Today’s blog is written by Marcus, the editorial assistant on the Angels on Earth staff.
Hello, everybody. I’m filling in for Colleen Hughes today.
You know, like most of you, I’ve always really enjoyed reading the Bible.
Working at Angels on Earth has given me a special perspective on it; of course, one that focuses on angels. I never really paid them much mind before. They were the messengers of God, and they’re rarely described in great detail.
I thought of them as the worker bees of God’s kingdom. They simply “do.” In fact, the word angel is derived from the Hebrew word Mal’akh (מַלְאָךְ), meaning messenger.
I’ve since come to learn that the angels of the Lord often play vital roles in the events occurring in the Bible.
One of the first appearances of a messenger of God occurs in the Old Testament book Numbers. It is shortly after the Hebrews’ exodus from Egypt. The local ruler of the Moabites, Balak, is unhappy with the Hebrews decamping near his home in Jericho. He summons the protagonist of this particular book, Balaam, to put a curse on the Hebrews, to drive them out of his land.
Balaam responds through messengers (of the mortal kind) that he can only do what God commands, and God has, via a nocturnal dream, told him not to go. But the Moabites promise Balaam great honors and rewards, and he eventually relents. He disobeys God and sets off on his journey with his donkey. As soon as he gets on the road, the donkey stops and refuses to go any further. We, the readers, know that the donkey has stopped moving along the road because it sees an angel:
“When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, it turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat it to get it back on the road…Then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth, and it said to Balaam, ‘What have I done to you to make you beat me?’
“Balaam answered the donkey, ‘You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.’ Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown.”
The angel then tells Balaam that God had wanted him to be killed by the angel of the Lord, as punishment for disobeying him: “I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me.” However, God has decided to allow him to live, because of God’s compassion for his beaten-down donkey—the very donkey Balaam had just threatened to kill. The angel goes on to tell Balaam that the Lord still has use for him. A plan is hatched to help protect the Hebrews from the Moabites.
Balaam is ultimately remembered in modern day Judaism as a Gentile saint. All because of the compassion of the Lord toward even his most simple creatures—and a little angelic intervention.
