Then God’s anger was aroused because he went, and the Angel of the Lord took His stand in the way as an adversary against him. And he was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. 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. Then the Angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on this side and a wall on that side. And when the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, she pushed herself against the wall and crushed Balaam’s foot against the wall; so he struck her again. Then the Angel of the Lord went further, and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. And when the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam; so Balaam’s anger was aroused, 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?” – Numbers 22:22-28 NKJV (Read the rest of the story in Numbers 22) 

You could say that Balaam was cut off at the pass! I was once cut off at the pass by a large group of native-Americans. It was when I was 17 or 18 years old playing guitar in group. We played at dances all over western Oklahoma and one of those dances was at Canton, Oklahoma where there is a large native-American population. After the dance was over, we loaded all the equipment into the trailer; and, I was simply tired and relieved and let out a war whoop, something I did from time to time. However, there was a large group of native-Americans at the dance, and they rightly took offense thinking that I was mocking or taunting them. 

Driving off from the dance venue to the main road was a dirt road about a quarter of a mile long. Before we reached the main road, we were cut off you could say at the pass by a long line of native-Americans running to intercept us. They were yelling and rocking the car and at least a couple of us were a little frightened by this! Especially as one of them was tapping on the window with his knife. Two of the members of our group who had booked the dance, and knew some of those surrounding us, got out of the car and defused the situation. I think that was the last time I ever did a war whoop! 

Balaam was blocked by God from doing something really stupid at least that time. I believe God has used the situation I described in my life to block me from being so insensitive to people around me from that point on. 

Have you ever been cut off at the pass? Has God blocked you from doing something that you thought was a good thing at the time? Since that time God has blocked me from many other things and delayed other things. I’ve come to recognize that God indeed knows far better than I will ever know about what I should do or not do.  

Every time God blocks us or delays us, this is a good thing! We can rejoice that God has intervened and is at work in our lives. We can rejoice that He cares about us personally, individually enough to stop us from what would harm us or others.