Morning Message Text: Numbers 21: 4-9 & John 6: 66-69
Numbers 21: 4-9
The Bronze Snake
4 They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way;
5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”
6 Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.
7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”
9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.
John 6: 66-69
66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
67 “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.
68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
69 We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
Morning Message:
Let me start with a riddle: “Why is it that when you’re looking for something, it’s always in the last place you look?” Does anyone know the answer to the riddle? Guess where you will find it? In your Lenten devotional. “The answer is: Because once you’ve found it, you stop looking.”
This is all from today’s reading in your devotional: “Do you remember that children’s song “The Bear went over the mountain”? The first verse goes, ‘The bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain, to see what he could see.’ The second verse continues, ‘The other side of the mountain, the other side of the mountain, the other side of the mountain was all that he could see.’ The song returns to verse one and starts over.”
“That bear kept going back and forth over the mountain looking for something that was never there. It’s kind of like the way most people keep searching for the meaning of life.”
In our reading from the Gospel of John this morning, Peter makes a very wise statement. Peter was not afraid to put himself out there and sometimes he hits the nail on the head. “Lord, to whom shall we go?” The search is over; it would be futile to keep looking.
While we should always strive to better ourselves, the question becomes for Christians: What should our focus be? We know that the things we accumulate on this earth will not last, so increasing our wealth and adding to our possessions is not the answer. I think that it’s our human nature to always think that there is something better out there, something that we need to strive for. We joke about this mindset, but we always have this nagging feeling that the grass is greener on the other side. We are so much like that bear; we always want what we don’t have.
Most times we discover, when we finally get what we think we want, it is no better than what we already had. This attitude of let’s just look and see can be very destructive to our walk with God.
Consider the story of David and Bathsheba. How did this affair start? By looking and seeing.
Of all the stories in the Bible I think this is one of the most meaningful. I sometimes wonder how God put up with such a stubborn, selfish, self-serving people, and then I am reminded of my own shortcomings. After spending hundreds of years in captivity as slave in Egypt, all the Israelites wanted was to be free. They prayed for generations for God to raise up someone who would free them from their bondage. We all know the story. Moses led them out of Egypt and God moved in miraculous ways and answered their prayers. They saw great miracles. God parted the sea and allowed them to walk across on dry land, and then he brought the waters down on the Egyptians and they drowned. They cried out for food, and he gave them manna from heaven. God brought water out of a rock for them to drink; he caused quails to land all around them because they wanted meat. At one point they even wished to be back in Egypt. I can almost hear them saying to each other and to God, “We thought the grass would be greener on the other side, we look and see, and we no longer want to be free.
We must be careful of how we interpret these verses. I don’t believe that our God is a vengeful God who seeks to do us harm when we disobey. I do believe that God allows things and circumstances into the lives of his children for their own good. For me personally the venomous snakes would have been the worst correction that I could have received. These snakes would not have had to bite me, I would have died of a heart attack just seeing them. God didn’t create these snakes and put them there for this purpose. The snakes were always there. All God did was remove his protection. You never know how light your trials are until they get worse. You never know how truly blessed you are until that blessing is no longer present. You never know just how green the grass is until you travel to the other side, look and see, and realize that that grass is brown.
The people very quickly realized their sin and came to Moses asking him to pray for their forgiveness. This was a very common occurrence for the Israelites. Over and over again they would sin, grumble against God, go their own way, and when things went sideways, run back to God and he would make it go away. Not this time. Oh, God would give them a way to survive the snakes, but they would always be susceptible to the bite. This seems like a terrible way to have to live. Having to live in a world where we can be bitten by snakes and the only way to save ourselves is to look upon an image of this terrible thing. Friends, there is a price to be paid for sin. God told Adam and Eve that if they sinned, they would surly die. But God in his mercy had a plan all along for the salvation of mankind. Adam and Eve said to themselves, let me look and see if things wouldn’t be better if we ate this fruit.
The curse began. God gave the cure, but the sin is still all around us. We can’t escape the horror or the ugliness of sin, but we can live eternally by accepting what Jesus did on that terrible cross. You have look at it and accept that your sin put Jesus there. Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
What are we really looking for? We are always looking for something better when we have already found the best that God has to offer. Look and see that God is good. Look and see that you are so blessed, and if you don’t really think you are blessed then I invite you to look around, because there is always someone hurting more than you. Instead of looking and searching, try thanking and praising God for what you have already been blessed with.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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