The Fiery Serpents| Numbers 21:4-9
Numbers 21:4-9
The Fiery Serpents
When the conference moved me from Greenville United Methodist Church in Joelton, Tennessee to Cook’s United Methodist Church in Mt. Juliet, I was pretty psyched, nearly ecstatic, because I love Mt. Juliet. I graduated from Mt. Juliet High School, I was a youth pastor in Mt. Juliet for several years. I still keep up with a lot of the kids who were in my youth group.
I thought my whole family would be happy about the new appointment. We were moving to a bigger church….with a gym. We were moving into a bigger parsonage, both Michael and Paige would have their own bedroom. Paige’s “bedroom” in Joelton was really the den in the front of the house. The house was next door to the church. So whenever anyone came to our house asking for money or help for a utility bill, they were knocking on my daughter’s bedroom door. No fun.
I thought everybody would be pretty happy with the new move, but ironically, Paige was not. Paige was not happy with the move because, West Elementary, her new school had a dress code. A pretty strict dress code, and Paige was all about two things: fashion, and freedom. She didn’t like anyone telling her what clothes she should wear. She still doesn’t. So she was not happy with our new move.
I wish I could say her unhappiness did not bother me at all, but it did. I wanted her to be grateful for her new bedroom. I wanted her to be grateful for the gym she could play in just about any time she wanted right across the street from our house. I wanted her to express some appreciation for my efforts to be a good provider. I wanted her to see the good things that were happening at our new church, but she didn’t and it made me sad.
But I can tell you one thing I never did…. I never released poisonous snakes into her bedroom.
Now, how do you know I never did that? One way you know I never did it, is because I’m not in prison. They put people in prison for doing that kind of thing. Another reason you can know I never did that is because it would be a bit of an overreaction. It would be overkill.
For me to release poisonous snakes into my daughter’s bedroom just because she didn’t appreciate me as much as I thought she should have and wasn’t as grateful for all that I had done for her as I thought she should have been would be inexcusable…and unjustifiable….
Well….in…..our…..text…..today……from the Book of Numbers.
The people of Israel were being unruly and whining and complaining and less than grateful, so God released fiery serpents all through their camp and all through their tents and beds to straighten them out.
When I first read this text as part of the Common lectionary reading for today, my first impulse was to run from it as far as I could as if I had seen a fiery serpent, which figuratively speaking, I had. I had seen the fiery serpent of verse 6.
It would have been my little secret. No one would have known that I passed on this text. We don’t always follow the lectionary passage and there was still the Gospel text, the Epistle and the Psalm. But a preacher can only run from so many passages before you begin to wonder, “do I really believe this is a good book, with a good message?” I do, I really do, and even though I can’t say I have never run from a passage before, I felt like it was important for me to wrestle with this passage until I found the good news in it. And I have found what I believe to be good news in this text.
But I have to issue a disclaimer. You may not hear what I hear as good news in this story as good news. That is okay. There is a lot going on in this story. You might find something in this passage that is even better news than what I have found.
So let’s dive into the story, the setting and context. It occurs pretty late during the days of the wilderness wanderings. It has been almost 40 years since the Israelites have first left Egypt. Many of those who originally fled the Pharaoh have died out. They died out because they didn’t believe Joshua and Caleb’s report about entering the promised land and because they were whiners and complainers. However, even though essentially two generations have gone by since they first left Egypt there is still a lot of whining and complaining going on and in some ways, which I’ll get to, the belly aching is even worse.
It would be hard not to complain given what they are having to deal with. It is not exactly glamping. There are wild animals everywhere. They are surrounded by enemies. Inflatable mattresses hadn’t been invented yet, and in this part of the journey they are having to travel all the way around Edom to get to the promised land when it would have been a much more direct route to go down the main road that went through the middle of Edom, which was what they wanted to do.
Back one chapter, we have a description of messengers Moses sent to the king of Edom, who was a descendent of Esau, Jacob’s brother and therefore kin to the Israelites asking permission to travel down that main road.
Let’s take a look. Read Numbers 20:14-21
Not only was their request turned down, they were threatened by an army. It may have been that the people were thinking, “you know if Moses was the real deal, a real negotiator, if he was a real leader, he could have made that happen. We would be traveling on the easy road.” We don’t know. What we do know is there was lots of complaining going on. The people were exhausted. They were tired of the food God had been giving them. In some part of the journey they could augment their diet with local food and game, but there doesn’t seem to be anything but manna in Numbers 21 and they are sick of it. So they complain which wasn’t anything new.
What was new, however, is that instead of just complaining to and about Moses, they start complaining to and about God.
Verse 5 The people spoke against God and Moses.
That is when the snakes come out.
And yes, that is the part of this passage that is difficult for most of us to hear and find troubling.
The people are complaining, they are not as grateful as they should be and God releases poisonous snakes to do them in.
It seems like if God wanted to kill them, just don’t send them any more manna, they would starve to death, there is no food out there.
To quote a famous line from Raiders of the Lost Ark, why did it have to be snakes?
I don’t know if we will ever know why or if it had to be snakes, but it’s pretty clear the snakes were effective in doing what God wanted them to do.
Which I suggest is the good news of this passage. The people were whining. The people were complaining. They were speaking against Moses. They were speaking against God. The snakes came and the next thing you know, the people are repenting and turning back to God. The snakes worked. They did their job and that is the good news. When the people started getting bit, it caused them to rethink all of their whining and complaining and general unruliness and get reconnected to God.
Again, I get that might seem extreme but as the book of Hebrews tells us in the New Testament, God disciplines those God loves. Have you ever experienced discipline from God?
There was a young man who was having a tough time in school for a number of reasons. He was going through a lot and made a lot of bad decisions, including missing a lot of classes. Finally his parents received a letter from the principal of his school. The letter indicated that he had failed the 9th grade.
I know this story very well because this letter was addressed to my parents. I was having a tough time. I didn’t like school. I was bored. I had friends who were willing to go and climb mountains instead of sit in class and I was more than happy to go with them. I made a lot of bad decisions. Finally, the “fiery serpents” were released. In the form of the letter that I received and failing the 9th grade, and having to meet with a truant officer and getting in alot of trouble at home.
But, just like in the Book of Numbers (as I interpret it) the snakes worked. The snakes were actually good news. Because even though I did in fact flunk the 9th grade, and I did have a 1.5 GPA at one point, I did graduate on time, because our school had split sessions for class. You could start early and get out early or start late and get out late and I opted to start early and get out late so that I could make up all the time I missed. Then, after we moved to Tennessee just as I was about to graduate from Mt. Juliet High School, I was with my best friend at the guidance counselor’s office. He wanted to see his GPA. The counselor asked me if I wanted to see mine and I said “no.” She said, “Don’t you want to attend college?” I said, “no.” She said, “They are right here, let me tell you.”
I had a 3.3 or something like that, after having a 1.5. – not great but not terrible. Turns out I did go to college and then some.
In our story from the Book of Numbers, the snakes worked. They caused the people to repent and to be led back to God and as I see it, that is Good News.