For Goodness Snakes!
(Part One)Sermon, April 2, 2000
Texts: Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:1-16
The Gospel reading this morning has two "bookends," if you will; two very familiar verses of Scripture to anyone raised in the church: The first is Jesus' reply to Nicodemus, "No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again"; the second: "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." In between these very familiar sayings of our Lord is His reference to this enigma of a story in Numbers 21: "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." This "snake story" is not as overwhelmingly familiar as the "bookends"; however, perhaps the implication is that if we are to understand the familiar verses, we must better understand this enigmatic referral in between. By the way, as of the (late) close of the 8:00 service, this is now a two-part sermon.
I received an email last December from a former colleague, entitled "Interesting Facts You Oughta Know For The New Millenium." What followed was a long list of perhaps fifty obscure, interesting and unrelated factoids, such as: "The electric chair was invented by a dentist." And "The term "whole 9 yards" came from W.W.II fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet. If the pilots fired all their ammunition at a target, it got the 'whole 9 yards.'" For me, the most interesting tidbits on the list had to do with numerical statistics, such as: "Michael Jordan receives more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined." And "The average number of people airborne over the U.S. during any given hour: 61,000. The average amount of pizza eaten by Americans every day: 18 acres." And "If the population of China walked past you in single file, the line would never end because of the rate of reproduction."
When placed in perspective, numbers can really be fascinating. Properly framed, numerical data can enhance our comprehension of and appreciation for otherwise mundane factual material. In like manner, the Old Testament book of Numbers can bring a fascinating perspective to the Biblical drama of the Israelite wanderings in the wilderness. This is not just a book of lists and numbers better suited to accountants and actuaries than to the average church member. (A brief bit of background: The original Hebrew name for the book was is "In the Desert;" because that is the main subject of the book...the record of the forty years wilderness wandering of the people of Israel. When the book was translated into the Greek Septuagint, the Greek word "Arithmoi", "Numbers", was given as a title for reasons not fully known; most likely because there are lots of numbers in this book, especially in the early chapters.) Having a grasp of some of these numbers can give the reader a better comprehension of and appreciation for the sheer enormity of God's miraculous activity as well as the broad scope of human faith, passion, ingenuity and courage displayed by these tenacious travelers. Although not nearly as populous as China, Numbers indicates that the population of Israel in the wilderness was pretty large! The estimated population of Israel in the wilderness during the time of Moses was easily between two and three million, and more than likely quite a bit more. Numbers opens with God commissioning a census (which is appropriate for us to read at this time of the year, although God's census was a lot less complicated than our current national one!) -- Chapter 1, verse1 -- The Lord spoke to Moses...on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. "Take a census of the whole Israelite community...listing every man by name, one by one...all the men in Israel twenty years old or more who are able to serve in the army." At the end of that chapter, verse 46, we see the tally of that census -- "All the Israelites twenty years old or more who were able to serve in Israel's army were counted...the total number was 603,550." Now if every one of these 603,500 draft-eligible men had just two family members among living parents, spouse and/or children (a very low estimate, I should add), that would mean a total population of just under two million. Three family members: 2.5 million. As prolific and family-oriented as they were, it is more than likely the average family size was much larger.
Added to that e-mailing was a little devotional drawing attention to these numbers (slightly edited from original): "Moses and the people were in the desert, but what was he going to do with them? They had to get across the Red Sea, and in one night at that. Now, if a population of three million went on a narrow path, double file, the line would be some 800 miles long and would require 35 days and nights to get through. So, there had to be a space in the Red Sea three miles wide so that they could walk approximately five thousand abreast to get over in one night. But then, there are other problems, even though the Red Sea and the Egyptian threat were now behind them. Each time they camped at the end of the day, a campground two-thirds the size of the state of Rhode Island was required, or an average total of some 750 square miles...think of it! This space just for nightly camping. They had to be fed, and feeding three million people requires a lot of food. According to the United States Army Quartermaster General's basic military issue standards, it is reported that Moses would have to have had 1500 tons of food each day. Do you know that to bring that much food each day, two freight trains, each almost a mile long, would be required! Remember, they were forty years in transit. And they would have to have water. Standard military issue for that number of people would be 11,000,000 gallons each day, needing at least two more mile-long freight trains equipped with tank cars for transport!" The devotional ended with this thought: "Do you think Moses had this all figured out before he left Egypt? I think not! You see, Moses believed in God. God took care of these things for him. Now...do you think God has any problem taking care of all your needs?"
