daily java

Daily Java:

Then the angel of the LORD moved on ahead and stood in a narrow place where there was no room to turn, either to the right or to the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam, and he was angry and beat her with his staff. 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?” 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.” 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. 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. (Numbers 22:26-31)

Sometimes you want to do something so badly that you will almost bend heaven and earth to do it. Even though you know it is wrong, you still want to. And you think you will find justification – at least in your mind – if you look long enough.

The people of the country of Moab were terrified of the Israelites. They had wandered around in the wilderness for several years and were still healthy. They had already overcome two good sized armies with no real problems.

And the Moabites were afraid.

So they did the only thing that seemed logical to them: they hired what they thought was a bounty hunter. He was a prophet of God and they thought they could buy him off and get him to curse the Israelites. They knew he had the power of God in him so maybe they could rent it for a while.

This really didn’t make sense to anyone but them but they were afraid.

At first Balaam said no. the second time they told him they had quite a bit of money for him. he told them emphatically No and then said but I will check again, just in case. After all, he could do a lot of good for the Lord with all that money.

God told him to go but only if he said what he wanted him to say. But as Balaam started, God became angry with him. It was probably just because Balaam had shown such a mercenary part of his character.

It was Balaam’s donkey that saw the angel of the Lord in the path, not Balaam. And the donkey informed Balaam that there was an angel in the way.

Balaam was probably shocked to find himself in conversation with his donkey. But he found out very quickly that the donkey was smarter than he. The donkey knew enough to not mess with the power of God.

There is a part of us that knows we are doing wrong, no matter how many scriptures and all we have to justify it. But sometimes we want it so bad that we blind ourselves to the real power of God. When that happens, the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12:

They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

Sooner or later, we have to face up to the power of God or we will lose our lives. If Balaam had persisted, gotten off his donkey and gone on, he would have died.

Pay attention. Even a prophet of God can be wrong.