Bible Study for Christian Women and Pastors Wives: I Am Able to Say No, Part 2

Bible Study for Christian Women and Pastors Wives: I Am Able to Say No, Part 2
     Numbers 22 contains one of the strangest stories in all The Scripture. A prophet, Balaam, was asked by a king, Balak, to curse the great multitude of people that came out from Egypt. Those people were the Isrealites and Balak was king of Moab.
     When asked to do the curse, Balaam inquired of God, which really is a good thing to do on everything. 
     God said "no." That should have been the end of it for Balaam. But, it wasn't.
     Balak sent his best "salespeople," his best persuaders to get Balaam to curse the people. Even though Balaam said no, when offered "the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life," (1 John 2:16) he reconsidered and said he would go and inquire of The Lord again just to see if that "no" might be a "maybe" or  even a "yes."
     That night, God said "go." It was only a test and Balaam failed it miserabely. When he went with these high-powered closers, he rode his faithful donkey.
     The faithful donkey saw the angel with the sword, but Balaam, eyes blinded with dollar signs, could not see the angel, much less the sword. Balaam tried three times to make the faithful donkey go a certain way. Three times the faithful donkey would not go and in fact, saved Balaam's life.
     Three times, Balaam beat his faithful donkey. Finally, the faithful donkey had enough and talked.
     "What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?" (Numbers 22:28)
     That only made Balaam even angrier and he wanted to kill his faithful donkey. (Come on, Balaam, don't you find it a little strange for your faithful donkey to speak actual words?)
     So, the donkey talked again: "Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? Was I ever wont to do so unto thee?" (Numbers 22:29)
     The dollar signs fell out of his eyes and Balaam clearly saw the angel and the sword and repented on the spot.
     Balaam, it's okay to say no when it's not God saying yes.
     To his credit, he passed the rest of the test, walked in The Spirit, obeyed God, and didn't fulfill the lust of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)

Be blessed in The Name above every name, Jesus! I know I am!
Linda L. Culbreth