Donkey Talk

 “Donkey Talk”

 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sunday, July 21, 2013

Text: Numbers 22 // Series: “Crossing Over: Life on the Edge of Faith” Family Inclusive

Video: “When I See an Elephant Fly” (from ‘Dumbo)

Well, good morning!  How many of you know where that movie clip came from?  That’s right, the movie Dumbo the flying elephant.  And those funny birds were asking a good question which I want to hear you guys answer: “What’s the craziest thing you have ever seen an animal do?” (this can include things you have seen on AFV or TV or at the zoo or online – just keep it tasteful… We are in family inclusive mode, remember J).      

Well today’s encounter in the Bible is about one of the weirdest things I have ever heard of any animal doing.  We’ll get there in a moment but our story begins where we left off last weekend.  The people of Israel are wondering in the wilderness, waiting to Cross Over into the land that God has promised them.  But as we have walked with them on this journey so far this summer, we see them time and again waffling back and forth between faith and unbelief.  Between complaining and between trusting God for amazing & miraculous things.  And it can be easy to quickly judge them and to think we would NEVER do anything as foolish as them.  But if you are anything like me, you find that often your life is lived on that thin line between faith and doubt.  We might hear God and then decide that we don’t really want to do what He invites us to.  Today we are going to explore how we all have mixed motives and get things mixed up from time to time so let’s pray as we jump in.

When we left the children of Israel last Sunday, God had provided them water from a rock in Numbers chapter 20.  Then they go on to two great military victories in Numbers chapter 21.  And now they have come to the plains of Moab and they can see the Jordan River at the edge of the wilderness.  They can see the city of Jericho and so you might think they are ready to cross over.  But they’re not there yet.  They have another problem as well.  The king of land of Moab has also seen them coming and he is freaked out!  After all, the Israelites just defeated the two nations that were stronger than his army.  So he has to come up with a plan.  And fast before they decide to turn on him and his people.  Let’s pick up the story in the book of Numbers 22:3 [2 slides].

So here we meet the main character in our story today, Balaam.  Balaam has an international reputation as a seer, a diviner, a kind of prophet for hire.  It appears that he is willing to deal with whatever supernatural beings are relevant to the needs of his clients.  And he lives a far ways away from Moab so for the king to call upon him is a big deal and a big expense.  Roy Gain, in his commentary on the book of Numbers, for which I am indebted to for much of the context of this message, notes that Balaam was such a big player in his day that archeologists have discovered his story written in plaster on the site of Deir Alla, about 8 kilometers east of the Jordan River.  So what does Balaam’s contract with Moab say?  Well, let’s keep reading.       

Numbers 22:7-20 [4 slides]

Now here’s where our story gets really, really interesting.  Remember we talked about crazy animal stuff?  It’s about to happen.  [Tell the story…]

• Saddles up his donkey & whistles / sings (to the tune of Happy Beach: “Oh off I go today / I’m on a mission yeah / Gonna curse some people and get paid”) J
• But God was angry that Balaam was going… He sent the Angel of the Lord to stand in the road to block his way.  Now, remember, Balaam is supposed to be this super spiritual dude who knows what God is thinking and up to, but does he see the angel? No. But who does? His trusty donkey! 
• How many of you have a very favorite stuffed animal?  Me too.  I’ve had it since I was a baby.  It might be hard to see for you but this is my Eeyore.  My trusty donkey.  Meg thinks that it’s quite ironic that an optimist such as myself has such a pessimistic and gloomy partner, but we complete each other J  But my Eeyore is nothing compared to the donkey in this story.  Balaam’s donkey sees the angel and sees that the angel has a sword drawn and so she bolts off the road and into the field.  And Balaam freaks out and beats the donkey.  So they get back on the road but the angel moves to a place where the road narrows between two vineyard walls.  And again, the donkey sees the angel of the Lord and so she tries to squeeze by and in the process, Balaam’s foot gets crushed against the wall.  So he beats the donkey again. 
• Then the angel of the Lord moves further down the road to a place too narrow for the donkey to get by at all.  And when the donkey sees this, she just lays down right under Balaam.  And he freaks out. 

