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Most people would have entitled this study "lessons learned from a master and his donkey" but I chose to reverse the order because truly the donkey is the hero of the narrative. For some reason I am drawn time and time again to this story of scripture and it is probably because God allows a donkey to speak like a human and Balaam has a conversation with his donkey like it is an ordinary thing to do! In reading other commentaries' comments on this particular passage I was shocked to find that the majority of space devoted to this section was debating whether or not the donkey actually spoke out audibly in a human language. And they get so distracted with trying to explain away the clear teachings of the scripture that they missed the main points of why the story was recorded in the first place. So let me just say this: the Bible clearly says in Numbers that the "Lord opened the mouth of the donkey and she said" and if that is not enough proof that it really happened, the Apostle Peter removed all doubt when he wrote:

That's about as plain as you get, and so I truly believe that God allowed this particular donkey to speak for a moment in a human voice. Perhaps it sounds fantastic but with God things that are impossible to us are possible!

Instead of getting all hung up on whether the Bible actually means what it says, we are going to focus on the real purpose for which the story was recorded, to teach us valuable lessons about or relationship with God. It turns out that the issue with this passage is not in trying to find such valuable lessons, but rather choosing from the many here. And so let us turn our attention towards the lessons taught to us in scripture by an unassuming female donkey and her foolish master, the man named Balaam.

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Our first lesson from the story of our dear donkey is:

In the story, Balak, the king of Moab has seen the children of Israel passing by on their way to the Promised Land. And when this evil king sees their great numbers and how God has blessed them and begins to hear of the great things that God has done for them, he gets jealous and frightened and sends for the "prophet" Balaam who is known for sorcery and communicating "with God" and calls for him to come offer a sacrifice to God and curse the Israelites for Balak's sake. When the messengers from Balak came and made their request to Balaam, he told them to remain with him for the night and he would inquire of God what he should do. We find that God -- the God of Israel -- really did speak to Balaam and said:

And so Balaam woke up the next morning and told the messengers from Balak what God had said and told them "I cannot go." The story should have ended there without a donkey ever having to get involved, but we are told that when the messengers went back to Balak and told him what had happened that the Moabite king sent more messengers back to Balaam more distinguished and powerful men as messengers and they brought promise of great amounts of money if Balaam would come and curse the Israelites. And Balaam again said "stay here and let me talk to God" and God spoke to him:

"But God's anger was kindled because he went." That sounds strange to us because God just told Balaam to go with the men and now God is angry that he is going! What's up?

The issue is that it was never God's perfect will for Balaam to go and try to curse the Israelite people and God told him that up front. And Balaam should have gone with that first word and stayed home. But Balaam came seeking God a second time -- despite what God had already said -- because the men brought back lots of money and financial blessings. Why would Balaam go back a second time and ask God to change His mind? Because the truth was Balaam really wanted to go curse Israel because Balaam really wanted the money. He had clearly heard from God, but he kept "checking" to see if God had changed His mind because he really wanted to do the opposite of what God had first said. And so when the word from God came the second time, "alright go" Balaam jumped at the opportunity but God got angry with him for going.

The principle is that we can be tenacious with our requests to God and ask His will for something and the answer is no and yet because we really want to do it and it is our will, we keep bugging God to change His mind and sometimes, God gets fed up with it and gives us what we want, but when we do it, we go under a curse from God because we are not in God's perfect will. My father-in-law preached a message a few years back entitled "getting what you want and not wanting what you get." And sometimes we ask for God's direction and when God's direction is not what we want, then we keep bugging Him until we feel a release to do what we want to do and then we are cursed because of our decision.

I knew a man once who really wanted to move to a certain town and so he put job applications in there and prayed and fasted and talked to his pastor. And his pastor told him "I have prayed and fasted and I don't really feel that it is the will of God for you to go there." And the man admitted that he had heard the same voice. But he really wanted to go there so he kept praying and fasting for God to make a way for him to go there. And suddenly God opened the door for him to walk through. He got a well paying job and found a house and called the pastor up and said "I'm going, God has finally opened the door!" And the pastor said "what about what God said at first?" Oh but I've been claiming that scripture that "whatever you ask in my name I will do it" and I've been claiming it because I really want to move there. And so he moved. Six months later he called the pastor back. His children hated the schools, he hated his jobs, and his wife was backslid because the local church was dead and dry. At a great financial loss, he finally a year later quit the job and moved back to Texas making way less money than the job that he had left and had to come back and try to salvage his family and his life. He had gotten what he wanted but he found out that what he wanted was what he wanted after all! God had known that all along and tried to protect him from it. In prayer, remember that often the first voice of God and first direction is true and be careful if you don't get the answer that you need that you don't bombard God for Him to change His mind for your will to be done, because He just might let you have what you are asking for and you will have to live in the mess that you create! Or worse -- God will have to put a donkey in your path!

