Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Yahweh opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have mocked me, I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would have killed you.” The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long until today? Was I ever in the habit of doing so to you?” He said, “No.” Then Yahweh opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw Yahweh’s angel standing in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand; and he bowed his head, and fell on his face.”
(Numbers 22:28-31)

“A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman therefore said to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. So where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his children and his livestock?” Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”“
(John 4:7-14)

It was unusual for the donkey to speak, but it was even MORE unusual that Balaam was so upset he didn’t notice it was the donkey speaking. He was so frustrated by his situation he didn’t pay ANY attention to WHO was speaking and simply responded to the words. It wasn’t until his eyes were opened that he really SAW what was happening and that it was clearly the hand of the Lord – who he had not obeyed. Once he had been jarred out of his greedy dreams, he was ready to hear the Lord.

The Samaritan woman was so shocked that a Jew and a male was speaking to her, she wasn’t really paying attention to Jesus’ words. It wasn’t until Jesus prophesied into her life that she was jarred into seeing Him and hearing what He was saying. She still tried to deflect, making her encounter about religion, but it didn’t work. Once she had truly been jarred out of her religious and cultural biases, she was ready to hear the Lord.

Summary

We need to listen to the Lord. It doesn’t matter what WE think. We need to hear what HE thinks. We are all biased in some way. We all let our desires get the better of us. But if we will sit and push all of that aside, we can truly HEAR what the Lord is saying. Without HEARING Him, we won’t be ready to truly submit and obey. And that is what we need to do. Hear the TRUTH and respond to it WHOLEHEARTEDLY.