28  And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?29  And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.30  And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay.

Numbers 22:28-30

Explanation:

This is obviously a strange and supernatural account.  The donkey sees the angel that Balaam doesn’t see. Balaam gets angry and beats him.  The donkey asks why, and Balaam responds. We’ll deal with the rest of the account and what follows in the next couple of days.  For now, a few things strike me about this exchange.

1. Balaam beating the donkey is presented here as negative.  He is not seen as noble because of it.

2. Balaam does not seem to be surprised by the talking animal, but rather responds to it, even reasoning with it at a certain level.

3. I can hear the skeptic saying, “There is no way this really happened. See! The Bible is not trustworthy. The Bible is a myth!”  To that I would reply, “Is anything to hard for the Lord? What is more incredible- that a donkey would talk or Genesis 1:1? If Genesis 1:1 is possible, then Numbers 22:28 is possible.  In fact you would imagine that miracles could be used, rarely by definition, to get our attention and substantiate God’s identity to us as he reveals himself.

Application:

God reveals Himself supernaturally.  Today what is supernatural is His Word in our hands and His Spirit in our hearts for those who know Him as Savior.  We have an incredible gift in God’s Word.  It is trustworthy.

Response:

Do you have an answer for the skeptic about this and other passages of the Bible?  If not, how can you resolve that problem?

Is there a portion of scripture that you need to believe specifically today?