Walking With Christ

Numbers 22:22-34 tells us about Balaam and the talking donkey. Balaam was on his way to see Balak, the king of Moab, who wanted Balaam to curse the nation of Israel. Simply put, God said no. He sent an angel to block the path. The donkey that Balaam was riding on saw the angel and turned aside and went into a field to avoid the angel. Balaam tried to force her three times to go back on the path and hit her each time. Then the Lord let the donkey speak. Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes so that he could see the angel for himself.(ESV)

The donkey had seen the danger. Balaam had not. The Lord wanted to block his path to prevent him from doing something stupid. The donkey tried to warn him.

Here is one takeaway from this passage: the Lord blocked Balaam’s passage and the donkey had the proper perspective to see that it was blocked for good reason. God can get in our way on our path and that is a good thing. Without the proper perspective we will often wander into danger without knowing it. When we find out path blocked we have to remember to stop and look around or we might miss the perspective that we were supposed to get.

Numbers 22:31 Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face.(ESV)