I thought it would be good to look into some information in the Bible concerning the judgment of God on May 21, 2011. God’s people know that this is the Day of Judgment, and so we are to remember what the Bible says in Ezekiel 33:2-6:
Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.
God is using the picture of the watchman of old who goes up into a tower and looks out from his high vantage point into maybe the wilderness or areas where enemy armies had possibly approached the city in the past. They had watchtowers to keep a lookout. They might have even had a watchtower in the wilderness, which would have been a distance from the city, so that they could be alerted in advance when the watchman saw the enemy. When the watchman saw the enemy coming, he would blow the trumpet and warn the people.
Actually, it says about the watchman in Ezekiel 33:3:
If when he seeth the sword come upon the land…
So God is emphasizing “the sword” coming upon the land. Why is this being emphasized? Why is God speaking of a sword?
God is not referring to a literal sword, nor is He referring to a literal army. This is referring to God Himself. He is the enemy of mankind because of man’s sin, and God is coming to destroy.
Look at Ezekiel 5:8. It says:
Therefore thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.
People normally do not think of God being against them, of God being the adversary, but He is because of man’s sin. He is the One who opposes the sinner. The sinner has transgressed His Law and He intends to destroy him.
This has happened throughout history as people have physically died and then they ceased to exist, except for their physical remains that were put into the ground, and God is actually now referring to the Day of Judgment on May 21st, which will not be a good day for the unsaved of the world. This will be an “evil day.” It will be an “evil time.” Judgment Day will be evil like an earthquake is evil.
God speaks of this in Isaiah 45. He creates evil, but not in relation to man’s sin. God creates earthquakes and hurricanes and tornadoes, all of these destructive forces that have come upon the world all throughout history, which He calls “evil” because they do cause destruction and bring a lot of damage to people; but the greatest evil for the people of the world will be the Day of Judgment.
So God is the One who is coming on that day, but it is interesting that He is also the One who is moving in His people and motivating and leading them to sound the trumpet and to warn the people. God is the angry God who is coming to destroy, but He is also the gracious, merciful, and kind God who gives advance notice of what He is about to do.
The watchman is the child of God. This is the role that God has given to His people. We are to keep a watch, but where do we watch? We watch in the Bible. How do we see the sword coming in the Bible?
Let us go to Revelation 1. This is actually a reference to the trumpet. It says in Revelation 1:10-11:
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega…
Christ and His voice is the trumpet. When believers share the Word of God with individuals, this is the trumpet blast. The sword is also the Word of God, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword.”
So when believers look into the Bible and see the sword coming - that is, the judgment of God that His Word, the Bible, speaks of - then they are to blow the trumpet. They are to put this information together in some kind of cohesive form, like a tract where the information comes only from the Bible, and then they are to give this to people so that they can be warned. The different tracts are “May 21, 2011 Judgment Day!” or “HOLY GOD will bring Judgment Day on MAY 21, 2011.” All of these sorts of things are actually blowing the trumpet.
In the world of our day, we have about seven billion people. It is a good probability that God has indicated that He will save around 200 million out of the total of all of mankind and that He will save the vast majority of these now during the time of the Great Tribulation. This means that six billion, eight hundred million will not be saved.
So God’s plan is to warn the whole world. All of the nations will hear. He tells us in 2 Timothy that the Gospel will be “fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear.” “Gentiles” is the same word for “nations,” so all of the nations will hear.
We have been seeing how this is multiplying and growing. Like a snowball going down a hill, it is picking up and the world’s knowledge of this date is getting greater and greater, which is God’s plan. It is His plan that the whole world is to be warned.
We have a contact email address on the back of our tracts and a lot of people are receiving these tracts. I do not know how much of these tracts people actually read; some could be reading the whole tracts. They then respond to the message of Judgment Day, and so we are getting a lot of individuals that say things that are pretty predictable.
There are those who are secular and of the world who make a few statements, and then there are those who are professed Christians who are from the church. Those in the churches make a few very predictable statements, and it does not seem to matter what country or where they are from. The statements are almost identical that come from Russia, from America, from South America, in all of the various languages. When we translate messages that come from those in a church, the message is that “no man knows the day or hour” or that “Christ is coming as a thief in the night.”
The messages that come from people of the world are just statements of outright disbelief. Some of these people have written to us and said, “I guarantee that May 22nd will come.” Of course, the 22nd of May will come, but what they mean is that this day will come without incident, that May 21st will come along and it will just be like any other normal day. Then the next day will be May 22nd and it will come.
