Balaam’s Ass

President Reagan told a Savings and Loan officials convention that he would “stay the course”. Since then he has suggested speeding up the pace by advancing the next tax cut from July 1 to January 1.

According to most political analysts the voters commanded him to try some different routes to his goal of a balanced budget. He insists the analysts are wrong. His Director of the Budget and the Chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers warn him such an action would add to the deficit and make the depression worse. He rejects their wisdom. The leaders of his own party in Congress tell him the “course” is blocked; they can’t get the votes. He vows to beat down all opposition. He will not bend to alleviate the suffering of the unemployed shivering in the shacks and tents of the “Reagan Ranches” in the SunBelt to which he urged them to migrate.

All this reminds me of the story of Balaam’s ass, in the Bible (Numbers 22:21-35). Don’t stop reading. The President is not the ass. The ass is the intelligent character in the story.

Balaam was a man with a reputation for ability to call down supernatural powers from heaven. Balak was the king of Moab, who sent for Balaam to put a curse on the invading Israelites. Balaam saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab to make a deal. According to the story God’s anger was kindled against him, and sent an angel of the Lord with a fiery sword to block his way. The ass saw the angel in the road and turned aside into a field, but Balaam struck the ass with a club and drove it back on to the “course”.

Balaam rode on until he came to a narrow path and the angel with the sword stood there. The ass saw the angel and crowded to one side of the path, pressing Balaam’s foot against the wall. Balaam clubbed the ass again. They came to a narrow place where there was no room to turn aside, and there was the angel waving his sword. The ass simply laid down and refused to move. Balaam beat the beast, accusing it of making sport of him, while the animal cried out in protest at the unwarranted abuse. The ass saw the angel, but Balaam was blind, intent on “staying the course”.

Then Balaam’s eyes were opened. The angel informed him that only the donkey’s turning aside had saved Balaam from death. Balaam started to return home, but the angel sent him on his way with a message different from the one with which he began his journey – a message of blessing rather than cursing.

It is quite a coincidence that the wise ass of the story if the symbol of the Democratic Party.