God’s Word for You

Numbers 22:30-32 God’s concern for animals

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, November 15, 2021

We return now to the false prophet Balaam, angry with his donkey who has turned aside three times from the wrath of the unseen Angel of the Lord.

30 The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, the one you have always ridden to this day? Is this what I usually do to you?” He said, “No.” 31 Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the Angel of the LORD standing in the road, with his drawn sword in his hand. Balaam knelt and bowed with his face to the ground.

This is the final time the donkey speaks. This was a brief miracle, a miraculous ability and permission given by God, and we should understand that the donkey did not continue to speak after this. It is possible that the poor beast was killed shortly after this in a battle with the Midianites described in Numbers 31:1-12, although some of the animals were captured and taken by the Israelites along with the Midianite women (Numbers 31:11).

Balaam’s eyes were opened so that he could see what his animal could see: The Son of God, the Angel of the Lord. The sword in his hand was God’s wrath, actually present and a deadly threat. Balaam’s occupation as a soothsayer or diviner meant that he should have prized and valued a conversation with an animal, and it also may explain why he was so evidently unsurprised by his brief dialogue with a lady donkey. Perhaps he was distracted by the seemingly mundane subject of their conversation, since she primarily takes him to task over being beaten without justification. Surely this would be a complaint that could be expressed by many of God’s creatures.

I do not wish to get sidetracked too far, but these brief words by the donkey give us answers to certain questions about man’s relationship with animals. God gave mankind dominion over the animals (Genesis 1:28), and here we see that the animals, at least the domestic animals, perceive this and know their place in man’s service. The donkey, after all, admits that she is “your donkey” to Balaam. She also asks, “Is this what I usually do to you?” She acknowledges his ownership of her, and her concern is that she has served him as she ought, and that she has not deserved the punishment he had given to her. In addition, by using the terms she uses, she also acknowledges that she understands her gender and species, a thing that eludes some humans who have been “darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts” (Ephesians 4:18). As for the wild animals, the fear of man fell on them following the Flood, when God gave animals to man to eat for food (Genesis 9:2). We can also note that the donkey venerates God, turning aside three times and finally laying down before the glorious Angel of the Lord. More than once in the Scriptures the animals are called upon to praise and give obedience (and therefore glory) to God (Psalm 148:7-10; Isaiah 43:20; Hosea 2:18; Joel 1:20).

Animals, however, do not have souls, nor faith. They are separate from mankind and the angels, often referred to as “brute beasts” (2 Peter 2:12), living “by instinct” (Jude 1:10). What animals do, they do by instinct, whether that causes them to attack man (Exodus 21:28) or serve him like Job’s sheep dogs (Job 30:1). They must obey God’s commands concerning them in certain unique times (Daniel 6:22), but normally they are only held by the command to multiply (Genesis 8:17) and to be obedient to God himself. If they obey man, they have been bred or trained to do it by men (James 3:7). Even when God uses them to give us food, he does it according to our need, especially to clothe and nourish the people of his church (Genesis 3:21, 9:3; Matthew 17:27; John 21:6) and for other uses like the waterproofing that was done with the hides of sea cows (Exodus 26:14; Numbers 4:6).

This passage does not touch on the question about whether there will be animals in heaven, but we have discussed that with our meditation on Romans 8:20-21, where we saw inconclusively that “it could be so,” but that there is no definitive verse, and these are not doctrines that affect our faith in Christ.

32 The Angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Look, I myself have come out to oppose you, because your way is reckless before me.

Here is a remarkable verse, worth some very close study. First, it is clear from the Angel’s words “reckless before me” that this is no ordinary angel, but that this is the Lord, the Son of God himself.

Second, notice the Lord’s concern for the donkey. “A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal” (Proverbs 12:10), and the Lord is also concerned with the animal portion of his creation (Jonah 4:11; Joel 2:22). He would have spared the donkey, which was set aside for a righteous and holy purpose unlike any other beast in the Old Testament. Balaam was being called to consider his place in God’s kingdom: He was on the verge of being punished with death and then damnation for his unbelief and sins, saved (for now) only by the special sight given to a creature he thought was his dumb animal. Yet it was given what he himself desired. What place did Balaam have before God? He was nothing at all, a sinner worthy of death and hell. He was being called on to consider that, but he was still in the dark about his status before God.

Third, the Lord says, “I have come out ‘to oppose you.’” The Hebrew noun used here for “as an opponent” is satan, a word usually reserved for an opponent in a courtroom (1 Kings 5:18) or the Adversary of all mankind, Satan or the Devil (Job 1:6; Matthew 4:10). We must not imagine that here “Satan” applies in any way to God, but that the Lord here is facing Balaam as an opponent, since Balaam is the unholy opponent of God’s people. Therefore this is the Holy One versus an unholy one. Since the stakes were so high, and God’s people were all eggs in a single basket, so to speak, the Lord frequently cared for them in personal and unusual ways during the exodus. He does not need to do this today, since if I were persecuted to the point of death today, or I with my family, or my church, or my entire synod, there would still be Christian believers in the world to continue to proclaim the word of God in the world. But when Moses was leading his people closer and closer to the Promised Land, there was more at stake than the lives of a few people, or a whole church. Balaam was a unique and serious danger to all of God’s people all at once. He had to be opposed by the Lord himself.

This brings us to the question of whether Balaam, who spoke with the Lord and knew his name, had faith of any kind. We must also learn how his errors teach us something valuable about the difference between mere knowledge about God and true faith in God. Therefore we must stop for now and return to this account tomorrow. There is a lot to be said, but the greatest thing underlies the whole account of this false prophet and his donkey and the Children of Israel. Behold what God has done for his people! “His righteousness reaches to the skies. He has done great things. Who, O God, is like you?” (Psalm 71:19). Behold what the Lord God has done for you (Psalm 126:2-3)! Put your faith in him always. “May the Lord bless you all the days of your life” (Psalm 128:5).

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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