She was startled awake by the stable door bursting open and slamming against the wall. She lifted her head and watched her master take the scratchy, woven blanket from the peg on the wall and come her way.
“This can’t be happening,” she thought, “it’s breakfast time and I want my half ephah of barley. Here I am starved and he wants to go someplace!”
Her master entered her stall, put the blanket on her back, put a halter over her head, and with a grunt he lifted himself onto her back. The whole time he was grumbling about something.
She gasped as he kicked her flank. In protest, she brayed and slowly began walking towards the stable door. Her master kicked her again and she began to trot. She knew that it was going to be hot outside by the way the bright sun shone through the open door.
Outside the stable, there were horses waiting with their masters on their backs. She joined them, their hooves stirring up plumes of dust as they began.
She wondered where they were going this early. It was unusual for her to be ridden before she had her breakfast.
They hadn’t gone very far when something unexplainable happened. Suddenly something appeared directly in her path, something that terrified her. It was dressed in white and had a sword in its hand. She stared at it for a moment, decided she wanted no part of it; and veered off the road into a field. Suddenly her stall sounded like a good place to be!
Muttering under his breath, her master hit her in order to turn her back to the road. Reluctantly she did so, but not without looking all around her for the being. They went a little further and there stood the being again, blocking her path. This time it was a narrow place between two walls. Rolling her eyes back, she did her best to avoid this being. In the process, she crushed her master’s foot against the wall which made him hit her again.
Frantic to get away, they went further and there was the being again. This time it was in a place where she couldn’t get around it. Terrified, she decided no matter how hard her master struck her she wasn’t going any farther and laid down with her master on her back. Angry, this time he struck her with his staff.
As she lay there she had a strange sensation enter her body. It was something she would never forget. It was like somebody was taking control of her. She opened her mouth in order to bray in protest and couldn’t. Instead, she found herself talking like her master. She couldn’t believe it was happening.
“What have I done to you; that you have struck me these three times?” she found herself saying.
Her master looked at her with amazement, “Because you have abused me. I wish there was a sword in my hand, for now, I would kill you.”
“Abuse you?” she thought, “what about my barley?”
She answered her master, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden, ever since I became yours to this day? Was I ever disposed to do this to you?”
Her master answered, “No.”
She saw a look of astonishment come upon her master’s face. She knew he could see the being. He bowed his head and fell flat on his face.
The being spoke to her master in harsh tones.
“The donkey saw me and turned aside from me, surely I would also have killed you by now, and let her live.”
She listened as her master told the being, which she came to understand was an angel, that he was wrong. The angel spoke again and told them to continue on their journey.
She stood up and her master remounted her and they continued. The angel disappeared from their sight.
That night, after a long journey, her master, feeling guilty, gave her a whole ephah of barley. With her belly full, she tried to speak again. Her brays could be heard by all of the neighbors. Finally, she gave up in frustration, thinking, “Where is that Angel? I want to talk again.”
Scripture reference - Numbers 22: 22-35
June 23, 2022