It’s time for another episode of Faithful on the Clock, the show for Christian professionals where millipedes wiggle all their teeny feet to get your faith and work aligned. I’m your host, Wanda Thibodeaux, as always, and today, you’ll walk with me through the story of Balaam’s donkey. It turns out, this humble pack animal packs a punch when it comes to teaching about trusting and listening to others. So, let’s see what this talking donkey has to say.

The story of Balaam’s donkey is found in Numbers 22, specifically verses 21 through 35. So, if you’d like, go ahead and go there in your Bible with me. But to give you some context, Israel is coming out of Egypt. Moses is leading them along. And along the way, they essentially take out the Amorites and the people of Bashan and take over those lands. But eventually, they get to Moab. And at the time, we’ve got this guy, Balak, who’s the Moabite king. And Balak, he’s looking at Israel coming into his territory, and he gets scared. Because he knows what Israel has done to these other people, and he’s afraid they’re gonna do the same thing to him. He does not want that to happen. So, he sends for Balaam, because Balaam has a reputation for divination. Balak believes that, as you read in verse 6, that whatever Balaam blesses will be blessed, and whatever he curses, he curses. And he’s essentially thinking, “If I can just get this Balaam guy to curse the people of Israel, I won’t have anything to worry about. I can stay king and be fine.” And the first time Balak’s messengers come, the messenger’s spend the night, but God tells Balaam not to go and curse Israel. So, what does Balak do? He sends more guys. And these guys are more honorable and have more authority than the last guys. Balaam invites them to stay the night, just like with the last messengers, but this time, God gives a little bit different response. And this is a great example of why reading different translations is super helpful, because you don’t see it in some versions. But in some translations like the King James, in verse 20, God comes to Balaam and tells him very clearly that he can go with the men if they come to call on Balaam in the morning. But in verse 21, Balaam doesn’t wait for the men to call. He just gets ready, saddles the donkey, and heads out with the messengers. Then, in verse 22, not surprisingly, we’re told that God’s upset. And some of the commentaries on this, the thought is that God’s angry because Balaam basically got greedy. He’s thinking about the rewards he’s gonna get if he makes this trip, and he puts that ahead of what God told him to do.

But at any rate, now Balaam is on his donkey. He’s headed out to Moab with these guys. And because God’s upset, he sends an angel to get in Balaam’s path. But Balaam cannot see the angel. The donkey, however, he can see the angel just fine. So, the donkey, knowing what’s what, turns and goes into the field. Of course, Balaam doesn’t like that. He thinks the donkey’s being a…well, you probably can guess what word I’m thinking of. He hits the donkey to try to get the animal to go back on the path. And then the angel stands in the path again. What does the donkey do? This time, the donkey tries so hard to get out of the way of the angel that the donkey knocks into the wall along the path and hurts Balaam’s foot. Balaam hits the donkey again. Then the path gets even narrower, and there’s no room at all to turn around or go any other way. The donkey sees the angel and falls down, because the donkey’s got nowhere else to go. Now, Balaam is really angry. He hits the donkey again. And then God lets the donkey talk to Balaam, which is, by itself, a miracle, right? And the donkey asks him, you know, “What did I do that you’ve hit me three times?” And I don’t know if I’d have the presence of mind to respond if my donkey suddenly started talking, but Balaam’s like, “Because you were mocking me. If I had a sword, you know, I’d kill you.” Then the donkey answers back and says, you know, “Aren’t I your good donkey you’ve always ridden? Have I ever gone off the path and treated you badly before?” So, the donkey is telling Balaam in layman’s terms, “Look, I’m a good donkey. I don’t mess around. I’m not in the habit of disobeying. If I’m doing this kind of stuff, there’s a reason. You’ve gotta pay attention and trust that I’m not just messing with you.” And then, all of a sudden, Balaam can see the angel. And the angel tells him, “If your donkey wouldn’t have turned away, I would have killed you and let the donkey live.” And Balaam acknowledges he’s messed up and says he’ll go back if the angel tells him to, but the angel tells him to go but only speak what the angel says. And so, to just finish out the story, Balaam ends up meeting King Balak, and even after the king tries multiple times to get Balaam to curse Israel, Balaam gives the king God’s message that Israel is going to prosper.

