{"id":490,"date":"2017-08-07T05:48:30","date_gmt":"2017-08-07T13:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=490"},"modified":"2017-08-07T05:48:30","modified_gmt":"2017-08-07T13:48:30","slug":"devotion-2-peter-216-be-better-than-a-donkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=490","title":{"rendered":"Devotion\u00a0\u00a0 2 Peter 2:16\u00a0 Be Better Than A Donkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Peter 2:16 <\/strong>\u2013 But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey\u2014an animal without speech\u2014who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet\u2019s madness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Balaam, a willful and sinful prophet from the Old Testament, is the \u201che\u201d who was rebuked.\u00a0 Simply put, he was \u201crebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey<\/span>.\u201d\u00a0 We know the story from Numbers 22.\u00a0 <\/strong>Balaam was an Old Testament prophet of God.\u00a0 Balaam was obviously accustomed to the Lord speaking to him (V8, V19<\/strong>).\u00a0 V9 <\/strong>and V20 <\/strong>definitely reveals that God visited and spoke to Balaam.\u00a0 However, Balaam was a willful man.\u00a0 He was greedy for gold and silver, and, it appears, also for the acknowledgement and praise of men.<\/p>\n

God told Balaam to not go with the Moabites to curse the Israeli\u2019s because God had blessed them.\u00a0 Balaam was greedy and so kept asking God, though God had clearly expressed His will to Balaam.\u00a0 After Balaam persisted, God did not forbid Balaam to go with the Moabites, but it displeased God.\u00a0 Balaam had persisted, against the clear guidance of the Lord, to have his own will, and not the Lord\u2019s will done.\u00a0 Balaam\u2019s persistence against the will of God displeased God.\u00a0 So God sent an angel to slay Balaam.\u00a0 Three times Balaam\u2019s donkey saved Balaam\u2019s life by avoiding the angel who stood in the road with a drawn sword.\u00a0 Each time Balaam, who had not seen the angel and had beat the donkey for disobeying him.\u00a0 Finally the Lord opened the donkey\u2019s mouth and the donkey asked Balaam why was Balaam beating him.\u00a0 Balaam, in a rage, answered the donkey that he was mad at the donkey for making a fool of him. Finally the Lord opened Balaam\u2019s eyes so that he could see the angel with the sword.\u00a0 The angel of the Lord chided Balaam for beating the donkey who had saved Balaam\u2019s life.\u00a0 Balaam repented and then spoke as the Lord instructed Him to speak.<\/p>\n

Fascinating story.\u00a0 The story makes me wonder, are we sometimes more blind than a donkey to spiritual matters.\u00a0 Is it sometimes true of us that, though we have the Spirit of God within and we have the holy Word of God, we go against the teachings and urgings of both?\u00a0 Can we remember times when we have heard the Lord telling us to stop what we were doing, but we did not?\u00a0 Sometimes what we were doing, how we were acting, or what we were saying, were so obviously us acting out our own will.\u00a0 Perhaps angry because of hurt, instead of keeping quiet and not lashing out in anger, we let loose actions and words of anger.\u00a0 Afterward we regret the action or words we did because they leave behind hurt.\u00a0 I know I have.\u00a0 I think back, after being dumber than a donkey, and regret my actions and words.\u00a0 I hurt because I remember that God was trying to stop me but a barreled ahead.\u00a0 Oh I thank God for the sure forgiveness of God (1 John 1:9<\/strong>).\u00a0 Praise God that Jesus died for all my sins.\u00a0 But I have shed many a tear while wishing I had heeded the clear Word and will of God rather than rushing to act out my own will.<\/p>\n

Note from Joshua 13:22<\/strong> \u2013 Balaam was later killed for sin of divination.\u00a0 Apparently, his rebellion against the Word of God became a slide he could not stop.<\/p>\n

Thank God for His love and patience.\u00a0 By these we have the forgiveness of all of our sins.\u00a0 I pray that our love for God will be expressed through ready obedience to His word.\u00a0 It pleases the Lord more to obey rather than to repent (1 Samuel 15:22<\/strong>). \u00a0\u00a0Lord, please renew us that we would run to obedience so that repentance is not necessary.\u00a0 And we thank You that You readily, and every time, accept our repentance through Jesus our Savior and Lord.<\/p>\n

Moral to the story: Obey God and follow His leading or we may find ourselves arguing with donkeys who are more right on than we are.\u00a0 Or worse.<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/strong> – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/strong> – But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/strong> – He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2 Peter 2:16 \u2013 But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey\u2014an animal without speech\u2014who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet\u2019s madness. Balaam, a willful and sinful prophet from the Old Testament, is the \u201che\u201d who was rebuked.\u00a0 Simply put, he was \u201crebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey.\u201d\u00a0 We…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[1982,2180,2079,2185,449,1471,446,8,2186,1019,2182,94,2183,1365,1874,718,90,1459,17,2187,97,2181,2184,2179],"class_list":["post-490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-angel","tag-animal","tag-balaam","tag-beating","tag-devotion","tag-donkey","tag-human","tag-jesus","tag-joshua","tag-lord","tag-madness","tag-micah","tag-moabites","tag-moral","tag-numbers","tag-old-testament","tag-peter","tag-prophet","tag-psalm","tag-samuel","tag-savior","tag-speech","tag-spirit-of-god","tag-wrongdoing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}