Balaam's reckless path

“The angel of the Lord asked him, ‘Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before Me.’” Numbers 22:32
In Numbers 22 we have the account of Balak, the king of Moab, requesting Balaam, a prophet, to come and curse Israel for him. Initially God said ‘No,’ and Balaam refused to go. The second time, God permitted him, but as he went God was angry and sent the angel of the Lord (thought by most Bible scholars to be a reference to Jesus appearing in the Old Testament) to oppose him. Then we have the quite amusing incident of how Balaam’s donkey saw the angel and tried to avoid Him by turning off the path or laying down underneath Balaam. He beat her, and then God enabled her to speak (Num. 22:28).
I used to wonder why God got angry with Balaam after telling him it was ok to go. Apparently, it was Balaam’s attitude in going. The prospect of a great reward awaited him, and he was itching to take it up. Next, we need to look at what God said to him: “Since these men have come to summon you, go with them, but do only what I tell you” (Num. 22:20). The word ‘since’ (NIV) should probably be ‘when’. The men had come to Balaam the day before and he had told them no, but invited them to stay the night in case God changed His mind. What God actually told Balaam was, if they came back to him in the morning and asked him again, then he could go. Apparently Balaam didn’t wait for them to ask, but went to them.
Sometimes we can do exactly the same thing. We have our heart set on something, which might be far from what God desires for us. We keep pressing and pressing, hoping that by our pleading God will eventually give in. Sometimes He will make a concession, but as we learn from the Scriptures, it never turns out to be the best thing for us. We can be sure of this: if our path is reckless, God will oppose us. He doesn’t do this because He hates us, but because He loves us, and He doesn’t want us to get hurt.