Look, Who’s
Talking
Pastor Mathew Magera – 6/3/18 – Sermon 290
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
A talking donkey. What kind
of book is this Bible that it contains the story of our salvation by grace
through faith, forgiveness of sins and also a story about a talking donkey? As
I’ve heard it said, it's fairy talk. Fantasy. Tall tales. To some it may
completely undermine the story of Jesus. I mean, if there is anything to expect
about the Bible it is that everything is unexpected but it's hard for me to
listen to this story and not think about going home and watching the movie
Shrek later on this afternoon just to know where a talking donkey truly
belongs. Yet, I can't argue with the writer of the book of Numbers or the other
biblical writers for that matter. There are many instances of things going well
beyond our understanding, many grand reversals that catch us by surprise. The
story of Balaam's donkey is just another way we see the whimsical character of
God and his comedic fingerprints all over scripture.
I want to set the story up
for you so you understand what is going on. At this point in the book of
Numbers, God's people are still wandering the wilderness after escaping from
slavery in Egypt. It has been nearly the end of their 40 years of wandering and
they are getting very close to the edge of the Promised Land. As they get
closer, the Israelites, at God's command, began to conquer other nations they
passed through, leaving few survivors in their wake. Word was getting around
that these Israelites were pretty powerful people. As the Israelites entered
the land of the Moabites and Midianites, their king, Balak became fearful that
the Israelites might soon conquer them too. They were far outnumbered and would
surely perish. King Balak wanted to do anything he could to ensure these
Israelites would not kill him or his people and not take their land. So, King
Balak wants to summon a great prophet by the name of Balaam.
Balaam is not the kind of
prophet we think of when we hear that word. Balaam was not one of the
Israelites. He’s not equivalent to Isaiah or Elijah. He was a pagan, adhering
to many different religious practices and rituals. It is said that Balaam was a
seer. He was more like a fortune teller or a psychic. Some history also says
that his specialty was animal divination, meaning he could interpret the past,
understand the present and predict the future by simply observing the
appearance and/or the behavior of animals. That in and of itself is pretty
ironic and humorous given the later outcome of the story. But, we'll get there.
King Balak wants Balaam,
this great seer, to come to him so that he could curse the Israelites. In his
message to Balaam he expresses his complete confidence in him as he states that
anything he blesses is blessed and anything he curses is cursed. So, not only
does the king send for Balaam but he is so desperate to get him that he offers
him compensation to come and curse the Israelites so they would not overtake
the land of Moab. So, Balak sends a few servants to Balaam with the offer.
Balaam asks the servants to spend the night and that he would have an answer by
morning after hearing what God had to say about it. I'm not certain why Balaam
would be seeking God's opinion on this matter especially since it entailed
cursing God's people. But, I digress. During the night, God came to Balaam and
told him not to go with the servants and curse the Israelites. That being said,
Balaam sent the servants on their way saying that God had told him not to go.
When the servants got back to the king, they left out the part about God and
simply told him that Balaam had refused to go.
The king was not about to
let this go. He knows that anyone could be bought with a high enough price so
he sends out more servants and essentially sends them with a blank check. Name
your price, Balaam. Name your price and come curse these people. I need you.
Whatever you want. Honorably, Balaam refuses yet again because God had told him
not to go. Still, he tells the servants to spend the night so he could hear
from God about what to do. In a strange turn of events, this time God comes to
Balaam and tells him to go with the servants on the condition that he do only
what God tells him to do. With that, our story this morning begins. Balaam
saddles his donkey and off they go.
As Balaam goes, God's anger
is kindled and the angel of the Lord stands on the road to oppose him. This
happens three different times and in three different ways. The donkey sees the
obstacle in the road whereas Balaam does not. In this first encounter, the
angel of the Lord is standing in the middle of the road so the donkey, in an
attempt to avoid the angel, veers off to the side making Balaam angry. He beats
the donkey and gets it back on the road. In a second encounter with the angel
of the Lord, the donkey sees the angel on a road that has walls on both sides.
In order to squeeze by the angel, the donkey gets as close to the wall as it
can and ends up crushing Balaam's foot against the wall, leading Balaam to beat
the donkey a second time. In the final encounter the angel is taking up the
whole road. There is no place for the donkey to safely pass so it simply lies
down on the road kindling Balaam's anger so Balaam beats it a third time. This
is when the donkey speaks and what it says is not unreasonable at all.
"Why do I deserve these beatings?" the donkey asks. "Am I not
the donkey which you have always ridden? Have I ever been in the habit of doing
this to you?" It seems pretty straight forward. What else would the donkey
have said other than to be ticked off at its rider? The donkey could see the
angel. Balaam could not. The donkey felt it was doing nothing wrong. In fact,
it probably thought it was keeping Balaam safe.
