Snake on a Stick

Numbers 21:4 They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; ⁵ they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" ⁶ Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. ⁷ The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people. ⁸ The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." ⁹ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

A family was sitting around the dinner table one evening waiting for their dad to get in from work. Finally, he came in late because it had been a rough day. When he came in, he sat down at the table and offered thanks for the food. As soon as he finished his prayer, he began to complain and grumble about how awful things were going at work. The boss was a jerk and the workers were lazy. Then his wife brought in the food. Since he had come in so late, the food that was supposed to be cold was warm and the food that was supposed to be hot was cold. The main dish was overcooked and dried out. The bread was hard. And he made sure and pointed out what was wrong with everything. Finally, after hearing all the complaints, his youngest daughter asked him a question. “Daddy, do you think God heard you when you prayed a few minutes ago?” “Well, yes, sweetheart. Of course, He did.” Then she asked, “Do you think He heard everything you said after that?” “Why, yes sweetheart. God hears everything.” Finally, she asked, “Which one do you think He believed?”

Do you ever offer up prayers of thanksgiving and praise and then follow that up with whines of grumbling and complaining? Sure you do! We all do! God answers our prayers, but we are impatient at the speed at which God is answering those prayers. God pours blessings upon our lives, yet we doubt that everything is good and worry that everything won’t be for our best. God has granted us home, family, income, Christian education, a church, and much more, yet we are dissatisfied with our lot in life. And so we bellyache. We bellow. We bawl. If not always with our mouths, then in our hearts and minds.

We grumble against our pastor. We complain about our teachers. We badmouth our politicians. We belittle our parents or our children. Questioning God. Demanding answers. Wanting different. Wanting better. Wanting more.

In that respect, we are very much like the Old Testament Israelites. Consider the litany of their grumbling:

When the people escaped Egypt, they came to the Red Sea, with the Egyptian army in the distance, and they grumble that God had brought them out there to kill them. But God parted the Sea and drowned the Egyptians.

Then, just three days after this greatest of Old Testament miracles – just three days later! – they grumble that they have no water in the desert. God must have brought them out into the desert to let them die of thirst. But God turned bitter water sweet for them.

A few days after that, their food supply began to run low, and so they began to grumble that God had brought them into the desert so they could starve to death. But God rained down bread for heaven for them – heavenly manna.

They continued to grumble. They worried about water, so they grumbled. They grumbled that they had only manna to eat. They grumbled because they got tired of Moses’ leadership. They finally get to the edge of the Promised Land, but then they grumble that it would be too hard to get into it. So they turn around, and what do they do next? They grumble about a lack of water and food again!

The Israelites sound like they were pretty good at grumbling, don’t you think? Grumbling because they were dissatisfied. Grumbling because they were impatient. Grumbling because they were grumbling. Grumbling because there was too much grumbling. Wow! Old Testament Israelites sound an awful lot like … 21^st century American Christians. We grumble when the life and gifts God gives to us aren’t good enough for us. We complain when we want what the other guy has. We protest when we think we deserve better.

So, what did God do with these grumbling, complaining, impatient children of Israel? He sent poisonous snakes to bite them. Which doesn’t sound very loving, does it? Until you consider the alternative – to let them continue in their sins; to let them destroy themselves and rebel and sin themselves to death. It’s like you spanking your 3-year-old or giving your student a demerit or grounding your teenage daughter or making your college student pay off his own debts. Tough love! But love, nonetheless!

God loved them. He loved them despite their incessant whining and rebellion. And so He did what was hard and painful. He brought righteous judgment upon them. He sent venomous snakes to bite them and poison them to death. The same venomous snakes that naturally lived in the desert, but God had apparently protected the Israelites from for all this time. Now God sends the snakes to wake them up and turn the people back to Him. Before the snakes had shunned their camp. Now they invade it. Before God had brought them manna and quail to feast on. Now He brings snakes upon them to bite them. “The whole creation is at war with those that are in arms against God.” (Matthew Henry Commentary)

This is the tough love and discipline they needed to live – not just at that moment, but for the rest of their lives. For they were on a road that was only going to lead them to death. So He sends the snakes to bite, but He allows Moses to make a snake out of bronze and put it on a pole so they might be healed. This bronze snake on a pole is just a snake on a stick … until God attaches His Word and promise to it. Then it becomes and Old Testament Sacrament. Because when God’s Word is attached to something visible and tangible, like Word and water in Baptism or Word and bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, then there is forgiveness, new life and salvation in that Sacrament.

