Balaam's Talking Donkey - Brad Gray

ah good morning everyone so good to be with you this has been such a joy for me and my family to be in your great state of Montana and I've had a chance to be here since Friday so I got to do some things Friday evening Saturday morning got to obviously do the service last night and this morning and so one of the great joys that I have is getting to travel around the country and speaking at churches and conferences and that sort of a thing and because of these experiences I can walk into a church place and within a very short period of time get a pretty good sense of what's going on there and every so often you walk into a church context and you go wow something special is happening here and that is definitely the case with all of you a part of faith chapel and so this is a joy for me to be part of this and when I found out that you all were doing this picture Bible series I got on the phone with Nate and I said okay man what passages and stories are you tackling and so he ran me through a number of them and then I just said hey is anybody taking Balaam in the talking donkey and he goes nope and I said perfect cuz we're gonna have some fun with this strange story because here's one of the things that I have found the stranger the story the stronger the point and this is a strange story so we are in for some fun this morning it's a story that takes place in numbers chapter 22 and so if you want to follow along feel free to follow along I'm gonna have the passages up here as well and so let me give you the context of this particular story Israel has just spent roughly 40 years in the desert they're just concluding their time Moses is still leading them and they're getting ready to go into the promised and they're gonna enter the promised land from the east east of the Jordan River Valley and God says to Moses I want you to skirt the area of Edom Moab and Ammon like leave those people alone don't take their water don't take their food skirt their areas and the reason for this is because these three people groups claim distant connections to Israel through Abraham and so they skirt and are obedient to God and as soon as they get into this area a group by the name of the amorite s' attack the Israelites and Israel defeats them in a few battles and then from there they go to the north and they fight a battle against AAG king of Bashan and so after these battles have been won everybody knows about the Israelites and the Israelites then settle on what is called the plains of Moab it's a stretch of land going from the north end of the Dead Sea about ten miles from there is this big flat area just east of the Jordan River and the issue is is that once Israel has settled here on the plains of Moab up in the mountains you have the king of Moab by the name of Balak and Balak isn't convinced that the Israelites are just going to enter into the land of Canaan he's thinking that they're gonna turn around go right back up into the hills and attack him and his people so the dude is terrified and he hatches a plan it's a preemptive strike if you will to go after the Israelites so check out what the plan is beginning here in verse four so Balak son of z pore who was king of Moab at that time sent messengers to summon Balaam son of Beor who was at pet hor near the Euphrates River in his native land Balak said a people has come out of Egypt they cover the face of the land and have settled next to me now come and put a curse on these people because they are too powerful for me perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land for I know that whoever you bless is blessed and whoever you curse is cursed so Balak master plan is to hire an internationally renowned prophet to come and curse the Israelites now we are told that this dude's name is Balaam and he's in a place called pathar and that is 450 miles away from where the king of Moab is that is a long way in the ancient world and so Balak is going to summon Balaam now here's what is so riveting about an archaeological discovery that was found in 1967 in Jordan it's called Deir alla but it's the ancient biblical site of Sukkot that here at this area this inscription was found talking about this Balaam who's connected to our story three to four hundred years after his death like the dude was internationally known and based on how the story plays out we see kind of a three facet aspect to what Balaam is capable of doing he is on the one hand a prophet and a prophet in the ancient world was understood to be someone who had a connection to the gods could communicate or understand the will of the gods he's also a seer and a seer was someone who could predict or see the future and the way that the ancient in world engaged in sea rack tivity is that they would look at bird signs or they would cast lots dice or they would cut open an animal and examine its liver and somehow out of this they would be able to go oh we know what the future is going to be and they would speak that but additionally he's also what we would term a sorcerer and we see that most evidently in what Balak is asking Balaam to do because a sorcerer was understood to have some kind of intrinsic power to be able to throw blessings or curses and impact the future or impact a people group now I know for all of us that that seems really odd and bizarre and strange but this is how they thought and understood in the ancient world and so this is what Balak is doing he is hiring Balaam this pagan prophet for hire and it seems like a good idea from his perspective at least in how the Hebrew language communicates this because Balaam's name in Hebrew is Balaam and it literally means devourer or destroyer of a people and Balak is like that's the dude that I need for this task and so we read on from there the elders of Moab and Midian left taking with them the fee for divination when they came to Balaam they told him what Balak has said spend the night here Balaam said to them and I will report back to you with the answer the Lord gives me so he's got some understanding of the God of Israel he believes he's going to be able to hear or interact with the God of Israel so the Moabite officials stayed with him God came to Balaam and asked who are these men with you Balaam said to God Balak son of the poor king of Moab sent me this message a people that