Numbers 22:22–31
Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him. And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field. And Balaam struck the donkey, to turn her into the road. Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam's foot against the wall. So he struck her again. Then the angel of the Lord went ahead and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam. And Balaam's anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff. Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?" And Balaam said to the donkey, "Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you." And the donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?" And he said, "No."
Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face.
People are willing to go to great lengths to simply be seen and noticed by the world, even if it means 10 minutes of fame.
Larry Walters (1982)
In 1982, a man by the name of Larry Walters made cartoon imagery a reality when he strapped 45 weather balloons to a lawn chair and floated 16,000 feet into the air. His lawn chair flight was quite the adventure, including floating into controlled airspace — which basically means he could have been hit by a commercial airliner — and his descent back to the ground, which ended up with him getting caught in live power lines without getting electrocuted.
Imagine you ask your friend at school what their plans for the weekend are and they say, "Ah, nothing too crazy. I think I'm gonna strap 45 weather balloons to some patio furniture, float into air-traffic, and hopefully land in Norman for lunch…" You wouldn't be like, "Yeah, sounds like a pretty average Saturday morning plan." No, you'd either think this person is being completely sarcastic, or is psychotic — but there's not really another option.
What in the world motivated Larry Walters to risk his life on a lawn chair? After the flight he told reporters that he'd always dreamed of flying, but also admitted this: he wanted to do something people would notice.
People are willing to do a lot to simply be noticed — to not feel invisible.
Charles Blondin (1855, 1869, 1896)
Charles Blondin was a man born for the circus. In his twenties he was invited to perform on the tightrope, but was eventually encouraged by his manager to begin pushing the boundaries in order to keep the attention of the crowd.
It started with Charles walking the tightrope across Niagara Falls. This caught the attention of the crowds, but eventually it wasn't enough. So he did it again — except the second time he was blindfolded. Then he did it a third time pushing a wheelbarrow. Then a fourth time carrying a man on his back.
In 1896, towards the end of his career, Blondin — now 72 years old — walked the tightrope again. This time he stopped midway to cook himself an omelette, eat the omelette, and then continue walking the tightrope.
People will go to great lengths in order to be seen by the crowd.
The Desire to Be Seen
This is everywhere. It's on American Idol when people show up knowing they don't have the talent to be on the show and lean into that — even if it means they look outrageous — just to make it on national television. It's the streaker who jumps the bleachers and runs across the field during a sporting event. It's the teenager embarrassing themselves on social media in order to hit the algorithm and go viral for a month.
It's you and I changing who we are around others to be accepted. Maybe for you it's changing how you dress in order to be noticed. Maybe it's adopting a vocabulary you would never use here, but that really helps you fit in out there.
We all feel the desire to be seen. On the surface, this can be viewed as a negative thing — and sometimes it is. This desire can become perverted and self-absorbed, turning into doing anything and everything, even at the expense of our own well-being or the well-being of others, just to be seen.
But if we peel back a few layers and go deeper, the problem is not simply that we want people to see us and notice that we exist. When we go deeper, we realize it's actually not something that's wrong with us — it's how we have been wired: we want to belong.
We Were Wired to Belong
The desire to belong is not a wrong thing — it's a God thing. The desire to share life in relationship with others is not the weakness of humanity; it's what makes us humanity created in the image of God. Another way to think about it: we were created in the image of belonging.
The reason this desire is in us is not because of the fall — it's actually because of creation. God, who is revealed to us in the scriptures, is triune: one God, three persons. A God of shared love before anyone else came into the picture. The Father loving the Son loving the Spirit. And this love is so great and unselfish that God decided to pour it out into all of creation and invite creation back into this trinitarian love. He made us to invite us into belonging.
John 17:24
"Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world."
When humans are weak, we strive and struggle just to be seen and noticed by others, hoping to belong. But when God strives to be seen and known, He's not struggling. God is not weak and hoping to belong. God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit already belong and experience perfect love. So when God strives to be seen, it's not so He can get love because He is weak like us — it's so He can share love with us because He is strong.
How far is God willing to go in order to be seen?
Tonight we are continuing a series called Witness: Looking at Common Stories Through Uncommon Eyes — looking at familiar biblical stories and putting ourselves in the shoes of the characters in order to gain a better perspective of the truth.
