Bible Challenge Day 57: A Talking Donkey! (Numbers 21-23)

It is hard to know what to make of a story that includes a talking donkey!! In the Old Testament reading for today, a worried Moabite king asks a prophet to curse the Israelites. Balaam, the prophet, refuses to go, then agrees on the condition that he will say only what God tells him to say. God tells Balaam to bless the Israelites, to the king’s great disappointment. The details of the story are the odd part. The most striking thing is the talking donkey. I do not take that part of the story literally, but even so, it is a little hard to see what lessons one might draw from it. But this is my best shot . . . .

Point one: I appreciate the fact that Balaam, a non-Israelite, functions as a prophet of God. He consults the LORD (i.e. Yahweh, the God specifically of the Israelites whose name was revealed to Moses at the burning bush) and proclaims the word of the Lord. This is a reminder that God speaks to us through some surprising people.

Point two: God tells Balaam to go, and then sends an angel to kill him for going. This is odd! But it parallels a briefer but generally similar story about Moses (Ex 4:24-26). Whatever else is going on, the parallel legitimizes Balaam as God’s agent in this story. And perhaps it reminds us that serving God can be a dangerous business!

Point three: In addition to being charming, the story of the talking donkey has a positive environmental message. The donkey can see the angel when even the prophet cannot. The donkey patiently suffers abuse from Balaam even as the donkey saves Balaam’s life. God enables the donkey to speak in order to protest Balaam’s injustice in beating him. All of that reminds us that animals are part of God’s creation and that God cares about them. Animals are not simply for our benefit, to use as we see fit. They have a right, for example, not to have their habitats eliminated or to be factory-farmed.

I still find the story odd, but I do like it, particularly as a break from all the ritual material and then the string of complaints that we have been reading about!

Fr. Harvey