In Numbers 22-24 (I think) the one guy’s donkey starts talking because God opened the donkey’s mouth, but does that mean that God is talking through the donkey, or did God just show the donkey how to talk?<\/p>\n\t
“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?”<\/em>” (Numbers 22:28).<\/p>\n
“They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet<\/em>” (II Peter 2:15-16).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This falls under the class of a miracle since donkeys by nature are not able to speak. It was God, who created all things, who chose to give this donkey for a moment of time the ability to speak and reason. There is no indication that God was speaking through the donkey.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: In Numbers 22-24 (I think) the one guy’s donkey starts talking because God opened the donkey’s mouth, but does that mean that God is talking through the donkey, or did God just show the donkey how to talk? Answer: “Then the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[700,363,841],"class_list":["post-29598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-balaam","tag-miracles","tag-numbers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":85465,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/balaams-talking-donkey\/","url_meta":{"origin":29598,"position":0},"title":"Balaam\u2019s Talking Donkey","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 9, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Michael Ray Baggett Have you ever watched the movie Francis the Talking Mule? Have you ever watched the old TV classic Mr. Ed about a talking horse? These were entertaining shows, even though they were unrealistic. But hold on! The Bible tells us about a prophet whose donkey really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/scan0025-6-300x228.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4071,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-gave-what-of-balaam-the-ability-to-speak\/","url_meta":{"origin":29598,"position":1},"title":"God gave what of Balaam the ability to speak?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: God gave the _____ of Balaam the ability to speak. Answer: \"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?\" And Balaam said to the donkey, \"Because you have abused\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10447,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-balaams-donkey-speaking-in-tongues\/","url_meta":{"origin":29598,"position":2},"title":"Was Balaam’s donkey speaking in tongues?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was speaking in tongues done in the Old Testament? The reason I ask is that talking in tongues is nothing more speaking in a language not known to the user. I know it won't be a critical or applicable statement, but didn't even a donkey speak in tongues with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89428,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/lessons-we-need-from-balaam-and-his-donkey\/","url_meta":{"origin":29598,"position":3},"title":"Lessons We Need from Balaam and His Donkey","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 14, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Richard Blackford It begins with Balak, the Moabite king, who was fearful of the Israelites moving through his territory on their way to the Promised Land. He sent for Balaam, a non-Israelite prophet and diviner, to bribe him to pronounce a curse on the Israelites. Concerning the donkey, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/jackass-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11644,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-story-of-balaam\/","url_meta":{"origin":29598,"position":4},"title":"The Story of Balaam","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Numbers 22:22-35\u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Background \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As the children of Israel left their wanderings in the wilderness and move towards the promised land, they had to cross through the territories of a few countries. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The leaders of these countries were nervous to have such a large mass of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93879,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-way-of-balaam\/","url_meta":{"origin":29598,"position":5},"title":"The Way of Balaam","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edwin Crozier via Read the Bible, Make Disciples Peter's descriptions of the false teachers in II Peter 2 are as creative as they are intense. We could spend pages and pages walking through each description. However, I want to home in on one allusion. This reference highlights the slippery\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}