Numbers 22:29
And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee. And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.
The animal turned aside and stopped and held back because a heavenly messenger barred the road with a drawn sword to cut him down for stubbornly setting out toward Balak after being first forbidden, for moving against the divine will and for abusing the beast. Beside himself with rage at being halted, he charged the beast with deliberately making a fool of him and declared he would kill it on the spot if a sword were in his hand. He was so blinded by passion and fury that the fact the creature was speaking did not strike him as remarkable or extraordinary. Covetousness and ambition had completely blinded him to divine intervention standing in his path. The threat carries irony, for one journeying to curse an entire people could not even take the life of the animal he rode.
The resistance gave no ground for cruelty, and the angry death-wish was cruelty itself, witnessed and opposed by the angel, showing that human beings are accountable to God for harsh treatment of animals who are under His care. The halting was God restraining the would-be curser of Israel on his journey, even as He later restrained Saul's messengers and Saul himself from murderous intent, displaying power to overrule human anger and shield His servant. He stands as the type of those who work contrary to God from selfishness and covetousness, carrying self and personal plans into sacred work, leaving God out, and thereby becoming hindrances to that work. Balak's leading him from point to point in vain hope of turning Israel's blessing into a curse pictures the repeated efforts to move Luther from steadfastness to retraction, proving human applause and fear of man powerless against a decision sustained by divine power.