The Donkey
It may seem a foolish beast,
maybe even a poor and unimportant animal, but most it certainly has its uses.
It carries other people’s
burdens; it makes its owners richer and more comfortable; it eats the poorest
of food and costs little to keep alive; it never complains, but just gets on
with the task at hand. While the household is sleeping it catches a few brief moments
of rest.
The donkey is not allowed inside the house and is deemed quite inferior to all the other inhabitants.
But what can they do without donkey?
A certain well-known man had a
donkey that he would use as his transport when visiting anywhere. He was a bit
of an unusual man inasmuch as he claimed to foretell the future and was indeed
a seer by any account.
He was engaged by the king to go
on a special errand and proclaim a curse on another nation.
You can read the story if you do
not know it in Numbers 22:21-33
Off he went on his honest and
faithful donkey. The donkey got hit and abused, but the donkey was wiser than
the man, and the donkey knew more than the clever spiritualist knew. The donkey
could see things that the man could never perceive.
The donkey saw an angel that came
to kill this arrogant and cock-sure medium and did all it could to save its
master, not just once either. After the donkey got beaten, it spoke just as
well as the man could speak. It warned him of his ignorance and showed him his
folly, and saved him from an untimely death.
You should look after God’s
donkey, for it may just save your life one of these days. In fact, it might be
saving your future right now. You would do well to feed and take care of that donkey,
or it may just find its voice and complain to God of your injustice and
selfishness.
The donkey, which has no part in
your ambition, business, or expected prosperity, is God’s property. He watches
how you treat it. He watches what you think of it.
I heard some preacher say, "It never hurts to stroke God's donkey".
It has helped you to achieve your
ambitions (maybe only in a little way, but without its help you would not have
progressed as you have).
Interestingly, Jesus rode into
Jerusalem on a donkey. Why do you suppose he chose such a lowly creature to
carry him on that triumphal journey?
Not many noble; not many wise in
the matters of this world are called; but God has chosen the weak things of
this world, the despised, and things considered to be nothing, even counted
foolish, to utterly confound those who think that they are something.
And he chooses a donkey to
execute his orders, so that nobody can boast that they are more than they are.
He takes this lowly beast (which is looked down upon as a thing of nought) to
make things happen that would not happen without it.
It was a donkey that carried the
Creator of the universe into Jerusalem. It was a donkey that shocked the
multitudes that praised the Saviour of the world. It was a grubby and smelly
donkey that Jesus chose to give glory of God’s saving grace.
Better to be a donkey for God than to become a king without a future.
JGM 2022
