Pastor Ralph Douglas West - The Divine Donkey | Numbers 2:21-39

0:00 This is the day the Lord has made. We rejoice. And we are glad in it. Thank you, choir and ushers and greeters and deacons and children and youth. Who did I forget?

0:29 I got one big thank you on today. Numbers chapter 22. And I want to say on behalf of our staff, welcome to the Animal Zoo. is the biblical zoo and they've made preparation for you to encounter some of the wonderful animals. They're non-marquee animals. I know typically we want to see maybe a, you know, a stallion, not a donkey, but, you know, all God's creatures matter. So November, Numbers 22, beginning at verse 31, gives us some insight, and I'll get you caught up. But this is the biblical foundation of what's taking place in our story.

1:30 If you're in for a good story, you're in for one today. If you say, I like stories, then you are in for a great story this morning. Numbers 22 beginning at verse 31. Then the Lord opened Balaam's eyes and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with the sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell downward.

2:08 The angel of the Lord asked him, why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away, I would certainly have killed you by now. But I have spared it. Balaam said to the angel of the Lord I have sinned I did not realize that you were standing in the road to oppose me now if you're displeased I will go back this is the word of God this is a dignified donkey Thank you.

3:10 I made sure not to call it the signified monkey Only those of a particular era understand exactly. There's something extraordinary about animals.

3:45 And some animals are funny. And few are as humorous as a monkey. Over the last week, several of you have been telling me about your vacation excursions. And you have to be careful when you go to certain places, particularly if they are the hangout sites of monkeys. There's a racket going on with monkeys over in Bali,

4:20 in Indonesia. When you make your trip over to the Hindu temple, since the 10th and 11th centuries, there are a group of monkeys, about 600 of them, they gather around this temple and they have a gang that's going on. One distracts you while the other one steals your cell phone. but you'll get it back, but probably not you, but some other tourists. They steal the phone, and then they barter with the tourists for food in exchange of the phone. This has been going on, and this happens multiple times in the course of a day, not to mention throughout the week. They got a racket going on.

5:13 So I don't have to tell you that monkeys can be funny. And then we're amused by these other grand beasts in the zoo. For instance, we come upon and we admire the lion, the king of the beast, or we loyed the eagle, the symbol of our nation. We're fearful at times of the lioness and the tigress. She's swift and strong But when it comes to the donkey I mean come on Just the mentioning of the name Not to mention how you could play off of that name A donkey I mean a cross breed between a man a mule Take me somewhere else Let me see something else And yet this morning our church our staff our leaders have been inviting you to come to the biblical zoo of all things to see a dignified donkey on a destiny now this is a story it's extraordinary and it's more than about a donkey and so I have to get you caught up for you to really appreciate what's happening in that paragraph that I read to you. This is the story really that's tailored to teach us something about how some people, the least likely persons, see God when those that ought to see God completely miss God. I want to say that again. I don't know if that registered. That's the whole sermon.

7:01 that there are people that depend on you. You tell them, I'm a member of the church without walls. I'm a family member of God. And you miss God at work in the world and here's somebody who knows almost nothing about God sees what you ought to see. That's what this text is tailored to teach us. Lend me your ear for just a few minutes and see if you're interested in what's about to take place. Israel is a newly emancipated community of people. They're on the threshold of entering into what has been given to them, the promised land. To enter into this particular terra firma, this land space, they have to cross through certain territory.

7:56 And now they are camping between the Jordan River and Jericho. And they're scattered out in the plain. Above them are the mountain crags. And this is where a king named Balak would be perched to look down to arrange some kind of military seizure to overtake these freely or these newly freed people. In order to do that, all he needs is the help of religion, needs to get God on his side. And so Balak sends his messengers after he looked through his call log and came upon one 900 prophet for hire.

8:59 Balaam. And the messengers go and say to Balaam that our king Balak wants to hire your service and wants you to curse a community of people called Israel. He said it sounded like a good gig to me and so he packs up, he gets on his donkey and heads out.

9:31 He gets there and something strange happens to him. He gets this divine interruption and he looks at who his target is and says, I can do that. But after this intervention, he says, can't do it. He says, Balak, Moab's king He said, why not?

10:01 I cannot curse what God has blessed But I mean, you know, you give enough money, you can get preachers to say anything. So he said, you apparently don't know how deep my coffers are.

10:24 He said, the silver is mine and the gold is mine. For those that's looking strange like pastors always making this stuff up, I'm just giving the Ralph West cliff note version of verses one down to verse 20, okay? And he said, all right. And he goes out and he looks around and he says, look, for the second time, I know you're the monarch of Moab. I know that the silver and gold belongs to you. But I'm telling you, I cannot curse these people. I can't curse what God has blessed.