Peter Sands’ did the art piece for us this week and I love his depiction of this very moment….  Because it’s at this moment that the most amazing and wonderful and crazy thing happens – the donkey speaks!  Follow along in verse 28 of numbers Chapter 22. [read] 

• “What have I done to you that deserves your beating me three times?”
• “But I am the same donkey you have ridden all your life.  Have I ever done anything like this before?”   [Read to end of verse 35]

How’s that for a crazy animal story?  But there’s a few other crazy parts to this story that I want us to explore together this morning.  One part that seems a bit crazy is to ask why is God mad at Balaam for going when God said yes you can go?  Have you ever had that happen kids: your parents say you can do something and so you do it and then later you get in trouble for doing it?  Is that what is going on here?  In order to get at that question, we have to ask a little more about Balaam’s motives for going in the first place.  Balaam is going to do a job that God doesn’t want him to do.  God is not interested at all in having Balaam curse people that He has blessed.  No one, not even Balaam, is going to over-rule God’s blessing on His people.  So Balaam’s first answer to the first group of emissaries is the right one.   

But this still doesn’t quite answer for us why God would get mad at Balaam for going?  It seems that Balaam has a bit of trouble taking no for an answer.  In the story, what changes his mind?  Well, it appears that Balaam gets a bit greedy and image conscious.  When the second group shows up and they are even more important and they are dressed in even more important clothes and they bring even more money, Balaam begins to reconsider.  He should have taken God’s first ‘no’ as the final answer  (see also Num. 11:31-33).  God has let Balaam know where he stands on the issue of cursing people that God does not want cursed.  But Balaam is looking for some wiggle room.  And as God sometimes does, He gives it to Balaam for a very specific purpose…  This also happens to the children of Israel earlier in Numbers in chapter 11 at Kibroth Hattaabvah, when the people ask God for meat and He sends they quail and then God is angry with the Israelites when the gather the quail He sent them.  Why? 

“It appears that the Lord is testing people by giving them what they want in order to see whether or not they will show some restraint in accordance with what they already know to be right.”                                                                       - Dr. Roy Gane

Sometimes when we pray and God loving says ‘no’ but we keep pressing and pressing and pressing and sometimes, it is as if finally God says, “fine.  You know my first answer, but I am going to give you what you are asking for so that you know that it’s not ultimately good for you.” 

We ask and say “God, I want to have more money so I can be more generous” and God says “It’s not the right time for you – your heart has not grown to keep up with your wallet” and we keep begging and begging and finally God says “fine.  I’m going to give that experience” And sure enough, we can’t handle it. Or we keep saying “God, I want to be in a relationship” And God says “no, I have given you the gift of being single at this time” and we keep griping and griping and finally, God may say to us “Fine.  I am going to give you what you want but show some restraint” and boom… we blow the relationship up.  Now, those are perhaps more adult examples so let’s see if we can’t illustrate this for kids.  Who wants some candy?  Hands up.  OK, Mr. Joel…  I have some candy for you, but I want you to show some restraint, OK?  These are Sour Patch kids so if you eat too many, your mouth will get all gross and you’ll get cancer sores so go easy, OK?  We’ll check back in with you later in the morning to see how it’s going.  

In this case, essentially Balaam seems to be saying “yeah, yeah, yeah, God.  I’ll say what you want me to say” but he’s got it in his mind and in his heart to do whatever he wants to do anyway when he gets there. We get his picture even more clearly in 22:25 where Balaam says to the angel of the Lord “well, IF you are against my going, I suppose I could turn around.”.  IF God is against his going?  IF?!  Balaam, buddy… God sent a freakin angel with a drawn sword to kill you IF you kept on going.  Look what he apologizes for - “Oh, I’m sorry, Mr. Angel.  I didn’t see you there.”  He does not apologize for keeping on going.  He has already made up his mind about that part of the story.  And Balaam misses again that he should not be going to curse people whom God has blessed.

Balaam is a bit stubborn that way, and perhaps you and I are as well from time to time.  So in this case, God does something radical to get Balaam’s attention – he loosens the tongue of his poor old donkey.  And one of the other crazy or ironic things about the story to me is that Balaam doesn’t at all seem fazed by the fact that he is carrying on a conversation with a talking donkey.  I love this cartoon from Reverend Fun

“Yo Balaam, us animals were just wondering why don’t get freaked out when animals talk to you”

This kind of irony makes the story a bit funnier to me… Balaam says to the donkey, if I had a sword, I would kill you right now.  When the donkey is the very one who has saved Balaam three times from being killed by the angel’s sword.  Three times the donkey sees that which this supposedly super spiritual dude misses.  The donkey speaks the truth straight up.  The donkey is acting human and the human in this story is acting asinine. 

But we do have to give Balaam some credit, after all, this whole talking donkey incident must have embarrassed him in front of his paying customers.  Oh, what’s that Eeyore?  Pardon me, can you speak up, please – I didn’t hear you?  Oh, yes, that is a good idea.  We should go back and check in with Mr. Joel to see how his tongue is doing. Good idea!

