Easter 6
Num
21:4-9
5/5/13
In January and February, the Florida
Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission conducted the “2013 Python
Challenge.” This event licensed
individuals to come into the southern end of Florida in the area around the
Everglades in order to attempt to find and kill python snakes. Prizes were given for the most snakes and the
largest snake killed. The weather was
apparently not conducive to the event since it made the snakes more difficult
to find. Yet in spite of this fact,
those involved in the Python Challenge killed sixty eight snakes.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission took this unique step because south Florida has a
problem – large constrictor snakes have taken up residence there; they are
breeding; and they are thriving. The problem first came to light during
the 1990’s, and in the years since then it has become clear that this area of
Florida has a potential ecological disaster on its hands.
Various kinds of constrictor snakes
such as Burmese pythons, African pythons and Boa constrictors are now breeding
in south Florida. The snakes entered
into the wild when they accidentally escaped or when they were intentionally
released by pet owners who decided they no longer wanted to care for the snakes
which can become between fifteen and twenty feet long. The snakes found the
area around the Everglades to be an ideal setting to live.
The problem is that in south Florida
these snakes have no predators. Instead,
they have established themselves at the top of the food chain and have begun to
devastate local wildlife. Even the
Florida alligator – a dangerous predator to say the least – is not immune from
the threat. This fact was driven home a
number of years ago by the shocking photo of an alligator that had been killed
by a python, which in turn died while trying to consume the alligator.
The snakes show up in the yards of
homes and eat pets like dogs and cats.
And while it is true that pythons kill their victims by constricting, we
shouldn’t overlook the fact that they strike and take hold of their victims
using a mouth full of sharp teeth. The population has established itself –
scientists estimate that there may be tens of thousands of pythons living in
south Florida. The fear is that they may
migrate further north in the state and devastate the indigenous wildlife.
In our text this morning from
Numbers 21, Israel also faces a snake problem. However these are not
constrictor snakes, but instead apparently some kind of venomous snake that God
had sent upon the Israelites as punishment for their sin. When they experience God’s punishment the
Israelites confess their sin and God attaches his promise to a bronze serpent
on a pole. In this event we see
foreshadowed the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for us and the Means of
Grace by which God delivers forgiveness to us today.
Our text takes place during Israel’s
forty years of wandering in the wilderness.
We are told, “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.’” In response God sent
fiery serpents among the people who bit the people and caused many to die.
We learn that the people become
impatient. They start to speak against
God and against Moses, and their specific complaint is that they have been
brought into the wilderness to die.
After all, there is no bread and no water, and they loathe the worthless
food they are receiving.
Now in order to evaluate their
complaint, it is necessary to take a step back.
God had, of course, rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt in the
Exodus. As we heard in the reading at
the Vigil of Easter, when trapped between the Red Sea and he onrushing Egyptian
army they had complained to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt
that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us
in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave
us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us
to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
Of course God then rescued Israel by
bringing them through the Red Sea on dry ground. The large group journeyed in
the wilderness, and it is not surprising that there were issues about water and
food. They ran out of water, and then
the only water they found was bitter.
The people grumbled against Moses, and God had Moses throw a log into the
water so that it became drinkable. Again
they ran out water and could find no more. They grumbled against Moses, and this time God
had Moses strike a stone and water came out.
And then yet again they ran out of water, and again God provided. Though told to speak to the stone, in
frustration Moses struck it with his staff and water came out.
The complaints about water were
nothing new … and neither were complaints about a lack of food. In the chapter right after the exodus the people
say, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when
we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out
into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” And so God
provided manna – the bread from heaven, and also quail in order to feed the
people.
The rabble that was among the people
later incited the nation to complain, “Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember
the fish we ate in Egypt that cost 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.”
And so God gave them quail again.
When Israel arrived at the promised
land, they did not believe and trust in God.
They refused to enter, and so God condemned them to wander in the
wilderness for forty years. It is during
this time that our text takes place and we learn, “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.’”
The people became impatient. They
complained about the lack of water – ignoring how God had provided water for
them in the past. And they complained
about the food. They said, “For there is no food and no water, and we loathe
this worthless food.” Israel complained
about the manna – the bread from heaven.
Literally, the Hebrew says that “there is no bread” and “we loathe this
worthless bread.” It’s not that God wasn’t providing. Instead, Israel was not satisfied with the
bread – the manna that God was giving to them.
And doesn’t that continue to
describe us, the spiritual descendants of Israel? Don’t we become impatient on the way? As we live in the pilgrimage of the Christian
life, don’t we complain about the daily bread that God is giving to us? Oh, the issue is not about whether we have
sustenance and necessities of life.
Instead, we complain because we don’t think we have enough of the things
of this world. We don’t think that what we have is good enough. After all, we look around and see people who
have more and who have better and we covet what they have.
And there is more to it than
that. There are times when we are not satisfied
with the manna, the bread from heaven that we receive. After all, God only
gives us the Word of Scripture. He only
gives us sermons that his pastor proclaims to us. He only gives us a little dry
wafer of bread and a sip of wine. That is all he gives us to sustain us on the way.
When Israel complained yet again
against what God was doing for them, God sent deadly serpents into their midst.
And as the people were bitten and were dying they 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.”
The people confessed their sin. They repented. They asked Moses to intercede for them. 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.
Like the people of Israel, we must
confess. We must confess that we have sinned by coveting and unthankfulness. We
must confess that we have sinned by taking his Means of Grace for granted. And when we do – when we repent – the Holy
Spirit directs our attention to Jesus Christ lifted up on the cross. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “No one has ascended
into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And 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.”
In faith and trust we look at Jesus
Christ lifted up on the cross, dying as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world. There we see that God has
worked the forgiveness of these and every other sin. And in Christ’s
resurrection from the dead on Easter we learn that has also defeated the
ultimate result of sin, namely, death.
When we believe in Jesus Christ the crucified and risen One, we do
indeed have eternal life.
In our text, God adds his promise to
the bronze serpent when he says, “everyone who is bitten, when he sees it,
shall live.” And this leads us to recognize that God continues to do this very
thing. He adds his promise of
forgiveness to water, and bread and wine.
He gives us these located means in our midst and says that through them
he gives us forgiveness and life. And like the bronze serpent on the pole in
our text, they do just that. When faith
takes hold of the promise attached to the water of Holy Baptism, and the bread
and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar, we receive the forgiveness of sins and
strength for the life of faith. We
receive life that will have no end.
Again and again our Lord gives to us
in this way. Again and again he gives us forgiveness and life in Christ. And because this is so, he leads us then to
forgive others. As the Lord sustains us
in the life of faith, in faith we then seek to support and assist those around
us – our children; our parents; our neighbor, and our co-worker. For the
forgiveness and life received from the Lord are not unfruitful, but instead
they cause us to forgive and love one another.
In our text today, the people have
to say, “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.” They ask for forgiveness and rescue, and God
attaches his promise to the bronze serpent on a pole in order to give it to
them. Like the serpent lifted up by Moses in the wilderness, Jesus Christ was lifted
up on the cross in order to provide forgiveness and rescue to us. And through the sacraments of Baptism and the
Lord’s Supper our Lord continues to attach his forgiving promise to located
means in our midst in order to give this forgiveness and life to us.
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