Don’t Be Like the Donkey Guy!
Just How Spiritually Blind are You?
Songs:
Open my eyes that I may see
Amazing Grace - I once was blind but now I see!
Just a closer walk with thee
I am Thine O Lord
Joke:
A boy’s dog has had puppies and since he couldn’t care for so many,
He goes to a street corner and tries to sell them.
He yells, “Puppies for sale!” but no one stops. So he hatches an idea!
A little later he yells, “Atheist puppies for sale!” and keeps repeating that but still no one stops.
The next day he goes to the corner again but says, “Christian puppies for sale!”
So a guy stops and asks, “Weren’t you here yesterday selling these as Atheist puppies?”
The boy replies, “Sure, but now they have their eyes open!”
A lot of us similarly have our eyes closed and we don’t even realize it!
Some people claim to be christians but then when you ask them anything, they have no idea what it means to be a christian or how to be saved, ever read the bible, etc.
Those same people will tell you how you’re not being very christian, tho!!!
I’m going to say most people for the most part are spiritually blind until they become saved!
Even then, they have a long way to go before they are spiritually mature.
They will believe anything as gospel, and yet they don’t know the gospel, so how do they know?… The Bible calls them: a zeal without knowledge. They need the milk of the Word!
Which means they really can’t handle the meat of the word yet! Rhetorically, where do you rate yourself on that?
1 Peter 2:1-3
2 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Story:
The president of the Bible school I went to told us a story: He saw a nest up in a tree and so he got a ladder to look to see if there were baby birds in the nest, which there were. He bumped the nest and their mouths flew wide open! So, being a bit honery, he found one of those red holly berries, climbed the ladder again, bumped the nest, their mouths flew open, and he dropped a red berry in each of their mouths. They didn’t survive that. He regrets it to this day.
But that story was an interesting one for us Bible students. It taught us not to just open up and swallow any doctrine that comes our way as Gospel.
So if you don’t want to swallow the dreaded and deadly spiritual red holly berry, what do you have to do?
2 Timothy 2:15
15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a worker who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
Psalm 119:105
Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
Psalm 119:11
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.
2 Timothy 3:16,17
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.
Ephesians 6:10-20 Put on the Armor of God
Be mindful of Blind Guides. Don’t willy nilly trust people, trust the Word!
Matthew 15:13 Jesus called the Pharisees blind guides
13 But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted. 14 Leave them alone; they are blind guides of blind people. And if a person who is blind guides another who is blind, both will fall into a pit.”
It appears the ones who had this special spiritual site were those who were very close to God, and the ones who did not have this site were either evil or not fully matured children of God. It takes spiritual Growth! Some grow then stop growing. I want to Grow and Grow and never stop growing!
We are in Numbers 22 and going to talk about “The Donkey Guy”. Now you know with a nick-name like The Donkey Guy, this guy is shameful. His name was Balaam - oddly, a prophet of God that conspired with the king of Moab against God for money. Which is more valuable, being a friend of God or having money? Sad that he couldn’t figure that out!
Numbers 22: 21-34 Balaam - the donkey guy.
15 Then Balak sent representatives once again, more numerous and more distinguished than the previous. 16 They came to Balaam and said to him, “This is what Balak the son of Zippor says: ‘I beg you, let nothing keep you from coming to me; 17 for I will indeed honor you richly, and I will do whatever you tell me. Please come then, curse this people for me.’” 18 But Balaam replied to the servants of Balak, “Even if Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything, either small or great, contrary to the [f]command of the Lord my God. 19 Now please, you also stay here tonight, and I will find out what else the Lord will say to me.” 20 And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, rise and go with them; but you shall do only the thing that I tell you.”
This is really weird that a prophet was conspiring against God. God went the extra mile with him but still Balaam was determined to sin against God! So God was extra strict with Balaam but what is Balaam about to do, heed the warning, or go headlong and do the wrong thing? Yep, do the wrong thing. Don’t be like Balaam.
21 So Balaam arose in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the leaders of Moab.
The Angel and Balaam
22 But God was angry that he was going, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the road as an adversary against him. Now he 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 his sword drawn in his hand, the donkey turned off from the road and went into the field; and Balaam struck the donkey to guide her back onto the road. 24 Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path of the vineyards, with a stone wall on this side and on that side. 25 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pressed herself against the wall and pressed Balaam’s foot against the wall, so he struck her again. 26 Then the angel of the Lord went further, and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn to the right or to the left. 27 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam; so Balaam was angry and struck the donkey with his staff.
