Sometimes God Speaks through Jackasses
Intro: I was in the grocery store the other day, and as I was making my way down one aisle, I passed another shopper. This woman had a child in her cart, whom I judged to be about five or six years old. This was a very attractive child, and I was especially fascinated by the way its long hair had been so meticulously braided. And so when I caught the eye of the child, I said something like, “Hello there. I love your hair. What a lovely young lady you are!” The mother looked at me with disgust and replied, “His name is ______.” What could I say? There was absolutely no way for me to take back what I had said or to make amends for my foolishness. I quickly found it necessary to look for something I needed several aisles away.
Sometimes we say things that really get us into trouble. Someone sent me an e-mail message recently about things that you should never say to a police officer. These included the following:
- “I can't reach my license unless you hold my beer.”
- “Sorry, Officer, I didn't realize my radar detector wasn't plugged in.”
- “You're not gonna check the trunk, are you?”
- “I thought you had to be in relatively good physical condition to be a police officer.”
- When the Officer says, “Sir, your eyes look red, have you been drinking?”, you probably shouldn't respond with, “Officer, your eyes look glazed, have you been eating doughnuts?”
- Last but not least my wife’s favorites line, “officer I’m sorry my husband is a pastor and we just are just coming from church.”
Verse
Numbers 22:27-33
27And when the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam; so Balaam’s anger was aroused, and he struck the donkey with his staff.
28Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?”
29And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have abused me. I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would kill you!”
30 So the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden, ever since I became yours, to this day? Was I ever disposed to do this to you?”
And he said, “No.”
31Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face. 32And the Angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me. 33The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also have killed you by now, and let her live.”
“Pray”
Now let go back a few verses: (When the donkey saw the Angel she left the roadway and went into a field. Balaam beat her, and she went back to the road only to meet the Angel again in a narrow passage between two . . . walls.
Now look at what is happening here—here we have Balaam a man who was supposed to be religious man, not just in one religion but in all religions, kind of a spiritual no it all; He was a prophet, a false prophet. A man, who would receive a message from the gods and pass it on to the people, but now wait a minute, do you see something wrong here?
That’s right, if there are no other Gods then what he was telling the people would have been a lie, wouldn’t it. This man was con man and he was paid for his services.
Question: Can God use a man such as Balaam? Sure He can if you read God spoke to Balaam.
Let’s go to verse 12
12And God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”
13So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Balak, “Go back to your land, for the Lord has refused to give me permission to go with you.”
Now we do not know if Balaam knew God. Some theologians say he did and some say not, but what I do know is God know Balaam. God knew exactly who he was. Now did God say no I can’t use him because he does not go to My church, or I can’t use him because he is Pentecostal or better yet, he’s not a Baptist, No!!!!!! God said there’s my man and God knew He could use Balaam get His point across.
Now you’re saying “Pastor who does this affect us? Well I’m Glad you asked, God can use any body He wants to get through to us, the problem is, it’s going to be somebody we even want to talk with in the first place. We need to be ready because God is not going to ask you for permission to talk to you or to show you something and if we are not in tune with God or if we are not ready, guess what, we missed it! We need to be waiting! We need to stand our watch!!!
Turn quickly to the book of Habakkuk (back of OT). Ch 2 it reads
Habakkuk 2:
The Just Live by Faith
2Then the Lord answered me and said:
“Write the vision
And make it plain on tablets,
That he may run who reads it.
3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it;
Because it will surely come,
It will not tarry.
4 “Behold the proud,
His soul is not upright in him;
But the just shall live by his faith.
I will stand upon my watch (Isa. 21:6, 8). As a watchman goes to a high place to see all around and discern what is coming, so the prophet places himself apart from men, perhaps in some secluded height, in readiness to hear the voice of God and seize the meaning of the coming event. Do you know why some prays aren’t answered? Because we do not stay down long enough, we say what we need to then get up, we don’t read enough, we don’t pray enough, we do not worship enough!!!!! We will spend 3 to 6 hours a day watching TV but won’t give God 20 min and that’s being liberal about it and we wonder what God has taken His hand of the church today? Look and see why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are people of traditions, we can’t look upon someone who is different from us, Or my favorite, God doesn’t do things like that, How do you know, Well pastor if God gave you that vision then He would give it to all of us, No!!!! That’s why we have pastors so God can speak through them. If He spoke to all with the same vision we wouldn’t need pastors. God wants to know, do you have faith in your pastor? And God wants to know does the pastor have faith in Him. It’s a chain and God wants to know who the weakest link is. But you must know Sometimes God even speaks through a JACKASS. Now to the message.
Num 22:32-33
{Frightened, she pressed . . . Balaam’s foot against one of the walls, for which she received a second beating. Finally the procession moved on to a place where the path was so narrow that the donkey could neither move past the Angel, who blocked the way, nor turn to either side. She therefore lay down. Once more the prophet beat the beast which suddenly spoke (by the Lord’s miraculous enabling) and asked why she had been beaten those three times}
Balaam seems to have registered little surprise at this turn of events. The reason undoubtedly was that as a pagan diviner he may have heard such things before. Much of the success of such practitioners of the occult lay in the demonic inspiration of the prophets themselves or of the victims with whom they dealt. The serpent, for example, could speak because it was the incarnation of Satan (Gen. 3:1). Jesus cast demons out of a human being and allowed them to inhabit a herd of swine. Though there is no record of the demons speaking through the swine, the demons could and did identify with the animal world (Luke 8:26-39). So it is likely that Balaam, in his involvement with the spirit world, had experiences in the past with talking animals. But this time the Lord, not Satan or a demon, caused the animal to speak.
Let’s go back and read
Num 22:30-33
30 So the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden, ever since I became yours, to this day? Was I ever disposed to do this to you?”
And he said, “No.”
31Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face. 32And the Angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me. 33The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also have killed you by now, and let her live.”
The Lord used a Jackass to speak to Balaam, The jackass tried to warn him 3 times but because Balaam thought he was above the beast or better than the animal, or maybe the animal was just different than he was. But that dumb animal tried to save his life, but he was to prideful to see it. NOW, WHO ‘S THE JACKASS NOW?
I gotta close.
. I want to know, are you standing watch, are you waiting for Jesus to return?
. Are you staying on your knees long enough to hear back from God?
. Is your heart right, are you ready the return? It will happen, for those of you who think that you have time. Let me tell you, the bible says “no man knows the time or the hour. I can’t tell you when, but I do know that it will happen, why because this book said so, Are you ready?
Listen church I’m living proof that God can speak through anybody-------You thought I was going to say jackass didn’t you?
I want to know one last question. We call ourselves Christians—means to be Christ like, Does your heart ache, I mean really hurt for the lost people in you life, or for the people you know. You think about that. Are you happy were you are spiritually? Are you were God wants you to be spiritually? If not you need to come up and see me today. We need men at this alter for God to move.