After seeing these kinds of notes coming in on a daily basis, it is hard to miss the great confidence, faith, and trust that the people of the world have in the continuance of this world. Really, it is incredible. Talk about great faith! They laugh at the idea that this world could ever end. Some are so sure that they are willing to make a bet with us. They will even give us great odds. They will put up so many thousands of dollars. All we have to do is just put up much less. This is because they are so confident. In their confidence, they are actually cocky and arrogant.
This is the nature of man. Man is proud. Because of this, people tend to think that they know a whole lot; when, really, they know very little. We have a miniscule amount of knowledge in comparison to the infinite mind of eternal God. He says in Isaiah 55, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
In other words, God is saying that we have tiny, little, finite, peanut and ant-sized minds. Our minds are so little that even if we said what might happen the rest of today, we might be right. Maybe we will be right, but a lot of times we will not be right. We do not know what is going to happen the rest of today or tomorrow, and yet so many people are remaining absolute in standing by their statement, “I will see you on May 22nd.”
In doing this, they are prophesying and they are making a prediction. God’s people are also making a prediction. Actually, God is making the prediction and we are just sharing what He is saying. We are telling people that May 21, 2011 will be Judgment Day, that the Bible guarantees this.
This is what is getting to people so much. It is because, now, God and His people are matching the confidence of the world. We could basically just sum it up this way. They are so sure and positive that May 22nd will come; but, now, God’s people are so sure and positive that Judgment Day is May 21st.
This is really the main problem with the world. If we included a question mark in this statement or if we said that there was only a strong possibility for this to happen or if we allowed for doubt in the slightest bit, this would not be as big of a deal as this is to the world. It is because we put an exclamation point at the end of this statement that is troubling them. It is the exclamation point and the fact that we are making a definitive statement that is concerning them when we tell them that May 21 will be Judgment Day!
The world has never seen anything like this before and I think that what is behind all of these statements is a certain amount of fear and trepidation. No one can hide from what is going on in this world. You could ask any of these people who deny this truth about May 21st, “Look at the world. Are we not qualified to be that final generation? With the conditions that are in the world today and with the sinfulness of man, do we not qualify?” I asked someone this several days ago and they had to admit that this was true. As far as I know, she was not a believer, and yet she said, “I cannot argue with you there; the world is ripe for judgment.”
God gave us indicators and signs, like Israel becoming a nation again, like the gay pride movement, like the falling away of the churches. All of these things are in place and they are testifying very clearly that the end is at hand. Through other information, we now know when this end will be.
So people guarantee that this will not happen, but the Bible declares that a prophet is not just someone who sets a date. A prophet is someone who declares the Word of God. God’s people are prophets. God gave us this information, and so we declare it. Therefore, yes, we are prophesying; but it is equally prophesying to say that this will not happen.
Others might come from the angle of date setting in the past. Someone might ask, “Let us really think about this. How many dates have been given in the past?” I am not sure what the number is. I have heard that there have been maybe a couple of hundred predictions or more, and so they ask, “How many dates have been given in the past and how many of these came true?” The answer is that none of them came true. Therefore, they immediately conclude that neither will the prediction of May 21st come true; neither will this date come to pass, because no prediction from the past has come true; it just has not happened.
Think about this kind of reasoning and this kind of logic. When we do, we find that it is foolish. It is foolish to think that because something has not happened before, this means that it cannot happen now. This is foolish, very foolish.
People from the past have developed vaccines and cures for diseases and plagues, for some of these evil things that have come upon mankind due to the curse on this world. To maintain this attitude would have been like saying to Louis Pasteur - to the men of old who worked to develop vaccines to where mankind no longer suffers from things like polio, as well as other ailments that no one in past history had ever developed a working vaccine for - that they, therefore, should stop working on vaccines since no one had ever accomplished this before.
Does this sound right? Should we have told all of the medical research teams who have been working on cancer in hopes of finding a cure that they should not have bothered since no one had ever found a cure for cancer in the history of the world? Maybe we should have told them that they were being foolish and that they needed to stop.
