Scripture: 2 Peter 2 v 15-16:
"Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone
astray, following the way of Balaam, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
but was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad
the madness of the prophet."
The whole story is recounted in Numbers 22 of Israel
preparing for war against Moab, who were terrified of them and decided to hire
a prophet of God to curse them with defeat. Moab hired Balaam the prophet and
sent him away on his donkey to pronounce evil against Israel.
As he was about to cry against Israel the donkey suddenly
stopped causing Balaam to crush his foot against the cliff wall. He beat the
ass but it wouldn't budge. It could see what the prophet couldn't see - a big
angel with a drawn sword sent to block the mad mission of Balaam.
Then it spoke with a man's voice and said to Balaam
"Have I ever behaved like this before?" Then God opened Balaam's eyes
to see the angel who said "Behold I went out to withstand thee because thy
way is perverse before me."
Sometimes we behave in ways that are sheer madness and
need a reality check before we run into the sword of the Lord. This is when we
kindle His anger by the way we treat others; deal corruptly; engage in
abominations; are hypocritical in our religious lives.
Jesus rebuked the scribes and Pharisees openly for
hypocrisy and corruption; He overturned the money lender's (bankers) tables
who traded deceitfully in the front of
the Temple. At various times this century He has done that to modern banking
and world finance for corruption. They have been forced to clean up their act;
become transparent and pay huge fines.
We need to clean up our act in our personal lives; become
transparent and open in our dealings with people or we will pay a terrible
price for our hypocrisy before God. He changes not. He is the same yesterday,
today and forever. If something was an abomination in the Old Testament, its
still an abomination now. No human law or fleshly sympathy or leniency holds
sway with our righteous King.
Jesus came to show us the way to live and walk and have
our being. He is the role model we must follow. Not some celeb on crack or
sports hero on steroids. Our King is holy, powerful, sinless and faithful. He
loves us but has given us the ability to change to be like Him. We must allow
Him to have His will in our lives.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, we don't need Balaam's ass to
rebuke us as we hear the voice of Jesus guiding us. Help us to heed His voice
daily and learn what is needful for us to survive on battlefield earth. In
Jesus' name. Amen.