Numbers 21:4-9
Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke“See God’s Surprising Solution”
Fourth Sunday in Lent
Sunday, March 10, 2024
What should you do if you get bit by a rattlesnake? That’s actually a worthwhile question to ask yourself if you spend time outside in this area, especially as the weather warms up. It’s even better that you know how to avoid rattlesnake bites, but if you get one, what do you do? There are lots of ideas that sound like they could be solutions, but they aren’t really the right answer. Don’t put ice on the bite or try to fashion a tourniquet. Don’t try to catch the snake or figure out a way to remove the venom. What should you do? Call 911, stay calm, and back away from the snake. Remove anything that might be too tight if swelling occurs, like jewelry. Gently clean the bite with soap and water and wrap it loosely with a clean bandage.
So what would you think if, instead of any of these things, someone would suggest staring at the snake as a solution to the bite? What would you think of a plan to make a statue of the snake and raise it up on a pole and look at that? That’s pretty strange. It’s downright bizarre and ridiculous. It doesn’t even sound like it could possibly help. At least we can see some thought behind the other wrong approaches, but this one doesn’t make any sense at all.
There must have been at least a little of that reaction for the Israelites when that’s basically what they were told. Venomous snakes had infiltrated their camp. Many people were dying from snakebites. They cried out for a solution, and instead of one that seemed to fit the context or make sense, the instruction was to put a bronze snake on a pole and lift it up so that those who were bitten could look on it and be saved. That’s God’s surprising solution.
If we’re going to look closely at a solution, we also need to look at the problem. Our reading comes from the time when the people of Israel were basically in sight of the Promised Land. If you recall Israelite history, they were in roughly the same place where they had sent twelve spies into the land. The report of the spies at that time and the reaction of the people led to God taking the Israelites back into the wilderness for forty more years. They wandered in that wilderness until all who had rebelled against God had passed from this life. And forty years later, the Israelites came back to where that wandering started.
There was a short way into the Promised Land. It went through the land of Edom. The Israelites had a plan. They would ask the King of Edom to allow them to walk carefully through the main street, through his land. They would pay for anything they needed along the way, and they would pass right through to the Promised Land. It would benefit everyone. Or so they thought. The king refused. So the people had to take a detour. They had to turn back toward the wilderness from which they had come and work their way around Edom before they would reach their destination.
That’s why the people became impatient. They spoke out against Moses. They somehow remembered the good old days of their slavery in Egypt. And instead of staying there, where they seemed to remember being safe and comfortable, which of course they were not, they had come out to this vast wilderness to die. There’s no food and there is no water. That was true enough of the wilderness itself, but God had provided food and water. Water poured out of rocks when the Israelites needed it. Bread appeared miraculously on the ground every single morning except for the weekly Sabbath Day. On that day, the people ate what they had saved from the day before. For forty years God had provided everything these people needed, even making sure that their shoes did not wear out. And all they could say was, “we are disgusted by this worthless food.”
There was no doubt about the problem. It was the grumbling and anger and disappointment in the light of God’s amazing providence and blessing. It was a lack of appreciation. It was a lack of perspective about a relatively small detour on the way to God’s promised blessing. And the problem got worse for the people because a consequence was inflicted. The snakes were unleashed on them. The consequence was severe and deadly.
And the consequence did its job. The people recognized without a doubt that they had sinned. They had disobeyed the God who had rescued them and blessed them. They came to Moses in repentance. They
admitted their guilt and prayed for mercy. They could not do anything to change what they had done. They could not do anything about the snakes. They needed God’s solution.
And they saw God’s solution. Interestingly, it wasn’t to get rid of the snakes. It wasn’t to stop them from biting. It was to put a bronze snake on a pole and to give a promise. It wasn’t a solution that would work except because of God’s promise. When the people looked to the bronze snake in faith, in confidence, they were healed and lived.
In today’s Gospel, you heard Jesus give further explanation to this account. He makes it clear when it might not have been otherwise. The snake on the pole that Moses lifted up teaches us about and foreshadows our Savior. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). The world has a problem. The problem is even more serious than snakes being unleashed and causing destruction, because the world’s problem results in eternal destruction. But God loved the world so much that he sent a solution. He sent a Savior.
The parallels between the bronze snake and Jesus who would be lifted up on a cross are obvious and considerable. A solution is raised up for people who don’t deserve the help. It comes to people who have earned their destruction and people who cannot help or save themselves. The solution comes from the gracious and merciful heart of the God of creation, the God of the Universe, the only true God. And seeing the solution means looking in faith at what God has promised. Jesus spelled out that connection as he spoke with Nicodemus. He talked about the blessed result that “whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
And God’s gift to the world, his solution to sin, is a solution for you. We look at the Israelites and all the blessings and all the promises that they had from God, and we are appalled by their behavior, and their faithlessness. We are astounded by how quickly they forget the good things and focus on the bad. Do we need to remind ourselves of their complaint? “There is no food! . . . And we are disgusted by this worthless food!” They were receiving food every single day in the vast wilderness for forty years, and that was not enough for them.
Has God’s provision ever been not enough for you? Have you grumbled and complained as if God had forgotten you or wronged you when instead you should have been counting your blessings? Have you gotten so focused on some specific issue that you can only see problems even when you have God’s amazing promises? Of course you have. And I have, too. There’s the problem.
So let’s see God’s surprising solution for us. His solution is someone who never grumbled or complained. He is one who never took for granted God’s blessings and provision. And he was lifted up on the cross where he sacrificed his perfect life for your imperfect life. He was lifted up for you to see his sacrifice and to see the salvation he won for you. He was lifted up as God’s solution for sin because you and I could not help or save ourselves. You and I could never solve our problem on our own.
Just as God put death on display when snakes were destroying the people, so also God takes our biggest problems of death and hell and puts them on display as Jesus is lifted up. He takes what can only seem a ridiculous solution and makes it our solution. God proves his solution successful by not only raising Jesus up on the cross but also by raising him from the dead. And God gives us his gift in the surprising waters of baptism which doesn’t appear to be a solution, but is a washing away of sin. He gives us his gifts in the bread and wine of Holy Communion with Christ’s body and blood. Again, it doesn’t look like a solution, and it’s not one we would come up with, but it is the solution. It is the forgiveness of sin. It is the love of God. It’s our salvation.
It may be good to have an idea about what to do if you ever find yourself bitten by a rattlesnake. Thankfully, I am no expert. I just looked those things up on a website. But, dear friends, it is essential that we see our sin, that we see the dire consequences of our sin, and most of all, that we see God’s surprising solution. His solution is that everyone who looks to Jesus has eternal life in him. Thanks be to God.
The Text: Numbers 21:4–9 (EHV)
4They set out from Mount Hor along the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom, but the people became very impatient along the way. 5The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? Look, there is no food! There is no water! And we are disgusted by this worthless food!”
6The Lord sent venomous snakes among the people, and the snakes bit the people. As a result many people from Israel died. 7The people went to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord to take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed on behalf of the people.
8The Lord said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake and put it on a pole. If anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.” 9Moses made a bronze snake and put it on the pole. If a snake had bitten anyone, if that person looked at the bronze snake, he lived.