Daily Devotion – March 17, 2021 – Pastor Brian Hansen

Numbers 21:4-9 

4From 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. 5The 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.” 6Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. 7The 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. 8And 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.” 9So 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. 

The other day one of my children opened the refrigerator door and declared, “there is nothing to eat”.  I went over and looked in the fridge and noticed that the fruit and vegetable drawers were full and that pretty much every shelf was chuck full of food.  What I think I heard them say is not really that there was no food but rather that they were looking for something different, they were tired of the same old stuff.  This week in our old testament reading we see the people of Israel complain about eating the same old thing over and over again.  Though the manna that they receive daily comes as a gift from God to nourish and sustain them they seem to be fed up with the monotony of it all.

If I’m honest I think I can sympathize with the people of Israel and their wariness.  Just like the people of Israel and my own children I’ve found myself uttering similar words as I feel at times a sense of may laze around the abundance that I have.  At times I think we all take for granted and even complaining about the things in life that sustain us.  It can be easy to fall into the trap of believing that the grass is greener on the other side.  We look at what others have and imagine that our lives would be better if we had what they had.  Therefore, when the people of Israel grumble to God and Moses, I think I get it.

Ultimately God responds to the discontent of the people by sending snakes to bite them so that some even die.  The people cry out to Moses in an act of repentance and God tells Moses to make a pole with a poisonous snake on it and hold it up before the people so that all who look up at the bronze snake might live.  Perhaps the greatest take away from this text is the simple idea that it is in facing/confronting that which is killing us that we find life.

We all have struggles that bind us and that threaten to perhaps in ways threaten our lives.  This story from the book of Numbers is for us a reminder of the God who provides for our needs.  It’s a story of how God calls us to confront that which is killing us so that we might find life.  It’s a story of the God who never takes us for granted and who offers us all that we need.  Perhaps this is ultimately a story that invites us to take some time to reflect on the exceeding abundance in our lives rather than focusing on a myth of scarcity.

Prayer:  God of healing, help us to confront that which is killing us and help us to see the many gifts and blessings in our lives.  AMEN