And this brings us to the second lesson which is piggybacked off of the first:

The issue was that Balaam wanted the riches and gifts that were promised. And so he sought for a "different word" from God. In our other text, Peter said that Balaam "loved gain from wrongdoing." In other words, he could justify anything as long as there was gain involved.

Such is the attitude of many Christians, unfortunately. They base their life's decisions solely on what seems to their eyes to be the most lucrative action and then only seek God's voice to see if it will confirm what they have already decided to do. I've had people come to me and say "we are doing this and we've already accepted this job and we're moving tomorrow, do you think it is the will of God?" and my answer is "what does it matter? You are already doing it!" They are not genuinely concerned with what God's will is, but are wanting God to go along with what they have already decided! And I think God often feels the same way when we make plans and then ask what He thinks!

I grew up with a pretty young lady in our church who got engaged to a young man and on the week of her wedding looked at me while we were decorating the church and asked, "do you think it is the will of God for me to marry this guy?" I stared at her and said "you should have decided that along time ago before you accepted his proposal." And she said something like, "well he has a good job and he seems to be a good guy." I urged her to call off the wedding, because she was getting married based upon the wrong criteria! And she cried and said that God had been dealing with her and she wasn't sure if this guy was the right guy. But she decided not to cancel the wedding because of the "embarrassment" of undoing her invitations! Her marriage lasted eight months. She recently got married again after a decade plus of living with various guys. She is far from God, today. All because she did what seemed best and the most lucrative and then asked God's opinion of it. Be careful of such things!

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Moving on brings us to our third lesson learned from the story of our beloved donkey and her master:

When God's anger was kindled against Balaam, the scripture says that He sent an angel with a sword to stand in his way. The donkey could see the angel but Balaam was spiritually blinded to it: when you decide to do your will rather than the true will of God your spiritual perception is reduced to being worse than the common animal's!

At first, the angel of the Lord stood in the road that passed between broad fields. When the donkey saw the angel, she turned off the road and into the fields nearby. And Balaam beat her to get her back on track, but only after the angel left did the donkey go back to the road. The second time the angel of the Lord appeared it was where the road went between two vineyard walls and was closed in. When the donkey saw that she could not go forward without getting in reach of that terrible sword, the donkey went to one side and pressed herself against the wall pinning her master's foot in the process. He got angry and beat her again. The angel appeared the third time when the road went through a very narrow place and having nowhere to go, the donkey simply laid down under Balaam. When he began to strike the donkey with his stick, is when God allowed the donkey to speak.

There are some Christians that only believe that God is trying to get their attention if some great supernatural feat happens to them. But when we are going the wrong direction, God doesn't use the supernatural until we have ignored the more subtler ways that He was trying to get our attention with. He doesn't let the donkey speak until we have blinded ourselves to the angel standing in the path and between the walls and in the narrow place. And He doesn't let us see the angel until after we have argued with the donkey. If you want to save yourself some hardship and some pain and some suffering, then learn to hear the gentle nudge of the Holy Spirit in an altar call or during the preaching and change things then. Why do we have to wait until the preacher calls us and says "I have a word for you" or until our circumstance comes crashing down around us and falls apart to realize God is speaking? If you only change when God spiritually "slaps you upside the head" then you are not listening to what the Spirit of God has been saying to you all along. Remember that service where that little voice in the back of your mind was tugging at your heart saying "He's preaching to you and you should change this?" And you ignored it? If you would have changed it then, you would have never had the calamity. We should learn to change with God's subtle workings in our life. God shouldn't have to go to the extreme before we listen.

