The Dumb Donkey Spoke.

THE DUMB DONKEY SPOKE.

Numbers 22:21-31.

After Israel’s defeat of the Amorites, who had once conquered lands belonging to Moab (cf. Numbers 21:26), the Moabites were terrified at the presence of the children of Israel (cf. Numbers 22:2-3). [They need not have been, because the LORD had expressly commanded Moses that Israel should not distress these descendants of Abraham’s nephew, Lot (cf. Deuteronomy 2:9).] Balak was king of the Moabites at this time, and he sent money for a respected soothsayer named Balaam, an Aramean (cf. Numbers 23:7), to come and curse Israel (cf. Numbers 22:4-7).

Balaam prevaricated and, pagan though he was, he sought the LORD’s will in this matter (cf. Numbers 22:8-11). God’s answer was clarion clear: ‘thou shalt not curse the people, for they are blessed’ (cf. Numbers 22:12). So Balaam initially refused to go to the king (cf. Numbers 22:13-14).

Balak repeated the request, offering even more money (cf. Numbers 22:15-17). Balaam emphasised that ‘I cannot go beyond the word of the LORD my God’ (cf. Numbers 22:18), but sought the LORD again (cf. Numbers 22:19) – perhaps in the hope that the LORD would yet allow him to curse Israel, and thereby be paid handsomely for it (cf. 2 Peter 2:15). On this occasion the LORD instructed the seer to go with the messengers to Balak; ‘but yet the word which I say unto thee, that shalt thou do’ (cf. Numbers 22:20).

As we enter into our text, Balaam is saddling his donkey and setting off (NUMBERS 22:21). Yet God’s permission does not amount to His approval of the intentions of the stubborn seer’s heart, and “God’s anger was kindled because he went” in such an attitude. Three times “the angel of the LORD” blocked the way, “his sword drawn in his hand;” three times the donkey avoided the angel, at great pain to her master (but thereby, unbeknown to him, saving Balaam’s life - cf. Numbers 22:33); and three times Balaam beat his donkey, with ever-increasing viciousness (NUMBERS 22:22-27).

Then, “the LORD opened the mouth” of the dumb donkey, who now spoke with man’s voice (NUMBERS 22:28-30), and ‘forbad the madness of the prophet’ (cf. 2 Peter 2:16). It is interesting that there are only two occasions when animals are said to speak in the Bible: the serpent spoke for Satan (cf. Genesis 3:1, Genesis 3:4-5), and was cursed for it (cf. Genesis 3:13-14); and Balaam’s donkey spoke for God.

Now “the LORD opened the eyes” of Balaam, so that the seer might see the angel. He fell flat on his face, perhaps out of reverence, but also out of fear that the angel would slay him (NUMBERS 22:31). Now the dumbfounded soothsayer, who had hoped to curse and earn a fortune, would speak only the blessings that the LORD put into his mouth.

Balaam was not a righteous man, and later ‘taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication’ (cf. Revelation 2:14). Neither did he ‘die the death of the righteous’ (cf. Numbers 23:10). Eventually he would, after all, die by the sword (cf. Joshua 13:22).