Deeply buried in the Old Testament lies a story that cuts deeper than the stone tablets of Moses.
It is the story of Balaam and his talking donkey, an unlikely encounter that holds up a mirror to us and reveals our own burdens.
The donkey in this story… is you!
The Bible itself explains this to us, and I will show you how.
Why is this story in the Bible?
To tell us how things were in the past?
Or to show that, just like the serpent in Genesis 3, donkeys too can talk?
No, this story is a natural event written down to teach us the spiritual.
As I said, you and I are the donkey in Balaam’s story.
So in the Bible, therefore, several people are compared to a donkey.
For example, Jacob says of his son Issachar:
Genesis 49:14 (BSB)
Issachar is a strong donkey, Lying down between two burdens.
And God Himself says to Hagar, Sarah’s slave:
Genesis 16:12 (BSB)
Ishmael will be a wild donkey of a man.
The donkey is a natural image that explains a spiritual principle to us.
Throughout the Bible, the donkey is used to explain that same spiritual truth.
And when you begin to see this spiritual truth, all the texts in the Bible that mention the donkey will open up to you, revealing new truths.
When we call someone a donkey, or an ass, we usually mean that we think that person has done something stupid.
For this study, however, you need to forget about that.
In the biblical context, the donkey symbolizes its true nature, which is a beast of burden.
The Bible uses the natural image of the donkey as a beast of burden to set you free from the burden you carry.
This burden does not represent the difficulties you experience in life.
The spiritual meaning of a burden in the Bible is teaching, that is, instruction, a doctrine.
A burden in the Bible is the knowledge and wisdom you have adopted from someone else.
The Bible teaches us that there are two kinds of burdens: the burden of the world and the burden of Christ.
This means that you carry the wisdom of the world or the wisdom of Christ with you.
The burden of the world is a heavy burden.
The wisdom of the world teaches us: do this and that to be saved.
And ‘if you do this and don’t do that, you will be a child of God.’
However, this is the knowledge of Good and evil that makes you toil to become something you think God wants you to be.
It is the burden of the world, the wisdom of the world.
This is a heavy burden.
When Adam takes on that heavy burden of earthly wisdom, God says he will toil (Genesis 3:17).
This is not a punishment from God; it is a consequence.
It is the consequence of taking on the burden of the world instead of the burden of God.
So, it is the consequence of listening to what the world says instead of listening to what God says.
Because the world says it takes hard toil to be a good Christian.
But God says: you are my child! In My image and likeness! (Genesis 1:26, James 3:9)
When you listen to what the world teaches you, you will become weary from the heavy burden of ‘trying to become.’
When you listen to what God says, you will find rest because He tells you who you truly are.
You then don’t have to try to become this and the sharperyou see who God says you are, the more you naturally begin to behave accordingly.
This is how you naturally grow into who you really are, namely, the image and likeness of God.
Not by trying to become this yourself, but by allowing God to open your eyes to who you already are.
Jesus came to open your eyes to your true identity.
Jesus shows you who you truly are.
He shows you what the Son of God, the image and likeness of God, looks like.
He therefore says:
Matthew 11:28-30 (BSB)
Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened,
…by carrying the heavy burden of trying to live as a good person.
and I will give you rest.
…because He shows you who you are, so you no longer have to toil.
Take My yoke upon you,
for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
The burden Jesus gives you is ‘you are!’
That is the teaching of Jesus.
The teaching of Balaam, however, goes against the teaching of Jesus.
In the book of Revelation, Jesus says therefore:
Revelation 2:14 (BSB)
I have a few things against you,
because some of you hold to the teaching of Balaam
who taught Balak to place a stumbling block before the Israelites
so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality.
So the teaching of Balaam puts a burden on you that is a stumbling block for you.
Through what he teaches you, you will stumble and worship a god that is not the true God.
So it comes down to which burden you bear, the burden of Balaam or the burden of Christ.
Who guids you, Balaam or Jesus?
Two verses on in Revelation 2, Jesus says:
Revelation 2:16(BSB)
Repent!
That means ‘turn your back on the teaching of Balaam, the earthly wisdom, and listen to what God says!’
Otherwise I will come to you shortly
and wage war against them with the sword of My mouth.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
…..Do you have ears that can understand the spiritual lessons in these words in Revelation 2?
For what is the sword of your mouth? ➡️ Your tongue!
So how does Jesus wage war? By speaking the Truth; the Word of God.
It comes down to who guides you, the lie or the truth.
He says:
James 3:2,3,5 (ESV)
If we put bits into the mouths of horses (and donkeys) so that they obey us,
we guide their whole bodies
So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man,
able also to bridle his whole body.
Jesus says:
Matthew 12:34 (ESV)
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
The doctrine that fills your heart controls your tongue and thus your whole body.
If you believe that you are a sinner whom God cannot look at, you will automatically live as a sinner.
But when you look at yourself without the covering of that lie, you see that you are the image of God and you automatically begin to live according to it.
Look, Paul says that too:
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJ)
We all, with unveiled face,
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image,
from glory to glory,
just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
So, everyone who looks at themselves with an unveiled face, thus with eyes that see the truth, sees the glory of the Lord.
When you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you see that you are the image of God because that is how God made you.
As a result, you automatically start living accordingly.
You are then automatically transformed into the image of God, which you always were.
So the teaching you take for truth determines the path you take.
When your heart is filled with the teachings of Balaam or some other lie you are going in the wrong direction.
The angel of the Lord also says to Balaam and his donkey: Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me!
Numbers 22:32 (BSB)
The angel of the LORD said to him:
Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me!
The donkey was led by Balaam in the wrong direction, away from God.
And that donkey is a picture of you and me.
The teaching of Balaam leads you to death (2 Peter 2:15).
The only way that leads to life is the way of Christ.
Therefore, Jesus says:
John 14:6 (BSB)
I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
No one comes to the Father except through Me.
When you have ears to hear what the Spirit says, you can fill your heart with the truth.
When you learn to understand the spiritual truth that God shows us through natural images, you will follow the way of Jesus.
Then His truth will control your tongue and thus your whole body.
Jesus shows us this spiritual truth through a natural event.
John 12:12-15 (BSB)
The next day the great crowd that had come to the feast
heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
They took palm branches and went out to meet Him,
shouting: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the King of Israel!”
Finding a young donkey, Jesus sat on it, as it is written:
“Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion.
See, your King is coming, seated on the colt of a donkey.”
I pray that you are that donkey guided by Jesus.
I pray that He is King over your heart.
He leads you into the new Jerusalem.
I hope that through this video, you have discovered a new spiritual truth, allowing you to see yourself even more clearly in the mirror of 2 Corinthians 3:18.
When you see yourself as God sees you, you are at rest and no longer toil to become something.
Then you can help others to lay down their heavy burden and give them the light burden of the truth.
God Himself has already made this clear to us in the book of Exodus using a natural image.
God said:
Exodus 23:5 (ESV)
If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden,
you shall refrain from leaving him with it;
you shall rescue it with him.
The donkey is a person.
The burden is a lie or the truth. It is Balaam or Jesus.
The burden is the wisdom of men or the wisdom of God.
In this story, the donkey has collapsed under its heavy burden.
So the person has collapsed under the lie.
You can now help that person back on his feet by setting him free in the truth.
You can remove that heavy burden from him by showing him his true reflection, (which is) the glory of the Lord!
Just as Jesus did: get up and walk, for My burden is light!