11:05 But I like the persistence of Moab. He knows what he wants. and he's aware that the one group that I got to displace are these people in the plane and he says look this deal doesn't just come with silver and gold I give you position prestige I give you power you can sit next to me in my house I'll even call you my personal pastor. I'll call you the person that's my spiritual advisor. I'll let you call prayer groups if you want to. and he says, sound good, and he makes this statement actually in chapter 23 around verse 20. He said, look, I've looked this thing over, and let me tell you what the problem is.

12:00 I cannot curse who God blesses because the presence of God is with them and the shout of the king is among them. and I can't do it that's the story that's the big side of chapter 22 now things get complicated now I'm at verse 21 5 this is the second half and this is the part that I had to get to but if you don't know that this won't make sense God now says not not the king of Moab, not Balak, but God gets in this. He said, I'll tell you what. Get on your donkey and ride in the town, but here's the deal. You will prophesy, but you cannot preach anything other than what I put in your mouth.

12:59 He said, I'm going. So he sows up, gets on the back of his donkey, and he's riding in the town. And that's the first thing that you pick up, don't you? You ask questions like, who is Balaam? And Pastor West, you mean to tell me with all of what's happening in the world,

13:21 with there being food scarcity and economic disadvantages, You got me up dressed up and looking good To come talk about some donkey And my answer is yes because this text is tailored to teach us one lesson and that is that God has messengers that has his message who come from undesignated places. Balaam just shows up on the scene. Balaam is preserved in the book of Numbers. Come here now.

14:13 Numbers is part of what you call the five books of the law. These are the books that every Jewish boy has to memorize all five books for his bar mitzvah it is these books that shape the nation of Israel.

14:41 It is this book that moves this community from inception and infancy to adulthood. And it is in this book numbers that is just what it is, counting one, two, ten, a thousand numbers. That's right. The book that you started off in January said I'm going to read through the Bible and then when you got the numbers you quit. because the whole book spent the most of its time talking about this tribe at this many numbers and this group that many numbers. And you say, I don't want to read that. And yes, you say, yes you do because every number got a name and every name counts the same way that your name counts.

15:39 Preach Pastor West. And Balaam just shows up on the page like a meteor burning across the cosmic sky. The same way Melchizedek just out of nowhere appeared to Abraham. The same way the prophet Elijah just dropped on the scene is the same way that Balaam appeared on the back of a donkey from the Eastlands of an unprecedented place bearing God's message.

16:20 Why is that important? Where are you from? In church life, we have been overdosed. That if your resume doesn't read a particular way, you are of no value. And we say things, we use kind of a anthropological framework, and we say it ourselves, born on the wrong side of the track. I'm just here to tell you God works on both sides of it And so we give God this long list of why I cannot be used.

17:19 I'm talking to you. God cannot use me. How do you know? Unless you surrender to be used. And Balaam is not a prophet of God. he actually sells his wizardry for hire to use it to make money, but he knew when he was out man.

17:50 When he says, look, I've done some stuff, but I know this much, because this is numbers. And just because I'm not part of your community don't mean I don't know what happened in Genesis. Because I remember this same God told Abraham who came from a strange place himself. He says, come here and I'm going to bless you. And everybody who blesses you is going to be blessed. And everybody who curses you is going to be cursed. So I decide not to be cursed. I can't curse them. Praise Pastor West. God has people that he uses from bizarre places. William Booth was a preacher in the 19th century. You may not know his name, but I guarantee you, you've heard of William Booth's organization, a preacher.

18:49 They laughed at him. He wasn't the brightest bulb on the tree. He was ignorant. So they didn't want him in their fancy churches And so he decided As a preacher The father of six children Poor and no education That he would build his congregation With another group of people You know the people that if they Walk down the aisle of most of our Respectable churches We are taught looking at them strange Thank you. So he built his church with prostitutes.

19:32 Didn't nobody else, didn't want them. But I won't go on record, I'll take you. See, y'all didn't clap on that. He took in drunks. And I'm always amazed in this middle room we try to act like we ain't been one or other. He started dealing with bootleggers. and his congregation now has a name called Salvation Army. because God has messengers. I wish I had time.

20:27 I would lean in because I'm a little disappointed. You can't have a name like church without walls and then start taking the temperature of people who you want to come be a part of your church. I remember in this city when people laughed at us And they laughed at me And some stayed, some went And it was all because of the kinds of people That I attracted And if you've been here a while I've attracted a lot of different kinds of people Active people For people who are still here, they used to work in places like treasures. I never looked at them no different.