Does God not use the man of God the same way that this angel was used? You are traveling the wrong path and so you come to church and the man of God stands before you with a message from God and the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God!? And you spiritually are turned aside? And if you do not listen to that, then God allows the man of God to find you in a narrower place where the situation is a bit more desperate and he comes to you again with the sword of the Word of God. And if you do not listen to that then God lets you get into a really tight spot and then sends the man of God again! And then if you do not listen to that, before He rains down judgment, God will use a donkey to speak to you! But if we would learn to listen to God's messenger in the first spots when he stood before us, we would save ourselves the embarrassment of having a donkey more spiritually attuned than we are!

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Our fourth lesson learned from our beloved donkey and her master is simple and one upon which I will not spend much time:

Did you notice that Balaam was so angry that when the donkey spoke, he never said "oh, a donkey is speaking, God must be in this!" The natural response and his ability to realize God was in it was lost because he was wanting a sword to kill his donkey. It has been said that when you get angry, you go back to functioning at the intellectual level of a six year old. It's a simple lesson, but one that we would all be wise to remember -- when you are angry is not the time to make important decisions or to try to reason anything out. Because your anger prevents you from seeing the hand of God working in your life! Calm down and then think about it. And then pray about it. Your anger almost ensures that you will make the wrong decision.

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In the story, when God allows the donkey to speak, she immediately asks Balaam:

Did you catch what the donkey said? She said "tell me a time when I have disobeyed you and not done what you asked?" Given her one moment to speak her mind, she said, "when I have ever not simply done what was required of me?" "Is it my habit to act against your commands?" And Balaam had to say, "no."

And so we come to our fifth lesson from this story:

The critics and skeptics say "we think it strange that God would speak through a donkey" but I say that it would be strange for God NOT to speak through this donkey, because although she was a donkey, she was a "faithful donkey!" And God can always use someone who is faithful! If you want to be used of God, then you must be "faithful" to God!

Now, I've been around many donkeys in my life and because of this story I've listened to them while I was around them and I've never heard a donkey speak! Donkeys are not known as having a talent or personality that is such that they speak. They are not known for being eloquent orators to say the least. But within this story we find a great truth and that is that God is less concerned with your talent and more concerned with your faithfulness! He would rather take the most untalented person for what He needs to be done and use a faithful person than He would take a talented person who has been unfaithful! The donkey really within herself did not have the ability to do what God needed done, but because she had been faithful, God was able to use her!

Oh that we would learn this lesson well! There simply is no substitute for being faithful to the things of God. This world crowns success but God crowns faithfulness! When you stand before God in judgment one day, if you are saved you will not hear "well done thou good and talented servant." You will not hear "well done thou good and doest good deeds all the time servant." You will not hear "well done thou good and hit really high highs several times in thine life servant." You will not hear, "well done thou good and on fire most of the time servant." or "attendest church some of the time servant" or "prayed when you were in a crunch servant." But what you will hear if you are to be saved is "well done thou good and FAITHFUL servant!" There simply is no substitute for faithfulness in the kingdom of God -- it is what qualifies a donkey to be God's mouthpiece!

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And so we come to the sixth lesson from our story of our beloved donkey:

After Balaam has had his conversation with his trusty mount. And after God has opened his eyes to see the angel that has been there the entire time. We find this:

Did you catch that last part? God said, "if she had not turned aside from me, I would have killed you, Balaam, but I would have let the donkey live." Why would the donkey have been spared? Because it did everything that it could to do what was right and to obey the Lord despite what her companion was doing. Even when it was beat for its actions, the donkey still turned aside!

Oh, that we would have Christians with the guts and strength of this donkey; if the donkey could resist the peer pressure, then surely so can you! Be careful that you do not let the evil that others do cause you to do likewise, or cause you to not to respond to what God is doing and saying. Because if you will do what is right, then when judgment eventually comes -- and it will -- then you will be spared if you did every possible thing that you could do to respond to God. Even if your companions and friends treat you like a donkey, I'd rather be a donkey that was sensitive and responding to the voice of God than to be a prophet facing judgment! In all things, do what is right and you will reap accordingly. Don't base your relationship with God based upon what others are doing, because that will get you in trouble. You do whatever is right no matter what your companions are doing! Doing so will ensure that you are blessed in the end!

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And so as we near the end of our lessons learned from a donkey and her master, I want to shift gears a moment and compare Christians with the donkeys of the Bible. Knowing that I was going this direction, and that I would be comparing people to donkeys, I was careful not to use the King James Version of our text because of its usage of another word that might be misconstrued as to what I was really saying. (For those of you who don't get it, after church, you can go read our text in the KJV and it will probably hit you).