Mr. Joel… Everyone else was so excited about and so wanted that candy.  What was it like to get what everyone else wanted?  What have you been doing this whole time?  Oh my!  How are you feeling about it now?  Ads the lyrics to numerous songs reminds us “Be careful what you wish for, because you just might get it all.” 

This is one of the lessons of Balaam’s story – the lesson of being careful about our motives and desires.  When God says ‘no’ to us, it may just be for a good reason and we should not keep pushing and pushing and pushing ahead through the barriers.  Sometimes God’s first answer is his best and final answer to us.  And so When God says ‘no’ about something, learn to receive that as His answer.    In a few minutes, the prayer teams will be available for you and you may want to ask them to pray with you that God would give you peace with an answer to a prayer that you are not satisfied with but you know is the right answer.   Don’t be so stubborn! 

I think another lesson we can learn from Balaam is the lesson of humility because God can speak through anyone.  Balaam thought that he was so special because God spoke through him.  But now, God spoke alright, and it was through a donkey!  Of all the animals God could have chosen, he loosed the tongue of a stubborn mule!  I love the way John Ortberg reflects on this in his book “The Life You’ve Always Wanted”.  He reminds us that Hearing God speak to us is no indication that we are unusually spiritual of mature of important.  God is able to communicate with whomever He chooses.

Now imagine that [Balaam’s] donkey had responded to that even as many of us might be tempted to.  Suppose the donkey had returned to its stable all puffed up because of it superior insight: “I was able to discern the angelic presence when even the prophet himself was ignorant!”  What if the donkey put on airs and considered itself in an exalted spiritual class above the other quadrupeds?” (141-142).  Ridiculous, right?  Well, sometimes I think that we get pretty proud of ourselves.  Well, I’m on the prayer team or I’ve come to pre-gathering prayer pretty often and, I don’t want to brag but I’m getting pretty good at this hearing from God business.  If we fall into that trap, we really are being asinine.  Because humbly accepting the roles God has given us as his servants, liberates us to be who we really are. 

In the end, God does speak through Balaam, not once, not twice but three times.  You can read about it at home in chapters 23 and 24 of Numbers.  In fact, God uses Balaam to utter a fantastic prophecy about the Messiah, Jesus, coming to open the eyes of the blind and bring sight to those who live in places of spiritual darkness.  I think that’s the 3^rd and final lesson from Balaam’s story…  That God can use anyone for His purposes.  If God could use a stubborn old dude like Balaam to speak words of prophetic blessing over the lives of people, maybe just maybe God can use you and me.  If God can open Balaam’s eyes, maybe He can open yours here today.  If God can put His words into Balaam’s mouth, then maybe He can use you to encourage someone today.  If God can give Balaam a vision, just maybe God can still do that today for you.  If God can bring Balaam to his knees in worship, then maybe He can do that with you today.  You might be all mixed up and not have your life altogether or not feel like you’re praying for the right things or reading the Bible as much as you should…  Welcome to the club!  I love that fact that even though I might be as stubborn as a mule, God is still able to use you and I to do what He wants to do.  God is still able to speak to and through you, imperfect and fragile and as messed up as you and I are.  That’s one thing I love about walking with God…  He doesn’t use people because we are perfect or have it all together.  He uses the people who just keep saying “God, I will say and do no more and no less than what You want me to say and do.” 

Perry and the team are going to come and they’re going to do a song of reflection for us followed by two songs of response.  The words to this first song will be up on the side screens but I don’t want you to sing it.  The first song is called “Lord of Me” and it’s about another character in the Bible with a mixed bag of motives.  His name was Peter.  And just like Balaam and like you and I, sometimes he saw things clearly but sometimes he messed up.  And in those moments, Jesus came to Peter and He comes to you and me to remind us of His grace and His mercy.  As the team sings it, I want you right where you are to invite God again to fill you and use you.  This may be your first time to pray a prayer like that… If so, God’s Holy Spirit is warming your heart and I want you to respond by saying “Come, Lord Jesus…  Have mercy on me a sinner.”  God always responds to prayers like that, and if that’s you, I want you to come and tell me before you leave here today that you prayed that prayer for the first time. 

For others, you might express surrender by kneeling.  You might do it by stretching out your hands to God. You might bow your head quietly and pray.  You may want to move to the sides and invite our prayer team to pray with you – Spencer and Ali Lafleur will be on this side and Bailey Davies and Jackie Pasko will be on the other side.  They would be privileged to join with you and ask God to fill you and use you.  Let’s pray together as we learn to listen with humility, learn to speak with blessing and learn to let God fill and use each of us for His purposes today.