God Can Use...Donkeys - Sept. 12th, 2010

Date: September 12th, 2010

Speaker: Pastor Kevin Snyder

Title: God Can Use...Donkeys

Text: Numbers 22 - 24

Introduction

In our journey we come to a comedic story. Numbers 22 – 24 could be made into a good comedy show. It is the story of 2 stooges and a donkey.

Entitled message “God can use…donkeys.”

Now also want to say “Please don’t connect this with the earlier interviews of our 2 new staff members…I am not implying we hired “donkey’s” However, it is perhaps descriptive of our hope as staff that God can use us.

Let’s relive the story.

Part 1: Balak calls for Balaam

The story begins with a king named Balak who is the king of Moab. Israel on their march to the Promised Land goes through the land of Moab, and Balak is afraid of what Israel will do to them. He’s heard the stories.

He sends for a man named Balaam. Balaam is diviner, a fortune teller, a fortune teller. He wants Balaam to come and put a curse on the Israelites.

God comes to Balaam and says: “You can’t put a curse on them because they are blessed.”

So Balaam tells the delegation “I can’t”. So they go back and tell the king “Balaam refused.

Well the king is stubborn and he sends another delegation – more numerous and more distinguished & with a higher offer to come and work for him.

But Balaam at this point sounds really noble:

“Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the Lord my God.”

Sounds great, but Balaam asks them to stay the night.

Well, the next morning he announces “I think the Lord wants me to come with you, but be on notice I can only say what the Lord tells me.”

Now this sounds like Balaam is a saint. However, Balaam gets mentioned several times in Scripture and does not get portrayed as a saint. His motives are questionable. It appears perhaps he is using his hold out as a bargaining tool. The offers get sweeter each time so why not hold out. And after all I’m not making any promises…not in your back pocket.

Part 2: Balaam’s Donkey

Here is where the story becomes overtly funny.

Balaam gets up, saddles his donkey and goes with the princes of Moab. Donkeys are known for stubbornness and Balaam thinks that is happening here.

His donkey decides this day to act up and be stubborn so he thinks. Now, picture this with your mind. This big “prophet” with all these princes on their fine, well-trained animals.

1. 1st, we read donkey suddenly turns off the road and into a field. Balaam beats the donkey to get her back on the road

2. Going along narrow path with 2 walls on each side. Donkey pushes far to one side and crushes Balaam’s foot againt the wall. So he beats her again.

3. Come to narrow place where no place to turn around and so the donkey lays down and refuses to get up…and so Balaam beats her again.

At this point Balaam, as a seer should be getting a bad omen. He should be getting a message. But the funny part of this story is that Balaam is more stubborn even than a stubborn donkey.

But the story now turns to almost an animated comedy. “Dr Doolittle talking to the animals.”

Numbers 22: 28 – 35

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.

32 The angel of the LORD asked him, "Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. [a] 33 The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If she had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now, but I would have spared her." 34 Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, "I have sinned. I did not realize you were standing in the road to oppose me. Now if you are displeased, I will go back." 35 The angel of the LORD said to Balaam, "Go with the men, but speak only what I tell you." So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.

Now, I wonder if the princes watching this heard this conversation? In my mind I don’t think they did. They saw this esteemed prophet, who now looks like a fool having what appears to be this conversation with a donkey , and they are perhaps wondering “Why did Balak ever call this guy…he’s nuts.”

Part 3: Balak & Balaam: The 2 Stooges in Action

Part 3 is where Balak takes Balaam out to see, interestingly, “a part of the people.”

Balak is anticipating this curse on the people. He has paid handsomely. He has done all these religious acts Balaam has wanted. And now he awaits this curse.

But what comes out of Balaam is not a curse but a blessing.

Balak is stunned…”What have you done to me?” he asks.

Balaam says, “Must I not speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”

Well, Balak shows another side of stubbornness. He decides maybe the problem is location.

So he takes Balaam to another place where he again sees “only a part of the people.”

