Tag: humility

Posted on

Making Do with Donkeys

There are a couple stories about donkeys in the Bible. One of them was given a voice; another one gave Jesus a lift into Jerusalem.

In the book of Numbers, we read of the talking donkey. There, we are told the story of the king of Moab who sought out a soothsayer, a magician of some sort who had developed a reputation for calling down curses.

Balak, the king, got news of the people of Israel – word of their numbers and how their God preceded them. Like Pharaoh in Exodus 1, this leader viewed Israel as an enemy to be reckoned with. Word of the decimation of Egypt circulated through the region. The stories of the plagues and the Red Sea’s opening and closing were known.

The God of Israel was feared, but not feared in the sense that read of in Proverbs.  In that book, we come to understand that there is a way of reverence and awe for the Lord that is noted as “the fear of the Lord” that marks the beginning of wisdom.

The king of Moab, rather, was terrified. He didn’t want wisdom; instead, he wanted to preserve his throne, his nation, and his land by any means possible. He recognized the supernatural element at work with Israel. He thought the Lord of all Creation was like the gods he knew about, just another deity who could be bought off. A little bit of appeasement, he thought, might work to protect his reign. And so Balak sent for Balaam, a man of trickery and power available for the right price. The king hired him to pronounce one of his spells on Israel.

The thing that strikes me as odd in the account (see Numbers, chapters 2-25) is just whose ears may hear from the Lord. Balaam gets a visitation and instruction – from God. This is not a man of Israel; he is no descendent of Abraham, and yet God talks to him a number of times.

Perhaps, we should not be so surprised by this encounter. We can read of the Lord coming to see others who are by accounts outside of His chosen ones, starting with Cain.

Yes, the Lord met and talked with the man who murdered his brother, Abel. The exchange ended with Cain going out from the presence of the Lord and starting to build his own city. The Lord also visited Hagar and Abimelech and Laban and Nebuchadnezzar to name a few.

A Beast Speaks

Balaam heard the Lord and agreed with Him. The Lord gave this man seemingly conflicting messages – at first the Lord said, “Don’t go” with Balak’s emissaries to Moab and then later God told Balaam, “Go.”

It was while he was going that Balaam’s beast was given a message to speak. And here is where we get insight into the heart of this magic man. He could hear both God and the donkey. Balaam, in my thinking, was double-minded and therefore unstable in his ways as James 1:8 teaches us.

The point I want to bring home is that the Lord used the beast and her tongue to get His message out there. What does God need to make Himself known, a donkey’s mouth, nothing more.

I have to consider this reality as I am preparing to minister for Him. I can be very clever in my ways. I have digested a lot of books and listened to a lot of teaching, but my intellect could really get in the way of me saying what God really wants to say. Like that donkey, I just have to open my mouth and let Him fill it.

What really counts is what the Lord puts on the lips.

Balaam, it seems to me, became something like his donkey when he at last got to Moab and stood before King Balak. This prophet for hire was now at work for the Lord and he was compelled to tell only the truth that God gave to him.

Commissioned to pronounce curses on Israel a number of times, Balaam, in this situation, spoke real prophecy as the Lord prompted him. He declared Israel a nation of God’s people, as ones Chosen to be blessed and prosperous as His representatives for all generations.

The Phrase That Frees

What of the other donkey? We meet this one in Mark 11. This animal was tied outside Jerusalem. Jesus directed the disciples to find the foal that had carried no one before. The donkey had an owner, but the Savior gave them the passwords so that the beast would be released to them.

“Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, ‘Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it.If anyone says to you, “Why are you doing this?” say, “The Lord has need of it and send it back here immediately.’”And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it.And some of those standing there said to them, ‘What are you doing, untying the colt?’ And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go” (Mark 11:1-6).

“The Lord has need” was the phrase that activated the donkey for its mission. Those words were spoken and so Jesus had His vehicle and made His entrance into the City of David. This happened on what we now know as Palm Sunday, a day when the Prophet Zechariah’s message was fulfilled:

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9).

This may be difficult for us to consider, but the Lord has need; He has need of us. He is all powerful and all knowing and everywhere present. These are true attributes of God. Still, He has made room for us to serve Him.

