balaam and boats

this morning I read numbers 22.
Israel is marching away from Egypt, toward the promised land
and they have transformed
from a weak band of slaves, to a burly wandering army.
the king of moab sees them coming
and knows that they will take him out-
so he calls in the world-famous sorcerer, balaam.
my study bible notes that some of balaam’s prophecies
are preserved in ancient Aramaic writings.
balak the king asks balaam to put a curse on Israel.
balaam said that he would talk to God about it-
and God answered.


God told him that they could not be cursed- they are blessed.
balaam told the men that the king had sent
that the curse wasn’t going to happen.
so the king sent more men.
and this time God told balaam to go along with them,
but don’t curse Israel.


so balaam did-
but on the way, God stopped him-
well-He stopped the donkey.
an angel stood in the road.
balaam couldn’t see him, but the donkey could.
the donkey stopped, and balaam beat her.
and then the donkey stopped 2 more times and balaam beat her again.
and then something funny happens-
God opens the donkey’s mouth and she speaks!
she asks balaam- “why are you beating me?”
and he answers her!
he starts arguing with her-
it sounds like a santa-cruz-junkie arguing with a tree.
finally balaam’s eyes are opened to see the angel,
and balaam chooses not to curse Israel.





I love what the NIV study bible
commentator writes about this verse:
“the internationally known seer
is blind to spiritual reality,
but his proverbially dumb beast is able to see
the angel of the Lord on the path.
as a pagan prophet, balaam was a specialist in animal divination,
but his animal saw what he was blind to observe.
in some ways, the opening of the eyes of the pagan prophet
to see the reality of the angel
was the greater miracle.”


reminds me of something that Philip yancey wrote
in “rumors of another world”:





“I have visited the tip of argentina, the region named tierra del fuego by magellan’s explorers, who noticed fires burning on the shore. the natives tending the fires, however, paid no attention to the great ships as they sailed through the straits. later they explained that they had considered the ships an apparition, so different were they from anything seen before.
they lacked the experience, even the imagination,
to decode evidence passing before their eyes.
and we who built the skyscrapers in new York, who built today not just galleons but space stations and hubble telescopes that peer to the very edge of the universe, what about us?
what are we missing?
what do we not see for lack of imagination or faith?”