I also like to use the example of the Wright brothers who in 1903 flew a 12-second flight. They were not the first to fly because others had been gliding before them, but they were basically the first to fly using a motor. From there, of course, we have knowledge of how things developed to where we have jet airplanes that allow for super-quick transportation in our day. From America, we can now get into an airplane and fly to Europe or to Asia or to Africa in a matter of hours. All of this is because the Wright brothers did not listen to those people who could have said, “No one has ever flown before. No one in the history of the world has ever flown with a 200-pound engine in their craft, so maybe you should just give this up. Actually, this is even a dangerous thing that you are doing because people have ended up at the bottom of gullies with their bodies and their planes broken upon the rocks, so you should not even try to do this.”
If they had listened, we would not have air flights, we would not have rockets, and we would not have many of the capabilities that we have today for travel, such as traveling to the moon. How many people thought that it was possible to go to the moon one hundred years ago? If someone had dreamed of going to the moon back then, others would have quickly shot their idea down, “Are you kidding? It is impossible to travel to the moon!” Yes, it was for a long time; but, now, it is possible.
How many attempts did it take Edison to invent the light bulb? It took hundreds and hundreds of attempts and failures. Really, when we look at the world in just about any field that we would want to look at where there has been progress, where things have developed and have now reached the point where we are amazed at all of the possibilities, in every one of these fields of endeavor, they realized that failure in the past was a step towards the final solution.
People come up with an idea, but then they fall on their faces again and again and again. Then there comes a time when the light goes on, like with Edison, and it works. We have telephones where we can talk to people whom we could never talk to before.
So the foolish attitude to hold to is that something should not be attempted since no one was ever able to get it right in the past. As far as the date of the end of the world, they therefore conclude that no one ever can; but this attitude does not apply in any other area, does it? Neither should this attitude apply to the Bible. It does not apply to the Bible.
It does not matter what they attempted in the past. I have no relationship to the Millerites. I do not think that any of God’s people do. We have no relationship to any of those in the past with the exception of Mr. Camping’s book 1994? where he spoke of the possibility of Christ coming in September of 1994, but he put a question mark on the title of that book.
So we know that 1994 was the wrong date. Are we, therefore, to never look into this again? No; oftentimes failure provides the steps towards the solution. There is no question mark now on May 21, 2011 at all. It will be the Day of Judgment.
To talk about this just a little more, the people of the world smirk and laugh, “You are a fool. You are an idiot. You are crazy.” This is the reaction of the world, and then they dismiss this.
The reaction of the people in the church is basically the same one of unbelief. Their reactions are all based on unbelief. They cannot see anything happening on May 21, 2011. They get out their calendars and they do not see any problem on this date. Therefore, they say that May 22nd will come.
Let us go to Numbers 22. I think that we will see the problem that the churches are having today. This is the problem of mankind, naturally, but especially in the churches. We will see this as we read about Balaam. Balaam was someone who had a relationship with God. When we read about him, it would almost appear that he was a faithful man.
Balak, the son of Zippor, was the king of the Moabites and he was afraid of the Israelites because they were camping near Moab. He wanted Balaam to come and to curse the Israelites. He sent some of his princes to Balaam’s home. They offered him money to do this. They told Balaam the request of King Balak, “Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people.”
After this, we read in Numbers 22:12-13:
And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed. And Balaam rose up in the morning, and said unto the princes of Balak, Get you into your land: for JEHOVAH refuseth to give me leave to go with you.
Balaam was being very faithful. He went to the Lord to find out the Lord’s will. This is what God’s people do. God made His will known to Balaam when He told him, “Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.”
God made this very clear and told him this very directly, and Balaam passes the test. Balaam tells the princes of Moab, “Get you into your land: for the LORD refuseth to give me leave to go with you.” Then the princes leave and go back to the king, but the test is not over. It is not over yet because then Balak, the king of Moab, sends more princes to Balaam who were more noble and who were carrying greater rewards and more money. They go to Balaam and Balaam again goes to the Lord a second time. This was the problem. This was the problem because nothing had changed from what God had said to Balaam, “Thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.”
A couple of days later, would this have changed? No; this was a definitive statement from God concerning His people. They were not to be cursed; they were to be blessed. But Balaam goes to the Lord again. Outwardly, it seems that he is being faithful. The language that he uses makes him appear to be faithful.
So God, actually, is going to allow Balaam to go now because he is stubbornly insisting on going his own way. He is stubbornly and greedily interested in going with these princes to Moab in order to curse Israel so that he can get money and get fame and get the things that the king is offering.
God then says to Balaam in Numbers 22:20-21:
And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do. And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.
