Ever heard of Balaam’s ass? I remember being a kid and giggling about the older church folks referring to a story in the Bible that way. Anyhoo, it’s an amazing story from the book of Numbers and it goes like this:
There was a local prophet named Balaam who was solicited by King Balak to pronounce a curse on those weird people who followed One God, the Israelites. It is a fascinating account, and at one point in the story, Balaam is about to act out of fear and say what the king wants him to say, even though God told him not to even entertain the notion (kings are powerful and they don’t like it when you do the opposite of what they order), so Balaam’s DONKEY, who could see what Balaam could not, refused to keep walking down a path that was leading toward a bad end, so Balaam beats the donkey, and God allows the donkey to SPEAK (I always hear him say it in Eddie Murphey’s voice) and ask, “WHY ARE HITTING ME I’M SAVING YOUR LIFE?!”
In the end, Balaam’s eyes are opened and he sees the bigger reality and realizes there is no way he can say anything but what the true God wants him to say (or he would very literally die), and that is to BLESS the Israelites, instead of cursing them. There is a sentence that recounts what Balaam actually said that I keep thinking about and it is this:
“the oracle of him who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down with his eyes uncovered” –Numbers 24:4
That phrase “eyes uncovered” is so good. He saw through. He was given the crazy gift of seeing past the immediate, physical world into a much greater reality, and he very quickly changed his mind and acted according to THAT reality, instead of the seemingly safer, smarter move he was about to make. The spell was broken. His eyes were uncovered.
I was thinking about covered eyes, and that spell. It’s still over the whole world and each of us. If I had to put a word on it, I’d say the name of the spell is Fear. It’s a way of thinking that says… “what I see, hear, feel, taste, etc, that is the biggest reality”. The ultimate fear is death itself. Therefore, I will be cautious. Watch my back. Avoid discomfort. Put a lot of importance on what people around me think and say. Play it safe. Don’t think about death. Make myself happy.It’s the natural way to think, really. The world around us is loud and demanding and it presses in on us. The spell is strong.
I mean, it’s kind of nuts to walk around like it’s the Matrix and there’s this whole other reality and most people’s eyes are still covered up and they can’t see but I KNOW there is something else and I believe it’s the greater and MORE REAL reality and so I’m going to act differently than most people. And maybe look foolish sometimes, depending on how you see things. I’m going to find out what the One Who Is In Charge of Everything, who invented me and everything else, says and get in line with that.
I think this is what faith looks like.
Living under the spell of fear is really no way to live. There’s worry. There’s a lot of checking to make sure we’re doing stuff right. It’s less. It’s sort of a crouching down, as opposed to standing up. It is less than we were made for. It’s a kind of “settling for”. I don’t want to settle. I want to live without fear. We were made for freedom.
There was a guy named Saul whose eyes were covered up and he was just going about his business, doing some terrible things to people, and one day his eyes were opened and he saw, and heard the truth. The spell was broken when he believed it. And his name changed and his life changed and he went on to live an epic and fearless life. And he knew we would need help seeing. And he prayed for us, that “The eyes of their hearts would opened to see how wide and deep and high and long is the LOVE of Jesus.” (EPh. 3) People whose eyes have been opened are not even afraid of death. They know it is just the way into the greater reality.
But, we have to figure out WHY we can stand up and be fearless. It isn’t just yoga speak (I love yoga, by the way). You know, “I’m great, I’m beautiful, I can do anything”. There is some truth to that but I always want to yell, “WHY?!”
We become fearless when we believe the truth. When we believe the words of the True One.
Our Maker said, we were made on purpose, with beauty and dignity.
He delighted in creating us.
He knew us and wants us to know him.
He wants us to participate in His amazing rescue mission to redeem the whole world and show love and grace and peace to every human.
Our lives have meaning and value and nothing we do can make Him love us less or more.
He loved us so much that even though we were wicked and selfish and had thrown his instructions in his face, he made a way for us to be redeemed and reborn and forgiven. And that way was by giving his own life as a sacrifice to satisfy justice, demanded by a Holy God, while at the same showing incredible mercy to us, the fallen ones.
The more I believe and live the bigger reality, the more alive I become, the more real. Eyes are uncovered. The spell breaks. Donkeys talk. Fear falls off.