God chastens, in order to heal. He tests, in order to strengthen. He gives the Law in order to drive us to the Gospel. He does what is best for us to drive us to Himself and His love. Just like the spanking is followed by a hug; the demerit is followed by a compliment; the grounding is followed by a teaching moment.

“For God so loved His people that He sent them venomous snakes, that whoever would look upon the bronze snake should not perish but have life. For God did not send the snakes to His people to condemn them, but to save them through the bronze snake.” That’s John 3:16-17 with an Old Testament twist! It’s helpful to consider this lesson in those terms because it helps us understand that God does not necessarily want us to be happy. He wants us to be saved!

Now that’s a pretty blasphemous thing to say in our world today, especially in America, where the pursuit of happiness isn’t everything, it’s the only thing! Especially as the Occupy Movement protests for more and Obama Care promises more. But look around at what the unbridled pursuit of happiness has bred in this country … and what it breeds in us. That picture isn’t pretty, and it’s not what God desires for your life. And so He may have to send a few snakes here and there in your life – not to punish you – but to keep your focus on Him, to keep you repenting, to keep you looking to Him in faith and relying upon Him for life and salvation. For this is love. Tough love.

The Israelites begged for God to take the snakes away. But did not remove the snakes. He allowed the snakes to continue to slither and bite and poison. But He provided relief. He provided healing. He provided life. True life. Not the plastic, artificial, substitute, imitation life of happiness and toys that this world holds before us, but true life. The Tree of Life. His life. Life which does not end, but will last into eternity.

And this is a life that only comes through the Son. As we hear in our communion liturgy: “He brought the gift the salvation to all people by his death on the tree of the cross, so that the devil, who overcame us by a tree, would in turn by a tree be overcome.” Life which is demonstrated with the Lenten banner of the snake upon the cross.

Life and love found only in Jesus Christ. As Jesus taught Nicodemus on a dark evening, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). God has provided the cure, a cure that curiously looks like the disease. His Son on the stick of the cross, dying a cursed death. He looks damned by God, stricken, smitten and afflicted … and He is, in our place, for us and for our salvation.

This is how much God loves this snake-bitten world. He doesn’t simply love it abstractly and in general. “Oh, nice world, I love you.” He loves the world in a very specific way and personal way. He sent His Son Jesus, who provided the cure by being made in the likeness of that which wounded. Though He was perfectly free from sin, yet He was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3). As the bronze snake was lifted up and people could fix their eyes on it and have life, so Jesus Christ was lifted up on the cross, so all may fix their eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, and receive life in Him (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus was lifted up and became a spectacle to the world so that the world might be saved through Him.  

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17). That’s Numbers 21:9 with a New Testament twist!

The Father didn’t send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to be condemned for the world. His condemnation is our acquittal. His death is our life. He was put on trial before men so mankind might receive the verdict of innocence at the trial of Judgment Day. He came to be lifted up and to draw all to Himself in His death.

Earlier we saw the parallels between the grumbling Israelites and us. But there are also parallels of God’s grace upon the Israelites and us. God’s people were slaves in Egypt, and we are born slaves to sin. God rescued His people and washed away their captors through the waters of the Red Sea, and God rescued us and washed away our sin through the waters of Holy Baptism. (We see that washing and rescuing today with the baptisms of Dylan and Dalton).) God provided His people with bread from heaven, manna, to eat, and water to drink during the time of their wandering, and He has provided us the true food and drink from heaven – the spiritual food of His Son’s true body and blood in Holy Communion, for us to eat and drink in our sojourn here on earth. And as He led His people of Israel to the Promised Land of Canaan, so He is leading us to the true Promised Land of heaven. What mercy God has shown us, in all that He has given to us – both physically and spiritually – even as we grumble and complain against Him; even as we are weak in faith, and filled with doubts and worries.

God does this because He knows how hard it is to be in the wilderness. He knows, because was there. The Son of God, our Savior, was out there in the same desert, alone, for 40 days with no food or drink, and being attacked by that venomous ancient serpent named Satan. And he took those bites of Satan, for that is why He came. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.” He gave Him to take our place. To take those fangs of Satan into His flesh, to take that poison and venom into His blood, to take our punishment in our place. Jesus became like the serpent on the stick so that He could crush the Ancient Serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15).

On the cross, Jesus has taken our worst and given us His best. He has taken our poverty and given us His riches. He has taken our sin and sickness and death and given us forgiveness and life and salvation. So stop your grumbling! Jesus has given you everything you need. Not through a snake on a stick, but through Christ upon the cross. Amen.