Dawn Key

 ⁷ Balak’s messengers, who were elders of Moab and Midian, set out with money to pay Balaam to place a curse upon Israel.^[c] They went to Balaam and delivered Balak’s message to him. ⁸ “Stay here overnight,” Balaam said. “In the morning I will tell you whatever the LORD directs me to say.” So the officials from Moab stayed there with Balaam.

 ⁹ That night God came to Balaam and asked him, “Who are these men visiting you?”  Numbers 22:7-8

Balak knew this was God’s people but he still told the men he would go to God and ask him what He wanted him to do. Really? He had to “ask” God if he wanted to curse His people?

¹⁸ But Balaam responded to Balak’s messengers, “Even if Balak were to give me his palace filled with silver and gold, I would be powerless to do anything against the will of the LORD my God. ¹⁹ But stay here one more night, and I will see if the LORD has anything else to say to me.” Numbers 22:18-19

Hmmmm maybe if I ask God again he will give me the answer I really want to hear and I can collect the booty!

 ²¹ So the next morning Balaam got up, saddled his donkey, and started off with the Moabite officials. ²² But God was angry that Balaam was going, so he sent the angel of the LORD to stand in the road to block his way. As Balaam and two servants were riding along, ²³ Balaam’s donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. The donkey bolted off the road into a field, but Balaam beat it and turned it back onto the road. ²⁴ Then the angel of the LORD stood at a place where the road narrowed between two vineyard walls. ²⁵ When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, it tried to squeeze by and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall. So Balaam beat the donkey again. ²⁶ Then the angel of the LORD moved farther down the road and stood in a place too narrow for the donkey to get by at all. ²⁷ This time when the donkey saw the angel, it lay down under Balaam. In a fit of rage Balaam beat the animal again with his staff.

 ²⁸ Then the LORD gave the donkey the ability to speak. “What have I done to you that deserves your beating me three times?” it asked Balaam.

 ²⁹ “You have made me look like a fool!” Balaam shouted. “If I had a sword with me, I would kill you!”

 ³⁰ “But I am the same donkey you have ridden all your life,” the donkey answered. “Have I ever done anything like this before?”

   “No,” Balaam admitted. Numbers 22:21-30

Okay, Balaam talks with God but then he carries on a conversation with a donkey like it is an everyday occurrence? Don’t you find that just a little odd? Then he has to show his superiority over the donkey and tell him if he had a sword he would kill him.

³¹ Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the roadway with a drawn sword in his hand. Balaam bowed his head and fell face down on the ground before him.

 ³² “Why did you beat your donkey those three times?” the angel of the LORD demanded. “Look, I have come to block your way because you are stubbornly resisting me. ³³ Three times the donkey saw me and shied away; otherwise, I would certainly have killed you by now and spared the donkey.”

 ³⁴ Then Balaam confessed to the angel of the LORD, “I have sinned. I didn’t realize you were standing in the road to block my way. I will return home if you are against my going.”  Numbers 22:31-34

Now the angel of the LORD appears and lets Balaam know that he was blocking his way. Balaam really wanted to go and get what HE wanted. That’s why he kept asking God until God allowed him to go. Even when the angel made it clear he was being blocked from going and he would have killed him if not had it been for the donkey Balaam still wants to do it his way asking….well if you really want me to I will go home.

 Balaam should have high tailed it back home but still he wanted the glory that was waiting for him as the big shot prophet that was friends with the "important" people that would call on him.

The donkey was clearly smarter than Balaam!

So here is the part where you had better watch your toes in case I step on them!!!

How many of us keep going to God about something that we really want His answer to be what we want until He finally says “Okay just go, just do it”. Then we tell everyone “Well I went to God and he told me to do this or do that!” “He really put it on my heart to do it the way I want to!”?

And then the donkey in our lives are saying “Oh, no. Don’t go there!” The donkeys are asking you “Is this what the LORD really wants”? “Did HE tell you to do this or is He allowing you to do this?”


Some of us had better start listening to the donkeys out there!

Maybe you will meet someone named Dawn Key! If you did would you listen?

Also I will be including a video link each week!

Friend of sinners <-------------click here!

Today’s readings:
NUMBERS 22:1-24:25
Tomorrow’s Readings:
NUMBERS 25:1-26:65