We know that the Lord was displeased because in the next few verses we find that the Angel of the Lord is standing in the way against him with a sword drawn. With a sword in His hand, He is standing in the way against Balaam.
The way that we have to understand this is that when we go to God and He makes His will known, and we know it to be true from the Bible, but we then insist that we still want to do something, despite God making His will known, and we go back to Him in prayer, this is scary, because God is able to give people up to their sins and wicked desires and allow them to go down the path that they are going, even though it is a wrong path, even though it is not the way of the Lord Jesus.
It says in John 14:6 that He is “the way, the truth, and the life.” This is the Christian way, “Narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life.” God, in giving Balaam leave, is allowing Balaam to go a wrong way, the broad way, “Broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction,” as it says in Matthew 7:13, because this was what the Angel of the Lord was going to do. He was going to kill Balaam. This was the situation. He was situated in the road that Balaam was traveling and it was God’s intention to slay Balaam.
In this short little historical parable, which was true history, we find three characters. We find Balaam, we find a donkey, and we find the Angel of the Lord. Let us first look at Balaam. It will become clear whom Balaam represents. In the book of Jude, which is that little one-chapter book right before the book of Revelation, it says in Jude 1:10:
But these speak evil of those things which they know not…
This is referring to false prophets, false Christians. They “speak evil” of things “they know not.”
This is important information for us. Why do so many people “speak evil” of a ministry like Family Radio or of Mr. Camping? Why are people so quick to revile and so quick to reproach, to charge him with heresy? You should hear some of the things that have been spoken against Family Radio and a faithful child of God like Mr. Camping. There are a great many things have been spoken against him.
Well, this is because:
…these speak evil of those things which they know not…
One way in which we can learn who is of the truth and who is of the lie, or what is the true Gospel and what is the false gospel, is that when you find people reviling and speaking evil of anyone, you know that they are not of the truth. This is what God is saying.
In the previous verse, Michael the Archangel, or Christ the Chief Messenger, was in a dispute with the devil over the body of Moses, because God had resurrected Moses and had given him a new resurrected body. This is why Moses could be on the Mount of Transfiguration along with Elijah. The Bible tells us that Satan is “the accuser of our brethren”; and so, in all probability, his accusation was, “I understand why Elijah is in Heaven, even though I could say something about this because he had never died. I understand that Elijah and Enoch were both translated. They were taken up and never died, but Moses died. He died and the Lord buried him, so how can he have his new resurrected body when it is not the day of the resurrection?”
So this would have probably been Satan’s accusation; but here was Christ Himself, Michael the Archangel, and He is speaking with the devil. First of all, if anyone is privileged to revile, which would only be Christ, and if anyone deserved to be reviled, it would be Satan. But what do we read in Jude 1:9? We read:
Yet Michael the archangel…durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
Jesus did not speak evil of him. He did not rant or rail on him in any way. He simply said, “The Lord rebuke thee.”
This is God’s direction for His people. The Bible tells us, “The servant of the Lord must not strive [or fight]; but be gentle unto all.” We do not revile. Actually, we do not have a campaign against false gospels either. We do not go out seeking gospels that we believe are false so that we can start warning everybody, “Do not listen to this group and do not listen to that group.”
The only gospel that is discernible in many places today is an anti Family Radio gospel. It seems as though they have no interest in sharing the true Gospel of the Bible to the people of the world so that they might be saved. Instead, they have a great interest and they put forth great activity in warning people against Family Radio, and yet none of this is from God. None of it is. God does not encourage this in any way. We are not to revile.
So Jude 1:10 says again:
But these speak evil of those things which they know not…
They do not know because they cannot see. What is spiritual sight? I am not talking about physical sight. Spiritual sight is to know, to understand, to perceive, to discern “time and judgment.” This is having spiritual sight.
On the other hand, what does it mean to be ignorant? God tells us, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing.” If someone is in ignorance, this is because they do not know, nor can they understand or perceive, which means that they are spiritually blind to the truths of the Bible. If they are spiritually blind and they are hearing things that they just cannot grab hold of, then they “speak evil.”
If we go to Proverbs 28:5, this tells us:
Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek JEHOVAH understand all things.
“Evil men” are not just the murderers or the terrorists. This is referring to every human being who is in their sin; because as soon as we transgress the Law, we are an evil person in God’s sight. He is good; we are evil.
