Balaam's Talking Donkey - Brad Gray
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- čas přidán 2. 08. 2020
- Brad Gray shared an insightful message, Balaam's Talking Donkey, at Faith Chapel, in Billings, Montana. One of the most bizarre stories in the Bible is Balaam and his talking donkey in Numbers 22. It’s often read to kids before they go to bed, but generally not taken too seriously by adults because it’s hard to know what to do with. Honestly, what does a talking donkey have anything to do with our daily lives? Well, actually, everything! This teaching explores the reality that we often buck against the word “no” - both from hearing it as well as using it. Sadly, we don’t have a great relationship with “no,” and yet, “no” is one of the most powerful and freeing words we can embrace. This teaching demonstrates why.
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I love the historical context that Brad brings to his teachings that I do not find elsewhere. It helps bring the Bible to life and into more understanding.
Thank you. This helped me to teach Balaam´s story better.
You're welcome Markus. I'm so glad to hear it!
This is the best and clearest teaching on this passage I’ve ever heard! Thank you.
Marc Ulrich Thank you! Thanks for watching!
I agree! Just found Walking the Text tonight. Looking forward to finding more books in the bible. Im a visual learner and a lazy reader.😎🤔
Got me one of my favorite tellings in the whole Bible!! Reading this sent my imagination on fire and I pictured all the characters..and it played out cinematically in my mind.. it's a great lesson too
This is the reason I've been studying keywords. As an English speaker, I've realized that the English language can be limiting. In Hebrew and Greek, there are words that, when translated to the closest English equivalent, may convey a different meaning than in the original languages. My comprehension of scriptures has deepened by understanding the original words and their meanings. This explains why one might be confused when reading a passage where God says, "do not go with them," and then, "go with them." However, examining the original Hebrew text, as you have demonstrated, makes the text much clearer.
soooooo good. Thanks Brad! My wife and I loved watching this tonight and always receive so much from the Lord when you teach
Thank you Robert! And thank you for watching and supporting WTT!
Such a good message! Thank you Lord for disciplining us and doing what’s best for us like telling us “No”.
Thanks Anna.
I thank God for your anointing Brad Gray, may God continue Blessing you and touching many more lives. I'll share it to as many people as possible.
Thank you for sharing this, Charles! We're deeply grateful.
I have been blessed to learn from your Dad and brother professionally and from you spiritually. Thank you for this teaching! So glad I watched this again and it made the story so much clearer. I hope one day I can go to Israel with your group. To learn more about the Bible and it's rich history. Praise be to God for your channel!
Thanks R D! I really hope you're able to join us in Israel sometime. It's a life-changing experience.
dear Brad , praise the Lord Thank you for the wonderful sermon appreciate and surely we will pray for you tomorrow i ll announce in the church about you . covet your prayers too for our ministry in india . Amen
Thanks so much! Will be praying for you and all that God is doing with your ministry momentarily.
Thank you so much for this message..
I am really blessed and on fire..
We are so glad this was a blessing to you!
Thanks alot for the words..
Thank you for watching!
WOW! Ptr. Brad Gray explain it so well, I now understand the story of the talking donkey :) I don't know if I heard it right.. but I would like to have a bible, Thank you and God bless.
Thank you!
God bless u and u family bro
Thanks Rickba
I already preach tis mesage at my church God teach me trough u dear bro
Whether it's a yes or a no, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. The secret is in obedience to Him. Walk it out. I am simply challenged!
I wonder why Balaam didn't scream and faint when he saw the talking donkey, I would've done that
If you find my comment on this video you will see my idea why a talking donkey was not all that strange
Sorcerers and magicians used animals a lot in their ways of using evil power. And besides you think the idea for Dr Do little came from nowhere? Or Shrek's donkey lol. I think animals can talk to us. It's us who can't mentally handle it. But we even make animals pets raise them like kids and talk to them non stop. Why? Bc our souls know we can. Our brain can't comprehend they can talk back.
I want also to go in Israel by faith!!!
God's will!
We would love for you to join us!
I suppose this isn’t the first supernatural incident that occurs in the Bible. I wonder why a talking donkey hangs me up more than a talking snake or a burning bush that talks. Or supernatural beings (angels) speaking to humans...
That is a great question! It is all very cool!
well.....there is another way that we can understand the story of the talking Donkey that does not hang everything on some weird and tricky understanding of the wordings.
Its a dream.
Yes, the talking donkey is part of a dream that is how Balaam received his messages from God at night.
The dream starts at Numbers 22:20 , and the dream ends at numbers 20:35.
