Balaam’s Donkey

You’ve got to admire a farm animal that stands up for itself. After all the years of being told to do this and do that, and being expected to follow obediently, it is something of a welcome relief to say “No More. This really is one step too far and I am not going to do this.”

It would need something pretty drastic to make a farm animal take this step. It’s not going to be just any old act of rebellion. “Let’s go to the shops today to get the milk” is not a suitable cause of rebellion. The consequences will be drastic, so it had better be worth it.

We need to specific now. I am talking about a donkey, not just any old farm animal. Not a cow (and I like cows) and certainly not a chicken. I am not sure about a pig. Pigs get a bad press, which is unfair, because they are kind of cuddly, really, in a piggy sort of way. But let’s stick to the donkey.

I was trying to think about whether an act of rebellion would be pre-meditated. “Today, I am going to rebel” or whether it would be just be the spontaneous accumulation of the petty and daily accumulation of injustice and nonsense, which, given the right occasion, flares up into the unexpected and unpredictable.

At this point, you need to get out your bible, and look up Numbers 22. (For those of you unfamiliar with the geography of the Bible, it is the fourth book in the Old Testament i.e. pretty early on. To make it easy for you, I have supplied you with an internet link. You need to read verses 21 to 35, although you can read the whole chapter if you want to.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers%2022&version=NIV

The donkey is on her way with the master, going to a meeting. The master’s name is Balaam. All is fine, until the donkey lies down in the road and refuses to move. Balaam is naturally furious at this. The meeting is important, and there is no reason for the delay.

He beats the donkey, as that’s what we do to donkeys when they don’t move and we are having a bit of a temper. (It’s what I do to IKEA furniture when it won’t assemble properly.) There is not much thinking going on here in Balaam’s mind, such as, “I wonder what the problem is. Perhaps she is not well. What can she see what I can’t?” (which would have been an intelligent question in the circumstances). No – he just carries on beating her.

The whole story, of which verses 21 – 35 is just one part, spans three Chapters in total, and has a number of points, which I do not intend to go into. In this part, the familiar servant, the donkey, fails to perform as normal.

A simple reading of this section shows that God was bringing Balaam to a stop, in order to speak to him. Balaam was not paying attention, but his donkey was. He had decided that he would go to this meeting, come what may; that was where he was going and nothing was going to stop him. A great deal depended on that meeting. Do you know the feeling?

But God had other intentions.

A reading between the lines of the previous section shows that Balaam knew that he should not be on that road. If he did not know, then he should have known. His donkey lying down annoyed him even more, but he knew in his heart that he was going in the wrong direction, and it took the donkey to lie down and speak for the message to get through.

The common place world, in which we live, provides God with plenty of opportunities to speak to us, of things that we know and of things that we should think about. God made the world like that. Mostly we like to think that God gives us positive experiences, of things that go well. But if we are not listening, then, as with Balaam and his donkey, many times these are negative, of things that go badly. These are not punishment from an angry and revengeful God, but as reminders and instructions / guidance from a loving, if uncompromising, Father.

Keep listening.

He is a Creating and Sharing God

After a brief detour around the Book of Nahum, it is back to my “Eight Things that I Believe”. Remember – You are only allowed a maximum of twelve beliefs.

We are on to my Number Three. In number two, my “Belief” was that God made Man for his pleasure and purposes. I successfully evaded the question of what that purpose might be. Evasion is one of my core competencies. (“I’ll deal with that question at the end, if I may.”)

I am starting to have something of a problem. As I work through this list of eight items, or think ahead, I come across other important beliefs that warrant a place in the list. I am alright so far, as I am only up to ten (only you don’t know what they are yet).

“Belief Number Three” was originally to have been God’s purpose in making man. This is a pretty crucial subject, but I tripped myself on the question of why God embarked on this journey at all. Therefore, I am just going to have to add this to my list and see if I can deal with this now.

God’s overall purpose in starting the whole story (as per Genesis 1, for example) is not, as far as I can tell, set out anywhere. I am very happy to be contradicted on this point, and feel that I must be wrong and have missed something. (Who am I kidding? I will probably be very miffed when someone shows me the errors of my ways.)

I don’t know what theories people have and this is unusual for me. I normally undertake an informal survey, but not on this occasion. People must get fed up with me asking intrusive questions about religion and God. Even my second source, the 39 articles, has nothing to say on this subject. As a result, I will list some of the sillier ideas that have been put forward, without making any comment.

He was lonely and wanted some company
He likes to show off
He wants to be loved (a bit like the first one really)
He was bored

There is always the possibility that He didn’t have a purpose. He did it one moment, just to see what would happen. However, if that were the case, this blog would be totally undermined, and that is not fair.

It is time for me to get off the fence, and state my views on why God created the Universe and Man.

He likes to creates things
He wants to share himself

I carried out a Google Search on “Why did God create the Universe?” Nine of the first ten hits answered the question “Did God create the Universe?” and other one “Why did God NOT create the universe?” I am not sure what conclusions I should draw about Google from this. Perhaps the question “Why” is too difficult or just not asked very often.

The first serious hit on the Google search was about number 55, by Stafford Betty, a professor of religious studies. Stafford Betty puts forward the idea that God created the universe because he that is what he does. He is a creating God. (In my first blog in this series, I omitted this as a characteristic of God). He gives the analogy that a great composer, who composes music because it is something that flows from him. I’ll go for this reason. He created the Universe because he is a creating God. It is in his nature.

It is also possible that he created the Universe just as context for his creation of Man. The thought here is that the whole universe has only one purpose for God, which is to provide a backdrop for Man to live his life and for Man to appreciate the power of God. This alternative is an entirely credible conclusion from what I can see. The creation story in Genesis 1 could be interpreted in either way. However, if I have to decide for myself, one way or another, I will settle for the thought that God enjoys his creation for its own sake.

This still leaves us with the question why God made Man. Again, the Bible gives few clear answers, but perhaps a number of clues. The nearest that I can get to this, is that he wants to share himself and Man is the target of that sharing. Why God should want to do this is another question? (Questions within questions – will they never stop?). I can get no further than it is in His nature. For the same reason that He creates, He wants to share himself. It is in the nature of God himself to do these things.