has come out of Egypt covers the face of the land now come and put a curse on them for me perhaps then I will be able to fight them and drive them away but God said to Balaam do not go with them you must not put a curse on these people because they are blessed now when God is saying like these people are blessed don't throw curses at them God is actually drawing from an earlier story that we get in Genesis in Genesis chapter 12 a God comes to a man by the name of Abram who you will later know as Abraham and God said to Abraham I want you to leave your land and family and go to the land that I will show you and then God says this I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you I will make your name great and you will be a blessing I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you so what God is doing here is God is trying to restore the world to himself and God has this plan in place to restore all things and the way that God wants to reach all people is by choosing a people Israel to pour his blessings into so that they in turn would bless the entire world and so God has said to Abram listen I am with your people your descendants and if anybody curses them I'm gonna have to deal with that and so when God is saying to Balaam do not throw curses against these people God has already shown that he has great compassion in care for the people of Ammon and Moab and Edom because he's already told Moses and the Israelites don't even take anything from their land I care for them as well and so God says this to Balaam well Balaam then tells the delegation I can't do it they travel the 450 miles back to Moab and they report to Balak and they say Balaam's not coming and Balak goes that is unacceptable he says all right we're gonna send a more distinguished delegation this next round and he essentially says let Balaam know I've got a blank cheque for him whatever the cost is going to be I will pay it just come and curse these people and so the more distinguished delegation goes another 450 miles up to Petur and they report to Balaam what Balak has said and notice now what Balaam's response is to the second delegation but Balaam answered them well even if Balak gave me all the silver and gold in his palace I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the Lord my God now spend the night here so that I can find out what else the Lord will tell me little tension here it seems like he is very pious and he's going to be obedient to God and so he says ah if I'm giving all the silver and gold it's not gonna change my decision but just hang out here for a little bit let me go back to God and see if God's got anything else he'd like to tell me ie I hope God changes his mind I have a blank check on the table and so this is what then happens this is that night God came to bail him and said well since these men have come and tumped come to summon you go with them but do only what I tell you Balaam got up in the morning saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials but God was very angry when he went are you confused right now yes I've seen your heads go like this yeah exactly like it feels like God is a bit schizophrenic here go don't go go but now I'm angry that you went you go God what way is going on here and the answer is found in the language so in verse 12 with that first delegation God said to Balaam do not go and then in verse 20 God said go with them in our English we have with them and with them but in Hebrew it's actually two different words the first time when God said Balaam do not go with them with them is one word in Hebrew it's the word EEMA hem and EEMA hem means both physically and mentally meaning if you were to go physically you also are going mentally meaning you're going to fulfill the desires of Balak and God said I don't want you to go with them I don't want you to go physically and then again I don't want you to go mentally meaning don't go to fulfill their desires but now the delegation has come back a more distinguished one and Balaam is coming back to God and going you sure about this God and then God says go with them it's actually the word eat Tom and it means physically but not mentally it's like God saying well dude it seems like you're already gonna go so yes go but don't go to fulfill the desires of Balak and so God says okay go ahead but then it says but God was very angry and you go okay so if God said it's okay to go as long as he goes physically but not mentally then now it's why is he very angry the answer then comes with another key Hebrew word here it's the word that gets translated into our English as went which is a really great translation by the way let me show you the Hebrew word behind this it's the word Halak let me hear you all say ha lock hole lock alright so there you go you got your Hebrew in for the day right a Hebrew a day there you go and you've got this word Halak which often gets translated as to live or to go again a great translation in the past tense went but it most emphatically or most literally means to walk and so the reason why you can have a translation that says to live or to go but it actually means to walk is because the understanding was in the ancient world that how you walked was an indication of how you lived and how you lived was reflected in how you walked it's why thousands of years later we say things like hey walk the talk if you say you're gonna live this way well then walk it out and so the reason why God is angry is how he is walking how he is living it seems like he is going with ulterior motives and God is going to deal with this you go why do we say ulterior motives well one of the things that we do when we study the Scriptures and we have a story like this is we always ask the question is there any other place in scripture where this story is referenced and how is it being viewed there and what we find is in the New Testament Jesus's chief disciple Peter writing one of his letters actually refers to this story and he's actually in his own context talking about false prophets and he's warning people of his day about false prophets but he connects the false prophets to Balaam check this out second Peter 2 14 to 15 with eyes full of adultery they never stop sinning they seduce the unstable they are experts in greed and a cursed brood they have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor