Numbers 21:4-9
From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, March 10, comes from Numbers chapter 21, verses four through nine. From Mount Hor, they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people be became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water and we load this worthless food. Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against you. Pray to the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole. And everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent, and live events, the reading this story from Numbers comes in the middle of Israel's wilderness wandering. Now you remember the story goes, God's people came out of Egypt, they went to Mount Sinai, and then from Mount Sinai, they came to the promised land, they get to the promised land, and they say, Nah, it's a little too scary. So what does God do? God says that He will put them to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. So that generation dies off. Now, while they're wandering through this wilderness, God is feeding them every single day with mana, it appears outside their tents, and they, they get food all the time. So the people get impatient. They go from Mount Hor, they go on the way to the Red Sea, around the land of Edom, and they're upset. So they say, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we load this worthless food. Now, you may have noticed, there's a bit of a contradiction there. They say there's no food and no water and we load this worthless food wait. If there's no food, how can you loathe it? What they're saying, actually, is that there's no food that they can gather, that is different from the manna God is giving them. And so they're like a manna. Again, I can go out my tent in the morning every day and just find food on the ground, this socks so they grumble. And you know, people who eat the same thing every day, and they get bored, and that's what's going on. The Lord responds by sending fiery serpents, we would say, probably venomous serpents and they bite the people and many die. When God's people sinned, God responded with physical punishments for them. And this is the history of Israel is that when they they turn against him, he sends serpents or an army or earthquakes or whatever, to come and afflict the people. So they realize they did something wrong and they say, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he take away the serpents from us. So here we get repentance. They go, we know we did something wrong. We were grumbling about the the good things that God has given us. We wanted something else, but we weren't thankful. Ask God to take them away. So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live. Now this is a key moment. The people asked, take the serpents away. God responds, put a serpent on a pole, and everyone who sees it will live. God doesn't take the serpents away. What God does is He offers a healing moment. So that if they are bitten by the serpent, they can look on the pole, and they will live. He doesn't take the punishment away, he doesn't take the pain or the suffering away. He just offers a way of escape. And so I think a lot of the Christian life is like this. We Christians can sometimes feel like the things of God are lowly, maybe not important enough. But what God provides us with just isn't exciting or interesting. Or we might consider in our congregations and mourn that some of them are shrinking. And that the, the word of God, even though it proclaimed to the faithful is still just, maybe God isn't gathering together the people like he did back in the 60s, or the 80s, or the 2000s, or whatever it was the heyday of your congregation, and was just like, Ah, this just doesn't seem to be working. And then we can feel ungrateful, or maybe God's provision just isn't enough for us. Whatever it is, when we ask God to take away the suffering and death that comes into our lives as a result of sin, he doesn't write. He doesn't take away the pain and the suffering that all human beings experience. What he does, is he gives us a way to live through it through Jesus Christ. And the provision that God provides is not a bronze snake that was lifted up on a pole but a Savior, who was lifted up on a cross that all who follow Him, even though we die, we will live. And so we get something very similar to what Moses put up on the pole is that God doesn't take away the serpents from Israel, just as God does not take away the suffering from us. What he does is he provides an escape through Jesus Christ, so we can have resurrection. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai