Papa B
Sometimes we are Balaam’s Donkey
If you’re not familiar with the story of Balaam and his donkey I’d encourage you to take a moment to read Numbers 22. Despite popular belief, Numbers is one of the coolest books in the bible. Briefly the story goes like this:
The people of Israel were about to attack the Moabites and the king of Moab wasn’t so keen on that happening because the Israelites seemed to be on a pretty good winning streak. So the king of Moab calls upon Balaam to call down curses on the people of Israel. The problem was that God was on Israel’s side so no amount of fussing, moaning, cursing or otherwise was going to help the Moabites and God told Balaam as much. As the story unfolds we have Balaam heading out on his donkey to meet with the king of Moab.
Num 22:23-27 And the donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field. And Balaam struck the donkey, to turn her into the road. (24) Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. (25) And when the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam’s foot against the wall. So he struck her again. (26) Then the angel of the LORD went ahead and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left. (27) 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.
Next two things that happen make me scratch my head in wonder. The donkey speaks to Balaam and Balaam doesn’t find that weird. Now I don’t want to get too bogged down in the story so I’ll stop there. I do, however, want to make some observations about the donkey.
- The donkey was not the main character in the story
- The donkey was beaten for doing its job
- The donkey was there to save Balaam’s life
This thought came from a conversation I had with a guy last Sunday night. He was telling me how he had fallen on hard times but things were getting better. He had been there before but he guessed he just didn’t learn the first time and that God was teaching him a lesson again. That seems to be our natural reaction when troubles come our way. “There must be something God’s trying to teach me,” but what if we are just Balaam’s donkey? What if we’re not the main character in the story and we’re in that situation to do our jobs and save someone from disaster?
Hear, my son, your father’s instruction
As parents we sometimes over spiritualize our children’s actions while at the same time not applying the same spiritual understanding to our daily life. Let’s take the simple phrase “I just want to get what I deserve.”
Simple enough.
If we as God fearing parents ever heard that phrase escape the lips of one of our children, we would immediately expound upon the need for grace and how much we have been forgiven and therefore we should always show mercy to others and that we should always turn the other cheek because Jesus paid the ultimate price for us and we should not be like the ungrateful servant who received pardon from much but won’t forgive a little debt and look what happened the children of Israel when they complained — it didn’t work out for them did it– so we should forgive others because as we forgive we are forgiven because that’s what Jesus said! Amen, stand and sing.
Then we get in the car and drive somewhere.
I think one of the hardest parts of parenting is living out your faith in front of your kids. It is a humbling experience to hear God preaching to me in my own voice as I “train up my child”.
Proverbs 3:6 says to acknowledge God in all your ways and HE will make your paths straight. I am grateful for his help.
Proverbs 1:1-6
Pro 1:1-7 The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: (2) To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, (3) to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; (4) to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth– (5) Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, (6) to understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles.
Solomon is telling us what types of instructions will be addressed. He points out that it is his intent to “give prudence to the simple” and “knowledge and discretion to the youth”. Knowing this is important because it tells us of the intended audience of Proverbs. There is a nugget of wisdom (are you surprised?) tucked into verse 5. The wise listen to increase learning and the one who understands obtains guidance.
Practical usage: LISTEN to increase learning. These proverbs can be applied or misapplied to many situations, but the intent we should have when we study Proverbs is to sharpen our discernment, to gain guidance in righteousness, and to understand how to apply justice.
What kind of father are you?
I’ve read quite a few blogs and articles about fathers raising their children. One of the scriptures that gets tossed about a lot is from Deuteronomy 6:7 and I think that’s great. I love that scripture and I have personally opined on it at great length. I think it is very important to integrate your faith into every aspect of life so that training your children in the ways of the Lord are easy and fluid, but I fear there may be more.
I ran across a scripture that totally changed my heart on training my children. I used to say, “My job is to show them Jesus and lead them to life with Him.” Sounds good, right? Very noble, quite fatherly, and very short sighted.
Take a look at the book of Judges. Look at Judges 2:10. Here is what’s going on: Joshua has led Israel in taking the promised land. He and that generation died, then their children died, then THEIR children “did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel.” What’s up with that?! That would be like my grandparents landing at Plymoth Rock and I somehow missed knowing about it. Here’s my take on what happened.
The generation that took the land taught their children to obey the form of worship. That next generation performed worship without fully understanding why so what they passed on to their children was ritual without meaning and that generation opted to drop the whole mess all together.
So where does that leave me? I need to train my children to train their children. I want for my daughters to love God so much that they want their children to love God so much that they want their children to love God… I don’t want my kids to “go to church” because that’s what the family does. I want them to desire Christian fellowship. I don’t want them to tithe just because I said so, but because God is worth of their first fruits.
So, what kind of father are you?