What Disobedience Does to Your Ears
Day 77 · Numbers 22:20-25 · 4 August 2026
📖 TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
Numbers 22:20-23 (NIV)
“That night God came to Balaam and said, ‘Since these men have come to summon you, go with them, but do only what I tell you.’ Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials. But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, she turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat her to get her back on the road.”
Today’s John 15 thread: In John 15, Jesus says “if you remain in me and my words remain in you.” The Word remaining in us is what keeps our ears and eyes open. When the Vine’s instructions are not abiding in us, we can walk right past what God is trying to show us, and not even know it. Balaam’s donkey heard what Balaam could not. Disobedience had closed his ears.
✍️ REFLECTION
One of the most striking stories in Numbers is this one: a pagan prophet whose donkey had more spiritual perception than he did.
Balak was the king of Moab, terrified of what Israel had done to the Amorites and of the sheer size of the Israelite camp. He sent for Balaam, a pagan diviner to come and curse Israel. God had already told Balaam in verse 12: “Do not go with them. You must not put a curse on those people, because they are blessed.” The instruction was clear.
But Balak sent more impressive officials. More persuasive arguments. A promise of great honour. And Balaam kept the door open. In verse 20, God told him: since they’ve come, go but do only what I tell you. Then Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went. And God was angry when he went.
Something was wrong in how Balaam went. He went with his own agenda still intact and he was willing to curse Israel if he could get away with it. And so the angel of the Lord stood in the road with a drawn sword.
And Balaam could not see him. The donkey could. Three times.
Q1: Think about the last time you received a clear instruction from God that you were not fully willing to obey, where you kept the door open, or went with your own agenda alongside His instruction. Did your spiritual perception become sharper or duller in that season? Is there a specific area of your life right now where you know there has been partial obedience, doing what God said, but with a motivation or agenda that He did not ask for?
The donkey turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat her to get her back on the road. The donkey pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot against it. Balaam beat her again. The donkey lay down under him in the road. Balaam struck her with his staff, furious.
And then the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth.
“What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?”
What strikes me about Balaam’s response is that he was not even surprised that his donkey was speaking. He just argued with her. He was so self-focused, so locked into his own purpose, so angry at the obstruction that he missed the miracle of a speaking donkey entirely and just replied: “You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now.”
He was threatening to kill the thing that was saving his life.
Q2: What is the “donkey” in your life right now the obstruction, the frustration, the thing that keeps getting in the way of what you are trying to do, that might actually be God standing between you and something dangerous? How quickly do you move toward frustration, or even anger, at the things God uses to redirect you? And is it possible that the thing you are trying to work around is not an obstacle but a mercy?
Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes. And he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword. He bowed low and fell facedown. The angel said: “Your path is a reckless one before me.” What the donkey had been trying to communicate through three detours and a crushed foot, Balaam finally received in a moment of supernatural sight.
Failure to obey God’s word leads to spiritual insensitivity. Not all at once but gradually. It closes the ears and it dims the eyes. You begin to miss what God is trying to show you, and the things that should stop you simply become irritations to manage. The person with the most spiritual perception in this story was an animal. And Balaam was so far from where he needed to be that this did not even register as strange.
Q3: When did you last hear something clearly from God — and act on it immediately, fully, without a secondary agenda? And when did you last not? What is the difference in your spiritual sensitivity between those two seasons? What obedience is still outstanding that might be affecting your ability to hear what God is trying to say to you right now?
🌿 REMAIN IN HIM
Take a moment before you move on. This is not a to-do. It is an invitation to stay.
Reflect honestly: Have you walked past something God was trying to show you lately — a warning, a prompting, a clear “do not go”? Spiritual insensitivity doesn’t usually announce itself. Ask God honestly: “Am I spiritually dull right now? Where have I been disobeying You?”
Bring it to Jesus: Trace the insensitivity back to its source. Return to the last clear instruction you received from God and ask if you fully obeyed it. Sometimes that is exactly where the journey back to sensitivity begins.
Trust the Gardener: The branch that remains in the Vine, with the Vine’s words remaining in it, stays spiritually awake. The Word in you is not just knowledge — it is spiritual sight and hearing. Stay in the Word. Stay close to the Vine. And your ears will stay open.
🙏 PRAYER
Father, I do not want to be Balaam, arguing with the donkey, blind to the angel, so focused on my own agenda that I cannot hear what You are trying to say. Where I have obeyed partially, show me. Where I have gone with my own purpose still running alongside Yours, forgive me. Open my eyes, open my ears and let Your word remain in me so that I can hear and see what is in the road ahead. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
💡 MEMORY VERSE
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV): “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
This post is part of the Abide in Him Daily devotional series, reading Scripture through the lens of John 15:1–17. The branch doesn’t manufacture the fruit. It bears it because it stays connected to the Vine.
