All Scriptures are from The Message Version
It is helpful to use this blog as a discussion starter for two or more people but it will also stimulate lots of thoughts if used by one reader. The material is used by a Sunday Study Group at Hamilton Christian Church in St. Louis, Missouri. Commentaries for these scriptures can be found on Textweek.com through this link http://www.textweek.com/pentateuch/num21.htm
Numbers is a book of the bible which many of us may seldom visit but has as the rest of scripture the potential to give us insight and raise questions. When reading you will find a well-documented story of the trials and tribulations of the Israelites as they made their way through the wilderness on the way to the Promise Land. There are many trials, many miracles, and regular and vivid reminders of God’s presence with them both to support and reprimand. Today we read of more trials, more complaining and more of God’s direct intervention into the affairs of the people with more of Moses’ acting on behalf both of the people and God. We will first look at the wilderness story itself and then at the analogy Jesus made of it and to himself that we find in John’ Gospel.
The Story begins:
Numbers 21:4-5 They set out from Mount Hor along the Red Sea Road, a detour around the land of Edom. The people became irritable and cross as they traveled. They spoke out against God and Moses: "Why did you drag us out of Egypt to die in this godforsaken country? No decent food; no water—we can't stomach this stuff any longer."
• When you think about this large mass of humanity traipsing through a unfamiliar territory and living in nomadic style (imagine a 40 year camping trip with all of your family, relatives, friends, and some people that you really didn’t care for) it is understandable that there would be unrest. What would you need/want to sustain you if you were on this journey? How would you have dealt with the seemingly endless trek with a very ill-defined destination (what exactly was the Promise Land)?
• What would you have needed from your faith life to both endure the journey and at the same time nurture your spiritual life as you traveled? What might you want to initiate for yourself or with other travelers that might help address these needs?
• Might there have been a need to support one another during those stressful times? What might some needs be and how might you want to addressed these needs?
• Fast forward to your life today, can you draw any parallels to the wandering Israelites in your life? Are there any seemingly endless burdens, any loss of purpose, difficult conditions? Reflect on your thoughts as you looked at the questions about sustaining faith and mutual support for the traveling Israelites, how do they apply to your life today? How might they apply to life in a faith community?
• Moses was the leader, how difficult was his task? This story is just one of many crisis he faced, seemingly on a daily basis, what must it have taken both on his part and in his relationship with God to sustain him and maintain him as an effective leader?
• How might the example of Moses apply to congregational leadership today? What might our leaders learn from him from both a spiritual and leadership perspective? What made him successful in the midst of almost overwhelming challenges? Some scripture which will give you an understanding of Moses includes Exodus 3-4 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exodus%203-4&version=MSGand Numbers 11 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=numbers%2011&version=MSG.
Now Numbers tells us that God again loses patience with the Israelites:
6-7 So GOD sent poisonous snakes among the people; they bit them and many in Israel died. The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke out against GOD and you. Pray to GOD; ask him to take these snakes from us." Moses prayed for the people.
8 GOD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it on a flagpole: Whoever is bitten and looks at it will live."
9 So Moses made a snake of fiery copper and put it on top of a flagpole. Anyone bitten by a snake who then looked at the copper snake lived.
• We can dwell for a moment on God sending the snakes and your response to that assertion in the scripture. How do you feel about the fact that God sent the snakes to punish the Israelites? What does it say about the nature of God’s relationship with humankind if direct punishment, even death, comes to us as a result of our transgressions?
• Have you ever felt that things were happening in your life because of failings on your part? Have the snakes appeared? What do you think is the source of the bad consequences of our bad choices? Is God rewarding and punishing you regularly a part of your faith journey?
• Another story of a plague of snakes which gives this story a more contemporary flavor comes from T. E. Lawrence’s (Lawrence of Arabia) story of his adventures in WWII as recorded in Seven Pillars of Wisdom Chapter XLVII:
On my dry patience they grated a little, because the plague of snakes which had been with us since our first entry into Sirhan today rose to memorable height, and became a terror. In ordinary times, so the Arabs said, snakes were little worse here than elsewhere by water in the desert: but this year the valley seemed creeping with horned vipers and puff-adders, cobras and black snakes. By night movement was dangerous: and at last we found it necessary to walk with sticks, beating the bushes each side while we stepped warily through on bare feet.
We could not lightly draw water after dark, for there were snakes swimming in the pools or clustering in knots around their brinks. Twice puff-adders came twisting into the alert ring of our debating coffee-circle. Three of our men died of bites; four recovered after great fear and pain, and a swelling of the poisoned limb. Howeitat treatment was to bind up the part with snake-skin plaster, and read chapters of the Koran to the sufferer until he died. They also pulled thick Damascene ankle-boots, red, with blue tassels and horse-shoe heels, over their horny feet when they went late abroad.
• How are you and snakes? Can you imagine the terror on the part of the people? What about the degree of relief when Moses developed a solution? What do you think that the snake represents, what brought about the healing? Was it the snake or something else that it represented?
In a second Lectionary Scripture Jesus uses this story to make a point about his presence and purpose:
John 3:13-15 "No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up—and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.
16-18"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.
• What might mean when he talks of being “lifted up” as we look toward Easter Sunday? Are both the very visible nature of his death and the resurrection three days later possible interpretations? When you think of Jesus how is he made visible to you, what pictures do you carry in your mind, what captures you and makes you “trusting an expectant”?
• Why did God send Jesus to have him “lifted up”? What reasons does Jesus give us? As you travel through this Lenten season where do you pray this healing might occur in your personal life and the life of our world? What do you turn to for hope and strength as you seek this healing – both your spiritual and secular resources?
• One message for us today might be that finding God’s presence is a two way street – God is there (lifted up), it is our responsibility to respond (see and believe). What message have you heard as you have thought about these questions – feel free to leave a comment below.
Closing Prayer
Take Lord unto yourself,
My sense of self: and let it vanish utterly.
Take Lord my life,
Live your life through me.
I live no longer, Lord
But in me now you live.
Yes, between you and me, my God
There is no longer room for I and Mine.
Amen
Tukaram, Indian Mystic, Oxford Book of Prayer
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