The command to put a snake on a pole must have sounded ridiculous to some of the Israelites. Stare at a bronze snake and you’ll be healed? Who came up with that stupid idea? It must’ve just sounded silly enough that some Israelites started to look for more reasonable solutions to the snakebites.
Now, one elder among the Israelites couldn’t bear telling people that these poisonous vipers were the result of God’s judgment on their sinful behavior. He didn’t want to wound people’s self-worth and hurt their sensitive, inner-child. So, instead of directing people to the snake on the pole, Elder Self Esteem set up support groups, hoping to make people feel better. And people did feel better. But they still died, because they never bothered looking at the snake on the pole.
We can chuckle, but don’t we think the same way? Don’t we prefer those who make us feel happy about ourselves instead of telling us the truth? But what happens when this happens in the Church? We then never see that sin has poisoned us and that we are dying of its venom. Then, we never look to the snake on the pole–I mean, the Christ on the cross–to get the life that God is giving us.
One elder in the Israelite camp believed the real problem was the people’s lack of faith. “We need to speak faith into what’s happening here,” Elder Look Within shouted. He said that it’s faith that saves! So, Elder Look Within taught people to look to their own faith for salvation, instead of looking at some stupid snake on a pole. What did it matter, anyway? The snake merely represented what God was doing. And so, some of these inward-looking people died because they didn’t look at the snake on the pole.
Some in the camp became angry with Moses. Who was this man not allowing women to help hold up the snake on the pole? One woman complained, “I’m not going to look at any snake on a pole that only men are holding up.” Soon after that, she died of snakebite. Many in the camp held a candlelight vigil in her honor.
Others asked, “Did God tell Moses to put a snake on a pole? Or did Moses just make that up?” One group, led by Elder Higher Criticism, felt that this was merely Moses’ opinion. After all, he could explain any healings that had taken place by natural causes.
Another group doggedly defended the divine inspiration of Moses. Elder Fundamental led this group. What was essential to him was that people realize that what Moses said was true. So, that became his focus. But sadly, Elder Fundamental’s teachings reduced the opportunities for people to see the snake on the pole. For, when they were proving what Moses said was true, they weren’t looking at the snake, and so some died.
One elder believed that each person had to decide for the snake, whether he would look at the snake on the pole. And so, Elder Make A. Decision concentrated on that. He began having gatherings where he would first condemn the horror of poisonous vipers. Later, he would invite people to come forward and decide to look at the snake on the pole.
One elder agreed that life in the camp had, indeed, become dire. But he thought the idea of immediately directing people to a snake on the pole was a poor business model. “We should find out what people are looking for,” he said. Elder Synagogue Growth asserted that it might take up to six months of working with “snake-seekers” before they would be willing to look at the snake on the pole. So instead, he surveyed the people to find out what they wanted.
Some wanted aerobics, so they could more quickly run away from the snakes. Others wanted to learn real-life, practical principles for living in a camp infested with snakes on the loose. Others wanted only to get together and sing lighthearted, emotional songs to forget about the snakes. Yet, while Elder Synagogue Growth waited for people to be willing to look at the snake on the pole, many died.
Elder Moderate, a new leader within the camp, felt that his reasoning had advanced beyond everyone else’s. He simply smiled at all the constant bickering. “People, please,” he begged, “in the end, the differences we have about the snake on the pole won’t matter. After all, they’re just mere matters of practical application. Can’t we just get along?”
Some these allegories may make you laugh. Others may hit close to home. But when the poisonous snakes attacked, God had set up only one specific way for the children ofIsraelto survive. They had to reject everything else. They had to look up at the bronze snake that Moses made and placed on the pole. If a snake had bitten them and they did this, they would live; if not, they would die.
It didn’t matter what else the Israelites did, how they felt, or how spiritual they seemed. It didn’t matter if they prayed to the transcendent Father in heaven, or sought the immediate aid of the Spirit. If they didn’t look at the bronze snake, they would die. For that snake on the pole was how God said He would come to them and save them. What God chose to do was not up to debate.
Do you find yourself struggling against God, wanting to live life on your terms instead of His? Can you feel the snakebites? Whatever snakes have slithered into your life, they are there to turn your heart back to God, to cause you to fall before Him, and admit that you are a dying sinner–just like I am.
But thank God that we have a way out, just like the Israelites did. Of course, it’s not a bronze snake, but the God who stood behind the bronze snake. You see, the power of the snake was in God’s Word of promise. Without God’s command and promise, looking at that bronze snake would have been stupid and foolish. But because God said it was so, it was so: the snake on the pole brought life to those in the throes of death.
Those who trusted God’s promise looked at the snake and lived. Those who refused to believe that something so stupid and unreasonable could save them never looked at the snake. They died although God’s promise and healing were given and meant for them, as well!
Jesus is the anti-venom for the snakebite of sin. Just like in the Old Testament, the cure resembles the sickness. Why did God put a snake on the pole? It wasn’t just to save the Israelites from death, but to show them–and us–how He was going to save us from death. The snake on the pole pointed forward to Jesus’ crucifixion. As John 3 says, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so whoever believes in Him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).
On the cross, we see the image of our sin and God’s wrath. The Son hangs dead, abandoned by His Father, cursed and damned in our place. How despicable He looks! People turn away and hide their faces.
Do not join them. Do not look away from that cross. No matter how stupid it may seem, that instrument of execution is God’s way of saving you. On the pole, the Israelites saw their healing and God’s mercy. On the cross, we see our healing and God’s mercy.
But here is where it gets sticky. For today, we can’t run to the cross and receive Jesus’ blood-bought forgiveness. Oh, I can tell you to look at the cross for healing, but the cross that Jesus died on is no more. Even if it did exist, Jesus isn’t there.
So, where can you look today to see Christ on the cross? Where can you find Him here inKimberlingCity? You can find God where He tells you to look for Him. God told the Israelites to look at some foolish-looking bronze snake hanging on a pole to live. Today, He tells us to look to look at what we may think is foolish to find Christ hanging on a cross, and so live.
God says to look for the crucified Christ in Water, Words, and Bread and Wine. He says that we “are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you who have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:26-27). God says, “As many of you who have heard your pastor absolve your sins, you’ve been forgiven by the crucified Christ” (John 20:23). And God says, “As many of you who have received this bread and wine, you’ve received the body and blood of Christ, crucified for your sins.”
So let nothing–nothing!–turn your attention from your snake on the pole–let nothing distract you from your Savior on the cross. Confess your sins and hear God’s sin-slaying word of forgiveness spoken to you in the Absolution. Soak up your Lord’s preached Word that puts His promises into your ears. Run to the Supper, where Life itself is poured down your throats.
Through such seemingly silly ways, God gives to you–not a snake on the pole–but His Son on the cross. Through these channels of grace, God gives to you His anti-venom, His medicine of immortality, for the forgiveness of your sins. And where there is the forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. Amen.