He does all the rituals again and waits.
This time Balaam utters an even more specific blessing on Israel
Balak is beside himself.

But he’s stubborn. Maybe 3x lucky.

And so he takes him for the 3rd time to another place thinking “Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from here.” (23: 27)

This time Balaam didn’t resort to sorcery but came out with another even more specific and prophetic blessing of Israel.

And then we have this heated exchange between Balak and Balaam. Balaam the man with questionable morals and motives. And Balak who thought he could buy favor with God with gifts and money and religious duty.

Numbers 24: 10-14

10 Then Balak's anger burned against Balaam. He struck his hands together and said to him, "I summoned you to curse my enemies, but you have blessed them these three times. 11 Now leave at once and go home! I said I would reward you handsomely, but the LORD has kept you from being rewarded." 12 Balaam answered Balak, "Did I not tell the messengers you sent me, 13 'Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything of my own accord, good or bad, to go beyond the command of the LORD -and I must say only what the LORD says'? 14 Now I am going back to my people, but come, let me warn you of what this people will do to your people in days to come."

And Balaam gives what must have been like a punch to the gut. He tells Balak what will happen to them…talk about sucking the fight out of him.

Application

What does this story teach us?

Let me highlight a couple of takeaways:

1. Encouraging Message: God is at Work

Remember how the people of Israel were so afraid of the people in the land. Well, this story is like a behind the scenes inside look of what God is doing outside Israel. It gets parachuted into the middle of this saga of Israel. And there is kind of a tongue in cheek humor in that.

You see, unbeknown to Israel God is going before them and softening up the enemy. The Moabites it says are filled with dread and fear. The king of Moab feels a need to appeal to spiritual forces to be able to stand against them.

All of this is happening behind the scenes.

Lesson to us:

Perhaps you are praying for…
a spouse, a friend, a child.
For a church to change
For a youth group, a group of friends, a generation of people, a family system…
For the spiritual state of our city or nation

(William Carey, one of the 1st protestant missionaries was a shoe cobbler. And he used to pray over a map of the world while he was working on shoes.
Every fall we have set aside a Sunday to “Pray for the Persecuted church”. Those cns living in lands where their faith is not tolerated and they are persecuted for it. And we pray for those cns and for those countries to change.

Perhaps praying for a nation caught in corruption and resistant to Christ.

From your vantage point you don’t see anything happening. We only see and experience what is happening on our side of the curtain. But unbeknown to you God may be at work in some unbelievable ways that you will never know until after.

Israel never knew this story of Balaam and Balak until after it was all over. They never knew how God was working until the war was won…and then they heard and retold this story.

Friends, when we are in the middle of our battles often we get discouraged. We don’t see anything happening. All we see are these giants, and fortified cities, and overwhelming odds. We aren’t always privy to what God is doing on the other side….in the hearts and lives of those people that we are praying for.

i.e.

Jim cymbala story – Chrissy – daughter gone wild, up was down and down was up, tired of coaxing, bribing, yelling, punishing…came to a point where he turned over to God…tearing him & his wife apart emotionally, relationally….turned it over to God. God had to deal with her.

3 months saw nothing – One night at prayer meeting – one of elders felt they really needed to gather together to pray for Chrissy. They did.

Time went on…can’t remember how long…but one night his wife came into the room and said “Chrissy’s here.”

Went out and when she saw her Dad she came and fell on the floor at his legs and starting just sobbing “Daddy forgive me. I am so sorry. Please forgive me…”

And she told this story about her drug use and about how she had this dream of falling into this big black abyss and couldn’t get out and she was so afraid and scared. Asked when…night they were praying.

They prayed and didn’t know at all what was happening. Didn’t look like anything. And because of that it’s easy to give up

Sometimes I wonder if we give up the spiritual battle for our kids too easy. Perhaps there are parents going thru similar painful experiences and perhaps commit to get together and to pray weekly or monthly for your children or spouses, or family members…instead of doing it alone. Letting Satan isolate you and make you feel like nothing is going to change.

