Balaam's Talking Donkey: A Spiritual Perspective

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk

about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Good morning, good morning,

we talk home, not do good morning good morning to you. Hey,

uh, what you know we're gonna get busted with a copyright infringement.

You know there, nobody's gonna listen that. No nobody cares here, Chris,

Yeah, we're a big deal're gonna anchor. Man, I'm not sure

you've heard, but I'm kind of a big deal. That's so good.

You have many books. Yeah, my steady smells a rich mahogany. It's

so good. It's so good. Okay, so hey, good morning to

you, or maybe it's evening. But my name is Chris, this is

Jeff. We're the Bible Guys. And before we jump into our segment today

or excuse me, our passage today, we have a segment called Who's most

Likely? Which I love. Okay, so we're just gonna we're just gonna

read these We haven't read them. You have not pre read them. I

have not, me neither, and let's just read them and then quickly we'll

just who's We'll just okay, number one, Who's most likely to accidentally set

off the fire alarm while cooking? You me, because you don't cook.

Yes, that's correct. That is correct, so it really doesn't matters likely.

That's rights. And I've already told a story this week about using a

quote unquote smokeless grill in the kitchen. That's right, correct, that's Christ

Okay. Number two, who's most likely to bring a pet to work and

not tell anybody? I'd say me, Yeah, have you done it before?

Nope? Never done it? Okay, Although I don't know either of

us could sneak a pet into the office and not tell anybody. That's our

problem. Yeah, that is our problem. That's the hang up. Although

I will say this, does she know what? I will say this?

About ten years ago, I worked at a church where there's like three hundred

people on staff, and somebody had sent an email and said, hey,

we found this cat in the road. It was this tiny lit kitten,

just this teen tennant kitten they've just found on the road. Whoever wants it

come get it. Well, at the time, we already had four cats.

And then my daughter Sarah shows up and she literally she looks at me

and I go, you're not here. And she and she goes stop.

She goes, she's you didn't see me, You didn't see me. And

I said, do not go upstairs and grab that cat. Do not.

And she goes, la, la la, I'm not listening, La la

la, la la. And she goes all the way upstairs and gets this

cat, brings it home. And since then, we've actually lost three of

those cats and now we're down to two. And one of them is that

that is that goofy ken For a long time, so I kind of had

a pet of work. Yeah, there you go, kind of your daughter

did. Yeah, let's let's go for a while. My wife was bringing

our brand new puppy to the office. Oh so, actually we should have

said you then. Yeah, well, not tell anyone about it. Was

the hang up for me on that one. Right, who's most likely to

organize a last minute themed costume party? You definitely then that is you.

You are. You're a party guy. Hey. We actually celebrated my daughter's

thirtieth birthday and we all dressed like nineteen eighties musicians. Oh wow. And

so we all flew down to Florida and we surprised her and all of us

had costumes to the end degree. We went all out and then we made

a music video. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, so that'll give you.

My wife and I were just in Venice last week and that was the

end of our vacation. We were there for three days. And they have

all those costume shops for the Venetian Carnival. Oh wow, where you wear

the fancy outfits and the did you buy them wear the mask? No?

Dude, they're crazy expensive, are they? But she said, hey,

let's come back for carnival sometime. I rent one. That'd be fun.

Yeah, that'd be fun. All right, all right, So numbers it

was most likely to organize an elaborate prank that gets everyone involved. You,

Yeah, definitely, these are almost all you. No, no, not

almost Hey, you know I have done elaborate pank pranks with a lot of

people. Have you ever done Have you ever organized an elaborate prank? No?

Really? Never? Wow? Never have? Yeah, I've done elaborate

pranks, so wow crazy? Yeah? Okay, Well, then number five

who is most likely to create a new absurd trend that everyone eventually follows?

Not me. That's tough, I probably says, but I don't. I'm

not absurd, but not trend. I don't. I don't know if I've

ever created a trend, maybe a tradition, like you know, maybe maybe

uh doing something crazy and doing it often enough to where people start doing it

around their house or something. I've done those kinds of things, but a

trend. U Trends are different, aren't they. That's a hard one.

That's a tough one. Yeah. I don't know if I'm a trendy guy,

but I guess I'll pick me just pretty absurd because I'm absurd. Yes,

yes, a new absurd trend. You know, one time and everybody

likes to follow you. I have to say this. One time in the

seventies, I came out of the bathroom and I left my zipper down,

and every started doing it. I started noticing people leaving their zipper downs.

I think he caught on. I don't think so. No, no,

no, no, I don't think that was They just people just forgot the

hip. That's exactly right. Okay, okay, that would be it.

Yeah, that's funny. Okay, we need to get out of this segment

as soon as possible. Use Oh, come on, you done that?

