B, Lent 4 - Numbers 21:4-7 "Serpents, Sin, & Salvation"
God is patient with humanity. In the days of disobedience before the flood,
God was patient. God was patient with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. While the
Israelites lived in Egypt, God was patient for four hundred years. In the wilderness after the Israelites were
exiled from Egypt, God continued to be patient.
Today, God continues to be patient with his church, and he continues to
be patient with you!
So, what is it with — me, you, the church, the Israelites —
all of humanity, that God needs to be patient?
What is it that allows all of humanity to stand as one before God’s
patience?
God is patient with our lack of patience. Our impatience can come from various things,
but at its root is our displeasure with suffering. Therefore, God suffers with our lack of
endurance in suffering.
Ultimately, God sent his only begotten Son to suffer in our
place! Yet in this life, you and I will
still struggle with suffering.
Nevertheless, God is pleased to be patient with us. He takes the long way round, he takes the way
of patience, the patient path. And we
can be very thankful for that!
When God lifted Israel out of bondage in Egypt, he could
have marched them into Canaan in a relatively short amount of time. But he took the patient path, leading Israel
forty years, his way in the Sinai wilderness, the way of suffering that led to
salvation in the land of milk and honey.
The bronze serpent story gives us a window into God’s
patience and his mega-work of humanity’s salvation.
The Israelites became impatient with the way of God! They spoke against God and his servant
Moses! So, God sends fiery serpents amongst
them.
Let’s take a moment to take this in! God sends fiery poisonous serpents to bite his
people. Not only do the serpents look
fiery, a bronze coppery colour, they are fiery, wielding the rod of God’s
wrath. Their mouths are fiery, in that
their venom inflicts a hellish bite leading to agony and certain death.
The Israelite’s impatience with God, his providence in the
wilderness, and with Moses, was instantly removed by the Israelite’s immediate
need for a remedy against the forced death from the fierce fangs of serpents
sent by God.
Snakes are animals that cause fear. Since Satan spoke from a serpent in the
garden of Eden, snakes have been feared by humans. Moses ran from his staff that turned into a
serpent when God commanded him to throw it on the ground (Exodus 4:3). So, there’s no doubt the venomous snakes got
their attention.
The wilderness is a place of serpents. The Israelites would have seen plenty as they
walked the way of freedom! Up until this
event, we can assume God would have protected them from serpents, just as he
protected them from other dangers as he led them out of Egypt. So, God patiently works his way to will his
people from their impatience.
When it comes to snakes, not many of us are heroes. The thought of being faced with an
infestation of fiery serpents is chilling!
Do you remember Indiana Jones encircled by stirred up serpents? Or imagine the reality of being buried in a box
of snakes, slithering over you in the dark. As they do on the television show, “I’m a
celebrity get me out of here”. That’s truly
the stuff of nightmares!
This is the living nightmare of the Israelites, and we can
fully understand their fear! Not only
were the snakes just present in their vicinity, but they were sent by God to
discipline their disobedience.
Can you see the people begging Moses? Remorseful for being impatient! Penitent for their impatience against God’s
providence, saying, “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.”
(Numbers 21:5 ESV)
In Ecclesiastes seven verse eight, it is written, “Better is the end of a thing than its
beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.”
(Ecclesiastes 7:8 ESV)
God removed their pride when the serpents began to
bite. They cried out to Moses, for it to
end, saying, “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.” (Numbers 21:7 ESV)
Moses prayed but the end of it was not the removal of the
serpents. Instead, God said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole,
and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” (Numbers 21:8
ESV)
So, God sends the serpent, and he doesn’t take them away,
but rather gets Moses to put the pest up on a pole. This is the patient path consistent with
God’s way.
Imagine if God did remove the snakes! As soon as they lost sight of the serpents,
their impatience and pride would have returned even more so! But the serpents remained, and God added yet
another serpent, calling them to turn and trust God’s way, even in the midst of
their suffering.
Knowing what human nature is like, some would have tested
God on this. The fiery serpent is sent
to bite. It does its job. The tester is tested. Do they turn to the serpent up on the stick,
or do they stick to their digs and remain in rebellion? It’s a life-or-death decision.
Now, this might seem like a pretty simple decision to
make. Yet many continue to choose the
decision that leads to death.
Jesus says, “…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.” (John 3:14–15 ESV)
Not only are people impatient with God, but now many also fail to acknowledge God’s
existence. Some think they know God,
but they choose to create their own idea of God to suit their way through the
wilderness of this world. But when
suffering of death comes, and it always does, crying out to a false god cannot
save from death.
God is patient with humanity, but Paul warns God shows no
partiality, saying, “…do you presume on
the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s
kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek
for glory and honour and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not
obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.” (Romans 2:4,6–8 ESV)
The serpents of sin and suffering still exist. This sin and suffering left unattended by God
will lead to eternal death. Yet God is
patient, he wants to save, and not condemn.
The good work of God within us, exposes our sin, wills us into
confession, keeps us repentant and enduring in belief of our forgiveness, as
well as makes us patient. This happens
through the work of the Holy Spirit despite living in the reality of fiery sin serpents
still biting and wounding us, causing suffering.
However, the good works of repentance and belief in the
forgiveness of our deadly sins lets us see God's patient reality! We see our sin, but we see the Servant of
Man saving us from sin, lifted up like the serpent lifted up by Moses in the
wilderness.
The irony in all of this is that sin came into the world
through the deception of a serpent.
Satan, the old snake, also sought to seduce Jesus to sin in the wilderness
but failed. Then at the cross he thought
he had won, seeing Jesus nailed to a cursed sinner’s cross.
But death lost its eternal sting at the cross. The devil was double-crossed. The great injustice and evil of the cross
became the hallmark of mercy and holy goodness stamped on those who allow the
light of God to expose and forgive.
Jesus steals the serpent from Satan and attaches the sin of
humanity to it. He becomes the sin, the
serpent, and is lifted up guiltless for the guilty. He takes the curse of your sin, exposing it
in his broken body and spilt blood, and swaps it with his victory over death,
for you!
Just as God sent serpents, and then placed one on a pole to
save the Israelites, God allows us to suffer as a result of our sinful being
and its deeds. God wants us to see our
sin, but even more he wants us to see our sin on Jesus, lifted up on the
cross.
Just as the Israelite’s saw and feared the reality of the
serpents that bit them, we too see our reality too. We can allow the Holy Spirit to continue the
patient work of peeling the layers back, to expose the greater depths of our
sin. But in the suffering of that
exposure, the Spirit will show us the endlessness and patience of God’s love,
who takes our sin and makes our sin – crucify Christ on the cross.
God is patient with you.
God hates your suffering. Yet
despite this he would rather you suffer in short through confession of your
evil works, exposing them in the true light of God’s love and suffering on the
cross.
We are reminded by Jesus in John three verse twenty-one
that, “whoever does what is true comes to
the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their works have been carried
out in God.”
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit into our hearts to
work in us the good works of confession of our sin in daily repentance and
belief in the forgiveness of sins.
Thankyou for sending your Son Jesus Christ to bear the slipperiness of
our sinful being and its deeds on the cross, which should have been our
cross. Help us to patiently bear our
cross with the help of the Holy Spirit with full expectation of our
resurrection to eternal life with you.
Amen.
