The Israelites’
Impatience
“But the people grew impatient on the way.” That is how the very first verse of our Old
Testament reading this morning ends. “The
people grew impatient on the way.” But
does it surprise you that the Israelites - God’s Old Testament chosen nation -
became impatient with their Lord? If you
remember anything about the stories of that time, you’ll remember many
instances when God’s people became impatient with the Lord’s plans. They became impatient in Egypt when things
started getting worse under Moses’ leadership instead of better. They became impatient on the shores of the
Red Sea as the Egyptian army was bearing down on them. They became impatient while waiting at the
bottom of Mt. Sinai as Moses talked to the Lord on top of that peak for 40 days
and 40 nights. And because of this past
impatience they had complained to God, they had doubted God, they had even
turned their backs on God at one point when they built that golden calf. And here again in our story for today, these
same people grew impatient with the Lord’s plans as they traveled around the
country of Edom. And so “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!’”
God’s
people seem a little whiney, don’t they?
Maybe an even harsher word for that would be “insolent:” a little
disrespectful and ungrateful. After all,
earlier in this same book of Numbers we are told that the Lord had miraculously
provided water right out of rock, he had not only given them those heaven-sent
white wafers called Manna every morning but he also sent them such a large
amount of quail in one night that they covered the ground three feet deep, and
right before this story in chapter 21 the Lord rescued the Israelites from an
attacking Canaanite nation - so much so that the Israelites completely
destroyed them and every one of their towns.
The Lord had proven to them time and time again that he knew what he was
doing. The Lord had shown them time and
time again that 1) he had a plan and 2) that he had the power to carry it
out. And so when they complained here,
when they grew impatient once more with what he was doing for their good, the
Lord plans included teaching them a lesson.
God’s Plan
Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among
them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 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.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put
it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the
bronze snake, he lived.
It was a
hard lesson for the Israelites to learn; but it was a necessary lesson. The Lord would not put up with their
impudence, and at the very same time he would not hesitate to show his grace. Because God’s plan at that time for his
people was not only to allow many of them to die from the venomous snake bites,
but also to provide himself an opportunity to save many of them as well. And so they saw his wrath and his anger and
his justice, but they also experienced his love and his mercy and his
forgiveness first hand. And you can be
sure that those Israelites who had been bit and were lying on the ground and
writhing in pain - but then were healed - never forgot that moment when they
were so close to death. I can’t imagine
anyone forgetting something so traumatic or forgetting a Lord who was so
patient.
And it’s
fascinating how the Lord healed them, isn’t it?
God could have healed them any way he wanted to, but he decided to show
his grace with a bronze snake up on a pole!
Now I don’t know how long it would have taken Moses to forge a snake out
of bronze in 1500 BC, but it had to take a little bit of time. He would have had to find enough bronze to
start with, the tools to build it with, the fuel, a furnace of some sort, and
then however long it would take to heat the fire hot enough to actually form the
snake itself. And so if the Israelites
had been impatient before, their patience was certainly tested now! As many of them lay dying from those snake
bites, longing for some sort of relief, they had to wait and wait and wait for
that saving snake to be made and to be hung.
But once it was there, the Lord didn’t require them to do anything -
only look and live. He didn’t demand them
to drag themselves over to the snake or kiss the snake or pray to the snake or to
be really really sorry for what they
had done before they dared come close to the snake. Just look.
Look at what the Lord had promised.
Look at what the Lord had done. Look
at this wonderful sign of the Lord’s love and mercy and forgiveness. Look and live.
God’s Ultimate
Plan
We have
a wonderful sign of God’s love and mercy and forgiveness right here in this
room - the cross. And it’s not a coincidence
that most of the congregations in our church body and even most of the
congregations that truly are “Christian” have a cross at the center of their
sanctuary. Because we as Christians like
to look at Jesus’ cross, don’t we? We
want to look at Jesus’ cross. We need to look at Jesus’ cross. And I don’t just mean to physically see
something with your eyes when I say “look” of course. What I mean by “look” is to know, to
understand, to actually believe.
If I
handed you a piece of paper and asked you to “look this over for me” - I wouldn’t be asking you to just glance at
it for a second and give it back to me.
I would want you to read it and analyze it and formulate an opinion and
get back to me with your thoughts about it.