That means the whole story of the invisible angel with the sword, and the way the angel tries to block the path Balaam was on as well as the actions of the donkey and the later conversation between the angel and Balaam, all this took place within a dream.
go check it out and see if what im saying works?
Nobody is ever speaking about how sad it was for the Israelites to be enticed into worshipping false idols(gods) and immorality, they were setup and deceived, eat food worshiped to idols. Is how in which it lead to slavery and tragic dealths of black people.
Comment.
Im going to recommend you to the pope
well.....there is another way that we can understand the story of the talking Donkey that does not hang everything on some weird and tricky understanding of the wordings.
Its a dream.
Yes, the talking donkey is part of a dream that is how Balaam received his messages from God at night.
The dream starts at Numbers 22:20 , and the dream ends at numbers 20:35.
That means the whole story of the invisible angel with the sword, and the way the angel tries to block the path Balaam was on as well as the actions of the donkey and the later conversation between the angel and Balaam, all this took place within a dream.
go check it out and see if what im saying works?
Appreciate your thoughts here, Alan. The issue with your suggestion becomes vs. 21 which begins with, "Balaam got up in the morning ..." If God came to Balaam at night (which He does in vs 20), and then the next verse says, "Balaam got up," it's difficult to make an argument for a dream. You have to explain more away than to accept the suggestion I made in the teaching. And when it comes to Hebrew, it's not some weird and tricky understanding. Hebrew and English are very different, and we need to access each language on its merits.
@@WalkingTheText
Here is what I see in the story.
When the men come to take Balaam away the first time, he does not go with them but rather he asks them to stay the night.
He then tells them that he will have an answer from God in the morning.
That night the Lord comes to Balaam
In the morning Balaam gets up and tells the men the answer he received from God.
This seems to clearly tell us that the message that come to him from God comes in the form of a dream.
The text says that Balaam gets up, and this clearly is talking about getting up out of bed.
The same thing happens the 2nd time the men come to take him to their king.
Again he tells the men to stay the night and in the morning he would have an answer...
The Bible says that that night the Lord came to Balaam.
I think we can take this to mean that God came to him again in a dream.
So we know that the text at verse 20 that quotes the Lord speaking actually is taking place within a dream.
I think that verse 21 is also just part of the same dream....
In other words, Balaam is dreaming about the big day he is going to have in the morning.
The text says Balaam - "went with the Moabite officials"
Then we have the story of the invisible angel that keeps blocking the path that Balaam is on.
There is the talking donkey, and then the final point of the whole dream is shown in the words that the angel says to Balaam -
" I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me."
What path is the angel talking about?
Is it just the physical path that the donkey was walking?
I think that the message that Balaam was receiving was that the type of life path he was living was what God wanted to change.
So although the angel had been blocking the physical path that Balaam was traveling, this was just a symbol for what really was the whole point of the dream, the angel and the talking donkey.
I think the wrong path that Balaam was on was concerning his life as a well known seer.
Over and over the idea of Balaam payment comes up in the story.
There actually is a hint that there was a standard fee that Balaam changed to use his gift as a seer.
And the gift that Balaam seemed to be using was divination.
This is shown in the last part of the story where Balaam is said to have given up his normal use of divination.
So I think the wrong path that Balaam had been going down had nothing to do with the physical path that his donkey was walking that day....although in the dream the angel does try to block Balaam's physical path several times.
it was a symbol of the life Balaam lived as a seer.
Then,,,the dream ends at verse 35 with the words of the angel again saying that Balaam must do only as he is told..
This command by the angel is just like the command Balaam received from the Lord at verse 20.
and we know that verse 20 all took place in a dream!
So this helps us see that verse 35 is also taking place within a dream.
and that is confirmed with the words at verse 35 "So Balaam went with Balak’s officials."
telling us that Balaam went with the officials is necessary because when we read the same thing at verse 21 that was just part of a dream.
Going with the officials is for real at verse 35.
Thus, the whole incounter with the invisible angel, the donkey and the message the angel says all took place in a dream.
This is why when the donkey speaks that its considered just a normal thing by Balaam.
So many Bible teachers have had to come up with their own good sounding reasons why the donkey was able to talk.
So many bible teachers have just been out there winging it when people attack the story of the donkey.
Bible teachers think that have to defend the idea that talking donkeys are real.
Whole sermons, videos, and websites will be consumed with the defence of the "Talking Donkey" and yet this is all so needless.
Its just a dream donkey.
and dream donkeys can do anything.
The donkey in the dream could have flown around the moon too! , for there is no limits to what dreams can show going on.
The message we know God gave Balaam in a dream at verse 21 is just like the message the angel gives Balaam , for both messages take place within a dream.
and dreams are how God deals with Balaam at this point in the story.
