“Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn.” 

Numbers 22:31

Don’t you wish God would make known to us every single thing he wants for us and our lives?  Wouldn’t it be easier to be obedient to him in all ways if we had the exact plan written out for us with each step by step instruction of what to do next?  Maybe it would be easier, but it wouldn’t take any faith to do that.  We wouldn’t need God if we knew every single thing- it wouldn’t require faith and trust on our part, just movement of our feet.  Obedience is a huge part of the Christian walk, but faith is another.  With faith, we put our trust and confidence in God and what he is doing in not only our lives, but the lives of those around us as well.  That includes your unbelieving friend or family member.  As I read about Balaam in Numbers, I couldn’t help but think we all relate to him at that moment.  The story of Balaam is another story of God’s power and the way he is able to open people’s eyes to see.

So Balaam, in disobeying God, is taking his donkey down the road to meet with the Moabite officials and an angel of the Lord appeared “standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand”.  Numbers 22:23  The kicker is that Balaam didn’t see the angel, his donkey did.  So his donkey saw the angel of the Lord and turned off the road, essentially in fear of the angel.  This happened two more times where the donkey saw the angel and Balaam got angry and started beating the donkey.  At that point, the Lord started to speak through the donkey- God can and will use anything to reach us.  “Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn.” Numbers 22:31 Balaam was too busy making his own plan that he didn’t see the angel of the Lord standing right in front of him.  Balaam was concerned about where he was going, but didn’t have eyes to see the obstacle that was in his way- instead he got mad at his donkey (who was protecting him) and beat him.  

Sometimes we get so far deep in our own plans that we don’t see the things, people, and ways God has put in our path because we are expecting or praying for something different.  We need to learn from Balaam’s story in that we must pray for our eyes to see and for our ears to hear the good news.  Balaam’s story made me think of Jesus saying “whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” Matthew 13:9  He then goes on to say “Though seeing they do not see; though hearing, they do not understand”. Matthew 13:13  While yes, we have eyes and ears, we tend to miss the miracles happening right around us because we are too enthralled in the world we live in and the plans we made for ourselves.  We can get so fixated on what God hasn’t done for us, that we miss what he already has or is currently doing for us.  If we as Christians can be guilty of this, imagine how hard it is for your non-believer friend to see God’s goodness.  We need to pray for eyes to see, ears to hear, but also that we are being planted on good soil, not shallow rocky ground or ground with thorns.  

If God has given you the knowledge of Him and his goodness, you may have eyes to see, eyes to see the angel in the road.  Don’t let any weeds or thorns try to choke you and don’t let God’s “not yet” or “no” bring you down.  Trust that he is making another way.  Balaam was so stuck in how he wanted things to go, the path that he had planned to take, yet the donkey saw the angel with the sword and the donkey was protecting him.  We have to pray to remain in good soil, so that we always have eyes to see.  Don’t miss what God is doing right in front of you.  I say all this because I don’t want to be like the Israelites in the desert, who received blessings from God (food, water) and then would quickly forget what they’ve received.  This makes me believe they were growing on rocky, shallow ground, as they continued to wither away.  God continually showed his faithfulness to them and they continually showed their shallow faith each time God didn’t show up for them exactly how they wanted.  That’s not good soil, that’s shallow without a root. 

In knowing that we are “being made complete, not lacking anything”- we are essentially becoming mature in our faith.  Losing faith each time our prayers don’t get answered the way we want them to is showing immaturity in our faith.  That is not being planted on good soil.  You need to have eyes to see God in your life and either choose to see God or see your own plans.  See God in the pain or see how you think God should have responded in the pain.  Choose to stay faithful or complain like the Israelites.  We can’t choose how God plans our life, but we can choose how we respond to God’s choices for our life.  We may not always like the outcomes, but we need to be mature enough in God to trust that “he is working it all for the good of those he loves” – even when we don’t understand. Romans 8:28  Let us continue to pray that God gives us eyes to see and ears to hear.  Romans 11:8 says, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear, to this very day”.  So God has the ability to either open your eyes or close your eyes, so we need to have faith and pray.  Pray that we and others come to our senses and run to the father, like the prodigal son.  So what are you going to do if God has given you eyes to see and ears to hear?  “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!” Romans 10:15  Share the good news.