A Talking Donkey

Introduction: Warning Lights We Ignore

We are in a series in the book of Numbers, and today we meet someone who got the most dramatic warning light in the entire Bible — and kept driving anyway.

I confess I'm the kind of person who ignores dashboard warning lights. My wife Kathy will say, "Hey Doug, your warning light is on," and I'll reply, "That light has been on since the Obama administration. The car is fine." But the problem with ignoring warning lights is that eventually they stop being little lights and start being big tow trucks.

This guy we're about to meet reminds me a little of myself, and probably just enough like you to make you uncomfortable.

Setting the Scene: Israel in the In-Between

We're in week seven of Numbers, where the Israelites are in the wilderness for almost 40 years — in what we're calling the in-between. It's the in-between their rescue from Egypt and their entrance into the promised land.

Our situation is similar to theirs. God created us, but we got ourselves enslaved to sin. For those of us who have trusted what Jesus did on the cross, we've been rescued. And one day, He will bring us to our forever home. But right now, we live in the spiritual in-between, between our rescue and our heavenly homecoming.

In Numbers 22, God's people are camped near Moab, and the king of Moab, Balak, is terrified the Israelites will destroy him.

"For I know that those you bless are blessed and those you curse are cursed." (Numbers 22:6)

So Balak hires Balaam — a pagan prophet, a prophet for hire, an expensive spiritual consultant — to curse Israel instead of fighting them directly.

God's Clear Answer — and Balaam's Search for a Loophole

Surprisingly, Balaam actually asks God about the job. And God answers clearly:

"You are not to go with them. You are not to curse this people, for they are blessed." (Numbers 22:12)

There's no wiggle room in that response. It's completely clear. Yet when Balak sends a bigger, more prestigious group of messengers with promises of great honor, Balaam's answer shifts. Instead of saying, "I already have my answer — no," he says, "Let me sleep on it. Let me see if God has a different answer."

This is one of the places where I see you and I hiding in this story. Balaam already had God's clear answer. But when the offer got bigger and more seductive, his heart moved from listening to God to looking for a loophole.

The Costco Principle

You understand loopholes if you've ever been to Costco. You walk in thinking, "I'm just here for paper towels," and before long you're circling back for free samples in disguise, telling yourself, "They're free — they want me to have an entire box."

It's amazing how creative we become when we really want something. If you're a Christian, you most likely know what God's word says you should do. But when you don't like the answer, you ask the question a different way, hoping for a different response.

This reveals spiritual immaturity — the way a child negotiates instead of simply obeying when a parent says it's time to leave. It's not that God's answers are unclear. It's that His answers are unwelcome.

We don't have a hearing problem; we have a heart problem that would rather wander toward what we want than obey what God wants for us.

The Talking Donkey

Balaam sets out for Moab anyway. God is incensed, and sends an angel with a drawn sword to block his path. Three times the donkey sees the angel and reacts — turning off the path, pressing against a wall, crouching down — and three times Balaam beats her, furious and blind to what's really happening.

Then God does something He's never done before or since:

"Then the Lord opened the donkey's mouth, and she asked Balaam, 'What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?'" (Numbers 22:28)

Don't think Disney here — think deity. This is God in action, a dramatic miracle to protect those He loves.

What's fascinating is that when the donkey starts talking, Balaam doesn't scream or faint — he just argues back with her, as if this happens every Tuesday. His heart is so locked into what he wants — which the angel calls evil — that he misses the miracle right in front of him.　　

That is what greed does to a heart. It fixates you on what you want so completely that you miss the God-moments right in front of you. We want God's blessing on our lives, but instead of listening and following God's ways, we're beating our donkey and blaming others for how our life has turned out.

What God Blesses, No One Can Curse

Even after the warning, Balaam travels on to curse Israel — but every time he opens his mouth, a blessing comes out instead. This happens three times. Before he leaves, he delivers a fourth prophecy describing Israel's future victory, and within it:

"I see him but not now. I perceive him but not near. A star will come from Jacob and a scepter will rise from Israel." (Numbers 24:9)

He's talking about Jesus. The very mouth that was bribed to curse Israel gets hijacked by God to announce the coming of Christ.

If you forget the rest of this sermon by tomorrow, remember this:

What God blesses, no one can curse.

People may come against you, but they can't cancel you. They can accuse you, but they can't condemn you. What God has blessed stays blessed. You're forgiven, redeemed, saved, chosen, loved, made new. There is no enemy, no diagnosis, no past failure, no addiction, no divorce, no bankruptcy, no betrayal, no secret, no shame with enough power to undo what God has spoken about your life.　　

"If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31, paraphrased)

If you're a Christian, you can walk with your shoulders back — not with cockiness, but with a spiritual swagger of confidence. You didn't earn it; Jesus did everything so you could be blessed.

When the Story Turns Dark

Balaam was done speaking for God, but he didn't leave quietly. Numbers 25 tells us Israel began worshiping the Moabite god Baal of Peor — a fertility god — through sexual immorality with Moabite women. God's anger burned against Israel.

The temptation didn't arrive with a warning label. The women didn't say, "Abandon your God." They showed up disguised as a good time. That's how temptation works — Satan doesn't wear a name tag announcing his intentions; his bait is disguised, but his hook is deadly.

Where did this scheme come from? Numbers 31 reveals:

"Those were the ones who at Balaam's advice incited the Israelites to unfaithfulness against the Lord."

Balaam couldn't curse Israel with his mouth, so he handed the king a battle plan: seduce them, and they will curse themselves. It's the same trick the serpent used in the Garden of Eden, and the same strategy the enemy still uses today.

Don't Be Like Balaam — But Watch Your Own Heart

Balaam is remembered as a warning throughout the New Testament. Peter says he loved to earn money by doing wrong. Jude calls him an example of false teachers who deceive people for money. In Revelation, Jesus rebukes a church for holding to