who loved the wages of wickedness and God is going to need to intervene and this is how he does it but God was very angry when he went and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to a pose him so this angel of the Lord character actually shows up quite a few times in Scripture and the age of the Lord comes with the authority of God and in some cases it's like well Moses is at the burning bush and there's the angel of the Lord but then in the next moment it says and God is speaking so somehow in some way it's either the embodiment of God or this it's an angel that comes with the full authority of God stood in the road to oppose him Balaam was riding on his donkey and his two servants were with him when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand it turned off the road into a field Balaam beat it to get it back on the road then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path through the vineyards with walls on both sides when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord it pressed close to the wall crushing Balaam foot against it so he beat the donkey again 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 it lay down under Balaam and he was angry and beat it with his staff then the Lord opened the donkey's mouth and it said to Balaam what have I done to you to make you beat me these three times now let's just pause for a moment because as adults when we're reading stories in Scripture and all of a sudden a donkey starts talking we're a bit skeptical about what we are now reading it's a stumbling block for us but kids on the other hand are like talking donkey oh yeah we've totally seen that before all right kids there you go welcome to the servant I always figure if you can ever get Shrek in a sermon it's a pretty good day now I don't know if this was an impetus to create the Shrek character after Balaam is talking donkey but four kids are like okay I can go with this but for adults we often kind of hit this stumbling block when we find that a donkey opens its mouth and starts talking here's just what I want to point out to us very sophisticated Westerners the passage specifically says it was God who opened the donkey's mouth and even though you probably haven't seen or heard of a talking donkey I haven't seen that let's not limit what the God of the universe can do or will do to capture the attention of his people because at this point apparently it was the talking donkey that needed to speak wisdom and truth to the internationally renowned profit and it's bizarre and it's strange yes but you know what's even just as bizarre Balaam starts talking back to the donkey like it's a normal everyday occurrence notice how it continues Balaam answered the donkey you have made a fool of me if I only had a sword in my hand I kill you right now and now of course the donkey's got to talk back because the conversations going to continue 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 face down the Ange of the Lord asked him why have you beaten your donkey these three times I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me the donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times if it had not turned away Balaam I would have certainly killed you by now but I would have spared the donkey and all of a sudden in this moment Balaam is met with the reality that there's been a much bigger story that's been unfolding and it is God using a talking donkey to get his attention and to oppose him on the reckless path that he was walking it's fascinating when you look at a donkey because sometimes you get a spunky donkey like this one other times you get a donkey like this that's got kind of this glazed look across its eyes then it's like it's secretly disclosing to you there's not much going on between these ears they're actually very intelligent animals and the star of the show isn't the internationally renowned Balaam it's a talking donkey and the story is laced in irony you have this internationally renowned seer who apparently is good with animals who can't control his own donkey you have this infamous prophet who has some connection to the spiritual world who can't even see the angel not once not twice not even three times then you have this male human being this dude and then get this in Hebrew huh more is a male donkey a tonne is a female donkey the donkey in our story is a she donkey and the connection the the tension that is here is that you have this male human being versus this female donkey and in our story she is more perceptive than he to which all the ladies in the room said well that's a real shocker right ladies just be patient with us all right we're not quite as perceptive as you all are and you've got this story unfolding and when you just step back from the story line for a bit and you look on to it the question that comes for me is this why did it come to this for Balaam why did God have to go through all these antics to get his attention what was his issue you could ask if I had to submit an answer to you I would simply say this Balaam didn't like hearing no God had already said the first time what to do and Balaam is like I don't like your no this is a recent photo of my crew my wife Shallon and I have been married for set almost 17 years our oldest denyen is 12 my daughter Rai is 10 calyx is 8 xyler is 5 and this is a fun and festive family and this is something that happens quite a bit in our household I have a home office and I'll be in the middle of doing something and one of my kiddos will come barging through my door and they'll go hey Dad can I have some candy or hey Dad can I jump on technology or hey Dad can I in fill in the blank and whatever these questions come my way as I have grown in my parental wisdom I have found it is most effective not to answer their question but to respond to their question in a rabbinic fashion which is asking a question of my own and it typically goes something like this have you already asked your mother the same question and then I look at their eyes cuz their eyes will betray them quickly right what is it about kids when they are given a no they seek another parental opinion they do this because they're little Balaam's right Balaam didn't like hearing no kids don't like hearing no for those of you kids who are in the room right now and watching