Don’t Beat Your Donkey
“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. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot against it. So he beat the donkey again.” – Numbers 22:23,25 In the story of Balaam, it’s interesting that every time the donkey moved out of the way of the sword-bearing angel, his master beat him. Though his reason for doing so was clearly revealed in Scripture as being pride and ego, it seems strange that Balaam would mistreat the one who had done nothing but offer him transportation and companionship. Why was the animal’s off nominal behavior in this instance not heeded? There may be many reasons, but we know that it really bothered
