The Real Story Was That The Donkey Could See

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. [Numbers 22.31]

I cannot help but believe there is more to Balaam's story than we see in this narrative from the Bible.

From the story, God tells Balaam both not to go and to go with Balak's messengers. We have record that Balaam sought and heard from God but then was rebuked by God. It is all very confusing.

However, in the passage above, we might learn something as a clue to reveal a little more depth into the relationship between Balaam and God. Here is the nature of that relationship: a donkey could see the angel of the LORD, but Balaam could not - it took intervention on God's part to open Balaam's eyes, because, apparently they were "shut" as far as seeing God. Mind you, this is a man" whose eyes see clearly" in his own words (Numbers 24.3)!

Ironically, the telling factor of this story was not that the donkey could speak, but that he could "see."

My point is this: Balaam could not have been the "man of God" he claimed to be. No doubt, Balaam knew the right words to say and, could even summon the ability to hear and speak for God, but, there was still something awry in his heart. Another clue to this less-than-ideal relationship is found in Balaam's "seeking God" on the matter of going to Balak after God had initially said "Do not go." For Balaam to even go to God again with the question after having a clear directive from God on the subject put Balaam in dangerous territory.

The scary lesson from the paragraph above is that we should be careful to listen and obey God's first direction in our lives because if we question His direction and ask again, we might just get an answer that ultimately leads to our demise. Oh, to be sure, it might look like we are in the will of God, but in the end, an indiscretion will surface and cause disaster.

Furthermore, we will also learn from Numbers 31 that Balaam apparently did have an indiscretion and gave some advise to the Midianites not recorded in the original speaking-donkey story. It would seem that Balaam was responsible for advising the women of Moab to convince Israel to betray the LORD. Number 25.1-3 records that the men of Israel were suckered in by the sexual advances of the Moabite women and subsequently worshiped the gods of Moab - all a plan hatched at Balaam's advise.

So, my conclusion is that Balaam may have indeed been religious on the outside, but perhaps not so good on the inside.

Father, help me to see that a good religious appearance is simply not good enough. I want my heart to be 100% devoted to You.