Uh one time? I actually I think you've done this haven't you ever you

ever were you preaching? And then you realize your zipper is down. Whole

service. My best one of my best friends, sitting on the front row,

and he didn't let me know the whole time. Oh yeah, I

realized that because somebody motioned to me. It was actually the pastor, and

so I said, everybody, let's pray. And it was right in the

middle of my sermon. I was like, you know what, I'm just

going to pray every every closed and I was like exhibiting. I didn't know.

I didn't known till the service was over. That's terrible jerk. Friends.

Yeah, okay, you know who you are too. Oh do they

really? Oh yeah, they know who they are. Oh, still listening

to the box. So after the service he comes up and he goes,

hey, man, I wanted to tell you so bad, but your answer

it what Zip? A fan? Like, how come we do tell me?

He said, I didn't want to disturb or interrupt the service? I

said, he interrupt the service for seven hundred people. I was the only

one who didn't know. Right right, I got news for you. The

service was already interrupted. Zip. Let me know. I would have fixed

it. Okay, So This is one of the most talking about absurd.

This is one of the most amazing stories in the Bible. It centers around

a guy named Balem and talking donkey. Yes, you just gave away the

whole thing. They had a reason to listen, and now you told them,

Oh, you were going to deliver it as if nobody knew. Yes

to the person who doesn't know, to the person who doesn't know, gip

that part. Hey, hey, just in case you're wondering, Jesus does

rise from the grave like Easter. Okay. Well, hey, now you're

ruining the whole thing. Why even bother give it away? That's right?

Okay, So numbers chapter twenty two. Well, I'm gonna start in verse

twenty one. I'm gonna be a rebel. Okay. So the next morning

Balem got up saddled as donkey and started off with the Mobid officials. But

God was angry. Let me, let me, let me do this.

So the Mobid officials wanted Bayleem to come and curse the King of Israel.

Right, So they're gonna pay him. They're going to give you some money,

like he's some kind of sorcerer, right, And so we're gonna give

you some money, and we're getting ready to go fight Israel, and we

want you to curse the King of Israel. And so Baalem this isn't something

he should be doing, but he does so. The next morning, Balem

got up saddled as donkey and started off with the Moabid officials. But God

was angry that Balem was going, so he sent the Angel of the Lord

to stand in the road to block his way. As Baalem and two servants

were riding along, Balem's donkey saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the

road with a drawn sword in his hand. The donkey bolted off the road

into a field, but Balem beat it and turned it back onto the road.

Then the Angel Lord stood at a place where the road narrowed betwe two

vineyard walls. When the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, tried to

squeeze by and crushed Balem's foot against the wall. So Balem beat the donkey

again. Then the Angel the Lord moved further down the road and stood in

a place too narrow for the donkey to get by at all. This time,

when the donkey saw the angel, it lay down under Balem in a

fit of rage, Balem beat the animal again with his staff. Then the

Lord gave the donkey the ability to speak. What have I done to you

that deserves you're beating me three times? It asked Balem, You've maybe looked

like a fool. Balem shouted, if I had a sword of me,

i'd kill you. But I'm the same donkey you've ridden all your life.

The donkey answered, have I ever done anything like this before? No,

Balem admitted. Then the Lord opened Balem's eyes and he saw the Angel Lord

standing on the roadway with a drawn sword in his hand. Balem bowed his

head and fell face down on the ground before him. Why did you beat

your donkey those three times? The Angel the Lord demanded, Look, I've

come to block you away because you are stubbornly resisting me three times. The

donkey saw me and shied away. Otherwise I certainly would have killed you by

now, and spared the donkey. Then Baalem confessed to the Angel of the

Lord, I have sinned. I didn't realize you were standing in the road

to block my way. I will return home if you are against my going.

But the Angel of the Lord told Balem go with these men, but

say only what I tell you to say. So Balem went with Bailack's officials.

When King Bailak heard that Balem was on his way, he went out

to meet him at a Mobikee town on the Arnon River at the farthest border

of his land. And then he goes on from there and winds up blessing

rather than cursing the king. Yes, that's what happens, right, but

yeah, which is uh? And and by the way, I think I

already know what you're going to say, because that's what I'm going to say.

I think it's what everybody's thinking. Do you know what it is?

I don't know that Balem didn't seem surprised that his donkey was talking. No,

no, right, that's what blows my mind as well. Yeah,

yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Is Baylim just starts arguing with

the donkey, and by the way, he may have been surprised, and

in fact he probably was. It doesn't say because the scripture doesn't record didn't

doesn't mean that it didn't happen, because you know, it says that Bayalem

shouted the donkey, yeah right, So I mean he's straight up aren't you

shout shouted back in a regular argument, right, just just as if you

would, and like your child or something. I'm telling you he doesn't realize

what's going on right now. He doesn't realize how odd of his mind he

is. You think he's so angry, Well, think about the times you've

been out of your mind angry. Yeah, you're not thinking sanely In the

moment, everything makes sense in me. Yeah, that could be an explanation.