online listen as a parent we don't love saying no to you but we say no because we love you we say no because we see things that you don't see now granted sometimes you've liked taking us up to here and we just say no so that we can shut down the conversation but more often than not we're doing it because we love you and you know Balaam didn't like hearing now kids don't like hearing no but we as adults we don't like hearing no either but there are these moments in our lives where God says no to us perhaps it's around something that we are engaging in that is not what God would want for our lives and at least what I have found in my own personal journey as a follower of Jesus Christ is that there are times where I want to rationalize my behavior and maybe you have found yourself doing this as well where maybe God has said no to you maybe you're doing something or it's the language that you use or something that you're engaging in and it's like there are these moments where we want to rationalize our behavior and almost send a rebuttal God's Way and we'll say things like well you know God it's really not that bad or well that's just how I was raised or well that's just how things are done in our industry and it's almost like we feel like if we can present God with this effective argument there will be a moment where God will go you know what you're totally right but I didn't see that from all the different angles that you have highlighted you're right that is how you're raised so it's acceptable that is how your industry does things that's acceptable it's because we don't like hearing no and yet God has a full picture of this situation and just like as we as parents tell our kids no because we love them and we want them to thrive and there's certain things we see that they don't see that's the same way God is when he says no to something we're doing that isn't good because it's actually hindering us but our sinful nature gravitates toward it and God sometimes needs to do some kind of shock therapy to get our attention and he wants to know are you gonna listen to my no and then there are other times and this is where it gets really challenging okay I this is really difficult because there are times when God says no and it's the very thing that you're engaging in is actually really good it's a healthy and good thing give you an example it was about almost 15 years ago or so a few years before that I had graduated from college got a business management degree never thought I'd be doing what I am doing now and did sports business for a few years and then all of a sudden this passion for understanding the Bible just started to sprout in my soul and I came across some material from this very well-known guy here in the United States who had led more than or nearly 250 trips to Israel to Turkey to other Bible lands had a best-selling DVD series that has been the best-selling DVD series ever for around understanding the Bible in context and all of a sudden I was like I gotta get to Israel I have to get on a trip and so I wrote a letter to this person sent it off begging and pleading to be able to go because I found out that the waiting list was 10 years long to go with him and I never thought I'd hear back I mean I knew this person was so busy but I thought hey this is my only shot to get to go to Israel with this guy so I sent it off didn't hear anything wasn't surprising a year later my phone rings I'd included my phone number on the letter I pick it up it's this guy that I've been listening to like every day for a year straight it's kind of like that moment you hear a voice that you've only heard but then you meet him and it's like a little bit odd and I'm listening to it and he simply said Israel next month I've got a spot for you and your wife and I was like dear God you love me and I said alright I'll talk to my wife and I'll call you back tomorrow and it was the strangest thing because the moment I hung up I felt like God said you're gonna tell him no tomorrow I was like why I talked with my wife there were some circumstances but nothing that was would inhibit us if you will and we would have to raise the money they're not you know it's not an inexpensive trip we're like we'll raise it we'll figure it out we'll sell a car we'll do whatever we can to go because it just felt like this is what God wanted but in that moment God said no and I called him back the next day and I said listen I don't know what's going on but no I hung up the phone I was like that's it I'll never hear from this person again shocking to even hear in the first place six months later I got an email from him hey let's meet we were actually in the same part of the state and we sat down my wife and I on him and he said tell me a little bit about your story I told him what my story was and had left all of that gone too area I was in my first year of seminary and he said to me said he still want to go on a trip I said oh yeah I said how about three what so we'll talk about the third when the time is right let's talk about the first two he says in three months I'm gonna be doing a trip to Israel and I'm gonna be doing a trip to Turkey he says I've led 250 trips and I've never let anyone go on both of my trips back-to-back because they're so intense but you and your wife looked like great guinea pigs so how about if we cover 70% of your expenses to go you raise the rest you come hang out with me for a month in the Middle East sometimes God says no to the good things because he has a better thing on the horizon and we don't know what's coming down the pipe but we serve a God who does we don't like hearing known and as a result there's a flip side to this coin we don't like saying no either you know for some of you you might find yourself in a challenging business setting where maybe it is your industry's way of doing things but you know it's shady you know it's blurring the lines or maybe a manager or a boss has asked you to do something that you know goes against your values but you don't want to be labeled that Christian in our team who won't do that thing and you struggle to say no maybe for some of you you know here's what I have found as a parent as my kids have gotten older it's getting harder and harder to say no to the situations that are presenting themselves as my kids are young it's really easy to say no