THE PRESENCE OF ANGELS
Then THE LORD OPENED BALAAM’S EYES, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face.
Numbers 22:31
Perceptibly, the eyes of Adam and Eve that got opened in the Garden of Eden as a result of sin were not their spiritual eyes.
The sin only opened their eyes of understanding of differentiating good from evil, which was why they took leaves to cover their nakedness. Thereafter, the knowledge of good and evil became evident in their lives: Their eyes of understanding were opened, but their spiritual eyes were still closed.
Only few human beings in the Bible days were privileged to have their spiritual eyes, fully, opened.
Elisha was one of these people. Nothing moved him as he knew virtually everything that happened around him, nothing necessitated his fear.
His servant thought all hope was lost when the Syrian soldiers surrounded them in a manner never seen or experienced by him before. Not until Elisha had prayed for his spiritual eyes to be opened did he realize there was no cause for alarm.
Similarly with the case of the servant of Elisha, Balaam's spiritual eyes were closed.
As he kept on striking his Donkey so that she could move forward, he never knew that an Angel was holding onto his drawn sword and ready to kill him in case the animal tried to bypass him.
Notably, Angels that use swords do not expose them, their swords are always in Sheaths. Whenever the sword of an Angel was seen exposed in the Bible days, it meant someone or several people were in serious trouble.
Immediately any Angel was done killing, he returned his sword to his sheath.
A perfect instance was seen at Jerusalem when God sent an Angel to kill for 3 days. Before then, David had sinned for counting the number of the children of Israel.
As God made up his mind to punish him, he sent David’s Seer, Gad, to place three options of his punishment before him.
He was to choose one of these three punishments:
1. three years famine,
2. three months attack from his enemies
or
3. three days plague of his Angel’s killing.
His trust in the mercy of God made him choose the third option.
Had it not been for the Lord’s mercy, indeed, has David rightly believed, Israel would have been ruined as the killing of an Angel (ONE ANGEL) can claim the lives of close to 200,000 people in one night (remember one angel killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night, 2 Kings 19:35).
Now imagine an Angel killing both during the day and night for THREE DAYS. Of course, that would have been — using the Assyrians' killing standard — 185,000 killing in the morning, 185,000 killing in the night multiplied by 3 days equals 1,110,000 (ONE MILLION, ONE HUNDRED AND TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE)…hmmmmnnm.
Isreal would have been ruined as that number was close to the number of people Joab, the commander of David’s army, counted in the whole land of Isreal, minus the Levites and Benjamites that were not counted.
Anyone would have assumed that that total number of casualty to be correct. Unfortunately, when God released his Angel to go ahead and start killing for the 3 days, it was not quite long the Angel started and 70,000 people were already dead.
So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and SEVENTY THOUSAND MEN of Israel FELL.
1 Chronicles 21:14
In other words, that Angel was much more stronger than the one that killed the 185,000 Assyrians in one night.
At the point God figured out 70,000 people were gone at the initial stage of the Angel's action, he relented and commanded the Angel to return his sword to its sheath.
So the Lord commanded the angel, and he returned his SWORD TO ITS SHEATH.
1 Chronicles 21:27
Notably, David, in all his life, even from a teenage age, was never afraid of anything, not even a ferocious Lion or unbeatable Bear nor the greatest giant warrior of Gath could scare him. But the day he set his eyes on the sword of that particular Angel, he was scared beyond words could describe. The fear deterred him from going up to Gideon to consult God as he had witnessed what the mighty sword of one Angel could do in few hours.
But David could not go before it to inquire of God, for he was AFRAID of the sword of the angel of the Lord..
1 Chronicles 21:30
So, when an Angel came to stop Balaam on his way to Moab, he was on a deadly mission as his sword was not in a sheath as revealed in Numbers 22:31.
He, then, told Balaam in the 33rd verse…
The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me these three times. If she had NOT TURNED aside from Me, surely I WOULD also HAVE KILLED YOU by now, and let her live.”
Numbers 22:33
Before the Angel revealed his mission above, something pertinent happened which did not quite surprise Balaam: His Donkey spoke to him.
Of course, no animal in the world can speak in “human tongue” as we call it. Actually, at the very beginning of the world, all animals could speak. That was why the Serpent (Snake) was able to talk with Eve.
Then THE SERPENT SAID to the woman, “You will not surely die.
Genesis 3:4
Realistically, it was not an unusual act for animals in the Garden of Eden to talk, which was why Eve was not surprised as they both communicated.
This ability of animals was what Satan took advantage off. Knowing the kind of person Satan was, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he chose Snake.
Satan has always been an intelligent being. Remember all Angels were created and endowed with intelligence beyond human comprehension (we will see how intelligent Angels are in my forthcoming posts).