So, let’s just back up a bit and put this into the business or even personal context, okay? So, I don’t know if you’ll have an actual donkey talk to you at some point. But you certainly might have a situation where you want to go one way and other people try to pull you the other. This can happen with a CEO versus an experienced board, but sometimes you’ll have subordinates or even coworkers who push back, too. And these people are not necessarily opposing you just to be mean or get their way, okay? They’re genuinely trying to keep you out of trouble, just like Balaam’s donkey was trying to protect him. But a lot of the time, what do we do? We ignore the warnings. We don’t stop to ask ourselves why they’re behaving out of their usual character. We start beating on the donkey because we’re so focused on getting where we want to go, not on understanding what the donkey sees or is reacting to. And I’ll assume you’re not gonna go around hitting people with a rod if they dare to oppose you, but you do hit. Maybe you write people up or you report them, you just let them have it in a meeting, or you go online and put up some nasty post berating them. And all the while, they are not the enemy.

So, the leadership lesson of Balaam’s donkey is, if good employees or family members or whatever normally serve you well, if they normally are right with you and helping you move forward, if they suddenly veer off into the field and seem like they’re being stubborn, there very well might be something pretty big you’re missing. That is your cue to humble yourself a little and start asking some questions. Because the thing is, we all have our blind spots. We’ve all got biases. And more than one leader has taken bad risks because of their own drive and goals. You know, if you’re into history, Napoleon is a good example. His generals were telling him that the British infantry was tenacious and that there were more Prussian troops coming. They’re not keen on having Napoleon split his forces as a strategy. But Napoleon’s ambitious. He wants to create a French empire. So, he does split his troops anyway. And so, you know, there were some other factors at play like bad weather, but what happens? Napoleon gets defeated at Waterloo, which ultimately leads to his exile and the end of the Napoleonic wars. So, sometimes, because of those blind spots and all those kinds of things, if we’re not careful, we’ll hit some real danger.

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But let’s take this from the other direction, too, okay. You might very well be in the position of the donkey. You might be the one who’s seeing the danger ahead and who’s getting hit for it. What I want you to focus on is that Balaam’s donkey didn’t just say, “Well, I’m getting hit here, I’m just gonna walk straight to the angel next time. Balaam can just roll over and die.” The donkey understood that Balaam’s rod was not the biggest thing to worry about. And in the same way, you have to understand that you don’t challenge God. Because you will not win that fight. And sometimes the most loving thing you can do for someone is sacrifice and take the hit until they finally see what you do, to turn them away from the danger over and over again until God helps them to understand. And what I’ve really found helpful in these kinds of situations is, just remember they don’t know. They don’t see the problem. And if you can focus on the fact they don’t see, that they don’t get it, rather than the fact they’re beating on you, it’s a whole lot easier to not take things personally and to offer a little forgiveness. And if you think about it, Jesus is a lot like the donkey in that way. We beat Him, tortured Him and took his life because we couldn’t see what was going on, and yet on the cross, that’s what He said. He said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

So, thinking on that, whether you’re in the position of Balaam or the donkey today, let’s take a moment and pray together.

Lord, today I pray that you’ll give us people who can lead us away from danger when we’d otherwise walk right into it. Give those people the courage to act and speak up, and help us understand that when people act differently, that’s something to pay attention to. Most of all, Lord, thank you for Jesus, who saw what we couldn’t see and suffered to protect us. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

That’s all I’ve got for you, everybody. I bet you didn’t start the show thinking Jesus had anything in common with a donkey, did you? If you want more insights, more content, check out the podcast sister site, faithfulontheclock.com. For the next episode, we’ll be breaking down the difference between achievement and accomplishment, and why seeking accomplishment can strengthen your faith. See you in two weeks, listeners. Be blessed.