Day 12: How Was I To Know?

Numbers 22:31-34

New Living Translation (NLT)

Angel blocks Balaam's path. VisualBibleAlive.com

³¹ Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the roadway with a drawn sword in his hand. Balaam bowed his head and fell face down on the ground before him.
³² “Why did you beat your donkey those three times?” the angel of the Lord demanded. “Look, I have come to block your way because you are stubbornly resisting me. ³³ Three times the donkey saw me and shied away; otherwise, I would certainly have killed you by now and spared the donkey.”
³⁴ Then Balaam confessed to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned. I didn’t realize you were standing in the road to block my way. I will return home if you are against my going.”


Everybody knows the famous story of Balaam and his talking donkey. This passage takes place immediately after the donkey found her voice. Aside from talking animals, this seems to be something that happens to me, all the time!

Don't laugh, it probably happens to you, too.

Seriously, let's think about this. How often are we so determined to do something, get somewhere, accomplish some major feat, and it just seems like no matter how hard we try, something gets in the way of our success? We might even call it Murphy's Law, although nobody's ever told me exactly who Murphy is.

Maybe it has nothing to do with Murphy. Maybe it's God getting in our way. Maybe He has placed an angel in our path, not so that we'll fail at life, but so that we'll fail in our attempts to do something that God ultimately knows is not going to be good for us.

What if every time we want to blame Murphy, God opened our eyes and we could see an angel standing before us with a sword drawn, asking us why we were so hellbent on being self destructive? Would we be like Balaam? Would we plead our case by saying 'how was I to know you were trying to redirect me to something better?'

Perhaps instead of always complaining that the world is against us, or that fate is against us, or karma, or Murphy, or whoever else, we should stop... think... and then ask God to show us where He wants to lead. Wow. Imagine how much less heartache we'd suffer in our lifetime if we just opened our eyes to what God is trying to show us.