So “evil men understand not judgment.” As they hear of May 21, Judgment Day, they do not understand this. They cannot see it. As a result, they “speak evil” of it, which is just as we read in Jude. They “speak evil of those things which they know not.”
In 2 Peter 2, which is a chapter and a passage where God gets into detail concerning false prophets, it says in 2 Peter 2:12-15:
But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
God is again bringing up Balaam and the way that he went, which was not the right way; it was another way, and yet there is only one way. The Bible says, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” There is only one door into Heaven and we have to go this way. We have to go through Christ alone if we are going to be saved. Anything else is a false way, and Balaam was a false prophet.
Let us turn to Revelation 2. It says in the address to the church in Pergamos in Revelation 2:14:
But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
Balaam gave council concerning Moab and its women intermingling with Israel. This was the “doctrine of Balaam.” Even though, as we read in the book of Numbers, he could not actually curse Israel, he still gave evil and wicked advice to the king of Moab in order for the Israelites to experience trouble.
So this is what God is saying concerning the church, that there are those there who hold to the “doctrine of Balaam,” which means that they are going a wrong way. They are going the way “that leadeth to destruction.”
Does anyone know what eventually happened to Balaam? In Numbers 22 through 24, we have this account that we have been reading about. Then he sort of just disappears. Does anyone know what finally happened to him?
If we go to Numbers 31, God tells us the answer to this. This passage is speaking of Israel whom God led to avenge the children of Israel against the Midianites. Then we read in Numbers 31:7-8:
And they warred against the Midianites, as JEHOVAH commanded Moses; and they slew all the males. And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.
We read of the sword again. The sword is what killed Balaam. This is because he did not learn. He did not learn the lesson. He did not receive correction from God. He continued on.
If we go back to Numbers 22, it says in Numbers 22:22:
And God’s anger was kindled because he went…
This happened even though God allowed Balaam to do what he did.
When we want to do something sinful, does God stop us? In some ways, yes; He moves within His people. Of course, He gives strength through His Spirit, but has God ever stopped you from doing a sin that you wanted to do? No; you can continue on and do that sin, even though you know that it is against the Lord’s will. God permits this. He does not cause it; He allows it. Maybe He takes His hand of restraint slightly off of you and then you, temporarily, go down a wrong road, like David if you are a true believer, and you can commit sin.
So this is what happened here. God allowed Balaam the wicked desires of his heart. He could pray one thing. He could say that He would do whatever the Lord willed, but God knows the “intents of the heart.” He knows what is going on in someone’s heart, and so He was angry with Balaam because he went.
Numbers 22:22 continues:
…and the angel of JEHOVAH stood in the way for an adversary against him…
Who is “the angel of Jehovah”? He is God Himself. He is the Angel of the Lord. God gives Himself many different names in the Bible. In this case, He is calling Himself “the angel of Jehovah.”
It continues on to say in Numbers 22:22-23:
…Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him. And the ass saw the angel of JEHOVAH standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.
This is very unusual. There is not another account like this in the Bible, except when Satan spoke when he entered into the snake in the Garden of Eden; but there is no other account where an animal is speaking like this, where an animal can see spiritual things.
Balaam did not see the Angel of the Lord. He did not see God against him in the way. He looked down the road and saw the path. He saw the grass on either side. He saw the trees. He saw the blue sky off into the distance. He did not see a problem. He had no clue or inkling that there was anything wrong with the way that he was going. He thought that he was going the right way. God had allowed him to go with the men, and so he thought that this was approved of the Lord and within the Lord’s will.
When a difficulty arose, like this donkey, when this donkey was pulling him out of the way and moving him into the field, he gets upset with the donkey. He was very upset. He had two servants with him. It says at the end of Numbers 22:21 that Balaam:
…went with the princes of Moab.
He went with those noble princes who had the money. They could have been behind or in front of him and perhaps he was following along, but how embarrassing for his own donkey to cause him trouble to where it pulled him out of the path and into the field. He is embarrassed with his servants. He is embarrassed because of these noble princes who are possibly up ahead of him. He cannot even control his own animal, a stupid mule; and so we wonders what God is getting at.
We know that Balaam represents the professed Christian. He represents those who say that they are Christian but who are not. Who does the donkey represent?
Turn to Exodus 13:13. It says:
And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb…
The word “ass” here is different because this is speaking of a male. The ass in the book of Numbers is a different word because it is speaking of a female, but it is the same idea.