Remember some of those miraculous works of God...not only did that three-mile wide chasm open up in the sea, and come crashing in again upon the mighty Egyptian army, but He supplied an adequate ration of food every single day of their wanderings. Each and every day throughout their 40-year wilderness experience perhaps 1,000+ tons of manna (the heaven-sent bread; see Exodus 16:35) was delivered, not by two mile-long freight trains, but by direct early-morning shipment from heaven! Also, again and again God provided untold millions of gallons of water, sometimes from the seemingly dry rock itself; the latest occurrence of that took place in the chapter just preceding our OT reading this morning (see Numbers 20). Those early statistics in Numbers simply serve to underscore the dramatic, overtly obvious, extensively enormous and overwhelmingly plentiful miracles of God's provision and blessing.
Which brings us to our reading in Numbers 21. This takes place near the end of the forty years; this is, for the most part, the second generation of travelers. The vast majority of these folks had been born in the desert...the "desert boomers," if you will...who perhaps knew nothing but God's provision in the desert, and perhaps were taking it more and more for granted. We read that they had to make a broad detour around Edom, a land, by the way, where there was believed to be plenty of food and water; the reasons for that detour are explained in the previous chapter. "They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 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!'" They were growing irritable and impatient. Perhaps because the detour was rough and hilly going, perhaps it was because they seemed to be as far away from "real" food as ever, perhaps they were just plain tired of it all. Whatever the causes, they began to speak against God and Moses. "Why hadn't we just been left back in Egypt; why should we have been brought to this awful place to die; why can't we have real food and more water?" The reality was that they had food, and a daily supply of it; as mentioned, the manna from heaven continued throughout the wilderness wanderings. And though they weren't exactly swimming in it, they should have been carrying adequate supplies of water...after all, God had just provided millions of gallons from the dry rock. But it seems they were weary of it all; they were tired of "manna monotony," and they complained to God, "There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" Just a word about this phrase translated "miserable food." They were referring to the manna (the words "food and bread" were synonymous), which was in reality substantial, nourishing, available and plentiful. But they appear to have tired of it. The literal translation of the Hebrew, though, intimates that the vernacular language used is a bit, ah, stronger than what the NIV translates as "miserable." The King James translates the Hebrew more literally as "light bread," but some would argue that, while closer to the original meaning, the KJV rendering still falls short. The actual Hebrew adjective here is "qelolel," which comes from verb root "qalal," which means "to be or make light"...which, you may remember, is also one of the more common Hebrew words for "curse" (see January 23 sermon,
The Weight of Glory). A strong argument can be made that they aren't saying to God, "We detest this miserable food" or "this light bread"; they are actually (and defiantly) saying, "We detest this cursed bread." Or, if you want to put it even more in the vernacular (assuming that something that is cursed by God is something that is damned by God), what they are spitefully saying to God is, "We hate this damned bread!"Not that I'm trying to be a "spin doctor" for God, for He really doesn't need one; but perhaps this might help us better understand His reaction. The people defiantly, spitefully, rudely refer to this heavenly bread, this daily gift of perhaps a thousand-plus tons of nourishing food dropped every morning from heaven, this product of divine blessing, as a cursed thing. This is a blessing of God, a generous gift of God, and they call it cursed. In effect, they are saying, "Take away your blessing, God...we want real food." It would seem that God has had it...you might say that He has given them the "whole nine yards" of His patience, of His blessing...so perhaps He gives them a taste of what it would be like without His blessing in one comparatively small area. Now, the text simply says, "Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died." What the text doesn't say here is that the wilderness through which the Israelites traveled was infested with these venomous asps and adders all along (see Deuteronomy 8:15). One of the quiet ongoing miracles of God's blessing and protection seems to be that God had all along wonderfully protected the Israelites from being hurt by them. The dangerous asps and adders were there all along on every side, day and night, and it is quite possible that God had restrained the serpents from entering the Rhode-Island sized campgrounds...up until now. You see, it is not so much that God took proactive action by sending in the snakes, as it was that in the face of their defiant ingratitude He simply removed a very small portion of His ongoing, sustaining, protecting blessing and allowed the natural course of events to take place; He "moved" His protecting hand just a nudge. "You don't appreciate My blessing? Do you want to know just how much I've been blessing and protecting and caring for you in ways you might not have even imagined? OK, here's one taste!" It seems they got the message. The text continues, "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. 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.'"