As much as we are drawn to
the humor and improbability of the talking donkey, there is more humor and a
stronger point being made here. Remember who Balaam is. It's said that Balaam
was an expert in animal divination, meaning that he could interpret the past,
understand the present and predict the future by observing the appearance
and/or the behavior of animals. Remember that even the king of Moab had an
incredible amount of faith in Balaam's abilities too, so Balaam was no amateur.
In all of this, however, the strange behavior of his donkey could not tell him
what was going on. There was an angel in the road. The professional seer could
not see it. But, his donkey, an animal that was known for its stupidity, saw
everything. Chalk that up to good reversals and the unexpected. The one who is
expected to see has become blind and the one who is expected to be blind sees.
If that isn't a kick in the butt, I don't know what is. Balaam, the blind seer.
An oxymoron if we think about it. The story that appears to be about speech
becomes more about vision.
So, the actual event of the
donkey speaking plays no role in the story whatsoever other than a humorous
tactic to embarrass and humiliate Balaam. Before God revealed himself to
Balaam, he got his attention in this way. Balaam had to first learn from a
donkey before he could learn from God. Even when Balaam says that if he had a
sword he would kill the donkey is ironic. There is a sword right there in the
angels hand but Balaam can't see it. And the intended victim of that sword was
definitely not the donkey but Balaam himself. And Balaam doesn't even bat an
eye at the fact that his donkey is talking. I would quickly question what was
going on but Balaam must have been so angry that even the speaking of the
donkey could not calm him down to even consider the logical possibility of what
was going on.
So, what can we take out of
this attention grabbing story? Sometimes the good news comes from God's ability
to gift others. God gave a special gift to Balaam's donkey to see and avoid the
danger set before them. Sometimes we think of those in our lives who seem less
capable as unimportant on our Christian walk. Yet, as seen by this story, God
gives each of us certain abilities and we cannot use our eyes and perceptions
to determine whether or not someone is capable or incapable of teaching us or
leading us. God essentially saved Balaam's life through the gifts he had given
to his donkey. Sometimes for us, it is the gifts given to others that benefit
us more than our own in certain situations. It is another way that God's grace
comes to us by reflecting off of others. Balaam is reminded that the life of a
prophet is like riding a donkey. Balaam's ability to steer the course of
history and see what is ahead is limited. He must rely also on his donkey. He
must lay down his own intentions as do we.
God opened Balaam's eyes.
After Balaam realized the behavior of his donkey was not natural God showed him
the reason for this strange behavior and he confessed his sin. God did not have
to reveal himself to Balaam but he chose to. We can't see everything. You know
by now you are not capable of seeing the reason for everything as hard as we
may try. We can't see everything but we are none the less guided by God. God
did not have to reveal himself to us but he chose to. God did not have to send
us Jesus to show us our sin and to lead us onto the right path and opening the
way to everlasting life, but God chose to.
Lastly, God continued to
send Balaam on this journey even though Balaam had failed and his donkey had
suffered. How God could have trusted Balaam at this point, I'm not sure. But,
he still sent him trusting that Balaam would speak words of blessing in lieu of
words of cursing. He was not qualified to do what God was asking him to do. He
wasn't even an Israelite himself but God sent him to do this work. Because of
our sin, we are not qualified to be in the presence of God or to do his will.
Still, though our sin is great, he calls us out of our mistakes, forgives us
and leads us to do his saving work in the world. Though our chances of repeated
failure are pretty great, God sends us still. Balaam, even, was not the great
person we might now think of him as. While he did join the king and while he
did bring three words of blessing upon Israel instead of curses, he conspired
with the king telling him how to make the Israelites fail on their own by
providing temptations to sexual immorality and food offered to false gods. The
king would use this advice to lead the Israelites into sin, which worked. God
even later punished the Israelites for falling into sin, but they were still a
blessed people. Even though we will fall into sin time after time after time,
even though others may suffer because of our failures also, God's grace is
still blessing us.
So, if you think a minute
about the sermon title I chose for this morning, it may lead you to think first
of the donkey. Obviously a talking donkey is going to grab our attention. Hey,
look who's talking! But, as we have discovered, the talking donkey is only but
a miniscule piece to the true miracle of the story about seeing. Look! Who's
talking? God is talking, not through the mouth of the donkey but through the
actions of the donkey, through the angel. God gave voice to the donkey not so
that Balaam would be able to hear what the donkey was saying but so that he
would be able to see what God was doing. It's unique that God would grab his
attention through a talking donkey but it just goes to show that we can never
anticipate what God can and has done to get our attention. But we can trust
that he will get our attention and he will direct us onto the paths that are
right for the purpose of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ to the
world. To God be the glory, now and always. Amen.