21:25 People would tell me who they were. I say, there's only one way for you to know that. It ain't made up. Everybody, you been here a long time. I done passed it to everybody. All of the players. I ain't gonna call their names. Some of them still here. Most of them still members.

21:56 They just got a little older now. They just play in another arena now. That's all. But they came here because they met a preacher who had a message, and that message transcended their background and their experience. Because I didn't care what they were. I still don't care where they come from. I knew what God could do with them once they put their life in his hand. Priest, Pastor Ray.

22:26 You can't just say it. You got to believe this stuff. The time is gone. Now let me give you something else. So now Balaam is on his donkey riding into town. Now God's in the picture. Because remember he's not really a prophet of God. Stay with me now.

22:49 And he's riding in into town. And on the back of his donkey, the donkey just inadvertently changes lanes and turns to the field. Look at it, verse 20, because it gets good here. And Balaam wants to know what in the way, and he beats the donkey to get him back on track.

23:17 But the donkey sees what Balaam cannot see. So they're back on the road again. But this time, the donkey goes against the wall and rubs his leg against the wall and Balaam really beats the donkey. and this time, the donkey gets off the wall, but he stops, and he sits down, boy, I hate y'all left out, you missed it, don't leave at the high point, because you're saying it don't make sense, wait, give me two minutes. So now the donkey sits down on Balaam.

24:16 and Balaam is beating for the third time the donkey and the donkey turns around and says, Why you beating me? Read it. He said, have I not always been faithful to you? Haven't we always traveled together? Have I ever gone off target? Have I ever run into a wall? Have I ever sat down? Maybe you ought to ask me instead of beating me while I'm turning, rubbing, and stopping. And the donkey said, if you had vision, if you could see, if you stop walking by sight and not by faith, if you open your eyes to see what's in front of you, you would sit down also.

25:23 And by this time, Balaam looks up and he sees an angel with a sword in his hand and says, you better be glad that donkey sat down because if you had kept on coming, I was going to end your life, but I was going to spare her life. Come here for a minute. because a lot of us who walk with God and always talk about the Lord said and pray the Lord and how good God is. I'm not making fun of you. We're sometimes the very people that's always missing exactly what God is doing. And it's the people around us who are least spiritual that said, oh, nobody but the Lord could have done something like that. So what do you learn?

26:17 about this donkey turning, rubbing, and stopping. One is this donkey not only sees, but the donkey is more reverent than what we are. That the donkey had the good sense that when he recognizes or she recognizes that there's an angel of the Lord in the middle of the road, she had the good sense to bow down in his presence. and whenever God shows up, you ought to bow down. Whenever God is in the room, there ought to be some reverence there. Isaiah, in the year that Uzziah died and he saw the Lord high and lifted up, he ain't gonna talk about give me high five. He ain't gonna talk, that's my boy. He got on his knees and said, woe is me.

27:12 when Peter in Luke 5 finds himself on the boat and there's this great catch. He doesn't sit there and say, boy, we got a lot in for Charlie the Tuna this time. He said, no. He knelt on his knees and said, stray away from me. I'm a sinful man. It comes a moment when God is in the room. The only thing to do is to get quiet. Sometimes it ain't no high five moment. Sometimes it ain't no praise the Lord moment. Sometimes get still and know that the salvation of the Lord is here. Don't miss those moments When God is a reverend That's why people start I don't need a cheerleader To tell me how to worship God Sometimes I want to get loud But there are other times Where I need to get quiet Just to be in the presence of the Lord Wait, there's some other lesson there That's his reverence, isn't it?

28:20 His posture but what about the response? At that response, Balaam says, at that very moment, he recognizes that this angel is on assignment from God. And there's always a response to God's reverence. We just said it. Sometimes it's loud. Sometimes it's silent. But I can tell you this, God's going get a response. I'm explaining to you why this is me. I'm not taking nothing against anybody else. That's why I don't never tell you, turn to your neighbors, shake them and rock them, rock them and shake them. You know, high five, low five, all that kind of stuff. Hey, if that's your thing, you do it. I'm not making fun of it. You know, I must admit, I do laugh at a lot of these things. but God's going to get a response. See, the response, it ain't a motivational response.

29:19 In other words, a contrived response. I like every now and then, tell your neighbor this, this. I like that sometimes, you know, but I mean, my God, sometimes. 30 minutes, I done turned 60 times. I said, now enough is enough, man. I don't mind. So. Here's my last statement about that. Then I'm going to give you one more point and I'm going to be through. The Pharisees one day saw these children carrying on in church and they was talking about, Hosanna, Hosanna, making all this noise. And the grown people said, now don't take all that. Be quiet. Jesus got into this because Jesus now, Jesus liked noise. He could be noisy.

