(Numbers 21:4-9)
One of life’s small joys is the satisfaction of being able to take something that is broken and fix it ourselves. Yes, it’s nice to save money not having to call a repair guy to come and fix it or take it in somewhere to have it looked at, but ultimately there is simply a satisfying sense of achievement in fixing something ourselves. It’s also easier than ever. You can find just about any video on Youtube to walk you through the process of fixing something. You can buy just about any specialty tool or replacement part for the job online and it will arrive on your doorstep faster than ever.
Yet it’s for those same reasons, when we utilize all of those resources to tackle a fix-it-yourself project, following the steps in the video, replacing the part, and voila! – it’s still broken, that our frustration levels also rise higher than ever. To have all the resources available that we do and still not be able to successfully fix something is a tougher pill to swallow. At least in the past we could chalk it up to not having the right tool or part!
Why is fixing something that is broken such a challenge in the first place? Because we can get it wrong in multiple ways. We either misdiagnose the problem, and instead of fixing the part the needs fixing, we focus on a part that doesn’t. Or, assuming we do correctly identify the issue, we then misdiagnose the solution. We buy the wrong part or install it improperly. When either of these things happen, what are we left with? Something that’s still broken.
We know that there’s much that is broken in our world today. There’s no shortage of solutions offered to fix things and make them right. Moreover, we supposedly have access to far more resources than ever in the history of the world to fix things, yet here we are in a world that is still every bit as broken (and many would argue even more so!). How can so many solutions fail so miserably to fix everything? Well, sometimes it’s misdiagnosing the problem, and other times it’s misdiagnosing the solution. Just ask the Israelites how hard it was as they continued to wander there way out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the Promised Land.
Israel identified what they thought was the problem and voiced their concern to God and his representative, Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” (v.5). They were longing for the steady, stable food they had in Egypt… while seemingly forgetting the oppressive slavery that came along with it. That didn’t matter, though – the problem as they saw it was a lack of bread and water and a miserable menu. So they supposed the solution was simply to let God know the problem so he could fix it. And while they had the right idea in going to God, they came to him with the wrong problem to solve. And, as they would discover, when we bring the wrong problem to God, we may not like the solution he offers.
The problem had nothing to do with their eating and everything to do with their attitude. This is evident from what precedes their complaint. “But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses…” (v.4-5). Food was far from being the real problem; all the food did was expose the real issue: their impatience. And, when the problem is misdiagnosed, we’re unlikely to seek out the correct solution. Again, they had the right idea in looking to God for the solution, but they had the wrong attitude in their approach. They didn’t come before him in humility, but in insolence, brazenly speaking directly against God and Moses! This detail of the account is crucial to a proper understanding of the whole story.
Because if we overlook this when we see how God responds, we could confuse the problem with the solution. “Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died” (v.6). If we fail to correctly pin the problem on the Israelites for their insolence, then God’s punishment could be perceived as the problem. We question how he could do such a thing. We wonder how God could have this kind of violence in his heart to want to harm his own people. How do we process these questions?
Remember, God’s response was not the problem; it was a part of the solution. Yes, that’s right – God sending venomous snakes was not the problem, but rather a part of the solution. If you find that hard to believe, don’t quit reading just yet. To help us better understand, let’s take an example from the world of how-not-to-parent-today that illustrates how the venomous snakes were actually part of God’s solution.
Have you ever been in a public place when a child wasn’t getting his way and he was making it painfully obvious not just to mom, but to everyone within roughly a square mile? How the parent responds at that point is either going to be a part of the solution or the problem. When mom makes a deal to give the child what he wants (or something similar) as he stops whining, mom has now just become a part of the problem.
The mom’s behavior in those cases is not uncommon, because it deceptively feels as if she’s still in charge. After all, she is the one that proposed the offer. And, she very likely intends to follow through with it if her child stops whining. It feels to her like she successfully resolved the issue. But that is not at all what just happened. Instead, what just happened was that mom taught her child that whining was actually a productive method in getting his way. He simply has to act up and make a scene until mom promises something good if he’ll stop.