Exodus 13:13 continues:
And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck: and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem.
Redemption is the language of salvation. It is the language that God uses when He speaks of saving sinners. He speaks here of “every firstling of an ass” and “the firstborn of man…shalt thou redeem,” which is indicating that the donkey is a picture of a believer. It is not a very flattering picture, but it is a picture of the believer.
I guess we qualify to be typified by a donkey, because we can be rather stubborn and mule-headed. All of these expressions like this that we have, we have them for a reason. Donkeys are stubborn and they are thick-headed; and so God is using the donkey to typify true believers. There are a couple of verses that can support this, but this is exactly what He is doing.
When Jesus rode into Jerusalem, He was “sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.” In this case, both the male and female ass were in view. It was an ass that the Bible says “whereon never man sat” until Christ. “To sit” means “to rule” or “to reign.”
So God gets hold of “a wild ass’s colt,” which is a picture of a stubborn sinner going his own way. He does not care what the Bible says. He does not care about Judgment Day. He is going is own way and God draws Him to Himself in a way that is irresistible. He brings that stubborn mule-headed individual to Him, an individual who is a sinner and who loves his sin, and then He sits on him. Then it is no longer an animal that has never been ridden, because the Lord Jesus Christ is now seated in this person’s life. This is the picture that God is using with this donkey.
A donkey is a lowly animal. It is not a lion. It is not the king of the jungle. It is not a beautiful and powerful animal. It is just a mule. You can ride on him. You can put some of your belongings on him so that he will carry them, but it is just a mule. It is nothing great. It is nothing tremendous.
In God likening us to a donkey, we have to admit that this description fits. We also have to admit that the fact that God has opened our eyes, the fact that He has given us spiritual sight to see things that are coming, well, God can do this with a donkey. This is nothing great. As far as we are concerned, it has nothing to do with our brilliance or with our intellect in any way. If God can open up the eyes of a donkey so that a donkey can see the Angel of the Lord in the path with His sword drawn, He can open up our eyes. We should never think that we are something special because our eyes have been opened when other people’s eyes have not. No; we have to realize that this is in God’s control.
So the ass saw the Angel of Jehovah, but Balaam did not like that the donkey was pulling him out of the way, and so he smote the ass. Then we read in Numbers 22:24-25:
But the angel of JEHOVAH stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side. And when the ass saw the angel of JEHOVAH, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall: and he smote her again.
He smote her a second time. Then we read in Numbers 22:26-27:
And the angel of JEHOVAH went further, and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. And when the ass saw the angel of JEHOVAH, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff.
Balaam smote the ass three times, indicating that this was God’s purpose. Balaam was getting angrier and angrier. Balaam actually says a little later to the donkey, “I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.”
What do you think would happen if we were living maybe in the 1400’s or the 1500’s or several hundred years ago when they burned people at the stake or they beheaded people because of doctrinal discrepancies with the church? They would take them and burn them.
This does not happen today, thank the Lord, because of the laws that have developed, and God keeps a restraining hand on this; but we can see in the viciousness, in the terrible wrath and anger that some people have towards a wonderful ministry like Family Radio and a great servant of the Lord like Mr. Camping, we can see that if people could, the fire would be lit rather quickly and we would have someone burned at the stake.
Man has not changed and what gets a proud person furious, a person who thinks that they have a relationship with God, is when somebody tells them that there is something coming down the road and they cannot see it. They cannot see it. They are blind as a bat. They look down the road and they cannot see a thing. The coast is clear.
This is exactly what the churches are doing when they are saying that “no man knows the day or hour” or that “Christ is coming like a thief in the night.” In other words, they are telling the congregation not to worry about May 21st. They are telling them not to be concerned about Judgment Day at all, because they do not believe that this is going to happen. Therefore, there is no sword that is approaching.
Basically, they are saying, for all intents and purposes, “Peace and safety. Do not worry. It is not the battle of Armageddon. It is not an angry God coming to destroy you. We do not know when this will happen. It could be May 21st or it could be a thousand years from now.”
But, no; we cannot blow “an uncertain sound” with the trumpet. God has indicated, “For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” Nobody would. The whole idea that Christ could come today or tomorrow or next week does not lead anyone into living a godly life. This is because they really do not believe what they are saying. They really do not think that this is so at all.
So here is this stupid animal, a donkey, and God gives this animal spiritual sight that He withholds from Balaam. Then it goes on to say in Numbers 22:28-30:
And JEHOVAH opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times? And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee. And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay.
