March 10, 2024 Text: Numbers 21:4-9
Dear Friends in Christ,
Do you ever get frustrated? Let me share what happened to me recently and see if you haven’t had something similar? We received a mailing with a woman’s name on our address. It looked like a bill from a lab in the southern United States. I saved it. A few months later, the same thing. It had an address if undeliverable, so I sent it there. A month or so goes by and we get the same mailing. This time I take it and send a letter to the company. Basically saying, “we have lived here 25 years and nobody with that name lives here.” Doesn’t work. Here comes another – same name. So, I call. They commend me for not opening the mail and said they would send me something to clear it up. Nothing ever came, except another lab bill. This time I shredded it.
Have you had the same experience? You try to do the right thing, and it is just heartache and frustration. We see some frustrated people today. The difference is, they are not doing the right thing. The Lord is going to send them a bill alright, and it won’t be pleasant. Let’s see what happens when God’s people try . . .
“GOING THE OTHER WAY”
One thing we remember about 9/11 is that the first responders went the other way when people were fleeing the twin towers. They risked and gave their lives for others. They purposefully were “going the other way” that fateful day into the danger.
The people of Israel complained (again!) against the Lord when he seemed to be sending them “the other way.” “From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” (v. 4-5). They didn’t realize that what God was doing was part of His grand design.
Do we ever get frustrated and miss the Lord’s grand design? Why are things going this way? This cannot be happening. Where is the Promised Land? You have got me wandering in the desert.
At times the Lord must literally, get sick to his stomach. When we ignore prayer before meals, regard worship as mechanical, or diminish the power of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We make desolate that which is holy and pure.
God addresses this with the Law. “Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many in Israel died.” (v. 6).
He sent the fiery serpents for three reasons. One, he showed them his just anger for their rejection of his grace and protection these last 40 years. Second, He wanted show (again!) that their rebellion was the direct cause of their problems. Their previous rebellion had them wandering in the desert and not proceeding to the Promised Land. The third reason is to show them their sin and lead them to repentance.
What a wonderful lesson we can learn from our forefathers. We too become frustrated with God’s timing. Instead of direction through God’s Word and prayer, we take off for the desert and end up wandering aimlessly. When we go the other way – away and apart from God this is what happens.
All this death brought the Israelites to their senses. “And the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall 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.” (v. 7-9)
Our Old Testament is in beautiful harmony with our Gospel on this Fourth Sunday In Lent. “Jesus said: ‘As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.’” (Jn. 3:14-15)
This action was necessary because serpents were the idolatrous object of veneration among the earliest peoples. But the rescue from death that God wrought through the bronze serpent was only a type of what He intended when his incarnate Son bore our sin and was lifted on the cross. When faith looks up to Christ crucified, God saves from eternal death all victims of the fatal venom of sin.
When we slip into going the other way, when we let frustration and rebellion dominate our thoughts, this antidote is provided by the Lord. He has absolved us freely and fully. We are spared hell and granted heaven.
Going the Lord’s way, He prompts us to share this antidote. Our offerings, our prayers, our service and our worship all work as the antidote for sinners everywhere. We need all of this daily and richly.
Let’s go the Lord’s Way – right into heaven.
Amen.