The Prophet And The Talking Donkey - "doctrine Of Balaam"

How many of us perceive that someone is trying to make us look foolish with the things they say or do for us, only to find out later that they were just tying to help us, save us, steer us away from danger?

This testimony is meant to teach us something. I learned many years ago, If God used a donkey, an ass, to speak to a man to get His point across, then God can use anyone to speak His message to me. Many of us fail to see God, even through the mouth of an ass. God still speaks through donkeys today through the world around us. Your just not listening and can’t see.

Most of us, when someone shares with us, tells us something, and it’s not what or who we expect it to be, we don’t listen or see, and we miss God speaking to us; and therefore, we miss what God is trying to tell us. Many of us, take no heed to what Jesus told us in Matt. 10:41: “receive a prophet in the name of a prophet and receive a prophet’s reward. Receive a righteous man in the name of a righteous man and receive the reward of a righteous man.” This is one of my favorite scriptures. Understand, the reward is yours, not the prophets or the righteous mans. They are but messengers passing on to you what God would have for you; but many of us never receive such rewards because we judge who it comes from rather than who’s message it is! Did you get that? Come on Now! God spoke through an ass to get His message across, and just may speak to you through an ass, but will you receive it? Let that marinate!

Now, what follows in the subsequent chapters in Numbers 23-25, we see that Balaam is forbidden from cursing Israel, but instead blesses Israel. The first blessing is a prophecy that Israel will be multiplied (Numbers 23:7-10) and in the second, he proclaims that with God on their side, Israel is indestructible and that God will not change His promises to Israel (Numbers 23:18-24).

However, while Balaam was prophesying and pronouncing blessings on Israel, he was also consulting with Balak on how to cause Israel to bring God’s condemnation down upon themselves. Balaam counseled Balak to use temple prostitutes of the pagan deity Ba’al to entice the Israelite men into sexual relationships and pagan rituals. Balaam did this presuming God would condemn Israel, and he would in turn collect the reward, the money from Balak. This is what is spoke of in 2 Pet. 2:15-16

“They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong. But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice.”

According to 2 Peter 2:15, Balaam’s “way” is a choice to promote the doctrine of “admixture” for financial reasons. According to Jude 1:11, Balaam’s “error” was his willingness to accommodate pagan beliefs out of greed. Jude 1:4 also refers to the sin of those “who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality.”

Putting these ideas together gives a clear view of the doctrine of Balaam. It is admixture of one still loving and living to the world while still believing their serving God – It tells us in James 4:4: You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.