THE DIGNITY OF DONKEYS
MARK 11:1-3
Everybody is looking for something new and unique.
The beauty of the ordinary.
Ordinary people and ordinary situations, and a God who gives
extraordinary results.
“Dignity of Donkeys”, sounds like a paradox.
Growing up you wanted to be like an eagle, horse or cheetah,
BUT NEVER A DONKEY.
A donkey? That is what you “pin the tail” on.
You let God in on the situation and give God a chance to work in
your life and you can prepare yourself for great things.
I. GENESIS 36:24 ANAH AND HIS MULES
Genesis 36:24, “And these are the children of Zibeon; both Ajah,
and Anah: this was that Anah that found the mules in the
wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father.”
Here in this ordinary chapter full of uninteresting names of
Esau’s generations we find something extraordinary.
We find a man by the name of Anah.
He wasn’t doing anything great, in fact, he was doing what
nobody else wanted to do and that was being a shepherd over a
bunch of donkeys. (It would have been different if they had been
Arabian horses).
They weren’t even his; they were his dads.
He probably got up that morning like many other mornings and
his daddy said, “Son, I want you to go take care of the donkeys.”
“But dad, I’m tired of the wilderness and I’m tired of these
donkeys.”
Ever feel that way? Maybe even about our spiritual life?
He obeyed his daddy and 1 more time he took those donkeys out
that day to that barren wilderness, except this time he stumbles
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across something that would lift him up to a place of prominence
and usefulness!!
HE FOUND A NEW ANIMAL CALLED A MULE!
A mule is a cross-breed between a male donkey and a female
horse.
They inherit the better qualities from each side.
HORSE- size, speed, and trainability.
DONKEY- stamina, surefootedness, patience, and intelligence.
From the donkey they inherit longer ears which a desert adaptation
for cooling the body. From the donkey mules have heavier eye
sockets set farther out on the side of the head, resulting in a wider
field of vision than the horse has. Like the donkey, the mule
needn’t be shod unless the animal is regularly worked in rocky
terrain. A frightened mule won’t bolt like a horse.
The mule’s coat is fine in summer, like a horse’s, but coarse in
winter, like a donkey’s.
He found something profitable for that wilderness!
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE VALUE OF OBEDIENCE!
I know that 90% of our jobs are said to be simple repetitive tasks,
but if we do them to the best of our abilities and be obedient God
will reward us.
Matthew 25:21, “His lord said unto him, Well done thou good
(holy) and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few
things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter into the joy
of thy lord.”
Exodus 19:5, “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed,
and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me
above all people: for all the earth is mine.”
Deuteronomy 5:29, GOD’S PLEA “Oh that there were such an
heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my
commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with
their children forever!”
Keep doing the ordinary, being obedient, being a servant.
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Keep doing those little things and before long you will find
yourself becoming profitable for the kingdom of God.
We sometimes feel like Anah, that large tracts of our everyday
experience is as barren and unpromising as any desert, and that we
spend too much of our life feeding donkeys.
Keep going through that wilderness.
There is no telling what treasure you might find.
A poor, sickly, barely educated factory girl in Glasgow who
lived by herself, but she taught a bunch of rough, unruly boys in a
mission field. Faithfull and tenderly year after year she told them
the simple story of the Cross, and one by one through her influence
she led them to Christ. On her tombstone are these words that
explains her simple life, “She did no miracle, but all things she
said of Jesus were true, and many believed on Him there.”
There is no outlook too barren, no occupation to dull, to prevent
a man from stumbling upon the richest of treasures in the
wildderness.
Anah one himself a name in Scripture.
He enriched his life and others.
One man found a treasure in a field.
Shepherds found a Babe in a manger.
II. SAUL AND HIS KINGDOM
I Samuel 9:3; 19-21, 10:1 (read)
Just an ordinary event. The donkeys got loose and ran away.
Kish sends Saul to fetch them.
Behind these natural events was the leading of God’s divine
hand.
I Samuel 9:19-21; 10:1 Saul went out to look for donkeys and
found himself a kingdom. He found his life purpose.
Saul was simply obeying his parents.
When you obey those who have authority over you, you are
securing the influence of Heaven on your behalf!
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You would have thought he would have gotten the position by
being in a battle or by family position.
But he came from the littlest tribe in Israel.
He found God’s will for his life by simply chasing donkeys and
doing the ordinary.
So many times when we are looking for God’s will in a matter or
situation we are like Elijah waiting for something big.
But God isn’t always in the big things: the strong wind,
earthquake, or fire.
Sometimes it is in the ordinary things.
THE STILL (QUIET) SMALL VOICE!
* God’s will and purpose is out there; just keep on doing the
ordinary.
III. BALAAM’S DONKEY
Numbers 22:21-22, “And Balaam rose up in the morning, and
saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. 22 ¶ And
God's anger was kindled because he went: and the angel of the
LORD stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was
riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him.
Balaam begin to get a desire for payment and prestige at the
expense of bowing to the will of God.
Balaam sets off on an ordinary donkey ride like he had taken lots
of times on this same donkey.
All of a sudden this donkey sees something he has never seen
before – a big ol’ angel with a sword drawn in his hand.
