Numbers 21:4-9 (NRSV)
From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. 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 detest this miserable food.” Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
Devotion
As we use this Lenten season to reflect on a new and right spirit, we can look back to the stories of the Old Testament for inspiration and understanding. As background to the goings on in Numbers 21, Moses has led the Israelites out of Egypt and away from Pharaoh, with the help of God and ten vicious plagues. God has been providing food and water as the Israelites move through the desert. But even with the knowledge of all their God has done for them, and all he promises to do, the people of Israel are already complaining. Why have you brought us here? The Lord sends poisonous serpents and the people understand that action as a punishment. The people ask Moses to serve as intermediary between themselves and God, wanting the serpents to be “taken away from us.” But that is not what happens. God instructs Moses how to heal those that are bitten: simply by looking upon a bronze serpent atop a pole. It seems so ridiculously simple and so not what the people wanted. But it does the job: “whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.”
Perhaps part of adopting a new and right spirit is the understanding that we can ask God for anything, but that even answered prayers may look different from what we expect. God didn’t take away the serpents, and he didn’t stop their biting. But he did give the people a solution to their problem. Maybe a new and right spirit is knowing that, even as we wander in the wilderness, God is with us and giving us ways to overcome obstacles in our path, even if he declines to remove the obstacles themselves.
Prayer
God of comfort and God of challenge, we come to you the way the Israelites did, full of complaints and dissatisfaction and unable to see your presence in our lives. Forgive us and help us remember that you are always with us, dealing with our hardships right alongside us. Grant us patience and understanding as we open our hearts to your Spirit; grant us peace and contentment as we honor your steadfast love and light in our lives.
Leslie Bumgarner
Links for Further Contemplation