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Well
in Grace Are
you afraid of snakes? If so, you’re not alone. A Gallup poll that asked adults
what they were afraid of revealed that more people fear snakes than any other
suggested possibility, coming in ahead of speaking in public and heights. There
is even a term for the excessive fear of snakes — ophidiophia. “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.’ Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the
people, so that many people of Israel died. 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” (vv. 4-9). As
the Israelites were circling around Edom on their way to the promised land, they
became impatient and started complaining against God and Moses. They groaned and
moaned, huffed and puffed, jeered and sneered, going so far as to say that they
“loathed” the “worthless” food that God provided. This ungrateful
behavior greatly angered the Lord. “Complaining”
was a recurring theme among the Israelites in the wilderness. They were always
griping and grumbling. This infuriated God, frustrated Moses, and robbed them of
many blessings. It is no wonder that Paul says, “Do not complain as some of
them did” (1 Corinthians 10:10, NCV). We need to understand that complaining
is condemned (angers God), controlling (becomes habitual), contagious (spreads
to others), and counter-productive (compounds the problem). The good news is
that it is also conquerable (can be overcome). Christians are not to be
complainers (Philippians 2:14; James 5:9). Fangs Since
the Israelites despised what God sent them from heaven, He sent them something
from the earth — fiery serpents. “Fiery” could have reference to their
color, but more likely refers to their venom. Their bite burned! The NIV says
“venomous snakes” and the NRSV says “poisonous serpents.” These agents
of death spread through the camp biting the people, so that many of them died. Can
you even imagine that? To have snakes coming out of crevices, curled up in
corners, slithering in the sand, and hissing at your heels. To see neighbors
cowering in pain or lying motionless on the ground with snakes swarming nearby.
How could you sleep at night or let your kids go out and play? It would be
constant pandemonium. “The
venom of this genus is more powerful, weight for weight, than that of any other
viper…Its venom is typical of the viper family in being hemolytic, i.e., it
affects the blood, breaking down the capillaries, rupturing the corpuscles, and
finally causing death by massive and wide-spread internal hemorrhage. This can
be a slow process and death may occur after as long as four days, the progress
depending on the site and severity of the bite” (Vol. 5, p. 357). It
did not take long for the people to realize that they had made a terrible
mistake. They begged Moses to intercede on their behalf, saying, “We have
sinned!” They knew that the fiery serpents were recompense for complaining
against God and Moses. Therefore, Moses pleaded with the Lord on their behalf. Favor Moses
acted with grace as well. Though he had been spoken against by the people, he
did not say “you’re getting what you deserve” or “that’ll teach you to
come at me like that.” Instead, Moses graciously went to God on their behalf.
He prayed for the people! It is similar to when Moses pled for Miriam after she
rose up against him and was punished with leprosy (Numbers 12:13) or to when
Moses interceded for the people who were about to be destroyed during Korah’s
rebellion (Numbers 16:22). “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” (John 3:14-15).
One
Serpent / One Savior It
is important to note that God did not provide multiple means of salvation for
the stricken Israelites. There was but one means — the bronze serpent. Jesus,
the antitype, is the one means of salvation today (John 3:18). He is not a way;
He is the way (John 14:6). Peter put it like this: “And
there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given
among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). He
is the only anti-venom for our sins! The
fact that the Israelites had to “look” on the serpent did not negate grace.
They were simply meeting the conditions of that grace. It is no different than
Noah “building” an ark (Genesis 6), the Israelites “marching” around the
walls (Joshua 6), Naaman “dipping” in the Jordan (2 Kings 5), the 10 lepers
“going” to the priests (Luke 17), and the men “staying” on the ship
(Acts 27). Nor is it any different than the Jews on Pentecost “repenting”
and “being baptized” for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). Grace has
always been appropriated conditionally. Sadly,
the serpent that Moses erected in the wilderness later became an object of
worship and had to be destroyed in the days of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4). This
should serve as a lesson to Christians today, most notably when it comes to
replicas of the cross. We must make sure that they never become superstitious
idols! Conclusion The
Israelites experienced a horror scene that sounds like something out of
Hollywood: Slithering slayers lurking in the shadows, hiding behind rocks,
climbing on the pottery, and clinging to the walls, just waiting to attack their
next victim. Then grace entered the picture. God intervened. Healing happened.
The symbol of death became a symbol of life. All they had to do was “look”
to the right thing in obedient faith. Have you done that? It is time to be made
well. |