move forward in the face of the angel standing in front with a drawn sword.
God can put words in the mouths of animals and He does so to remind Balaam that he was on a dangerous course. ‘Your path is a reckless one before me,’ God says. At times, man is so hell-bent on chasing his desires that he fails to seek God’s will for him and occasionally, as in this instance, ends up with a situation where he diametrically opposes the will of God. This is a most dangerous thing for man to do and could prematurely cost him his life.
As per the ordered nature of things, the will of man is supreme and man can choose which path to take. Even though God might ask a person not to walk in a certain path, man could still could choose to persist in that way and God by nature of creation will not forever oppose man. It is for man then to either reap the reward by aligning with the will of God or pay the price for opposing God’s will. Consequently some people end up creating a supernatural output through their lives, whereas others end up a pale shadow of what could have been.
Balaam’s path was reckless one before God, and but for the talking donkey, he would certainly have lost his life.
