"23 And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field. And Balaam struck the donkey, to turn her into the road. 24 Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. 25 And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam's foot against the wall. So he struck her again. 26 Then the angel of the Lord went ahead and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left. 27 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam. And Balaam's anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff. 28 Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” 29 And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.” 30 And the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?” And he said, “No.”
31 Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face. 32 And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse[c] before me. 33 The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let her live.” 34 Then Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in the road against me. Now therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back.” 35 And the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you.” So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak."
Numbers 22:23-35
We do not know whether the word 'ass' had the same kind of connotation in those days as it sometimes has with us today but it does seem that there is a certain fitness (for our thinking) that it took an ass to demonstrate to Balaam the real nature of what he was doing. One thinks in this connection of the Psalmist's words, 'O Lord, Thou knowest my
foolishness' (Psalm 69:5). It would almost seem that the Lord was grimly determined to show this man just how foolish and ill-guided he was. We should not under-estimate the nature and extent of his blindness, however it is a very solemn and frightening reminder of what sin, when deliberately indulged, can do to our powers of perception, and how it can 'put out our eyes' and render us insensitive to spiritual realities. The later dialogue between Balaam and the angel (32ff) shows that grace was still nevertheless at work in this strange and unusual incident: for the angel points out (33) that but for the ass's reaction Balaam would have been destroyed. His eyes, it seems, had been opened just in time. How humiliating it must have been for the seer, who prided himself on having eyes for divine revelation, to realise that he had not been able to see what his dumb ass had seen. Truly, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:27, 'God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise'.