Witness — a person who sees, hears, or experiences an event firsthand; particularly a crime or an accident.
In the case of this series, we aren't trying to look at a car accident — we're attempting to look at God, and we're doing it through different witnesses.
Last week we looked at the story of the burning bush and zeroed in on Moses, the reluctant witness — a man who felt completely unqualified to be used by God, and yet witnessed the power of God.
This week we're jumping into one of the stranger Old Testament stories to find two unexpected witnesses. In a way, it makes sense that Moses was a witness to this powerful and almighty God. He was a part of the Hebrew people, saved at birth, raised in the royal family of Egypt. It logically makes sense that he's the guy God chooses to work through.
But this is what I love about God — He keeps us on our toes. Just when we think we've figured Him out, He throws us a curve ball. Because the two witnesses in our passage tonight are a pagan wizard and a donkey.
Numbers 22 Background
Let's look at the backdrop of this chapter by looking at the whole theme of the book of Numbers — because contrary to popular belief, it is incredibly relatable to where we find ourselves today.
Numbers is the story of the wilderness. It's the in-between tension that the people of God live in — freed from Egypt in the great Exodus, now on their journey through the wilderness. They have experienced God's saving power, and yet they have not arrived. God has personally come down to make His home with them in the form of the tabernacle, and yet they aren't home.
Sound familiar? It should. If you belong to Jesus, you find yourself in the same exact place as God's people in Numbers. You are completely saved, and yet you're not home. God has come to live near, and yet you're not in the promised land. You are in a fallen world surrounded by fallen nations full of fallen people, and the temptation will be to put down roots in the wilderness and be like them — but God is trying to take you somewhere far better.
When you zoom out, Numbers is essentially a meta-narrative of the life of an individual believer — a parable of the journey of a son or daughter in Christ.
The wilderness was also a season of waiting, testing, and refining. Just because we belong to Jesus doesn't mean all of our dreams will come true, that we will never experience a heartbreaking loss, or that everything will come easy. In the same way, just because God had saved Israel from Egypt didn't mean it would all come easy in the wilderness.
The wilderness was a season of consecration — "You used to be a slave for Egypt, and now you're not anymore, but you still act like one. So God has to work out what He's put in."
They were no longer slaves in Egypt, but the wilderness is where God takes them through a process of getting Egypt out of them. It's the same with us. When we are saved, we experience the miracle of the new birth — we don't belong to sin, death, or hell anymore. We belong to God now. It happens all in an instant, like when God destroyed all of Israel's enemies in the Red Sea. But even with the "bad guys" gone, Israel quickly discovered that the problem wasn't just Egypt out there — the problem was also in here, in the heart. So God sanctifies them through the wilderness, making them look more like the Holy God they are now following, just as God is doing with you tonight and for the rest of your life here on this earth.
He's putting us through the fire. He's removing things from us. He's giving things to us — all for the purpose of making us more like Him.
We finally see another interesting theme: the closer the children of God get to the promised land, the greater the spiritual resistance ramps up. And this is exactly where we find ourselves in chapter 22.
By this point, God has been growing His people into a great nation and protecting them by taking out any nations threatening them. But the closer they get to the promised land, the more resistance begins to pick up — and this time it's not in the form of a physical army. The battle becomes spiritual.
Israel is at Moab — the gateway kingdom separating the wilderness from the promised land. This is the last thing keeping Israel from their inheritance. And it's at this point that Balak, the king of Moab, looks out over the valley and sees Israel spread across it like a shadow. He knew what had happened to the Amorites. He had heard the stories. And he came to a chilling conclusion:
"We cannot defeat these people… not like this."
So he turned — not to swords, but to the unseen. If Israel could not be beaten physically, perhaps they could be weakened spiritually.
Enter Balaam — our first unexpected witness.
Balaam is a pagan prophet, and a well-known one at that. Pagan basically means you are a "spiritual" person not tied down to any specific religion. Balaam practices magic, believes in many different gods, and his main goal is to work the spiritual balance in order for it to work in his favor. If happiness means adopting this practice, he'll do it. If wealth comes through this god, he'll worship them.
Balaam is the picture of the "spiritual" person today who will try it all but will not serve any specific god — they are their own god.
