At church tonight, Benji talked about Balaam and his talking donkey (you should be proud of me for restraining myself and not going KJV). One of the many things I love about God is how a simple message from His word can actually turn into a knock-your-socks-off sermon.
The point from the sermon that really got me was when Benji talked about God sometimes letting us "win" the argument. Balaam was told by God to not speak evil of His people. Balak didn't like that and kept pressuring Balaam to do so. Easily-influenced Balaam kinda waffled when the princes hassled him about it and God finally said, "Have at it." (I paraphrased)
Then God got angry when he followed. The stubborn old donkey was Balaam's salvation by keeping the angel from killing him and Balaam finally saw the angel and got the meesage. This isn't a very good telling of the story so go to Numbers 22 for the missing details.
Here's the kicker: God let Balaam go with the crowd. I think I can say with all certainty that God sometimes lets us follow our own lead and pursue our desires. Even those He has told us we don't need. In our selfishness and self-righteousness we come to think we know what we need and what is right. So God says, "Fine. Have it your way." We step out of His will and into our own and this usually lasts long enough for us to come near to our own destruction. But I love how Benji described God's Word. "The Bible is the donkey. It will lead you down the right path. You can beat it and scream at it but it knows the safe way and the way that will keep you in God."
In His limitless love, God reaches out and brings us back to Him. He lets us learn our lesson, sometimes the hard way, but He is always there to receive us back, ashamed and broken, into His arms.
Like Balaam, we usually have the perspective of never having seen the danger until it was right in front of us. What seemed right and good and fun turns out to be the sword of Damocles.
This story made me think of how God liked to use animals as vessels of salvation. Balaam had a donkey. Jonah had a fish. Elijah had the birds. Good thing those critters are around, huh?
I just laughed out loud thinking of Brad Stine's bit about Adam naming the animals. At first, Adam gave them all beautiful and glorious names like hippopotamus and giraffe. But by the time he got down to the end, he was over it and just called them what they did. Fly. Ha!
Have a good day, y'all.