I've never thought that, though. I've always thought one of two things.

Well, you haven't thought right, then, is that right? I've

thought one of two things, and again we don't know the answer this side

of heaven. But I thought either one of two things. Either number one,

because God spoke audibly, because things were magical, because there were sorcery.

You know, there were sorcerers who could turn staffs into snakes, right,

I mean, there were there were things like that that existed in the

Old Testament, and there weren't you know, there was rumors of the partings

of Red Sea, and miracles and and all these different things. I think

that maybe perhaps either things that were supernatural weren't as unusual as they are today.

I think that that could have been it, or perhaps Baylim was absolutely

surprised, but it just didn't record that part in the Bible, which could

be completely true as well. It doesn't go out of his way to say

he wasn't surprised. Yeah, so I'm sure that we're gonna get to have

it and realize there's a lot of context, you know, stuff in context

that we don't realize. Yeah. I don't think it's either of those.

You think it's just he was I think he was so enraged. Well,

he's already beat this donkey three times and he's hurt physically, so his foot

got hurt that donkey sat down on him, right, I think I think

he's just he's furious. But how how upset do you have to be to

not recognize that you're donkey talking? Well, I think that he's not thinking

clearly anyways, in his sin, willing to sell out and go bring curses

against the he's not thinking clearly. He's just he's That's that's what I think

it is, all right. I think he is just so full of himself

and so angry in the moment that he's not even paying attention. Okay,

So I bet you, I bet you five bucks. Yeah, okay,

Hey, I wonder if that really true. I wonder if God's gonna harmor

me and give me five dollars. She's not gonna give you five. You

just lost. You know, He's going to be like Jeff was, right,

Yeah, right, maybe if God said, if if I wanted you

to know that he was surprised, I would have I wonder what currency would

choose. He probably give us a piece of gravel off the side of the

road, straight of gold, streets of gold. Dude. So hey,

here, here's here's graduation. Here's some pavement. That's really all right.

So let's go back to the scripture. So so here's uh, that's a

probably good place. Yeah, God, God is actually did this thing to

grab Balem's attention. And you know, God doesn't do anything by accident.

So I have to believe that he's teaching Baalim a lesson because here Baylim doesn't

see what other people see, or in this case, it's the donkey.

But you know, so here's here's the angel saying, why did you beat

your donkey three times? Well, it seems like an unreasonable question, which

actually makes me wonder if Baalim was tuned into God. Would he have seen

him? Or is it because he was so entrenched in sin and you know,

being willing to be paid off to curse you know, the king of

Israel, which is God's chosen people. You know, had he been in

a different state of mind, would he have seen the angel? Like,

why would the angel ask such a thing? You know, why did you

beat your donkey? Well, hello, donkey wasn't doing what I was telling

it to do, right, you know. So it just there's all these

little things in there that's that make me wonder about the story. So the

notes in numbers chapter twenty two kind of highlight the idea that Balem wasn't really

a servant of God like you would think of a normal prophet of God,

right, that he's really a sorcerer. And so the real question is why

would God use a sorcerer in general? Anyway, sorcers would be supposed to

be put to death. And I think the reason is because the Mobike king

had already decided to use the sorcerer. So God in the same way that

God chose to use Pharaoh. For instance, God says to Balim, Okay,

now here's the thing. You're not going to curse the King of Israel.

Well maybe that's why he wasn't surprised if he's a sorcerer. Yeah,

you know what, I'm not even I'm just being transparent here. I'm not

really sure that I knew that he was a sorcerer. But that's pretty crazy

and so so in this instance, then God's just saying, you're not supposed

to curse my people, and he's trying to send a message to the Mobike

King. But the Mobike King had already chosen to use this guy, so

God decides I'm going to use him too. But then this angel, the

Lord's stand there, are going to strike him down, going to kill him,

right, so God's God's like, you know, I think I'm going

to kill this guy, wipe him out. That's the message I'm going to

send to the Mobike King. Is this sudden death kind of moment from an

angel and the donkey can see him? So I didn't we have one time?