Now as to the question about what do the angel and the donkey in the dream represent?
I would say that perhaps the angel with the sword blocking the path represents the Justice of God.
and then I would say that the donkey that saved Balaam's life several times is the Mercy of God.
@@AlanMolstad Hi Alan, thank you for sharing your additional thoughts. I understand your perspective, but remain unconvinced. Yes, we can assume vs. 20 is God speaking to Balaam in a dream. But to assume the dream continues in vs 21 (and following) is a difficult argument to make. Whenever there are extended dreams in the Bible, they aren't assumed, but demarcated with the word "dream" - such as with Abimelech (Gen 20), Jacob (Gen 28, 31), Joseph (Gen 37), Pharaoh (Gen 41) ... to name a few. There seems to be a clear break in the narrative between vs 21 and vs 22, not a continuation. I understand the tension and bizarre nature of a donkey talking in a story like this, but to assume the entire thing is a dream would break from how the Bible depicts dream stories. What I do agree with you is that the "reckless path" the angel addresses is not his physical path, but his life's path (which is being reflected in the physical path). This is something I make clear in the sermon itself. I recognize we'll likely agree to disagree on this. Please know I've appreciated your engagement.
@@WalkingTheText
all I can ask of you or anyone who has read what I have said, is to consider it.
Consider that because you know that God sends messages to Balaam in dreams, that the story of the invisible angel, and the story of the talking donkey are things that took place in such a dream.
That is why at the end of the dream that Balaam is said to finally go with the men to see the king.
That is why when the donkey is running off the road and then later when the angel is showing up with the sword and talking to Balaam, that none of the men sent to safely escort Balaam to the king is talked about.
Consider that for a moment....consider if this was not a dream you got a guy who several times seems to be having issue with his donkey, and then seems to be talking to it?,,,and then he starts beating it?, then starts talking to thin air?....and then he starts to suggest he will go back home?>..People see this happening and the king's escorts dont get involved?
Yes its a dream!.
The whole thing is just a dream!.
Balaam was just dreaming about the trip he would take the next day, starting with getting mounted on his donkey in the morning and heading down the road...
The dream was about an angel standing in the path.
The dream was about stopping Balaam from going down a path.
So Balaam dreamed about the path he was on.
The angel?,,,,part of the dream
The talking donkey?...part of the dream.
The warning the angel gives Balaam about being on the wrong path?....its just like all the other times Balaam would receive a message from God.....Its part of a dream.
Just consider this for a bit.....and see if understanding its a dream answers some questions you may have always pondered.
@@AlanMolstad Sounds good, Alan. Thank you.
Donkey's are also killer's. They will hunt down wild dog's foxes coyotes.
Angel of the between nature of man. And nature of God.
I hope you consider who that is in old testament. New testament and in the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Questioned this early on in studying for new testament to old testament.
First realize in Mathew Jesus testimony of see the devil cast from heaven.
This is first part of the revelation of Jesus Christ.
And then realize he was the rock in the desert. Then read genesis he was there in the beginning the spirit went across the water.
Then re read the revelation of Jesus Christ. For Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Understanding book of daniel. He will do a new thing.
John the Baptist was spirit filled by prophet if Elisha.
Born fro. Could high in years.
Then now angel of the lord visited Mary.
This is sound doctrine. and spirit led.
Exercising the tongues of men and tongues of prophetic knowledge.
I believe the story . I am looking to a talking Jackass now. Anyone that to believes this story is a listening Donkey.
Am I the only one thats concerned that the Bible is written by people that were filled with the Holy Spirit but yet and still they wrote that a donkey spoke
:O 🤔🤔🧐🧐🙄🙄🙄🙄Can you imagine going to your job tomorrow morning and telling them that donkey can speak? We would be escorted out immediately straight to a psychiatrist and more than likely lose our jobs.
Hi Julian, you're clearly not the only one concerned by that. There are others in the comments section here concerned by it as well. Still, it matters that we engage ancient texts in their historical and literary context and resist the urge to project our modern, scientific understanding of the world onto them.
Why is it so absurd that an animal can talk? Humans speak to animals all the time. Dress them up even carry them in a bag. Call them children. Teach them words like OUT milk or mom. Dogs bark words. And it's not considered crazy. Yahuah is capable of anything. And you think Adam and Eve didn't speak to animals in the garden?
Please don't talk about my Royal King and Savior in that light. He is Holy and Sane,slow to anger with human slackness.
Yes, we believe God is Holy and slow to anger as well. So we're confused by your comment. What part of the teaching did you think we were addressing God in a negative light?