That’s how the word look is
used in Numbers 21 when the Israelites were to “look” at the bronze snake and
live. It wasn’t that they just caught it
out of the corner of their eye and they were suddenly healed because of
it. It was that they “looked” at the
bronze snake on the pole with the understanding of faith, trusting that God’s
promise connected to it was real and sure and personal. They needed to look at this snake with that
guarantee of salvation in their minds.
Just like we need to look at the cross with the guarantee of salvation
in ours. And so it’s not a surprise that
Jesus himself makes that connection.
One
night a man found out where Jesus was staying and came to see him. His name was Nicodemus, a member of the
Jewish ruling council - a group who hated Jesus. And as Jesus was speaking to him about baptism
and salvation in general, he points this Old Testament scholar back to our Old
Testament story: “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 will be saved” (John 3:14-15). “Look and live” Jesus basically said to
Nicodemus. “Look at me, your Savior, the
one who will be lifted up on a cross.
And just as those who looked at the snake in the desert lived, those who
look to me will live too.” It’s simple,
isn’t it? But that’s what the cross is: simple. The cross is uncomplicated. And that simple cross has always been God’s
plan! The cross is where we find our
peace and our comfort, our forgiveness and our salvation. And so the cross is not only for our eternal
life; it is for our every-day life. The
cross is where we look when we are down, when we are struggling, when we are
hurting. The cross is where we look when
we are sad or when we are angry or when we are frustrated. The cross is where we look for the Lord’s
promises. The cross is where we look for
the Lord’s love. The cross is where we
look for the Lord’s patience. And when
we look, we live.
Our Impatience
But then, just like those Israelites, we sometimes “grow impatient on the way” and forget to look at that cross. Because we get sick and we want the Lord to heal us now - not later. And we face ongoing situations and we want the Lord to get us through them now - not later. And we get overwhelmed with issues and problems of various sorts and we want the Lord to ease up a little bit now - not later. And we get frustrated because we can’t figure out what the Lord has planned and we complain because we don’t like what the Lord has planned and we get a little disrespectful because we aren’t quite convinced that the Lord’s plan is working…
I’m glad
that the Lord hasn’t sent venomous snakes among us lately. Because if anyone would be bitten, it’d be me. I’m very impatient. And sometimes I’m impatient with the
Lord. I don’t always like to wait for
the Lord to carry out his unknown plans; I don’t always like to wait for the
Lord to produce results from my efforts; I don’t always like to wait for the
Lord to give me what I think I need at the exact time I need it. And so, I’m sure, sometimes the Lord makes me
wait longer. And longer. And longer.
So that while I wait maybe, just maybe, I might catch sight of the cross
again. Because that’s where he wants me
to look all along. The cross is where he
wants all of us to look all the time.
Only to the cross.
Keep on Looking
And so
take a look. That’s where your sin is
taken care of; that’s where your worries and fears and failures are taken care
of; that’s where you are taken care of.
Look. That’s where your troubles
are really no trouble at all and your problems are no problem to the Lord. Look.
That’s where everything in this life is brought into perspective and
everything in the next life is guaranteed.
Look. That’s where the Lord makes
patience easy because that’s where we are reminded that his plans always work
out. Look. There’s your comfort. There’s your ease. There’s your calm. Look. Look
closely. It’s simple, isn’t it? Two pieces of wood. But it sure is beautiful. Look and live. And keep on looking.
Because
there is no doubt that this life can be a mess at times. It’s not always pleasant. It’s not always easy. It’s not always happy and fun and sunny. But neither were those venomous snakes in the
desert. But without those venomous
snakes, those Israelite people never would have had to look at that snake made
out of bronze and the Lord’s promises attached to it. They would have never recognized their need
for a Savior. And so when this life is a
mess, use the troubles and problems and turmoil in this life as opportunities
to look more closely at the cross once again.
Because that is always the Lord’s plan, after all, to draw you to his
cross. He does not want you looking
anywhere else, to anyone else, for any other reason. Because there he died; there you live. And there’s nothing else, nothing else, that really even matters.
Amen.
“Look to the LORD
and his strength; seek his face always.
Remember the wonders he has done.” - Psalm 105:4-5
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