30:13 And he said, well, I'm going to just say this. If these children don't praise me. The Rocks gonna cry out. Paul Jones was a preacher here. He's a blessed memory. Paul had a song on that. And he said, I don't want no rock crying out for me. In fact, right now, it'd be a good time for us, wouldn't it? To not let the rock crowd. Because I'm sure you have some things that you can thank the Lord for. See what I mean? I'm sure you got something That I know I do And I tell you what, just being here is one of them You know a lot of times people talk about The Lord woke me up And they just say, well when I was young And I said, oh the Lord woke me up I meant it But not like I mean it now I'm serious about that I mean I would say I'm planning for next year We're going to do this And I always knew James when he said And when you say that If the Lord's will I knew that I want you to know now I'll never forget it Well let's go here I said we'll be there If the Lord's will And that's why every chance I get, whether my volume is at 10, 5, or 2, every moment I get to join my voice with the voices of the people in the congregation, I blend in to give God the praise that he deserves for the good things that he has done, my reverence and my response.

32:05 One last thing, I got three minutes left One last thing it is God can raise The universe off of his hinges To do his will If he wants to Just think about that God can raise the universe Off of his heels To do his will if he wants to Now I know that This story has been difficult for some of you because you're saying, I cannot believe that you people are listening to this man talk about a talking donkey.

32:42 Now, you can demystify, demythologize, and these are ways that you can read this, but don't lose the message that the scripture is conveying because you don't like the talking donkey. The point of the story is not that the donkey talked, but creation responded and revered the creator. That's what the point is. The point is that creation submits itself to the creator. That's what you're getting to. That's what you're getting to. And so in this story, you have this whole image that God can raise the universe off of its hinges. to do his will if he wants to.

33:36 I can't explain that. I can't explain it. I remember when I began my academic journey at Bishop College and we were, the hot name at that time was a name named Julian Wellhausen. Julian Wellhausen came up with what is called the documentary hypotheses. The hypotheses was this, is that as Israel was crossing the Red Sea, it was impossible for Israel to cross and drown in two or three feet of water. I've been telling this story for a long time. And I thought it was the greatest thing in the world to hear that Israel, Pharaoh and his army drowned, not in the sea, but in two or three feet of water.

34:33 I did It never messed me up I didn't care if it was 3 feet, 30 feet or 300 feet What I wanted to know Did God stop the enemy and I said God must be some mighty God if he can drown an army in three feet of water y'all missed that My time's up. Let me close it by giving you an illustration that I heard Bertha Smith tell at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. She was a missionary, and Bertha Smith was our guest at the chapel. And Bertha Smith told when she was part of the Shantong revival, Great revival in China.

35:32 And while she was at the mission house, the Chinese warlords were coming to kill them in their house. On their horseback, they were making their way. When suddenly they stopped. They just stopped and turned around and left. Years later, some of those warlords were converted to Christianity, the followers of Christ, and they told her that we were coming to kill you, the missionaries and the people in the mission, in the mission,

36:14 until we saw, and this is how they describe it. You can look this up, by the way. Until we saw these creatures, that's how she described it. she said there wasn't no creatures out there I said oh yes it was it was big creatures sitting on the four corners of your house and when we saw them we said we can't curse them cause you can't curse what God has blessed. This morning, some of us have been blessed. And I'm not talking about cars and houses and that stuff.

37:11 I'm talking about blessed in the sense that God's presence has been with us when we were unaware that God has been with us. And we don't know how many times People have come up against us to destroy us And they had to back away because of something they saw Something they encountered that made them back up My mama used to say it this way All night and all day Angels keep watching over me And I'm going to tell you something And I ain't talking about winged creatures now You got some angels that look just like you You got some angels that live on your street and angels that live somewhere else. Some of y'all know just what I'm talking about. Our children have had to grow up since the 90s under post-traumatic stress syndrome.

38:09 Ever since the shooting in Columbine. None of our children have ever been comfortable to go to school ever again without worrying about some terrorist, some child bringing a gun down. And so we've had to pray our own prayers. Lord, watch over my children. And we've had to call on some angels. And them angels that said, all night and all day, angels keep watching over me. And I'm telling you something here. If it had not been for those angels, some of our children wouldn't be with us right now. Some of those angels died in Sandy Hook. Some of those angels died in Valde, Texas.