God’s Donkey
I want to tell you of one of my ambitions today. It is not an ambition that I have told many people about. In fact, it is an ambition that I have only recently had. It is an ambition that God has laid upon my heart. Some of you may feel that I have already fulfilled this ambition, but I can assure you that I have not. The ambition is this... ’I want to become like a donkey.’
You may wonder why, after all, a donkey is not one of the most admired animals amongst Gods creation. They have a reputation for being slow, smelly, cumbersome, insignificant, stubborn, and a bit thick. I will repeat again that I have not yet fulfilled my ambition of becoming like a donkey.
I don’t claim to be able to read the mind of animals, but I can imagine that a donkey probably doesn’t feel all that special. It probably doesn’t think that it has the ability to achieve anything great at all. If any creature has the right to feel down about themselves, then it is probably the donkey. It isn’t beautiful like the butterfly. It can’t run like the stallion. It isn’t powerful or majestic, like the lion. It isn’t a good protector, like the faithful hound. It doesn’t even make a tasty steak. The list of a donkey’s inability’s goes on and on. In fact the only thing that a donkey appears to be good for, is carrying things.
You might feel like a donkey today. You may feel like you have little talent and that you are unimportant. You may feel like you have nothing to offer to God, or to anybody else. If you do, then I want to encourage you today, to see that you can be used powerfully for the purposes of God. In order to do that, I want to look at the lives of two of the most famous donkeys ever. You see it is these donkeys that I want to become like. They are found in the Bible, and as the Bible doesn’t give them names, I will call them donkey Balaam’s Donkey, and Jesus’ Donkey.
Balaam’s Donkey. - A donkey that saved lives.
The first of the famous donkeys is found in the book of Numbers, chapter 22. This is of course Balaam’s donkey.
Numbers 22:21-31
21 Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab.
22 But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the LORD stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him.
23 When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, she turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat her to get her back on the road.
24 Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path between two vineyards, with walls on both sides.
25 When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot against it. So he beat her again.
26 Then the angel of the LORD moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left.
27 When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat her with his staff.
28 Then the LORD opened the donkey’s mouth, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?"
29 Balaam answered the donkey, "You have made a fool of me! If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now."
30 The donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?"
"No," he said.
31 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 facedown. NIV
**Obedience despite circumstances**
The time that this account is set is after the Israelites have come out of Egypt and prior to them entering the promised land. As the Israelites moved on they were conquering those who opposed them.
Balaam was a prophet of that time. He appears to know God, and is known for his power. Those who Balaam bless, stay blessed, and those who Balaam curse, stay cursed. Balaam is called for by Balak, the king of the Moabites. Balak is concerned that the Israelites will destroy them, and so he calls for Balaam to put a curse on the Israelites, so that Balak may destroy them and drive them away.
When the first envoys come to Balaam and present their request, Balaam seeks God and is told not to go with them because the Israelites are a blessed people. Undeterred, Balak sends even more important and numerous envoys to Balaam to repeat his request. Instead of sending them away, having already received his answer from God, Balaam invites them in for the night and questions God again.
Here we see the faults in Balaam’s character. He concerns himself with the reward he could get from fulfilling Balak’s request and is more persuaded by men rather than the will of God. His motivation for asking God a second time was wrong and so God sends him on his way, but sends His angel to lie in wait and oppose him.
Balaam was a man who saw God, and knew how to listen to the voice of God. Yet his greed became his downfall and he became disobedient. He found himself doing God’s will but with the wrong motivations. We have to be careful as Christians. It is possible to do the right thing, that is in Gods will, but to do it with the wrong heart. Balaam’s disobedience would eventually lead to his destruction.
What then do we know about the donkey? Firstly we know that this donkey was faithful. The donkey was Balaam’s original, and only, mode of transport. This donkey had never let Balaam down. It had never gone off course, and it had never refused to move. It had never done anything special, but it had always done what it was meant to do. The donkey here displays one of the first qualities of being used by God, simply being faithfully at doing what it had been asked to do. If we want to be used by God then we have to do the same.
**Eyes open to Gods vision**
Secondly we see that this donkey has a vision. She is able to see the angel of the Lord, while Balaam’s eyes are blinded. The donkey can see because of her faithfulness, Balaam, on the other hand, is blinded by his wrong motivation. This account is quite amazing, it shows that God can do more with a donkey who has vision, than a so called man of God without it. Like Balaam we may have heard from God many times in the past, but if we have a wrong heart then we will lose our vision and can become destructive to God’s purposes.