He knew Snake to be very cunny. Therefore, he chose to use it out of all the animals in the Garden of Eden.
Now the serpent WAS MORE CUNNING than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made…
Genesis 3:1
Can you see that?
Anyone who thinks the Devil doesn’t know anything know next to nothing about Angels.
After the fall, God cursed the first man and woman, including the snake (a curse that doesn’t end in the life of the accursed, a generational curse).
After the incident, as God didn’t want Satan to keep using this conspicuous ability of animals, God took away the talking ability of them all.
Mind you, animals' talking ability was gone, but God didn’t remove their ability to see spiritual things.
Till date, several animals can still see spiritual things.
Take a look at that story of Balaam again below.
You will realize God opened the eyes of Balaam in Numbers 22:31, quoted at the beginning of this chapter, but he didn’t have to open the eyes of the Donkey, who saw the Angel before Balaam because animals' spiritual eyes were never closed right from the Garden of Eden.
Now the DONKEY SAW THE ANGEL of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand, and the donkey turned aside out of the way and went into the field. So Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back onto the road.
Numbers 22:23
This same ability of seeing the spiritual world is what is evident in the life of dogs around us.
This is why I encourage people to have in their possession animal that sees and reacts to spiritual things.
Of course, not all animals are created the same way; some animals will see and never react while some will see and react immediately.
As an instance, let me show you the nature God created in Horse.
19 Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?
20 Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.
21 He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.
22 He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword.
23 The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield.
24 He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet.
25 He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting
Job 39:8
Those aforementioned verses were part of the responses God gave Job in the days of his calamity.
In his response, God made some striking revelations about Horse. Of course, he created it; therefore, he is in the best position to tell us more about its nature.
God told Job that in all his wisdom, he could not make Horse afraid. In fact, the Almighty God said that that animal ridicules fear. When people are afraid of anything, this animal makes fear assumes the position of nothing to be reckoned with.
Horse is so confident in its strength that no number of armed men can affright him. Even at the sight of the sharpest sword ever, he turns not aside.
That’s the reason warriors went to war in the ancient times with horse.
So, if Balaam had ridden a horse on his way to Moab, he would have died from the sword of the Angel, as horse never get scared of anyone armed with any kind weapon of war.
In fact, Balaam wouldn’t have realized there was a sword ahead as Horse would not have reacted to it.
Onward…
Some animals see things, but never react. However, Dogs are quite the opposite, these animals, being domestic, are the best animals one can have around.
They bark at the sight of any stranger and their ability to see spiritual things make humans aware of the presence of a spiritual being.
These domestic animals, of course, don’t just bark. They only bark when they see strange people around. The moment they start barking when nobody is in sight; it means they are seeing a spiritual being or beings around.
They would have better complemented our weakness if they could talk as they did in the Garden of Eden. In other words, they would have communicated to us better whenever they see things.
Unfortunately, the reverse is the case. With that reality, not complementing the deficiency of our own closed spiritual eyes by owing a dog is simply short-changing ourselves.
If you are even bold enough, the moment your dog start barking at the sight of no one, that is the best time to communicate with a spiritual being, around, even though you can’t see him.
Mind you, if a dog is terrified, it means the spiritual being that is out of sight is probably on a bad or deadly mission.
Also, if your dog barks at the sight of no one and suddenly sit down quietly, it means the animal has been shut up by the spiritual being.
This was the same scenario Daniel experienced in Babylon. He was casted into the Lions' den where no man could come out alive. Here is what Daniel recorded for us…
My God sent HIS ANGEL and SHUT THE LIONS’ MOUTHS, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you.”
Daniel 6:22
Only God knows the number of Lions in the den when Daniel was thrown into it. The most striking thing is that it took the power of ONE ANGEL to shut all of those animals' mouths.
Lions, in their group, are too mighty to be dared. Even the appetites of their young ones cannot be satisfied by man as stated in the word of God.
Observably, an extraordinary strength is required to stop them from eating when they see food.
At the sight of seeing Daniel being thrown into the den, everyone would have bid him farewell as no man could stop those lions, in their number, not to finish him to the bones.
Fortunately for Daniel, God sent an Angel to stop all of them by shutting their mouths. So, if these animals were to be dog, none of them would have been able to bark while their mouths were being shut up, if Lions could turn out to be this gentle at the sight of seeing food placed right in front of them.
Therefore, studying your dog’s actions and reactions will go a long way to help you decipher what is happening around, in the spirit realm.
Moreover, a blind man (with physical and spiritual eyes closed) who owns a dog is wiser than a man (with opened physical eyes) who sees nothing bad in not having a dog. Truth be told, both men are blind. It’s just the level of their visual impairment that is different.
LORD HAVE MERCY.
