Fourth Sunday in Lent
Preaching
Preaching And Reading The Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
In today's Gospel lesson from John 3:14--21, Jesus says to Nicodemus, "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). What on earth is Jesus referring to? What is this serpent that he talks about, that Moses lifted up in the wilderness? Obviously, our Lord was referring to the story that we heard for our Old Testament text this morning. Jesus knows his Bible, the Old Testament, through and through, and often he refers to some event in that testament, or the Gospel writers will quote some verse from that book. Both portions of our scripture - Old Testament and New - form one long history of God's dealings with his people Israel, and so it is not surprising that Jesus is referring to this story in Numbers 21.
In that story, the Israelites have been delivered from their slavery in Egypt. They have entered into covenant with the God who has redeemed them. They have had God's commandments given to them as the guides for their new life as a freed people. Now they are slogging wearily through the heat, the dust, and the dangers of the Arabian desert, on their way toward the land that God has promised them. God goes before them day and night, his presence with them symbolized by the ark of the covenant. And every day God graciously feeds them with his manna from heaven.
Despite all of that care by God, the Israelites are not very happy campers. Occasionally they run out of water or food and complain to their leader Moses. But God mercifully always supplies such necessities. Yet that does not satisfy the murmuring and grumbling travelers. They want something better. "We loathe this worthless food!" they tell Moses (v. 5). Once they even complained, "We remember the fish we ate in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at" (Numbers 11:5--6). Talk about a lack of gratitude! God graciously feeds them every day with his bread from heaven, and they want something better!
Surely the Israelites are very much like us in our ingratitude for God's gifts. Every day, the Lord guides us and loves us. Every day he forgives our faults. Every day he surrounds us with the beauty of his world, and sends on us his sun and rain. Every morning his mercies are new, and every evening his care guards our sleep. And what do we say? "There is nothing but this manna to look at! We loathe this worthless food!"
It is no wonder that God gets disgusted with his people sometimes and has to teach them - and us - in a radical fashion. And so in our text, God sends fiery serpents among the Israelites to bite them and cause their death. And it is sometimes when we experience some tragedy that we realize our fault. So the Israelites repent of their grumbling ingratitude to Moses, and Moses prays for them to the Lord, fulfilling the prophetic function of interceding in prayer for his people (cf. Jeremiah 7:16).
As a result, God in his mercy forgives his people and instructs Moses in the way of healing. "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, he shall live" (v. 8). Yes, God judges our sinful ways and sometimes we pay the penalty for them. But God's mercy and love for us are first and foremost, and God himself also furnishes the means of our forgiveness and healing. Mind you, the Israelites have to respond to God's means; they have to look at that bronze serpent on the pole. But the way to healing and life comes from God, and not from the sinful people.
It's a very strange story, isn't it? Lying behind it is a long tradition associated with serpents. We still preserve some of that history in the symbol of medicine in our time, which has the picture of a serpent wrapped around a pole. And by fiery serpents, our story probably wants us to understand that these are not ordinary snakes, but mysterious creatures unlike other serpents and sent by God (cf. Isaiah 14:29; 30:6). In addition, some would say that the story is a superstitious account of magic, because in ancient times people thought that they could annul the power of a dangerous creature by making an image of it and worshiping it. Apparently, when the later Israelites worshiped in Solomon's temple, they had the figure of a bronze serpent there; and in the reform that was carried out by King Hezekiah in the eighth century B.C., Hezekiah had the figure of the serpent removed because the people were burning incense to it (2 Kings 18:4). But that is a distortion of this text. There is no worship of the serpent on the pole here in Numbers 21, and both the fiery serpents and the bronze serpent on the pole that Moses erects are instruments of God - of the God who cannot be manipulated by any sort of magic. This text is an account primarily of God's actions toward his chosen people, the account of both his judgment and his forgiving mercy. From that standpoint, it is a text that we need to ponder, because we in the church are also God's chosen folk, making our way toward the promised land of the Kingdom of God, and slogging, sometimes wearily, through the dryness and dangers of our life. Our text tells us as we journey through the ups and downs of every day that God deals with us in both judgment and mercy, but that always, always, there is healing and life for us from the hand of our Lord. Yes, the healing comes when we repent and accept directions from our God. And life comes only through the means that the Lord of life has given us.
But the Lord our God has given us those means of healing and life, hasn't he? He has given them through Jesus Christ who recalls this ancient story from Numbers for us. Jesus tells Nicodemus and us in our New Testament lesson that if he is lifted up on the cross, as Moses lifted up that bronze serpent for the Israelites, whoever trusts in him and his saving sacrifice will have eternal life. No more eternal death in the wilderness of our days. No more futility and fear before any hardship that confronts us. No more longing for the fleshpots of sin's slavery. No more belief that something can separate us from the love of God. No, good Christian friends. Lift high the cross and Jesus Christ upon it! And find healing for your souls and life eternal both now and forever!
