Day 12 Numbers 21:8-32:19

This was an interesting read again today. There was more of a story so it was a little bit easier to read. There were some very familiar stories but none as familiar and interesting to me as Balaam's donkey. What a strange story. Here is a guy that is being asked to curse the Israelites and he will not do it, although he starts to travel to the person that is asking him to curse them. He's riding his donkey and all of the sudden his donkey turns off the path. So he beats the donkey back onto the path and just a little later the donkey crushes his foot up against the wall. So, again he beats the donkey. They continue on until finally the donkey just lays down on the path. Balaam is furious and starts beating the donkey again, until the donkey starts to speak. That's where this story started getting a little strange. Have you ever seen a talking donkey? I guess that shouldn't be too weird seeing how we saw a talking snake on day 1 of B90X. It's not until Balaam's eyes are opened to what's in front of him that he finally understands and likes what the donkey was doing. The donkey basically saved his life.

All to often, I think we are like Balaam. We have something happen to us that we don't really like and we don't see any reason for it to be happening, so we get mad or frustrated about it. What we don't realize is that we don't see the full reasoning behind it. God might be setting us up for something better or we might just not get God's plan for our lives at all. If our eyes were ever fully opened, my guess is that we would be very thankful for the same acts that were making us mad or frustrated.