Numbers 22:38 And Balaam said unto Balak, Lo, I am come unto thee; have I now any power at all to say any thing? The word that god putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak.
See Before You Speak
Are you smarter than your dog? I’m sure you are, but sometimes brute beasts perceive more than those of us who own them. This morning I watched an entire interstate of ants, four across, going as fast as they could across a drive from one grassy side to the other. They were organized, industrious, and motivated. I don’t know what they were doing, but they obviously knew something I did not.
I heard a report recently about how wild animals are rarely killed in natural disasters because they make a mass exodus toward safety well in advance of the disaster. They perceive things that humans do not. We ought to be wise enough to know that often we are not wise enough. On rare occasions, God has even used brute beasts to teach those of us who fancy ourselves on top of the intellectual food chain.
Certainly this is true in the story of Balaam, a prophet of sorts, who was hired by a king named Balak to curse Israel. Numbers 22:21-22 says, “And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. And God’s anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the LORD stood in the way.” The Bible goes on to say that “the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand.” On three occasions the donkey tried to avoid the angel who was standing in the way.
God opened the eyes, and later the mouth, of this donkey. This donkey perceived a lot more than Balaam did. Later, when Balaam struck her a couple times she says, “What have I done? I’m trying to help you.” Balaam replies, “Well, you’ve mocked me. I wish I had a sword because I would kill you.” What great irony that Balaam would kill this donkey because she stopped when the angel of God would have taken a sword to Balaam if she had not stopped.
Verse 31 says that God opened Balaam’s eyes. In Verse 34 he confesses, “I have sinned; for I knew not.” It makes me wonder how often we sin or speak foolishly because we just don’t know all the facts. The lesson to be learned is, “Don’t open your mouth until God opens your eyes.”
Verse 38 says, “And Balaam said unto Balak, Lo, I am come unto thee; have I now any power at all to say any thing? the word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall is speak.” We are not obligated to give advice, but we are obligated to listen. Just because someone thinks highly enough about your wisdom to ask you for advice does not mean you have to give it to them. It is liberating to be able to say, “That’s a good question. I really don’t know.”
If ants and donkeys know some things that we do not, then certainly we can learn things from other people who are created in the image of God. We should have a humility of mind to be quicker to listen than we are to speak. James 1:19 says, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” Are you as quick to listen as you are to speak? Our speech will be no better than the listening that informs it.