The Error of Balaam 9- The Error of Insensitivity

)        Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials. 22 But God was very angry when he went,and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. 23 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, it turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat it to get it back on the road".- Numbers 22:21-23 NIV New International Version

         When we were young, my siblings and I were sometimes naughty as all children are but   a quick supervisory look by my mother quickly made us make some readjustments.As I grew older,I realized that this experience was not uncommon with my contemporaries   and that the look is referred to as  the "Mama's eye".Without words, this eye had a way of communicating several  messages  which were best yielded to in order to avoid  discipline later.The "Mama's eye" told you when to sit down, stand up, not accept a gift or food you seriously wanted to,it gave you the final warning and the one that promised  you would cry later.Due to inexperience, sometimes the youngest child may not  decipher what was required by just a look and thus further necessitate the use of words  with   greater mercy in the area of punishment when compared to an older child who    stubbornly  refused to heed  to warnings following several looks.        

      

      The next error we see is almost synonymous to saying Balaam did not understand the "mama's eye".He goes on rather quickly the very next morning with the visitors(Numbers 22:21).However the author of Numbers  leaves us in  no doubt of God's stance on the matter by penning down eight words in the first part of verse 22 "God was very angry that he went". I like  the fact that God did something about his anger.He did not just sit passively and we are enjoined to do the same especially for anger at a justifiable cause;anger about domestic abuse or child trafficking to mention a few.          

 "..And the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him....."

    
God sent an angel to oppose him but both Balaam and his servants were blind, so blind that it took a donkey to  remove him from the place of danger.It took 3 consecutive attempts by the donkey and on those 3 occasions ,he was beaten by his owner.This picture however does not depict the Bible's position with regards to the treatment of animals.Quite the contrary as cruelty to animals is condemned by the Bible  as  depicted by the angel's rebuke to Balaam later in this chapter (Numbers 22:32), and other places(Exodus 23:5, Proverbs 27:23).Balaam was infuriated by the donkey's behaviour and the donkey eventually  resorted to words to explain his behaviour.Several commentators have argued about whether the donkey really talked but I would love us to refer to what the Word of God really says.In 2 Peter 2:16, we are told that the donkey spoke with a human voice,end of story.

   
Balaam's failure to perceive and his subsequent insensitivity may most likely have resulted from his stubbornness.Continuous persistence in wrong doing will lead to a searing of conscience and dampened sensitivity  to the voice of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Balaam was so gone in the path he was determined to take that even the voice of a human from the donkey did not deter him.Once again,we see how one error pf Balaam led to another.Because he was disobedient,and head on stubborn, he no longer could perceive God and became opposed by God.Sometimes we suffer some opposition because God himself is trying to discipline and restore us. The true proof that we are loved and are  not bastards is discipline from our fathers( Hebrews 12:8) as  a child left to himself  will bring shame to the mother( Proverbs 29:15).

      

      For us today, we can learn that insensitivity does not usually take place suddenly, rather a series of repeated  disobedience to the Spirit of God or the revealed word  of God will eventually cause callousness of our  spirits(1 Samuel 15 ,Acts 5:1-11).Whenever it is that we can see in the spirit the "Mama's eye" showing disapproval,it is necessary for us to proceed no further and retrace our steps. Someone has rightly stated that "Obedience is Jesus's love language" and if we say we love him, we should obey him(John 14:15,1 John 5:3) .It is in the place of continuous obedience that we receive further instruction.What need is there for him to give us some more instructions not to obey.Obedience is not just only the proof of our love but serves as the barometer of our spiritual intimacy and enhances our  sensitivity to the  Holy Spirit.    

     In His Service          

     Grace Tom-Lawyer