Balaam's Donkey: "What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?" Balaam: "You have made a fool of me!" (Numbers 22:28,29)
I love this story. We have the Israelites camping on the Plains of Moab (north end of the Dead Sea – east side of the Jordan opposite Jericho), which is where they will stay until Joshua leads them across the river. While they are camped there, Balak king of Moab sees their military strength and decides on a preemptive strike, enlisting the help of an internationally renowned diviner named Balaam.
When Balaam gives in to Balak's demands, he protests that he cannot do anything counter to what God tells him. However, that doesn’t mean Balaam served Yahweh God of the Israelites. To Balaam Yahweh was just another tribal god who could be manipulated by magic arts.
Even though Balaam was warned not to curse the people of Israel, he still didn't take seriously the power of Yahweh. The image of his donkey reading him the riot act always makes me smile. I think the conversation should have gone more like this.
Balaam's Donkey: "What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?"
Balaam: "You made me look like a fool!"
Donkey: "You definitely look like a fool, but I didn't make you look that way!"
The story continues in our next reading, and then Balaam's death is little more than a footnote in chapter 31.
Have you ever misunderestimated God?
Misunderestimated? I love the English language... though some Biblical names like Zippor just make an English-speaker laugh.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I have, who really ever understands what God is up to and why? We get the 'mirror darkly' version and sometimes just don't get it until it's there and we have the big "D'oh!" moment.
One snippet I liked from this reading was the beauty of Israel that he saw when he looked out towards the desert. I admit, after the readings we've had so far my mental image of the coming Hebrew nation is anything but beautiful... in my mind's eye they're looking grumpy, dusty, tattered and only grudgingly polite. What a contrast with the picture God paints here of what *He* sees, the clean, lush life and the poetry. - Amy