Neh 4:14 says “Fight for your wives and your children…”

If you are interested in that I have put a sign-up sheet on small group table – perhaps desire to be a part of a group that would come together monthly to pray for their family members.

This story ought to encourage us. Unbeknown to us God is at work on the other side of the veil, and he uses some of the strange characters, and even donkeys to bring about change.

Story reminds us that God likes to work thru passionate, sold-out Christ followers but he isn’t confined to that…he can use donkeys.

Lesson #2: Beware of Stubbornness

There is a huge lesson here about stubbornness. You see, the humor of this story is that there are 2 humans more stubborn than a donkey.

And the 2 key messages we need to hear about stubbornness are:

1. Balaam: Our Stubbornness can blind us to God.

The donkey which Balaam thought was stubborn was really trying to get him a message. It saw what this stubborn seer didn’t see.

He was blinded by his greed perhaps.
Blinded by his sense of importance.
Blinded by his reckless ways.
But he was blinded by his stubbornness.

Friends, same thing can happen to us. It is what often delays response from the people we pray for. They are stubborn and refuse to get the message. They keep getting sidetracked, hurt, stopped in their tracks and yet still don’t see God in front of them trying to get their attention.

Joke: farmer – farmer bought mule from neighbor…told “totally great”…gets home & mule won’t do anything…came over picked up board and smacked mule…why did you do that. Mule will listen but 1st you have to get its attention.

What is God having to do to get your attention?
What is he having to do to get you to quit going down your reckless path, your self-determined way and to bend a knee and submit to him?

I have come to never under-estimate our capacity for misery. How much pain, problems, obstacles, difficulties we will go through because of our stubbornness and refusal to submit to the Lordship of Christ?

Question is: Is God trying to get your attention?

How are you responding? Are you blinded by your stubbornness to see him?

2. Balak: Our Stubbornness leads us to doing the same things over and over again expecting a different result.

Isn’t it funny how Balak asked Balaam 3 times to try to curse people. Took him to 3 different vantage points

(By the way although this story is funny it is extremely well crafted. There is perhaps something to 3

3 characters…3x donkey steered away…3 encounters with God….3 oracles… 3 attempts to curse….)

But is Balak all that different than us.

What do we do when we don’t get the answer or result we want?

Sometimes we just move to a different vantage point and do the same thing over again.

(Again, that often is what delays those we are praying for from changing doesn’t it. They keep thinking they can do it on their own. It will work this time. They keep repeating mistakes until we hit bottom…until our stubbornness is broken and we are ready to change directions.

You’ve heard the adage “Insanity is doing the same things over again expecting a different result.”

It’s thinking “This time it will be different.”

Stubbornness leads us to doing the same things over and over expecting a different result.

We go back thinking…

“this time I have it under control.”
“This time it won’t happen…I’m smarter.”
“This time it will work”

Question we need to ask ourselves is:

Am I still bent on going my way…or am I ready to accept reality. To change myself instead of my surroundings.

Am I seeing that life isn’t working this way?

What is God calling me to?

Friends, one of the major lessons of this story is about

Stubbornness.

It’s about God can use donkeys over stubborn hearts.
God can use donkeys in his sovereign way to break our stubborn hearts.
It’s about doing a little introspection of our hearts seeing if we are stiff-necked and stubborn
blinded to what God & his ways
persisting in doing the same things expecting different results.

Perhaps today is the day to bend your knee and turn from you stubborn ways – in your sp life, in your marriage, in your work…

Maybe today is the day to ask yourself: God what are you trying to say to me?

Maybe it is a day to intensify your prayers for those around you. To realize that the delays in change aren’t because god isn’t working…not because god isn’t trying to get their attention…but because of a stubborn heart. And we need to pick up our hearts that God will use donkeys and whatever it takes to break our stubborn hearts.

Maybe we need to get a little more “good” stubborn like the donkey. Stubborn at listening and obeying God, and persisting in what God is showing us. To get more stubborn in our prayers knowing God is at work…and can use donkeys.

Prayer

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