no calix you can't have hot dogs for every single meal of the day but to my older son Damien it's harder when he says hey dad all of my friends are having a sleepover at this guy's house and we don't know those parents very well or hey dad I want a little bit more autonomy would you let me go with my friends to do this and there are these moments where Shallon and I just talk about it or we pray about it and if we just have the sense of no it's hard to say no cuz you don't want to be that like controlling restrictive parent that never lets your kid have any fun and there are these moments that as your kids at least for me are getting into their teenage years like you don't want to be like that uncool parent right and it's harder to say no maybe for some of you you're experiencing this in your marriage right now where there has been a conversation that has been tabled for far too long because you just don't want to upset the applecart of your spouse or whoever you may be in a dating relationship with and maybe what God is saying is is it's time to say no no to tabling the conversation any longer we have to address this we have to deal with this we have to embrace a no and maybe for some of you in the midst of this pandemic where you're going alright we're feeling more and more restricted we're having to wear masks we can't go and you know do certain things that maybe other opportunities are arising to have some fun and excitement that isn't God's best for you and you're feeling your pressure the pressure from your friends to jump in and maybe God is just saying you have to say no for many of us we think saying no is a sign of weakness actually embracing a know is a sign of strength because there are times where we need to heed the know and there are times where we have to use the words know and so as you're just listening to this today where are you not heating no where do you need to say no and maybe for some of you the Holy Spirit has just invaded your story this morning and you know exactly well God may be calling you to do may be for others of us we go hah nothing's really poppin for me great let me just offer something for you to do over the next few days that over the next few days just take a few moments in the morning or whenever you have a quiet time or when you're driving you know I in your car and just ask God these two questions God where am I not heating no in my life or God where have I been saying yes to something for too long and you're wanting me to say no to this thing and just listen to how the Spirit of God may be speaking to you in those moments and may you have the courage to then walk it out because we don't want to be Balaam's we want to be people who follow God the way God is asking us to follow him because it is doing that where we experience life and life to the fall amen amen let's pray God thanks so much for the incredible opportunity to jump into a very very bizarre story in the scriptures god we thank you that you have given us these stories to learn from that from the mistakes of Balaam God that we can turn a different path that we can move from maybe a reckless path that we're on to turn to a path that leads to life and God we ask that in the midst of this time and in the days to come that you would just speak to us that you would help us to see how we can become more faithful followers of you that we would heed the knows that we need to heed that we would say the knows that we need to say that we would fully embrace these two little words that can have a dramatic effect on our stories god we love you we bless you we thank you and everybody said together amen there man and man he brought thank you thank you thank you just a couple of thoughts one if you're in the room and you're saying hey I want a Bible like I want to start to explore this book or if you're online you can click a button right there and we'll get you a Bible we'll get that into your hands I help you start growing in your new life as you surrendered to Jesus there's also a table out here in the atrium called a yes table I said yes I one thing I want to show you is this is a book that Brad wrote in he's not he we ordered a bunch of copies he's not making any money off of them it's called make your mark I ordered this book a couple years ago and I was really happy when I show Brad that I had dog your in underlined like I engaged with the book is from the story of Samson which is another like kind of wild story in the history of the judges but it deals with real-life relationships success and failure grace all those things so there are a few available I think we didn't get enough and they were pretty much all gone but you can get it on Amazon anywhere anywhere anywhere Kmart I don't know if we've made into Kmart I don't know if there are I am left yeah okay there's no camera there's no marquee no good Kmart but anywhere else and then also I would love in your own journey that you could learn from Brad and so we do have these at the Welcome Center back there these are just a simple little card that gives his website in every two weeks he does a new teaching on Tuesdays and there's now boy a whole library of probably dozens hundreds of teachers over 100 and so it's walking the text calm if you're online you can just go to walking the text calm and it's just a rich resource for all of us to be able to learn and study a little bit more so brad has a tradition and I love it he's gonna say a blessing or a benediction over us Brad I'd love to invite you to please stand if you went mind and for those of you who are watching online feel free to stand wherever you find yourself except if you're driving all right and may we all leave here today with these words my new friends here at faith Chapel may you not be a balaam may you embrace no may you have the humility to hear it the strength to say it and the courage to walk it out grace and peace be with all of you you may go with God man thanks [Applause]

Channel: Walking The Text

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Keywords: balaam's donkey, numbers 22, do animals talk, talking animals, context, walking the text, brad gray, brad gray sermons, faith chapel montana, kids bible story, walkingthetext.com, talking donkey

Id: D1AggNBpWeg

Length: 42min 45sec (2565 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 03 2020