Balak thinks to himself, "I can't defeat Israel with swords. So I'm going to turn to the unseen realm." He attempts to hire Balaam to stand on the mountain overlooking Israel and curse them.
Numbers 22:5–6
"Behold, a people has come out of Egypt. They cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling opposite me. Come now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me."
This is where the story gets so interesting. Balaam's response is essentially, "Let me just pray about it first."
Numbers 22:7–8
So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand. And they came to Balaam and gave him Balak's message. And he said to them, "Lodge here tonight, and I will bring back word to you, as the Lord speaks to me."
Balaam tells the king's men to stay the night so he can seek God for direction. This is so wild — so unexpected, and so contrary to how we judge people.
The guy we would have never expected to seek God is currently seeking God for an answer. What kind of God does Balaam encounter? How far is God willing to go in order to get the attention of Balaam?
Balaam Is a Witness to the God Who Speaks
Numbers 22:12
God said to Balaam, "You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed."
Balaam goes to the LORD — the God of the very people he's been hired to curse — and asks Him what to do. And here's the incredible part: God speaks.
Now this alone is incredibly good news. Think about it. If there really is a God — and there is — and if this God created everything — He did — and if this God is totally separate and unlike anything in His creation — He is — then it would be literally impossible for us to know this God. And yet, God has made Himself known. This is such good news.
God Speaks Clearly
Deuteronomy 30:11–14
"This command… is not too hard for you… the word is very near you."
Habakkuk 2:2
"Write the vision; make it plain…"
John 18:20
"I have spoken openly to the world… I have said nothing in secret."
God Speaks Truthfully
Numbers 23:19
"God is not man, that he should lie…"
Hebrews 6:18
"It is impossible for God to lie…"
James 1:17
"The Father of lights… with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."
God Speaks Effectively
Isaiah 55:10–11
"My word… shall not return to me empty…"
Psalm 19:8
"The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes."
God Speaks Personally
Hebrews 6:18
"It is impossible for God to lie…"
James 1:17
"The Father of lights… with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."
The God Who Warns
Numbers 22:22–23
But God's anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him. And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field.
The God Who Pursues
Numbers 22:28
Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?"
The God Who Turns Curses Into Blessing
Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Galatians 3:13
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us — for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree."
Israel has no idea any of this is happening. They're just camped in the valley. Meanwhile:
- A king is plotting
- A prophet is being hired
- A curse is being attempted
- An angel is intervening
This is the core truth of Numbers 22: God is fighting battles for His people that they cannot see.
The God Who He Belongs To
At this point, God has gone incredibly far in order to be seen by Balaam. God has spoken. God has warned Balaam of danger if he disobeys. God has literally opened the mouth of a donkey.
But remember where we began. God is not trying to be seen simply to get attention. He doesn't need our attention. He is inviting us into belonging. And here's the chilling truth we see in the witness of Balaam: Balaam witnesses the God who speaks, warns, and pursues — but never sees God as the one he belongs to.
Balaam vs. Israel is a picture of common grace vs. covenant grace.
Common grace is the grace that every single person on this planet lives in right now. It's the fact that we were created, we are living, we are breathing. We can enjoy good food, experience friendship, and find levels of joy and purpose in this life. You don't have to be a Christian to experience these gifts from God.
Covenant grace is different. Covenant grace consists of gifts from God that you only receive through the blood of Jesus — belonging, true peace, true freedom, true joy, no fear of death, no fear of the future, assurance. These are things only a Christian can experience.
Balaam interacted with God. Israel belonged to God. Anyone can interact with God. But God is not just after people who can hear Him or see miraculous signs — God is after His own.
New Song Students — are you a witness to God, or do you belong? Balaam experienced the goodness of God and still did not belong to God. What sign are you looking at to determine whether or not you belong to God?
Because here's what we have to understand: God is willing to go very far in order for us to belong to Him. He's willing to go farther than speaking. Farther than giving signs. Farther than opening the mouths of animals. In fact, He has already gone to the farthest length possible to be seen — and it's the cross.
The cross is the sign we look to in order to know we belong to God.
Romans 8:32
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
"You say, 'I want to see more.' What more do you want than the Son of God crushed under the wrath of God for sinners?" — Paul Washer
"The greatest display of God's love is the cross of Christ. If that does not win your heart, nothing will." — John Piper