I did a quick study of all of the donkeys of the Bible and for the most part donkeys are always spoken of highly in scripture. In fact, the only time that donkeys are spoken of in a negative light is when they are "wild donkeys" that do not submit to a master or correction. Hmm, there might be a lesson in that, somewhere. . .

Anyway, I want to close our lesson tonight by pointing out quickly -- from scripture -- 8 ways that some Christians are not as obedient or wise as donkeys. The point, of course, is for you to take stock where you are spiritually and to elevate ourselves at least to the spiritual level of the donkeys in scripture!

1. As we've already mentioned, Balaam's donkey wouldn't go against the sword of the Lord even when someone was beating her to disobey.

Some Christians are the exact opposite. You couldn't get them to obey the sword of the Word of God if you beat them with it! Just remember that when you are finding excuses as to why you can't obey the Word of the Lord or respond to the messenger of God who stands before you, that while acting that way you are descending below the level of a donkey's spirituality!

2. Some Christians will not do what God asks them to do and blame their personality or inabilities as to why they cannot be used of God.

The donkey of our story had no talent for speaking but when God asked her to do so, she did not let her inabilities or her personality keep her from obeying the voice of God! When God said speak, she spoke! Despite all that other! We would do good to learn a lesson from this wise donkey!

3. Even under severe persecution which she did not deserve, our heroic donkey never retaliated against Balaam.

Had I been the donkey that was getting beaten for saving my master's life, I might have been tempted to "buck" and "kick." That's because our flesh's natural response when hurt is to "hurt back." Despite the example of Jesus on the cross and Stephen in Acts 7. Despite the commandment to "not return spite for spite." Despite the commandment to forgive and turn the other cheek, some Christians still attempt to strike back first and pray second. In that regards, our humble donkey was more of a Christian than many believers today!

4. The donkey that Jesus sent for to ride into Jerusalem, was chosen by Him to be the vessel by which he entered the city. Jesus sent two disciples with the command of "loose her and bring her here." Have you ever thought about it from the donkey's perspective? The donkey did not fight against Jesus' commandments. Once she was loosed, then she willing obeyed the Master's command.

How many Christians are there who have been loosed and freed from the bondage of sin by messengers sent by Jesus with the saving Gospel, and yet when they hear the command of the master that says "come to me, I have need for you." They do not respond to His call and do what God has commanded them to do! They are thankful for being freed but do not respond in obedience! Such Christians do not even match the obedience of the donkey of Jesus' triumphal entry!

5. That donkey was called to bear Christ into the city so that He could be praised and lifted up. Donkey's strengths are bearing a burden. They are noted for their ability to stand up under pressure and weight. And there is no more noble burden than that of carrying Christ!

How many Christians chafe and get aggravated when the weight of Christ rests upon them and rather than respond to the challenge by willingly carrying Him and His will for their lives, they buck and snort and refuse to walk where He wants them to walk!? May we learn from that donkey's example and bear Christ willingly and not grudgingly and if it is a burden, stand tall under the burden and not fall or faint!

6. Some Christians don't believe that God can speak through or do the supernatural through a female. You'd better go check your Bible, because the donkey that Balaam rode was definitely female! Not only can God use a female to speak to you, oh powerful man of God, but if you won't listen to His voice, He can use a female animal to do so!

7. Some Christians don't believe that God can use a young person mightily for His kingdom, but go read about the donkey that Jesus rode into Jerusalem. It was the "foal of a donkey" or a young donkey not quite yet an adult. Not only can God use a young person, but He can use a young animal if no person is willing to be the one! Take the age factor out of your mind as to who can be used of God!

8. A donkey knows where its home is. The prophet Isaiah said this -- and I close with this scripture:

Of all the lessons learned from a donkey, perhaps this is the most needed! God lamented that even a donkey knows where its rightful home is and where it will be treated right, and it can always find its way back to its resting place, but Israel, my people, do not remember or understand where their true home is!

I don't know about you, but I know where my home is! It is in the house of God within His arms! This world has nothing for me. This world is not my home and neither is it my final destination! I want what a donkey so easily understands to also be impressed upon my heart also: I am never as safe and as secure and as loved than in my Master's stable and under my Master's care! I belong where I can be protected by Him and groomed by Him and trained by Him and where I can be involved in His work!

Let us take heed to the lessons learned from a donkey and her master!