“The Lord has need.” That sentence set the donkey free. It’s what sets all of us free to be in His purpose and plan.

Foolish and Weak Things

Remember, Jesus made it clear that the last shall be first. He made friends with the sinners and the outcasts. He told us all that we must become like little children in order to see the kingdom of God (see Matthew 18:1-5).

These stories about the donkeys tell me that I really don’t need to have much going for me, worldly speaking. I can hear His call and answer His call and He will send me. In fact, the Savior seeks the ones who are seen as foolish and weak to carry Him and His Message to the corners of our streets and to the ends of the earth.

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are” (1 Corinthians 1:26-28).

We don’t have to be great in the world’s eyes to be useful in Heaven’s sights. We just need to be like donkeys ready and waiting to give Jesus a ride.

Posted on

The Last Are First

The last shall be first. Jesus wanted His disciples to get this principle into their hearts. It wasn’t an easy task.

The top dogs, the big wigs, the bosses, and the rulers, and the chiefs – these were and are the people of status and prestige. And those following Jesus, at times, thought that being with Him would lift them to greatness. They were right about this, but the greatness that God would bring them to was something out of this world.

As we read through the middle of the gospel of Mark, we are given some glimpses of just how ambitious and opportunistic and exclusive these men could be. Toward the close of Mark 9, Jesus confronted His men about a discussion they had been having on the road to Capernaum. His question silenced them “for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest” (Mark 9:34).

First place, Jesus went on tell them, would belong to the one who served all and who served best. For emphasis, He brought a child before them and embraced him. Love children and be children at heart, He would go on to say. Care for the little ones and be small in your own eyes, He told them.

John, perhaps attempting to change the subject a bit, interjected with a report:  “Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us” (Mark 4:38).

Jesus was not impressed. “Don’t stop him. He who is not against us is one of us,” the Lord said. “For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward” (see Mark 9:38-41). Small things done from the heart in the purpose of God are big deals to Him.

Were the disciples getting Jesus’ point? Uh, not really.

In Mark 10, mothers brought their children to Jesus only to have the disciples push them back. “But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:14).

Children, the least and the last in Roman society, Jesus put first. We must be like them, the Savior said. Our hearts have to be open to wonder and aware of our need for wisdom.

My 1-year-old granddaughter visited my wife’s office; a marvelous building that sits by Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and is windowed all the way round. When little Kate got down to walk, she went straight to one of the windows to look at the river with its boats, buildings, and birds. She just kept whispering, “Wow, wow, wow.”

The last shall be first. The little one rejoiced at a scene seemingly so ordinary to most of the adults in the room.

The words, “Our Father,” should ever be on our lips. Hungry children know who to call for food. Frightened children seek out the face of a parent for assurance and protection.

Our problem is that we get too big – too full of ourselves.   John and James wanted special seats in the Kingdom that Jesus is destined to establish. To make sure Jesus got the message, they sent their mom to make the request for chairs at His right and His left. This scene came not long after a rich young ruler approached the Master, perhaps thinking he’d be a good addition to the team.  Jesus loved the young man, but saw that his things and his money had a hold on his heart. “Go sell all that you have and give to the poor, then come follow Me,” Jesus told him (see Mark 10:17-22).

We must decrease in our eyes; He must increase. The last shall be first.  God does amazing things with small stuff, with pebbles even.

Goliath stood ready to fight, taunting the army of Israel. David showed up with his shepherd’s staff, a bag, and a sling. He snatched five smooth stones from a river and ran toward his enemy.

One of those pebbles became a deadly weapon and an instrument of triumph. David slung it hard and fast. Goliath took a shot between the eyes, fell on his face, and lost his head.

I know, this is such a gruesome story following all the talk about children and childlikeness. But it’s a true report, and it drives home my point.

Those pebbles rested in the water for who knows how long. They were probably jagged rocks at first, but the flow of the river made them ready for the war.

Be small. Be children in the arms of God. Be a pebble that rests in the water that flows from the fountain of life. Be refreshed by the Word of God as you hear it and read it in the power of the Holy Spirit.

One day, you may find yourself flying through the air on a mission from God. You will be a stone of victory in an impossible situation. You will be used for the glory of Christ. You will be celebrated as one great in His Kingdom.

For the last shall be first.