Now Angles can either be your best friend or your worst enemy. Did you know that?
If you’re following God, they are there to protect you and help you! Cool, right?!
But if you’re determined to sin and do wrong, the Angels will try to stop you and even might kill you! Eek! Do you see that the Angel almost killed Balaam. He didn’t want to and gave him chances to stop and turn around but at some point he would have had to!!!
Take a lesson, and this is a warning! Don’t push God and Angels with your sin, at some point they will put a stop to it! Pity the fool who doesn’t repent and stop sinning!
James 1:13-15 sin gives birth to death
13 No one is to say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it has run its course, brings forth death.
Paul talked about that people who were treating the Lord’s supper unworthily by making it a drunken feast, that some of then “fell asleep” aka died because of it!
1 Corinthians 11:27-30 fallen asleep
27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. 29 For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.
Do you remember what happened to Annanias and Saphariah? Yep, they died because they lied before the Holy Spirit!
Now don’t get me wrong, God gives us so many chances, and if we ask forgiveness He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But again don’t push Him! We are to turn away from sin, not become more sinful as Christians!
Dying does not mean you’ve lost your salvation, but yeah there’s still consequences for sin and you don’t want to have to face God over your sins!
28 Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” 29 And Balaam said to the donkey, “It is because you have made a mockery of me! If only there had been a sword in my hand! For I would have killed you by now!” 30 But the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I ever been in the habit of doing such a thing to you?” And he said, “No.”
Now this is the real kicker of the story that the donkey spoke and he just takes it as commonplace! Wouldn’t you be stunned or startled? Bizarre! For sure!
31 Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his sword drawn in his hand; and he bowed all the way to the ground.
OK, if you’ve ever seen an Angel, which you know Angels are the army of God, that’s what Heavenly Hosts means - it means army (or so I think). They usually say, “Fear Not!” first thing when they are friendly. Now what if they are not friendly angels, welp, they don’t say fear not. Did you hear the angel say, “Fear not” here? Eek!
32 Then the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out as an adversary, because your way was reckless and contrary to me. 33 But the donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If she had not turned away from me, I certainly would have killed you just now, and let her live.” 34 So Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you were standing in the way against me. Now then, if it is displeasing to you, I will turn back.” 35 But the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but you shall speak only the word that I tell you.” So Balaam went along with the representatives of Balak.
So we see here that Balaam repented, sort of, so the Angel gave him another chance. Wow, Balaam really pushed God and Angels to the extreme and nearly got himself killed. Welp, in the end God finally killed Balaam. Such a sad story!
Imagine having your eyes opened to see a scary Angel who was on the verge of killing you for your sins. Would that give you pause, and rethink your life choices?
Imagine that even if someone came back from the dead (Jesus) some people won’t repent or believe.
Luke 16:27-31 even if someone rises from the dead
27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ 29 But Abraham *said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ 31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”
2 Kings 6:15-17 - Elisha’s servant’s eyes opened
Jesus did so many miracles in front of the people of that time and still they would not believe. You just can’t help some people see again! They are permanently blind! If you have a hard heart, soften it now!
John 12:37-40 He has blinded their eyes
37 Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:
“Lord, who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts,
nor turn—and I would heal them.”
Knowing that, how does that change your behavior and your life choices?!
What’s wrong with being blind and going thru life without spiritual vision? Well, you bump into things like Balaam did that could even kill you! I had a friend that was legally blind and he was often frustrated by running into poles or not being able to easily read. Things we take for granted.
Hoseah 4:6
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Are you spiritually blind? Do you realize there’s a spiritual world here and angels all around? Even God is here, He’s omnipresent!
Revelation 3:18
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Whether you can see or even if you are blind, I hope that you are not spiritually blind like Balaam was and that you see Jesus for who He is! God’s Son. Balaam was so greedy that he couldn’t see the big spiritual picture! What is blinding you to God? Is it money, is it things, is it hatred of something or someone? Don’t be like that. Open your spiritual eyes, and open your heart to Jesus! If you’re not saved, trust in Him today. He can take away your sins which are keeping you from going to heaven and making a barrier to a relationship with Him.