So mom thought she had provided a solution, but in reality she only contributed to the problem by reinforcing for her child that whining is an easy go-to to get his way. What she ought to have done instead was told her son that there would be consequences if he didn’t stop (i.e. no snack, an earlier bedtime, no screen time, etc.) and then – and here’s the only way this is ever going to work – she followed through with the consequence if her child continued to whine.
Back to the wilderness. If God had dealt with his impatient people brazenly speaking against him by telling Moses, “I can’t handle their complaining anymore. Go ahead and give them juicy steak dinners, but only if they stop whining,” what do you suppose the Israelites would have realized? They would have concluded, “Hey, we just figured out how to turn God into our personal butler! Who needs a magic lamp and a genie – we have God! Turns out all we had to do all along was just complain loud enough and long enough!”
But God didn’t deal with them that way. Instead, he showed them that there were consequences to speaking out against him and sent venomous snakes.
And what was the result? It might surprise us! “The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us’” (v.7). Imagine that! They owned up to their sin and repented of it, turning back to the same God they had impatiently spoken against and basically said, “We were wrong! We’re sorry! Please help us!”
Do you know what that kind of message is to God? It’s music to his ears. There is nothing more pleasing to God than a humble, penitent heart that both owns up to its sin as the problem and turns to God for the solution.
The prophet Isaiah described God like this: “For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isaiah 57:15). And God’s permanent promise is that when anyone approaches him with contrition, that is, sorrow over sin, he will always rescue and revive with his deliverance.
Among the snake-bitten bodies of the dead, God chose to demonstrate both his desire and his ability to deliver. And he did it in a way that so uniquely solidified that he was the one providing the solution; he was the one saving. “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live’” (v.8). A snake on a pole? The very same thing responsible for causing so much death was now going to be responsible for delivering from it? That makes no sense. Why would God choose such a method?
To make it abundantly clear that rescue and deliverance would only come through him. There are half a dozen methods that would have made much more sense than a snake on a pole: suck out the poison, drink some sort of antidote, apply some medicinal oil on it, amputate, etc. As extreme as any human solution might have been, it still would have made more sense than simply looking at a snake on a pole!
So by using something as far-fetched as a snake on a pole, God pretty clearly ruled out that any snake-bitten Israelite would be able to save himself. His solution made no logical, reasonable, scientific or medical sense whatsoever. But it was also the only solution that was going to work. “So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived” (v.9).
Do you get it yet? This whole account isn’t just about learning not to complain before God. It isn’t about snakes – venomous ones or a bronze one on a pole.
It’s about Jesus.
Did you see Jesus in the wilderness with the Israelites and the snakes? His own words recorded in John’s Gospel help us see where Jesus was all along. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” (3:14-15).
As absurd as we might think it was for a bronze snake on a pole to heal people bitten by venomous snakes, how about the perfect, innocent Son of God nailed up to a cross to pay for all of mankind’s sin? Many today reject such a notion in favor of countless solutions under the sun that would seem to be much more logical or reasonable. But just like any logical or reasonable solution that could have been devised in the desert, none of them would have solved the problem. We cannot ever solve the problem of our sins ourselves.
Only God delivers from sin, and only in one way. Only the blood of Jesus forgives. Only his sacrifice saves. Only his death delivers us from death.
This whole account? It’s not about the snakes; it’s about sin… and most importantly God’s solution to sin, his Son, the Savior.
One of life’s small joys may certainly be the satisfaction of finding a solution to a problem and fixing it ourselves. But one of life’s great joys – the greatest, in fact! – is the satisfaction of knowing and believing that in Jesus Christ, God has already provided the only solution we need for the problem of our sin. We have that joy.
Do you know anyone who doesn’t? Let’s be a part of the solution to that problem by directing them to Jesus, their Savior.
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