Building a Relationship – Numbers 21:4-9

A text – Numbers 21:4-9

21:4 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.
21:5 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.”
21:6 Then the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.
21:7 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.
21:8 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.”
21:9 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.

A reflection:

Many theologians and historians believe that the Israelites’ 40 years of wandering in the wilderness was God’s plan for building them into a nation with an identity, an identity centered on God. God wanders with them every step of the way, as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God encounters everything they encounter. They are fed by God and led by God.

They complain often to their leaders about God and how they are being treated. God responds to their cries – God always hears them. This time they are longing for their prior life in Egypt where there was water and good food. God responds by sending poisonous snakes to bite them. Many have died. The people repent of their complaining and their animosity toward God and Moses. God responds by having Moses build a bronze serpent, a pagan symbol if there ever was one, and place it up on a pole. It does not destroy the snakes, as the people have prayed. It cures the snakebite of anyone who looks upon it.

God is continually teaching the Israelites that God will not erase their foes but instead will help them live through the peril their foes bring. God could certainly have eradicated the snakes, but God’s answer is about the people’s relationship to their creator. God wants them to be in a trusting relationship, so God provides saving when the Israelites realize they are dying. This story is not about a magic cure. This nation does not have a superstitious identity. It has a child-parent relationship with its creator.

When we pray for magic answers to tough problems, God hears us. But God may answer us in ways that turn us toward our relationship with God instead of a quick solution to the problem at hand.  We might have to admit we have forgotten that God is our loving parent. When we right our posture toward God, we can talk with God about the problem with a better understanding. What keeps us from our right relationship with God? How do we get turned around and off kilter? What would it feel like to be facing God and asking for help?

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for being our heavenly parent. Thank you for caring about our lives and all their events. Please help us to notice when we are turned away from you and not listening, when we are looking in the wrong places and not seeing you. Thank you for your patience as we learn again and again to be yours.    Amen.