“But God’s anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary. . . When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam. And Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff. Then 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?”” (Numbers 22:22, 27-28, ESV)
Balaam was a non-Israelite prophet who goes down in infamy as a prophet for hire. Peter explains the situation to us.
“Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.” (2 Peter 2:15-16, ESV)
The background of Balaam’s error is this. Balak, the king of Moab feared Israel and made an alliance with Midian. He then attempted to hire Balaam to come and curse Israel for a sum of money. The Lord told Balaam not to go with them once (v12) and then, after Balak’s second offer, gives him permission to go only if the princes of Moab call him (v20). Balaam apparently goes with them contrary to the purposes and instruction of the Lord. Thus, the angel of the Lord stood in his path. However, only the donkey could see the angel of the Lord, not Balaam.
The interesting this about this portion of the story is that the donkey had better spiritual sight than Balaam. What a sad commentary on the life of a person, that a donkey was more in tune with the Lord than he was. The main point here has not to do with the donkey’s sight, but with Balaam’s spiritual blindness. Why was Balaam so spiritually blind? Peter explains the root cause well. “Balaam loved gain.” It seems that the love of money had clouded Balaam’s spiritual vision. This was an issue rooted in Balaam’s heart.
Often worldly passions cloud people’s spiritual sight. It may be the love of money, as we see here, that steals the heart, or a variety of other desires. Jesus taught that whatever a man treasures indicates the focus of his heart. For this reason, we must be careful not to allow our earthly passions to rule over us. The reason is that they hinder our ability to understand the things of God, to see where God is at work, and then join Him in His program.
There is another aspect of worldly passions. Worldly passions can also cloud our understanding of the things we can physically see and experience. We will continue with this thought in the next devotion.
Renewing the Heart 