So this donkey tries to take Balaam over to a field that was right
beside the road.
HE WAS TRYING TO TAKE BALAAM OFF THE ROAD OF
DESTRUCTION THAT HE WAS HEADED ON.
Sometimes we have to, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice
like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgressions, and the
house of Jacob their sins.”—Isaiah 58:1.
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God has called us to try to turn people off the pathway of
destruction that they are headed on.
Sometimes we have to “save with fear, pulling them out of the
fire; hating even the garment spotted (defiled) by the flesh.”
Yes, I know some will have to be won by compassion, but that is
for another message.
Hell is no longer preached on; the fear of God is left out.
Numbers 22:25, “And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD,
she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam's foot against
the wall: and he smote her again.”
Sometimes we might have to hurt feelings.
In the donkey’s case was the only way.
Charles Spurgeon said, “I sometimes hear of persons getting very
angry after a gospel sermon, and I say to myself, “I am not sorry
for it.” Sometimes when we are fishing the fish gets the hook into
his mouth. He pulls hard at the line. If he were dead, he would not;
but he is a live fish, worth the getting. Though he runs away for a
while, with the hook in his jaws, he cannot escape.
His very wriggling and his anger show that he has got the hook
and the hook has got him, Have the landing-net ready; we shall
land him by and by. Give him more line; let him spend his
strength, and then we will land him, and he shall belong to Christ
forever.”
BUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE DONKEY?
Vs. 23 he was smitten Vs. 25 he was smitten Vs. 27 beat with a
staff.
You had better be prepared to be persecuted like that donkey
was if you stand up for what is right.
We might be persecuted but we are standing between them and
judgment.
**You might feel insignificant as a donkey but if you make
yourself available you could be used to help save somebody on the
way to hell.**
KEEP GOING AFTER SOULS!!!!!
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IV. MARK 11:2-11 THE TRIUMPHAL ENTRY
This incident was so important that all 4 Gospel writers included
it in their books.
After Jesus has spent His ministry telling His disciples not to tell
anyone who He was He now chooses to draw attention to Himself.
Why now? Because the whole world must know that He was the
Son of God and the reason He came was to give His life as a
ransom for many.
HIS LIFE PURPOSE WAS ABOUT TO BE FULFILLED.
On this special day you would think He would choose a big white
stallion or a beautiful Arabian horse, but no, He sends for a
donkey.
Just an ordinary, stubborn, ugly, smelly donkey.
And then it was a colt- “A little donkey”.
G.K. Chesterton wrote a poem about this donkey. About what
odd events must have been going on in the world for a creature
like himself to be born.
That little donkey said,
“When Fishes flew and forests walk’d
And figs grew upon thorn
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born.
With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant (wondering) wings
The Devil’s walking parody (imitation)
On all four-footed things
The tatter’d outlaw of the earth
Of ancient crooked will
Starve, scourge, deride me, I am dumb
I keep my secret still.
Fools! For I also had my hour
One far fierce hour and sweet
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There was a shout about my ears
And palms beneath my feet.”
Yes, God gave even a donkey a chance to share in His glory.
HE WANTS TO GIVE YOU THAT CHANCE TO!
Rhys Pearson said in his message, “Donkey Wisdom”,
“It is the cry of every person who has ever said, “My nose is too
long” “My eyes are the wrong shape” “My legs are too fat”. For
every person, old or young, who looks in the mirror and says
“Yuk!”
For every teenager that has ever looked at themselves with
loathing wishing they were something else- and that is almost
every person at some time or another- here is the donkey’s cry,
The devil’s walking parody on all four-footed things. The teenager
cries “Everybody sees that my ears stick out”, and they feel like the
donkey.
The Donkey’s cry is the cry of everyone who ever felt they were
unimportant, unwanted, no good; that when God was handing out
beauty and gifts and abilities they were out of the room.”
Dr. Dobson has said that 95% of all teenagers wish some part of
their body could be changed.
John 15:16, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and
ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your
fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in
my name, he may give it you.”
You are important, valuable, handpicked!!!!
God didn’t create junk. He said, “Everything is good.”
Psalms 139:13-18, “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast
covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise thee; for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and
that my soul knoweth right well. 15 My substance was not hid from
thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the
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lowest parts of the earth. 16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet
being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written,
which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none
of them. 17 ¶ How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!
how great is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they are
more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.”
(Vs. 17-18) Bro. Bill Houston said, “Scientist believe there are
the same number of stars as grains of sand and they put the
number at 100 sextillion. That is 100 with 23 zeros behind it.”
Over a 70 year life span that would be 45 trillion thoughts that
God has for us a second!!!!
In the O.T. something always carried God’s presence.
The Ark of the Covenant and it was in the midst of the
Tabernacle.
In the Upper Room, “cloven tongues” like as of fire lit upon
them.
They carried and bore the flame.
As the Temple of the Holy Ghost we are carrying the presence of
God.
One person has said, “It only took one donkey to turn a city
upside down for Jesus.”
This donkey became God-driven!
CON:
I Peter 5:16, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
that he may exalt you in due time.”
Jesus has simple wants.
Will you give up your time, talents, property, to lift up the name
of Jesus Christ?
Someone who will say it is not about me, but about Him!