At last a change from the grinding narrative of desert moaning and punishments….<\/p>\n
This is the story of the King of Moab, Balak son of Zippor, who sees the hordes of Israelites in his sparse desert territory and tries to get rid of them by calling in a man of God, Balaam son of Beor.<\/p>\n
Balaam is not an Israelite but “sees clearly” and can also ask God to bless and curse.<\/p>\n
Balaam consults God, who says the Israelites have his blessing. Balaam reports to Balak’s people: “Even if Balak gave me all the silver and gold in his palace, I could not disobey the command of the Lord my God in even the smallest matter. But please stay the night so that I may learn whether the Lord has something else to tell me.”<\/p>\n
This time God tells Balaam to saddle up his donkey as if to go, but then only to do what God tells him to do.<\/p>\n
So Balaam does that, but then actually heads off without being told to do so. God places an angel with a flaming sword in Balaam’s way, and the donkey stops – and gets flogged. Three times Balaam flogs the donkey before God takes mercy on the poor creature and shows Balaam the angel in his path.<\/p>\n
Balaam learns his lessons and despite being taken to three different mountains to look at the Israelites and curse them, he blesses them each time. He then tells Balak that he and his people will be destroyed by them.<\/p>\n
There is something epic about this section – God’s love for his Israelites is seen from another perspective. It is as if someone else wrote these chapters, they seem to be in a different voice.<\/p>\n
And the timing was just right for me – I was getting glum from reading and rereading all the tales of the constant spatting between God and His people, and all the rules and punishments.<\/p>\n
Dear God, Thank you for the story of Balaam and his donkey and for the lesson that whenever I encounter obstacles I am to stop and think about whether the obstacles are actually a message from you. Please help me to “see clearly” like Balaam, and also, like him, to always consult you before all words and actions. I love you God and I thank you that you have given us Jesus so that we can now relate to you in different ways than the Israelites. In His name, Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At last a change from the grinding narrative of desert moaning and punishments…. This is the story of the King of Moab, Balak son of Zippor, who sees the hordes of Israelites in his sparse desert territory and tries to get rid of them by calling in a man of God, Balaam son of Beor. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-around-the-bible-in-365-days"],"yoast_head":"\n