A uh, somebody asked on the stump to pastor, somebody asks because

of this story, yeah they did. You know, can can animals see

angels? Because sometimes I think, remember I think she wrote something, because

sometimes I think my cat can see angels or something, yeah, yeah,

or they see the supernes, see the supernatural. Yeah. Well, I

mean, you know, in movies they certainly portray that, they portray that

dogs are sensitive to ghosts and they know things like yeah, like those kinds

of things, right, like the the unseen or whatever, those kind of

things are. Well, this is the only place in the Bible that has

that kind of idea right in it was that this for some reason, this

donkey could see this angel. Yeah, because what was that other scripture in

the Bible where it says, hey, it was it Elisha who said open

his eyes that he may see, and he saw the church for a servant,

because Elisha wasn't afraid, right, and Elisha's servant was terrified. We

can't go out there. We're gonna get killed. And he said and he

said, open open your servant's eyes. Let let your servants see. Yeah,

And then all of a sudden he was able to see the chariots that

God had placed there, and he was an entire army from heaven. Yeah.

It's just an amazing thing. Right, So there's an unseen world,

and that's probably that's a good sermon that comes out of this passage is that

we completely believe that the Bible teaches that there's an unseen world and that's there's

a spiritual battle that goes on every day, and so the scripture teaches this

right now that we believe that even now, right now during this podcast,

that there's there's an unseen battle that is taking place in the spiritual realmah,

and there's an invisible realm, and there is a visible realm, and we

believe that when Heaven comes together, that you know, when the New Jerusalem

comes down, we believe that there's an invisible realm that's going to merge with

the physical realm and that that that that will be like heaven, because that's

the way that Heaven was in the beginning, right Heaven or Paradise all of

existence? Yeah, yeah, all of existence. So Paradise was a place

where God walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day, right

in the garden. He walked with them. And so now we you know,

we're told that God is a spirit, He's an invisible spirit. But

yet we are also told that when we get to heaven, that God is

the source of light, that God can be you know, identified as someone

being on the throne, that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the

Father. These are physical, tangible images in heaven, and yet for us

currently they're invisible. Yeah, yeah, I always feel bad for this donkey,

right, So somehow he has this spiritual vision he can see when Balem

can't. But Balem loses his mind on this donkey. Donkeys are extremely dependable,

right, So mules are not. Mules are strong, they're stronger than

donkeys, but they're very, very undependable. You just they're difficult to work

with. But a donkey, a well trained donkey, will live for decades

and will just work hard and very dependable. So this donkey goes Bayalem,

you've ridden me like your whole life? Have I ever done anything wrong to

you before? And he's like right, But for some reason, now you

know, this donkey is broken down on him and he's mad about it.

And this donkey saved Balem's life. But there's a really interesting note in the

Life Application study Bible says the donkey saved Balem's life but made him look foolish

in the process. So Balem lashed out at the donkey. We sometimes strike

out at blameless people who get in our way because we're embarrassed or our pride

is heard. Lashing out at others can be a sign that something is wrong

within us. Don't allow your own hurt pride to let you hurt others,

hurt people, hurt people. Isn't that powerful? Four innocent donkeys saved this

guy's life and he went off on even beating, And a lot of times

it has way more to do with what's inside of us and what's happening outside

of us. Yeah, you know our reactions, you know, it's it's

a it's a funny thing because I'm fifty three, so are you fifty three?

But it seems like the older I get, the more I realize more

and more that none of us really ever get past being twelve years old.

We really don't, you know, something in us, you know, you

know, anything bad or negative which is oftentimes comes out of us is really

a result of like unprocessed wounds that we have, you know, And I

think that a lot of us we have either bad reactions or we feel something

emotionally, and it really takes a really well educated and well exp in person

to realize, like, wow, I shouldn't be reacting this way, and

I wonder why I'm reacting this way, and it's probably because something in our

past. And it's amazing to me how we're controlled by that and our brokenness,

and we don't realize how broken we are as humans. But every time

we react but poorly, I'm convinced it's probably because of an unprocessed wound that

we have as children. We just never we're not perfect. We're imperfect people,

right, and we live out of our brokenness a lot of time.

Or this guy, he's just godless. Yeah, well that's definitely the case

here. Right, doesn't say anything about his dad being mean to him when

he was a kid, just that he was going against God. God said

don't go, and the mobite said, hey, we'll give you lots of

money if you go, and he went, oh, okay, i'll take

the money. I'll go. Anyways, Then the angel decides, okay,

well I'm gonna have to count him. Yeah, well, it's probably both

right, because none of us can can be free of unprocessed wounds. Sure,

God godless or not, you know, godly are godless, But but

yeah, you're certainly right there. I honestly didn't know he was a sorcerer.

But that that explains a lot, and that to me it feels like

the reason why he's probably not too shocked because he probably taps into powers that

yeah, perhaps all kinds of demonic stuff. Yeah, all kinds of demonic

stuff. Well, hey, there's a lot of sermons hitting in there,

so that's pretty good. So hopefully we will catch you next time on Monday.

If you're following day by day on the Bible, guys,