The ass had been with Balaam for quite some time. They were very closely identified, rider and mule together, and yet she had never done anything like this before; but now, because God had opened her eyes, she saw the danger ahead and she was trying to warn Balaam, to bring him to safety. The donkey was actually trying to do a good thing for Balaam. The donkey was doing an act that was designed to save Balaam. She was trying to help him, but Balaam’s reaction was one of anger. He just wanted to kill the animal.
Then we read in Numbers 22:31-33:
Then JEHOVAH opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of JEHOVAH standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face. And the angel of JEHOVAH said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me: And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive.
So the donkey could see, the donkey could talk, and God, the Angel of the Lord, says that He would have “saved her alive,” which is pointing to the true believers. For the child of God, God gives sight and a mouth and wisdom. He gives eternal life to His people and His people will not be harmed. They cannot be harmed in any way and they cannot be cursed. Someone like Balaam cannot hurt them, and here God is indicating what spiritual blindness is because Balaam could not see the sword of the Lord.
If we go to 1 Chronicles 21, this is the account when David numbered Israel. It says in 1 Chronicles 21:14-16:
So JEHOVAH sent pestilence upon Israel: and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, JEHOVAH beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of JEHOVAH stood by the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite. And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of JEHOVAH stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces.
David saw the Angel of the Lord with His sword stretched out, and He did slay seventy thousand men from Dan to Beersheba. This is a picture of an angry God.
The watchman sees the sword coming. He sees the sword of the Angel of the Lord in the way, in the path. No one can get around Him. As we continue in this world, in this life, we must continue to approach Him, because there is coming the appointed Day of Judgment where the sword will begin to slay all men, all people.
God’s people are nothing of themselves. They do not understand these things because of their own wisdom in any way. God has simply opened up their eyes to see the Angel of the Lord, to see that the sword is drawn, to see the great danger that lies ahead.
When the church is countering this and speaking against these things and saying that no man can know these things, then they are continuing on in the way just like Balaam. Then like Balaam, they will be slain by the sword.
Going back to Numbers 22, we read in Numbers 22:34-35:
And Balaam said unto the angel of JEHOVAH, I have sinned; for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me: now therefore, if it displease thee, I will get me back again. And the angel of JEHOVAH said unto Balaam, Go with the men: but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak. So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.
He did not learn and God is allowing this again. What should Balaam have done? The people were blessed. He was not to curse them, so he should have turned right around and he should have gone home and out of the way that he was going. Instead, he continues and God does not slay him immediately; but later on, he is killed with the sword. This is exactly what is going to happen in a few short months.
There is one last verse that I want to look at in Proverbs 27. We looked at this verse awhile back, but this is exactly what is being described in Numbers 22 with Balaam. It says in Proverbs 27:12:
A prudent man foreseeth the evil…
He sees the “evil day,” Judgment Day. A “prudent man” is a wise man and he “foreseeth the evil.” The Bible says, “A wise man’s heart discerneth both time and judgment”; and it says in Daniel 12:10, “None of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.” God says that He “revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”
On and on, the Bible indicates that God will tell His children. He will let us know, because we can know. Actually, God’s people do know the very date of judgment. Just as God is able to open up the eyes of a donkey, He can open up our eyes.
Proverbs 27:12 again:
A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself…
We will not get into this, but this is language of being in Heaven and in complete safety with God.
It continues:
…but the simple pass on, and are punished.
These are the fools. We read of the wise and the foolish virgins. The five wise virgins were ready when the Lord came. When the Bridegroom came, the five foolish virgins were not, and they ended up crying, “Lord, Lord, have we not…in thy name done many wonderful works?” Balaam qualifies as “the simple.” They “pass on,” and then the wrath of God comes upon them.
When Balaam continues his journey in Numbers 22, we never hear about this donkey again. Even after God opened the eyes and the mouth of the donkey and says that He “saved her alive,” Balaam continues on without the donkey, at least we do not read about the donkey anymore.
This is because God is indicating that His people will pull out of the way of the world. They will certainly not go that way and they are not going to go the way of the church, because the way of the church is identical to the way of the world. It is the broad way “that leadeth to destruction,” and God’s people, by His grace only and by His wisdom, realize what is just on the path ahead; and so, by God’s grace, they turn from this danger.
Let us stop here.