Ouch

Today I read 3 more chapters from Numbers. I looked ahead and realized that tomorrow will be the last day reading in the book. On March 1st I will begin to read Joshua, which means that the book of Deuteronomy will be read through in less then 10 days. Wow that is fast but I am covering the whole Bible in one year, so I should have expected that some books would be read through fast. This fast pace made me go back and think through what I have been reading over the last few days. I think my favorite section reading in Numbers was when Balaam's donkey started to talk. As a kid, I always wished that maybe, my pets or even a wild animal would talk to me. I used to imagine me and my superhero animal friends communicating and saving the day. But in Numbers, a real live animal talks. A donkey talks to it's owner. When this donkey talks it is in the middle of a longer narrative where the prophet Balaam from Peor  comes and instead of cursing Israel, God commands and he blesses Israel. When I was younger and immature, I wished like my superhero animal friends, that I was Balaam and I got to bless God's people and hear a donkey talk to me.

But now as an adult, I am thankful to God I am not Balaam. In my reading today, Balaam meets his demise as he is put to the sword and killed because he is a false prophet who tricks God's people into sleeping with and fornicating with the Midianite women (remember Phinehas from the other day's post). So, Balaam is actually a bad guy, not one of God's chosen people, who God uses to bless His people one time. God uses Balaam, a bad guy who ends in hell, to do His will. Glad I am not Balaam. But it challenges me in realizing that God uses both His chosen people and those He choses not to save for His work. That begs to ask me the question, is God using me because I am one of His or because I not one of His and He is using me anyway? That asks me another question then, how does my life, faith, words, and actions speak to my relationship with God? God does the saving. God does the using of people for His will. So does my life and fruit show that I am one of His , that He is using? We do not want to be like Balaam and be used by God but end up being put to eternal death by our sinful unrepentant life of folly.