Because of the faithfulness of this donkey, and because it had such clear vision, it was able to withstand the beatings its master gave it. The donkey had done nothing wrong, yet because it could see the danger, it was willing to suffer. You see the donkey didn’t need to stop and veer off course, because her life was never in danger. In verse 33 of this chapter the angel of the Lord tells Balaam that it was Balaam who would have died and that the donkey’s life would have been spared. The donkey did it because of her desire to save the life of the very person who was mistreating her.
The Christian life isn’t easy. When God moves there will be many troubles and oppositions. In order to see our families and friends saved we might have to endure many hardships. Unless we have a clear vision, and a passion for those that are in danger, then we will not have determination required to endure the beatings.
Don’t be downhearted however. If we do endure then God will give us ability beyond that which we thought capable. God can give us supernatural ability. It is at this point that the donkey starts to talk. For those that haven’t realised, this is something that goes beyond the donkey’s normal capabilities.
I know that many people talk to their pets. Some people even talk to their plants. Some people think that this is mad. I want to put the record straight, madness isn’t talking to a plant or an animal... it’s listening to it that’s crazy.
The donkey was given ability beyond its own, and if we are faithful and full of vision, then we can also be given abilities beyond our own.
Donkey 2. – Carrying the anointing.
The second donkey that I want to speak about is found in all four of the gospels. It is the donkey that carried Jesus into Jerusalem.
Luke 19: 28-38
28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
29 As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them,
30 Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no-one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.
31 If anyone asks you, ’Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ’The Lord needs it.’
32 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them.
33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, Why are you untying the colt?
34 They replied, The Lord needs it.
35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it.
36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.
37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
38 Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! NIV
**A mouldable life**
There appears to be nothing special about this donkey. When we read the other gospels we find that it was actually tied up along with an older donkey, and both were brought, but here Jesus decides to ride on the younger. He decides to ride on the one that has not been ridden before. It has not been forced to carry and get used to a particular route before, and so it wouldn’t be tempted to try and go its own way.
I was once speaking to somebody from my home town of Biddulph who owned a farm and had donkeys. She told me of how stubborn donkeys could be. It is quite popular in the UK to have donkey rides for children at the sea side. She told me that the donkeys have their fixed path. They will walk so far up the beach, turn around and walk back again. It doesn’t matter how hard you try, you will not get that donkey to go in any other direction, or any further, than it’s normal path. If you want to go in a different direction, then you have to use a donkey that has not been ridden before.
If we want to be used by God then it is important for us to be like an unridden donkey. We can’t serve God if we already have our own preconceived ideas of where he wants to take us. We can’t use routes that we have been down before as a guide to where God is taken us as a church now.
**A promise upon a humble life**
This donkey wasn’t chosen by accident. Jesus hadn’t chosen him as plan ’B’ because there wasn’t a horse and chariot available. The donkey had been prophesied about 500 years before by Zechariah.
Zechariah 9:9
9 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. NIV
The donkey had a promise upon its life and it was about to be fulfilled. It was tied up and this is how many of us can feel. We have a promise upon our lives but we feel that we are tied up and unable to move. Maybe it is a family or job situation. If we remain patient and do not lose hope, then Jesus is more than able to send for us and for us to be loosed at the right time.
The donkey wasn’t anything special, but it was carrying a king. We don’t know if it was ever used a gain. The donkey would have been foolish to have taken the glory for itself. The next day, it would wake up just an ordinary donkey. In fact it was the lowliness of the donkey that made it useable. If Jesus had of been riding on a horse, the authorities might have thought that he was about to lead a rebellion. Great warriors would ride horses in similar circumstances after they had won a great battle.
It was the donkey’s lowliness that made it usable. It symbolised the fact that Jesus had come in great humility and was coming to bring peace and justice, not war. The old testament kings would travel about the country during peace times on a donkey dispersing justice throughout the land.
When the warriors rode into the city they would be followed by the captives who would be put to death following the procession. Jesus rode a donkey, because He was there, not to parade the captives before death, but to set people free from death.
The donkey was special, not because of who he was, but because of who he was carrying. He was carrying Jesus into the city. If we want to carry Gods presence into this town and city, or if we want to carry his presence into our workplaces then we have to be willing to become less, so that he can become more. We are only going to achieve great things for God, not by being something in ourselves, but by carrying his presence.
Conclusion.
I will repeat what I said at the start... I want to be like a donkey. I don’t just want to be like any old kind of donkey, I want to be one that achieves great purposes for God. I want to be a donkey that is faithful, that has a vision, and that is able to carry Gods presence into this city in a way that causes people to have to give Him praise.
If you have always aspired to be a great preacher, musician or whatever, the thought of being a donkey, a lowly derided animal, might not be that appealing. The truth is that these two donkeys were used in mightier ways than most people dream of, and it doesn’t end there.
The first donkey saved lives, the second donkey carried the anointing of God into the city. That is how I want to be used. What about you?
