Have to call the witch doctor

 

     During this season of Lent, we are taking a different path on our journey to Resurrection Sunday. Most sermons during this time are focused on the gospels, specifically on Jesus’s journey to the Cross. While His suffering is something we should remember, what does it all mean? How is it connected to the Bible as a whole? For this reason, we have been looking at passages in the Old Testament. There are moments when God says, “Never again” and how His words in these moments are affirmed through Jesus.

 

     Our passage today is on God’s chosen people trying to make it to the Promised Land. Tragedy finds them and requires national healing. To solve this problem, the Israelites do not look to the Ghostbusters, Obi-Won Kenobi, or a witch doctor.

 

     Numbers 21:4-9 (CEB):

 

     They marched from Mount Hor on the Reed Sea road around the land of Edom. The people became impatient on the road. The people spoke against God and Moses: “Why did you bring us up from Egypt to kill us in the desert, where there is no food or water. And we detest this miserable bread!” So the LORD sent poisonous snakes among the people and they bit the people. Many of the Israelites died.

 

     The people went to Moses and said, “We’ve sinned, for we spoke against the LORD and you. Pray to the LORD so that he will send the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

 

     The LORD said to Moses, “Make a poisonous snake and place it on a pole. Whoever is bitten can look at it and live.” Moses made a bronze snake and placed it on a pole. If a snake bit someone, that person could look at the bronze snake and live.

 

 

This is the Word of God.

For the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

     Verse 4 reveals that God’s people are taking the long way around to the Promised Land, all because the Edomites would not let them pass through their country. Now the terrain they traveled was not easy. For an entire nation, there was not enough food or even water to sustain them. But God had provided them with manna from heaven and water from a rock.

 

     After a while though, the Israelites grew tired of the manna. Paraphrasing verse 5, the people said to Moses, “We ain’t had nothing but maggoty bread for three stinkin’ books of the Bible!” God had provided them with food, and the Israelites called God’s provision “miserable.”

 

     A keyword to fully understanding the Israelite’s attitude is in verse 4. “The people became impatient.” They were complaining not because the manna tasted bad, but because they were sick of not being able to take care of themselves. And if they could get to the Promised Land, there would be enough there to not need miracles from God to sustain them. This desire for self-sufficiency and to “get what was theirs” poisoned their attitude toward God and Moses.

 

     The Israelites’ impatience led them to hissing and spewing out venomous words aimed at God and Moses. God’s good gifts were corrupted by their poisonous attitudes. They were ungrateful, behaving like that old serpent the devil. In response, verse 6 shares that God sent venomous snakes among them.

 

     They sinfully hissed at God and Moses, then their sin hissed back at them. The snakes were poisonous enough to kill them. Recognizing their sin, the Israelites go to Moses and say, in verse 7, “We sinned, for we spoke against the LORD and you. Pray to the LORD so that He will send the snakes away.” Even though as a nation they sinned against God, they knew God was their only hope.

 

     Despite their ungratefulness, God hears the nation’s repentance of sin. And God steps in to help them. In verse 8, God tells Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole.” If anyone was bitten, all they had to do to be healed was decide to look up at the bronze snake. Faith enough to look up would bring healing.

 

     To be clear, it was not the bronze serpent that healed the Israelites. This bronze snake was not a magic trinket or a spell from some witch doctor. When an Israelite was bitten and looked at the snake, it was a reminder to them that God healed them. Faith enough to look up to the Healer would bring healing. Verse 9 tells us that this method worked.

 

     What does this have to do with us? How does it connect with Lent and Jesus? The words of Jesus in John 3 reveal to us how God says, “Never again.” Jesus says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” (John 3:14-15) Jesus connects His death on the Cross with the snake on a pole that brought healing to the Israelites.

 

     The snake on the pole was not a real snake. Verse 8 of our passage records, “Make a snake.” Whenever someone was bitten by a real venomous snake, they had to have enough faith to look at the venom-less snake on the pole. That venom-less snake on a pole was a reminder that they were looking up to God to be healed from the consequences of their sin.

 

     Jesus is God in the flesh. The same God who created us as a reflection of His image. We sinned and corrupted that image inside of us. Sin bit us like a venomous snake, filling our race with agony, destruction, and death. And even though it was the consequence of all our sins, Jesus, the sinless image of God was high and lifted up on the Cross. All who are poisoned with sin only need to look to Jesus to be healed from sin. Not merely forgiven of sin, but freed from its grip.

 

     Great, Pastor, Jesus died for my sin. But how does that help us with our problems? Do you want to know how to be healed from your addiction, heartache, depression, hatred, physical illness, limitations, or any other luggage you are hauling through life? Sin, either through your own choices, someone else’s choices, or being in a sinful world has bitten you and you want to be healed.

 

     Look up. Have enough faith to simply look up at Jesus, the Savior who was high and lifted up! Jesus is not merely a curtain to veil us from the wrath of God. He is the conduit of God’s love that can bring healing to every aspect of your life! Never again will you need to call the witch doctor or use his venom-laced solutions, you can look up to Jesus! Whether it is by medicine, science, taking you home to be with Him, or a divine touch, God loves you and wants to heal you.

 

     As the people of God, we believe in divine healing. So, if you were poisoned by your own sinful choices, look up! Jesus can heal you. If you want to be healed from your addiction, heartache, hatred, physical ailment, or any other worldly poison, look up! Have enough faith to look up to the Healer.

Need prayer? Have a question? Contact The Dirt Path Pastor