Numbers 21:4-9 - God Gives Us What We Need, When We Need It - March 11, 2018

We live in a free-market, capitalistic society where we are free to expect and demand what we want when we want it (and complain if we don’t get it). Want a hamburger? Go to Burger King and you can “have it your way.” With just a couple clicks Amazon can get you anything from a year’s supply of toilet paper to an 80 inch TV and have it delivered to your doorstep in two days or less. No more driving to Blockbuster for a movie – you can watch what you want, when you want On Demand. And, if you happen to really want some big ticket item that you really can’t afford – no problem, they’ve got a credit card they would love to get your name on. Why do businesses bend over backwards like this? Because business is beholden to consumers and that’s what consumers want.

In the world of business, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. That’s capitalism. The problem appears when the principles of free-market capitalism are applied to Christianity, to our relationship with God. The temptation is there – and is fed by much of American Christianity – to believe that God is beholden to us and our wants, to think of God as a divine butler – a heavenly Amazon.com – who better give us what we want, when we want it – or we can just take our business elsewhere. But God loves us too much to give us what we want, when we want it. He promises something even better: he gives us what we need, when we need it.

We meet up with the Israelites near the end of their wandering in the wilderness. They were about to step into the land God had promised to their fathers 40 years earlier after he had rescued them from slavery in Egypt. They were so close they could almost taste it. Once they had passed through the nation of Edom, they would be home – in a land flowing with milk and honey. There was only one problem: Edom refused to let them pass. And so the Israelites had to turn around, go back where they came from and take an over 200 mile detour to the Promised Land. We can understand their impatience, we get frustrated when we have to take a 10 mile detour in a car. But the Israelites were on foot, in a barren desert, numbering around 2 million people of all ages in all conditions of life, carrying everything they owned on their backs, after having already spent 4 decades wandering the wilderness. 

This was not what the Israelites wanted when they wanted it. So they filed a complaint “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” God and Moses must have felt like parents on a family vacation. It never takes long for the griping to begin, does it? “I’m hungry, I’m thirsty, I’ve got to go to the bathroom.” Then it’s, “These sandwiches you packed are gross, why can’t we stop at McDonalds.” Tensions rise when “Are we there yet?” becomes “If we don’t get there soon, I’m going to die.” And then the last straw, that final act of rebellion – kicking the back of your seat! Spoiled brats, that’s what the Israelites were behaving like.

You detest this miserable food? You mean this food that God rains down from heaven day after day, food that you don’t have to work or pay for, food that you simply have to pick up and eat? That food you don’t deserve to eat, that’s the food you detest? Is there anything else you would like to complain about? How about your clothing – maybe it’s time for a fashion update? (Nehemiah tells us that even after 40 years of walking the clothing and shoes of the Israelites did not wear out.) (Nehemiah 9:21) You dare complain about being rescued from Egypt? Do you remember what went on there? Your parents were driven to death producing bricks and their baby boys were put to death. Would you really prefer that to the freedom and security of walking with God to a land of your own?

Who would grumble and complain about such undeserved gifts and blessings? It would be like a person today whining that their house is not big enough, their car not new enough, their clothes not fashionable enough, their food not delectable enough, the government not effective enough, their children not obedient enough, the weather not warm enough, or their bodies not healthy enough. Certainly we would never complain like the Israelites, would we? Unfortunately, we too are often more proficient at itemizing our grievances than counting our blessings. “But it’s my right to complain.” No. It’s not. Not if we actually believe the words of the Apostles’ Creed. We confess with Luther in his explanation to the first article that clothing and shoes, food and drink, property and home, spouse and children…and all [we] own, and all [we] need to keep our bodies and lives are not things we are entitled to but gifts from our gracious God. Which means that every time we complain about any of those things we are no better than the Israelites, no better than kids kicking the back of the car seat, in fact, no better than unbelievers.

Wait, what? Yes, griping and complaining are not the hallmarks of faith but unbelief – because it is a denial and rejection of God’s promise to provide everything we need. (James 1:17) Complaining about what God has or hasn’t given us is a serious sin because it alleges that God doesn’t know what is best for us, or, even, that his goal is not to bless and save us but harm us. Make no mistake: it is a nothing less than rebellion to think that we know better than God. This is the sin that got Adam and Eve kicked out of Eden (Genesis 3:24), got Jonah swallowed by a fish (Jonah 1:17), that led to the Israelites’ 40 year wandering in the first place (Numbers 14), the kind of sin that if left unchecked, leads to eternal death in hell. God is good and gracious and gives us every gift we need for our bodies and lives – but if we grow so fixated on the gifts that we forget the giver, then we need something else; namely, discipline.

Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. Like the parent who turns around in their seat and says “Quit your crying or I will…give you something to cry about” God turned to the Israelites – in love – and told them with snakes “I’m going to give you something to cry about because you need a wakeup call. You need to remember who’s in charge here. You need to remember that your real problem is not lack of variety in your diet but your depraved hearts.” These lethal snakes forced the Israelites to reflect on themselves and their behavior. They realized how faithless and ungrateful they have been. And, when they realized that the only thing they truly deserved was a painful death, they were quick to change their tune: 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.” God’s discipline administered through venomous snakes accomplished his purpose: it brought about a change of heart, a confession of sin, true, heartfelt repentance.

“So, pastor, you’re saying that when some struggle, some sorrow, some pain or problem comes into my life – I should see it as God’s way of leading me to examine myself, of disciplining me in order to lead me to repentance and cry out to him for help?” Yes. When we cry into our 1000 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets about how unfair life is, God might well respond by giving us something to really cry about. If we complain about conditions at work, he might give us a pink slip. If we grumble about not having enough money, he might let the car break down. If we gripe about our good-for nothing relatives, he may take them away. If we gripe about aches and pains, he might send us to the ER. Now, this is not to say that every hardship we face is directly tied to a specific complaint. (Read the book of Job.) But, when we fall into the unbelief of complaining about God’s gifts to us, he loves us enough to give us something to really cry about with a healthy dose of discipline. Why? Because sometimes pain is the only sermon that gets our attention. C.S. Lewis wrote: “We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities; and anyone who has watched gluttons shoveling down the most exquisite foods as if they did not know what they were eating, will admit that we can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” [1] Through his loving discipline God helps see that our biggest problem is our lost and depraved condition as sinners; and how we must join the Israelites in the simple, excuse free, confession that we [have] sinned against the LORD. And if God uses painful, unpleasant discipline to bring about that goal, we shouldn’t get angry, we should endure hardship as discipline recognizing that God is treating [us] like sons trusting that [He] disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. (Hebrews 12:1, 10)

And the good news is that when God drives us to repentance, he always answers our cries for mercy – and always in the way that is best for us: 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.” 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, he lived. Did you notice that even here, God didn’t give the Israelites what they wanted? They wanted the snakes taken away. Instead, God gave them another snake, a bronze snake on a pole. This had to seem like utter foolishness to the Israelites. How could looking at a bronze snake save them? It couldn’t. That was the point. It was not the bronze snake that saved them, it was the promise God attached to it. And so, it took faith in God’s Word for those who were writhing in pain to look at that snake on the pole, but if they believed and looked, God saved their lives. A renewed and strengthened faith in God’s promises is what the Israelites needed most and through his gifts, his discipline, and his salvation – God gave them exactly what they needed, right when they needed it.

So where’s the snake on a pole we should look at when God’s discipline has brought us to our knees? It’s right here. It’s the water of Baptism. The bread and wine of Holy Communion. The absolution spoken and the Gospel read and the Word of God applied. But still today, many doubt and say: “How can tap water save?” “How can bread and wine grant forgiveness of sins?” “How can words written and read guarantee eternal life?” The simple answer is: they don’t. Neither the snake, nor the water, nor the bread and wine, nor the word on the page has any power to save on their own. But, administered by Christ’s command and connected to God’s Word – these become the powerful and effective (and only) means of salvation.

That’s how it has to be because - when you see the water of Baptism, receive the bread and wine of Communion, hear the Word of God read and preached, and when those Israelites looked at that snake in the desert – God really wants you to see something greater with eyes of faith. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (John 3:14-15) We can’t help but see ourselves and our Savior in this story, can we? 1) Just like the Israelites, we are all infected with the deadly poison of sin injected by the devil – a poison that without treatment, will result in eternal death. 2) In both cases there is only one cure: faith in God’s promise. 3) Just as there was no poison in that bronze snake, so there was no sin in Jesus, and yet he sucked the poison of sin out of our souls, bled and died for it on the cross 4) And, in both cases, the cure is immediate and complete. The moment the Israelites looked to the bronze snake with faith in God’s promise – they were healed. The moment anyone comes to faith in Jesus – they are saved, period. Today, this applies to Briar. Today, God saved Briar from the eternal death his sins deserve. Briar needed salvation and God gave him exactly what he needed most. And in the end, that is what we – and all people – need most.

What you want, when you want it might be the way of our capitalistic system, it might even be our own desire – but God loves us too much to give us what we want – so he gives us what we need. He gives us the good gifts we need to sustain our bodies and lives on earth. When we forget that, when we grumble and complain, he disciplines us with the goal of leading us to repentance. And, when we call out to him for help, he never fails to give us what we need most: forgiveness, life and salvation through Christ crucified. Look to him and live. Amen.

[1] C. S. Lewis. The Problem of Pain (New York: Harper San Francisco, 1996), 90-91.