It seems the people were very quick to acknowledge their sin. It seems that, rather than get angry with God for "sending" the snakes ("How can a loving God send snakes after us?"), they quickly recognized just how tenuous their situation was without the ongoing blessings and protections of God, and they repented of their obtuse ingratitude. Now, studying this text can be sobering. Lest we get too smug about those "ungrateful Israelites," remember that as we sit here in our comfortable 20th (or 21st, depending whose millenium view you follow) century setting, we have water, we have food, we aren't wandering in the wilderness, we have homes, we aren't at war, many of us have good health, safe neighborhoods, cars that work...usually...families, jobs...how much we enjoy many, many blessings of God's provision, protection and blessing, how much has God protected and preserved us in ways we can only begin to imagine, yet how quick we are to murmur and complain. Don't curse the blessings of God! Don't do it...our situations are tenuous enough as they are. In our heart of hearts, I think all of us have some sense of just how tenuous our earthly existence is; it may be a quiet, gnawing fear in many of our hearts. How many "venomous snakes" does God restrain for us, how many evils are held at bay in our lives by the merciful hand of God, how easily can things just... fall apart? It's probably the deepest fear of men, in particular, that one day everything could just fall apart...the company could be sued, the stock market could dive, our creativity or energy will dry up, we wouldn't be able to provide, our health might change for the worse overnight, and so on. Friends, God blesses and protects and provides for us in countless ways, ways we can't even imagine. Let us not exacerbate our tenuous situations by being ungrateful to God...for that matter, let us not exacerbate our danger by going out of our way to play with the serpents.
They readily confess their fault, thus acknowledging their need of God's mercy, of his blessing, of his protection, and repenting for their lack of appreciation. Moses was told to make an image of a snake, put it on a pole, and lift it high and make it available for all to see. The Jews understood that it wasn't the symbol itself that saved, but by looking to the symbol in obedience to God they were looking to God to save them. God delivered, God healed. Now, in biblical imagery the serpent is not a symbol of healing and salvation, it is a sinister symbol of sin, destruction and death. How interesting for God to take this fearful symbol of death and destruction and make it a life-giving symbol of salvation. Then and now, a symbol of death, ordained by God to be a symbol of salvation, must be lifted up, so people can look to it and live. Some interesting parallels: The serpent was a cursed creature; our Lord became a curse. That which cured them was a vivid reminder of that which plagued them; in Christ crucified we see the deadly extent and ugliness of the sin that plagues us. The image crafted by Moses was in the shape of a serpent, but did not have the poison, the sting of the serpent. This image of sin and death did not have the sting of death; in fact, it took away the sting of death. So it is with the cross: "O Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
More on this next time, those who lifted up their eyes to look to the image were healed, they did not die and went on to enter the Promised Land. The promise of the Gospel is that those who look to Jesus Christ shall not die, but shall also go on to enter the Promised Land of God. He is the Son of Man who has come from above, the salvation has come from above, all who look to him will live. We'll continue with this next time.