Thursday, December 31, 2009
A Dumb Ass Speaks
(II Peter 2:15-19)
God, I’m convinced, has a sense of humor. (If you doubt this is so, consider Psalm 2:4!) Especially when He foils the designs of the wicked, it appears He sometimes does so with humorous flare. As an example, Peter reminds us of Balaam, the disobedient prophet who so troubled Israel.
In one of the Old Testament’s most curious incidents, Balaam joined in league with the Moabites against Israel. As he traveled to meet Balak, the Moabite king, the angel of the Lord blocked the pathway. Though Balaam could not see the angel, his donkey could. The faithful beast of burden refused to proceed, and Balaam became angry. In fury, he beat his donkey. And then—miraculously—the donkey began to speak. Balaam’s ass reasoned with the unreasonable prophet: “What have I done? Have I not been faithful in carrying you all these years?” (Numbers 22).
Peter tells us that the “dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbade the madness of the prophet” (16). In other words, God used Balaam’s donkey to thwart his evil compromise.
I suppose God could have chosen a more dignified way to rebuke Balaam. Perhaps He could have approached Balaam in a more intellectually appealing manner. Maybe He could have sent learned Jewish scholars to persuade Balaam from his course by employing carefully weighed, logically pleasing arguments.
God, however, did no such thing. Rather, he spoke to His disobedient prophet through the mouth of a donkey. Sometimes God’s message to us comes from an unlikely source—a strange set of circumstances, an unfailing critic, even—perhaps—an ass!
