*** Remember that the time “springs ahead” this Saturday evening and we lose an hour of sleep.
The Scripture reading for this Sunday is Numbers 21:1-9.
The first three verses are important to the “bronze snake” narrative in verses 4-9. In the first three verses the Israelites act toward God as they are expected to. After the Canaanite king of Arad attacked the Israelites and captured some of them, the Israelites cried out to God. They trusted, believed, and made a vow with God. And God came through for them big-time, so much so in fact they named the place “Destruction.” After such an incident it should have been readily apparent that God was with them and for them.
However, a short while later things weren’t as good. God’s people didn’t like the desert, they didn’t like the manna, and they were a bit thirsty. As a result, they complained loudly and bitterly against both God and Moses. While experiencing the annoying discomforts of life in the desert wilderness they remembered Egypt with fondness. Never mind the fact that in Egypt they were forced into hard labour like making bricks without straw, compared to the desert wilderness apparently Egypt didn’t seem so bad.
As a result of this complaining, God sent snakes. Venomous snakes. People started dying. Those who lived realized that they had in fact sinned against God, and went to Moses and asked him to intercede on their behalf. Their simple request was this: “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” What I find interesting is that God intervened for His people, but He didn’t take the snakes away. Instead, he commissioned Moses to build a bronze snake and lift it up on a pole. Then, when anyone bitten by a snake looked up at the bronze snake, they lived. The snakes were still there, the snakes were still biting, only now God gave them a means of survival.
It’s a strange response, but perhaps only because God could have removed the snakes completely with the snap of His finger. However, maybe His very response teaches us something of the way God deals with the presence of sin, blindness, and ignorance among His people. The continued presence and consequences of sin serve as a constant reminder of our need for a way of life through death.
In John 3, Jesus applies this text to himself and we see the ultimate fulfillment of God’s response in Numbers 21:1-9. It turned out that just as Moses raised the serpent up to give God’s people a way of life through death so too must Jesus – our way of life through death – be lifted up on the cross so that all will be saved who look up to and believe in Him.