Can You Recognize a Snake? Numbers 21:4-9
So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
There’s a fable about a farmer who, while working his field early in spring, came across a snake. He raised his hoe to kill it, but the snake spoke to him and begged for mercy. Please, sir, don’t you see that I’m too cold to do you any harm. Please help me before I freeze to death.
Freezing is a terrible way to die, the man thought. So he took pity upon the snake, picked it up, and placed it inside his shirt to warm up. The warmth of the man’s body brought the snake back to life. Then suddenly, the snake bit him. As the man began to die, he asked the snake, Why’d you bite me? Don’t you see how I befriended you and took care of you? I saved your life!
Excuse me, the snake replied: But why blame me? You knew I was a snake when you picked me up!
1.
Can you recognize a snake? The people of Israel in our Old Testament text for this Sixth Sunday of Easter didn’t at first. They were too full of bitterness, faithlessness, idolatry to recognize the snakes they continued to pick up. They were insistent on being self-reliant ... convinced they could go their own way and live a better life on their own terms. They had become impatient with the path God wanted them to walk. They blamed Moses for guiding them in the way of the Lord.
That’s a snapshot of our reading from Numbers 21. The book itself is replete with the repeated rebellion of the Israelites, who seldom thought they had it good enough. Israel’s behavior exemplifies fallen human nature with its inclination toward evil in thought, word, and deed ... by what we do and don’t do ... by what we think and don’t think ... in our refusal to acknowledge and confess actual sin in our lives until it’s too late ... of how we abuse each other, neglect each other, pretend to have the best interests of each other, and of how we deny our need for a savior, who provides all we need to sustain this body and soul.
The people of Israel struggled to recognize the snakes in their lives. Why have you caused us to ascend from Egypt to die in the wilderness, they complained. There is no food and no water here, and we loathe this worthless food.
2.
Do you recognize the snake in your lives ... how we grumble and complain about our lot in life ... how we grumble and complain about the hymnody that he gives us to sing back to him ... how we grumble and complain about all the things Yahweh gives to us as he leads us through the wilderness? We want the promised land now, we cry! Let me go my way, the highway, nevermind the promises of God.
But we need to know: Almighty God, our heavenly Father, always takes care of his people. We have been reminded of this truth for weeks now. We are blessed when we trust in our Lord even though we can’t see him (Jn 20:29). ... We are blessed when we confess our sins and believe in his absolution: The forgiveness of sins is yours according to his word (Jn 20:23). ... We are blessed to have the Good Shepherd keeping you in fellowship with him. When you wander away, he calls to you, searches for you, finds you, and carries you back to the fields that really are greener. He then gives you living water, bread from heaven, and more food than you can eat (Eze 34:11-16). ... We are blessed as he patiently listens to your laments, the laments of what sin is doing to you and the world around you. And we are blessed to hear the Gospel (Lam 3:22-33). ... And then you will say in that day: Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, and make known his deeds among the people (Isa 12:1).
Nevertheless, the people of Israel grow impatient ... with the Law and the Gospel ... and so they begin to complain. They grumble against God and His prophet.
3.
Do you recognize the snake in your life? Too often we reject the light for the dark. Too often we listen to the whispers of the snake: how our fruit is better than God’s. Too often we add our own word to God’s word, deceiving ourselves. How many of us fail to recognize the idols we actually worship? More than that too often we fail to protect and defend each other’s reputation. Too often we think of ourselves first (Gen 3).
All too often we try to convince ourselves, I know a better way to go ... I can give my heart to God. Too often we tell ourselves that I can handle myself ... that I don’t need the daily bread God provides. ... My way is better. I don’t need the water God provides. My well is deep.
So we pick up our snake ... we hold it close ... and are shocked when we are bitten, hooked, addicted, coerced by its poison. The wages of sin is death.
4.
Brothers and sisters in Christ ... recognize the snake in your life, and repent like the Israelites. There is one mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2:5).
Have faith in the Word of the Lord. Lift up your eyes and see your sin on the cross. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:3). Lift up your eyes and recognize your Lord coming to you in means of grace. Lift up your eyes and recognize the antidote of the snakebite: Your Lord Jesus Christ, who gives himself to us. True Israelites recognize Christ is this curse hanging on a tree, and that through him the Lord is removing the curse that is killing us! This is the Gospel.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was born for this reason ... to show you this Gospel. God became a man for this reason. He lived a perfect life, free from sin, for this reason. He was stricken, smitten, and afflicted. He took the fiery punishment of sin for the entire world. When Jesus lifted up the snake of the world and carried it upon his shoulders, he became the curse. Jesus allowed that snake to strike his heel ... so that in his death ... he could give us life .. and that in his resurrection he could crush the serpent’s head.
Now all who look up to him will not die but will live. As we look upon the bronze snake on the tree ... and remember what it proclaims ... our Lord Jesus on the cross ... he remains faithful and just and forgives your sin, and cleanses you from all unrighteousness (1 Jn 1:9).
5.
Do you recognize the snake now? God so loved the world in this way: He hung it on the tree. This is why the people went to Moses and said, We have sinned because we have spoken against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh that he takes away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. And Yahweh said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, will live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live (vv. 7-8).
It would still be years before the Israelites will cross the Jordan into the Promised Land of Canaan. But they know where to turn. God has shown them the cross.
Like them, we too still struggle with sin ... we still murmur and grumble ... we still flirt with the darkness, but the grace and mercy of God continued to be poured out upon them, and the gates of the Jordan River parted before them and they entered into that Promised Land. So too will you.
And now as we lift high the cross ... the Love of God proclaimed ... as we recognize the snake ... the snake of our sin ... we, too, see our Savior. And we are saved ... not by our own thoughts, words or deeds but by the precious, cleansing blood of Christ, who died for us.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, don’t be like so many of our friends dying in sin ... dying because they refuse to repent ... dying of hunger and thirst. Dying because they spurn the gifts of God.
Christ urges us to look up and live, recognizing what he has done for us and continues to do for us. He offers a better way. Our Lord nourishes and protects us ... he offers the good gifts of heaven, the living water of baptism and a feast of forgiveness that has no end. Here, we discover the waters of life, a source of salvation that rejuvenates us. Here he delivers to us the bread of heaven. He urges us to receive his body and blood given and shed for you. This meal nourishes your faith ... giving you strength ... enlivening our fainting souls ... so that one day we too will enter into the Promised Land of our Sabbath rest ... in Jesus’ name.