Numbers 22:26-34

Notice, there was weakness. Balaam simply did not know the entire situation. He just acted carnally; that is all there was to it—the way he had been trained to think and go and do. He did not know that the Angel was blocking the way and making the donkey do what it did. What this teaches us is that sin does not always occur in a straightforward manner. We will see a little later where God, in a sense (He did not actually do this), but came close to making David sin. David did it on his own, but God was involved.

God was involved in this situation we just read, because the Angel was there and Balaam did not have any idea what was going on. He was being used to present a lesson for you and me about the way He judges. He took that into consideration. What this teaches us is that sin does not always occur in a straightforward manner, with everyone involved fully informed so as to be able to discern right and wrong.

Numbers 22:28-34

What Balaam did was quickly forgiven, overlooked. Now what does this teach us? It teaches us that sin does not always occur in a straight-forward manner. As we saw with Abimelech and Abraham, Abimelech was led into almost sinning grievously, and he would have sinned had not God intervened. Abraham was the more guilty of the two because he was leading Abimelech into the sin by his lie. But we also know from the context that Abraham too committed a sin of weakness. "Out of fear I was afraid," and so Abraham too did not sin willfully. It was not presumptuous.

Numbers 22:28-30

Absurdity is another form of humor God uses as a tool for instruction. Consider the absurd situation in Numbers 22:28-30, when an angel blocked the path of Balaam. But the donkey Balaam rode clearly saw the angel and stopped. When Balaam tried to goad the donkey forward, the donkey was enabled to speak to Balaam, evoking a response from the thick-headed rider on his back. Similarly, when we become stubborn, adamantly refusing to heed His word or direction, we should not be surprised if God does some bizarre thing to get our flagging attention.