In that story, the Israelites have been delivered from their slavery in Egypt. They have entered into covenant with the God who has redeemed them. They have had God's commandments given to them as the guides for their new life as a freed people. Now they are slogging wearily through the heat, the dust, and the dangers of the Arabian desert, on their way toward the land that God has promised them. God goes before them day and night, his presence with them symbolized by the ark of the covenant. And every day God graciously feeds them with his manna from heaven.
Despite all of that care by God, the Israelites are not very happy campers. Occasionally they run out of water or food and complain to their leader Moses. But God mercifully always supplies such necessities. Yet that does not satisfy the murmuring and grumbling travelers. They want something better. "We loathe this worthless food!" they tell Moses (v. 5). Once they even complained, "We remember the fish we ate in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at" (Numbers 11:5--6). Talk about a lack of gratitude! God graciously feeds them every day with his bread from heaven, and they want something better!
Surely the Israelites are very much like us in our ingratitude for God's gifts. Every day, the Lord guides us and loves us. Every day he forgives our faults. Every day he surrounds us with the beauty of his world, and sends on us his sun and rain. Every morning his mercies are new, and every evening his care guards our sleep. And what do we say? "There is nothing but this manna to look at! We loathe this worthless food!"
It is no wonder that God gets disgusted with his people sometimes and has to teach them - and us - in a radical fashion. And so in our text, God sends fiery serpents among the Israelites to bite them and cause their death. And it is sometimes when we experience some tragedy that we realize our fault. So the Israelites repent of their grumbling ingratitude to Moses, and Moses prays for them to the Lord, fulfilling the prophetic function of interceding in prayer for his people (cf. Jeremiah 7:16).
As a result, God in his mercy forgives his people and instructs Moses in the way of healing. "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, he shall live" (v. 8). Yes, God judges our sinful ways and sometimes we pay the penalty for them. But God's mercy and love for us are first and foremost, and God himself also furnishes the means of our forgiveness and healing. Mind you, the Israelites have to respond to God's means; they have to look at that bronze serpent on the pole. But the way to healing and life comes from God, and not from the sinful people.
It's a very strange story, isn't it? Lying behind it is a long tradition associated with serpents. We still preserve some of that history in the symbol of medicine in our time, which has the picture of a serpent wrapped around a pole. And by fiery serpents, our story probably wants us to understand that these are not ordinary snakes, but mysterious creatures unlike other serpents and sent by God (cf. Isaiah 14:29; 30:6). In addition, some would say that the story is a superstitious account of magic, because in ancient times people thought that they could annul the power of a dangerous creature by making an image of it and worshiping it. Apparently, when the later Israelites worshiped in Solomon's temple, they had the figure of a bronze serpent there; and in the reform that was carried out by King Hezekiah in the eighth century B.C., Hezekiah had the figure of the serpent removed because the people were burning incense to it (2 Kings 18:4). But that is a distortion of this text. There is no worship of the serpent on the pole here in Numbers 21, and both the fiery serpents and the bronze serpent on the pole that Moses erects are instruments of God - of the God who cannot be manipulated by any sort of magic. This text is an account primarily of God's actions toward his chosen people, the account of both his judgment and his forgiving mercy. From that standpoint, it is a text that we need to ponder, because we in the church are also God's chosen folk, making our way toward the promised land of the Kingdom of God, and slogging, sometimes wearily, through the dryness and dangers of our life. Our text tells us as we journey through the ups and downs of every day that God deals with us in both judgment and mercy, but that always, always, there is healing and life for us from the hand of our Lord. Yes, the healing comes when we repent and accept directions from our God. And life comes only through the means that the Lord of life has given us.
But the Lord our God has given us those means of healing and life, hasn't he? He has given them through Jesus Christ who recalls this ancient story from Numbers for us. Jesus tells Nicodemus and us in our New Testament lesson that if he is lifted up on the cross, as Moses lifted up that bronze serpent for the Israelites, whoever trusts in him and his saving sacrifice will have eternal life. No more eternal death in the wilderness of our days. No more futility and fear before any hardship that confronts us. No more longing for the fleshpots of sin's slavery. No more belief that something can separate us from the love of God. No, good Christian friends. Lift high the cross and Jesus Christ upon it! And find healing for your souls and life eternal both now and forever!
