Hello my dear “Walking with Jesus” friends on this, the final weekend of the first month of 2022.
I wonder what January has been for you, no matter where you live in our world? What single words best describe what you have felt most often in the first 30 days of this new year? Worried? Content? Excited? Discouraged? Fearful? Peaceful? Encouraged? Optimistic?
Yesterday I left you with Moses and the grieving Hebrew people. Moses had just descended Mount Hor with Eleazar, the son of Aaron. The three of them had ascended the mountain at God’s invitation. God had told them that on top of that mountain two very significant things would happen. First, the spiritual leadership role of High Priest would be passed from Aaron to his son Eleazar. Second, Aaron would die up there. The people then entered a 30 day period of reflection and mourning, honoring Aaron’s life and legacy. And then their wandering journey resumed.
You’ll recall this huge throng of nearly 2 million people had been wandering around what is today known as the great Sinai Desert for almost 38 years. Why? Simple. 38 years before, 12 leader scouts returned from 40 days of exploring the land God had promised He would lead His people TO when He delivered them FROM slavery in Egypt. They gave a conflicting report. The people rose up in rebellion and believed the negative report and rejected the opportunity to follow God INTO the land He had promised to give them. In response to their rebellion, God closed that door of opportunity and told them that they’d wander 40 years in the desert simply waiting for that entire fearful, faithless generation to die.
By the time we come to Numbers 21, they’ve been wandering about 38 years and most of that generation has died. A whole new generation has been born and grown up in the desert. They have no memory of Egypt and they are simply sick and tired of the hot desert. Grumbling arises again, as it has so many times over the past 4 decades.
But this time God does something dramatic. Moses records it this way: “The people grew impatient, they spoke against God and against Moses and said, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in this desert? There is no food and we detest this miserable manna.” (Numbers 21:4,5) If I’m honest, I really can’t blame them. Two days, or a week, kicking sand in the hot desert would be too much for me, what about you? I simply can’t imagine years in the desert! Eating the same thing every day for a week, no matter how good it is, gets very old quickly. Imagine eating the same thing every day for 40 years! So I understand their frustration, do you? But grumbling and complaining is contagious and cancerous. It spreads from person to person faster than COVID-19, and it kills joy, contentment, hopes, dreams, and faith, with an agonizing, slow death. God needed to do something in this hot, dry, hopeless place that would help them all learn several life lessons.
First lesson… God wanted them to learn that despite their unfaithfulness and rebellion against God, He still loved His people and He would stand by His Covenant with them!
Remember Jesus said something like that in John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me and whoever comes to Me I will never drive away.”
Second lesson… it was important they understand God’s power was not limited by their complaint or anger. Repeatedly through history God has proven NOTHING limits His power! Nothing.
Remember what the angel Gabriel said to Mary? “Nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:37)
Third lesson… God wanted them to again learn the power of FAITH in God for healing, hope and deliverance. How often did Jesus tell people healed by His miracles that it was their faith that healed them?
May I ask all of us on this ‘Walking with Jesus” journey, no matter what your life situation is, have we all learned these three lessons? Are we confidently celebrating all three lessons today? Have you and I taught the lessons to our children and grandchildren, and are they living in the confidence of these three lessons?
So God did something radical, in response to their complaining, in order to teach them these important three lessons…again! The record says: “Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among the people; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people cried out to Moses, ‘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.” (Numbers 21:6,7)
Does that send a chill down your spine my friends? I hate snakes, how about you? Take a few moments and walk around the camp of 2 million people. Can you hear the cries of fear as people see snakes crawling up out of the sand. Can you see mothers grabbing their little children up? Look at people using sticks or anything they can find to try and beat the snakes to death… but snakes attack, and people are bitten. We don’t know what type of snakes, but it appears their venom was deadly, and soon people are dying in great agony, and fear spreads to panic all around the camp. People are afraid to lay down at night, fearful snakes will crawl upon them and bite them, and they’ll be dead before morning! Can you feel the panic?
The people cry out to Moses for help saying “We sinned against God and against you.” I celebrate that. No blame, no excuses, simply bold repentance. That is what God was looking for… that these people would get honest with themselves and with God, about the deep attitudes of their hearts Moses cries out to God and God gave him a remarkable solution to the snake epidemic. “Make a snake and put it on a pole, and anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. When anyone was bitten and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.” (Numbers 21:8,9) Oh my! What mysterious power was in this bronze snake? No power! Then what caused their healing? GOD healed the people!
But notice please God healed them in response to two things… First their obedience. They did what God told them to do. Second, their faith. The bitten people scurried to the pole with the bronze snake and looked up with desperate faith! They knew they could not heal themselves. They knew it was a terminal snake bite, and there was no other option. They understood the relationship between their obedience and faith in God, and God’s healing, deliverance response!
I have a question my friends: Why didn’t God just kill all the snakes? Why did He allow the snake to remain among the people, venomous snakes, still biting the people? Why did God provide an antidote, an individual healing, rather than a blanket rescue of all the people?
As far as we know Moses only made ONE bronze snake, on ONE pole in a city of nearly 2 million people. Can you imagine the frantic painful rush from all over that tent city to that ONE pole? People were crying out in desperation for God to heal from the terminal snake bite? It was a picture my friends, wasn’t it? A picture of the cross upon which Jesus was raised and died. A picture that God does NOT kill Satan, nor does God remove all the wickedness and sin from our world. Rather God provides a healing, a deliverance for ANY person, on an individual basis, who comes in desperate faith, acknowledging they are dying in their sin, and only Jesus can save them! Do you see it my friends? Have you come to Jesus that way?
May I call you to consider that the world wide symbol for medical help is… a snake coiled around a pole!? I’m sure you’ve seen that symbol many times… but no human doctor, no hospital, no medication can give us eternal life and heal us from our sin! Only Jesus. Do you know Jesus today my friends, is He your Savior, your Lord, your healer, your deliverer? Is Jesus walking with you through the snake infested world in which you live?
What do you think would be an appropriate THANK YOU to Jesus? Go ahead, express it right now and here’s a song to help you:
Today’s Scripture is Numbers 21:4-9.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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