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 |  Subject: The God Who Sees  Tue Jan 13, 2015 9:22 am | |
| The God Who Sees
In Defense of the Faith
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Wendy Wippel
The website “Paranormal Haze” features a section called, “Weirdest Moments of the Bible”, which highlights, to be perfectly honest, some of the same Bible stories, that have perplexed the most devout for millennia as well. High on their list of "Weird Biblical Moments" is the story of Balaam. Most particularly, his donkey.If you remember Balaam you remember that Balak, king of Moab, knew that Balaam had a connection with the most high God because “he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.” Numbers 22:6. And Balak, afraid of the Israelites camped on the plains of Moab, desperately wanted Balaam to curse them.God forbade Balaam to curse them, because they were blessed by God. Balak begged Balaam again to help him; and finally Balaam rode out to Balak to pacify him.Yahweh, the God that Balaam repeatedly claimed allegiance to, wasn’t really happy about that decision. And he ended up using Balaam’s donkey to get that message across: - Quote :
- “God’s anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him. 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. Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. 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. 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. 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. 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 made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.” 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.”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. Numbers 22:22-31 NKJV
The “Skeptic’s Annotated Bible” (an atheist commentary of the Bible, posted online) variously labels sections of the Bible as being absurd, contradictory, boring, intolerant, promoting violence or a specific political viewpoint, disregarding family values, denying women’s rights, or already disproven by science. According to their very subjective opinion.This episode with Balaam, wherein his donkey sees the angel blocking Balaam’s path, is labeled as absurd. But is it really? You may remember studying the physics of light at some point in your student past; light is basically electromagnetic energy, which exists in a variety of wavelengths called the electromagnetic spectrum. The electromagnetic spectrum is divided into three divisions called infrared, the visible spectrum and ultraviolet. The visible spectrum, defined as the light that the human eye can normally see, is comprised of light in wavelengths between approximately 400 nm and 700 nm. Visible wavelengths pass through the atmosphere, in the process creating the typical blue sky as well as the rest of the colors familiar to our world. And it makes visual perception of our world, in general, possible. At least, as long as those things exist in the colors that we are familiar with, colors that are created by light that falls between 400 and 700 nm. Those wavelengths that can perceived by the normal human eye. But it wasn’t Balaam that saw the angel. So it wasn’t a human eye.The eye that saw the angel belonged to a donkey. And it is well-demonstrated that animals, in fact, can often see wavelengths both longer and shorter than the human eye can see. We know, for example, that hedgehogs, dogs, cats, ferrets, okapis, spiders and bees can see into the ultraviolet spectrum, and that snakes, fish, and mosquitoes can see infrared.So maybe Balaam’s story isn’t so preposterous at all.But wait! There’s more!The definition, again, of visible light is the spectrum of light wavelengths that the normal human eye can see, actually meaning the normal human adult eye. Because children, as it happens, can actually see well into the ultraviolet range, down to a wavelength of about 310 nm.To which I can personally attest.My younger daughter, Abby, was born two months early and weighed a whopping four pounds. She was in neonatal intensive care for nearly two weeks, but finally came home, and reached her due date, as it were, on the 4th of July. We celebrated the 4th in the customary manner, but by the time the fireworks had faded away, we realized that Abby was again very ill. By the next morning she was in intensive care again, having contracted RSV (Respiratory Syncitial Virus), an respiratory virus, particularly in young children. The next week, at her bedside, was excruciating. A week later, however, having beaten death a second time, she came home.Home, but not completely healthy. For the next two years she had a brutal chronic cough, particularly when she was lying flat in her crib. Every night. For the next three years, normality for me consisted of:1) About an hour and a half of sleep.2) Waking to Abby coughing violently and crying (she once coughed till she passed out at the grocery store).3) About a half hour of rocking her back to sleep.4) Repeat till morning.I was still working full time through during these three years, so needless to say I was pretty much at the end of my rope.One night, in particular, is etched in my memory. It was maybe 4:00 AM, and it was the third time I had gotten up to comfort my precious baby girl, who was now about two years old. As was my habit, I spent these groggy moments not only rocking, but begging God to restore my baby’s health and grant me a full night’s sleep.Her sobs had stilled, and Abby was curled up contentedly in my arms, getting close to drifting back to sleep, when suddenly she pointed into a corner of our nursery ceiling and said excitedly, “Mommy! Look at the pretty lady!” “Look at the pretty lady, Mommy!I didn’t see a pretty lady. But I was very sure that an angel had been sent to let me know that, like Hagar, I had an El Roi—A God who sees me and knows my burdens. And that did comfort me until, some time later, she finally grew out of the constant coughing.And now I know why it was only Abby that saw the “pretty lady”.The fact is that the Bible tells us that we are surrounded other “dimensions” of creation, and that these dimensions are filled by both angels and demons, and a great cloud of witnesses. (Hebrews 12:1-3) - Quote :
- For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12
- Quote :
- “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.” Colossians 1:16
Which is plenty spooky when you think about it. There are all kinds of beings surrounding us that, because most kinds of light are not visible to the “normal” human eye, we can’t see. But they are there, and most of them don’t like us.Who needs the “Woman in Black”, right? The good news is that we have nothing to fear, because, through Christ, the victory is already ours: - Quote :
- “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them. Colossians 2:15
By the way, the Skeptics Annotated Bible also labels the fact that Balaam’s donkey talks as absurd, and I realize that that opinion is, from their perspective, kind of warranted. It is a little harder to explain. As yet, I must admit that I don’t have a scientific explanation for that. All I can say is that when God wants to get His point across, even the stones themselves can sing. |
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