From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go
around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. 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 detest this miserable food.” Then the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and
they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We
have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to
take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and
set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and
put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look
at the serpent of bronze and live. Numbers
21:4 - 9 (NRSVA)
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that
whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have
eternal life. “Indeed,
God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that
the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do
not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name
of the only Son of God. And
this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved
darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do
not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it
may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” John 3:14 - 21 (NRSVA)
I’m reasonably certain there are
some people in this world who just adore snakes like “Crocodile Hunter” Steve
Irwin did; just nobody near this pulpit!
This morning’s Old
Testament text has the stage set with zillions of vipers biting and killing
Israelites. There’s no great surprise
that the killer’s name is rebellion!
God’s people rebelled, and it got them snakes!
If we go back in
Israel’s history we find they had been enslaved by the Egyptians for over 400
years. Moses, God’s deliverer led the
people out of that bondage, but their disobedience in failing to follow God’s
leadership into the Promised Land caused them to wander about in the wilderness
for 40 years.
The incident before
us is one of many recorded in Scripture of how unbelieving God’s people can
act. In their discouragement
· they grumbled about God’s man, Moses
· they grumbled about God’s plan for them
· they even grumbled about the free food, manna
“Moses, God…..have
you all brought us out here just to die?”
This grumbling was rebellion – a statement of disbelief that God could
actually take care of them. Imagine the
audacity of that;
· They had walked out of Egypt years before without so
much as a squeal out of the Egyptian bosses, and God buried the Egyptian army
in the Red Sea just for punctuation.
· Their clothing and shoes didn’t wear out for forty
years of wilderness wandering.
· Their food was consistently provided, just lying on
the ground every morning….no hunting, fishing or farming…just pick it up and
chew!
How could they be so
unbelieving that God could or would take care of them? He had been doing that in the most open and
measurable way for four decades right in the middle of a barren wasteland.
Rebellion doesn’t
make sense, and it is nothing new; Adam and Eve started the whole process. Eve saw the fruit that they’d been warned
wasn’t for them. It went something like
this: she wanted it; she took it, and he
went right along! And rebellion has been
man’s condition ever since. The Bible
calls this rebellion against God “sin” and the condition is more than epidemic;
it is endemic – everyone is a carrier as well as a victim!
…all have sinned Romans 3:23b (NRSVA)
Why Rebellion?
Why do men rebel
against God? It is a basic belief we all
have inside, deep-down that there are things, powers, and places to which we
feel entitled, but we don’t have. We
want what we want; this is the root cause of rebellion against God.
In so many ways the
story of Israel, God’s chosen family, parallels all of mankind. In fact their story is given to us in the Old
Testament as the example, so that we can learn how to have a right relationship
with God.
The account of the
brazen serpent upon a pole, and the rebellion that made it necessary was held
up by Jesus in our Gospel reading as the very picture of what the cross would
mean to us spiritually. We have a
rebellion inside of us that can only be healed by what Jesus did on the cross.
There are some
immutable principles contained in this story of rebellion and redemption. I want to share four:
Rebellion Against God Causes Suffering
Principles apply no
matter the circumstances. Up is always
up, no matter which way you’re facing.
The principle of suffering whenever we rebel against God’s way is
immutable; it cannot change. All sin
causes the sinner to suffer in some fashion; it also tends to cause the
sinner’s family and friends to suffer. Those
who rebel against God suffer!
Husbands and wives
who give-in to infidelity, or make a shambles of their marriage always suffer;
so do the children and extended family.
Ministers who murder their integrity also suffer and cause their
congregations to suffer.
Just as the
Israelites understood about the painful bite and deadly poison of vipers, so we
understand that rebellion causes suffering.
A second principle
is:
Ending Rebellion Means Choosing
God provided a means
of healing for the snake bites. Moses
placed a brazen serpent on a pole and set it up in the camp. Whenever someone was bitten, he simply had to
look to the pole in obedience in order to be spared death.
In the same way,
Jesus said His “lifting up” on the cross would be the place of spiritual
healing for anyone who would look to him.
A third principle:
Ending Rebellion Against God Only Comes by Surrender
The Israelites were
encouraged to “look and live”. It is a
form of surrender that required doing things God’s way. Simply put, there are three parts to
surrendering to God’s way…but they’re all so connected it is something of a
seamless movement towards God:
a. You
face your sin. Looking at the serpent on the pole was the
last thing a snake-bitten person wanted to do.
It is the same for us; it’s hard to admit to our sin.
But a person who
wants the burden of sin lifted must be willing to confess, to “look” in order
to live. Face your sin!
b. You
forsake your sin. We call it repentance; it is a matter of
turning away from something, and turning towards something else. In the case of the Israelites, they had to
forsake their grumbling and turn to the serpent on the pole. With anyone who would be forgiven, repentance
is a matter of turning from the sin that says, “I don’t need God” in order to
turn towards
Him.
c.
You embrace the Savior. Jesus Christ
is the Savior. When you turn away from
your sin, you find yourself facing the cross, and in so doing you are placing
your faith in the Savior to be YOUR Savior!
We turn and “look”
to the cross; the “live” part is up to God…and He is always true to His promise
to forgive sin!
A final principle:
Just as the snakes
were still biting Israelites and they had the recourse of looking to the
serpent on the pole – so we must realize that the sin that bit us is not going
to retreat.
We live in the light
of the knowledge that our adversary will continue to provide temptation. It is very seldom, even in the wake of
perfect forgiveness, that the consequences of sin and rebellion disappear. But the promise from God is that the power of
sin will be diminished for the believer who places his daily trust in Christ
and is filled with the Holy Spirit.
This is the point at
which I sense many Christians live less than an overcoming life in Christ. We have “looked” to the cross and found
forgiveness for our sins, and we live! But
we treat that forgiveness as if it is an event, and not a lifetime process of
living into the meaning of that forgiveness.
John Fischer, in his
book On a Hill Too Far Away, tells of a church in Old Greenwich,
Connecticut. There is a one-of-a- kind
cross in that church. It’s not that the
cross is overly unique. What’s really
strange is where the Cross is positioned in the sanctuary. This cross isn’t behind or above the
altar. The cross in this church is
bolted down into the concrete floor - right in the middle of the aisle. It’s between the pews and the altar. It’s an obstruction. The pastor’s words have to pass through
it. The congregation’s eyes always have
it somewhere in view.
This is “look and
live” – when a person or a congregation always has the cross in view.
·
When I look at my
family I see them through the cross lens.
·
When I look at my
job I see it as an extension of an opportunity to serve the Lord of the
cross.
·
When I breathe my
next breath I sense the cross lifting me to inhale, and I hear laughter from
above as Jesus tells the Father – “Look!
He’s living!”
