Snake Kabob

Numbers 21:4-9

Some passages in the bible are easier to read than others - this isn't one of them. As an advocate for the God of peace, love, and understanding I find difficulties with stories that portray God as vindictive, jealous, or wrathful. However, these stories exist for a reason, so instead of avoiding them and only looking for the passages which bring me comfort, I choose to read even the difficult ones to find God's message for me.

Along with the reading of difficult passages comes a lot of prayer to bring understanding to these particular passages. The prayer is good for me as it brings the peace I seek whenever I read and meditate on the scriptures within our bible. In fact, today I find a deeper  peace than usual even though this passage has very little peace at all.

My peace comes from the teachings of a great theologian which I had the great opportunity to listen to a few months ago. Allan Boesak made the comment that the entire bible was written while under the oppression of another empire. Whether it was the Assyrians, Babylonians, or Romans these empires did all they could to quell the beliefs and practices of Jews, and later in history, Christians.

Mr. Boesak reminds us that because of the situations in which the Hebrew people found themselves, the writings of their God had to emulate the power of the empires they were being oppressed by. Not only did the God of the Hebrews have to be like the Gods of those empires, the Hebrew God had to be stronger.

Our passage today is just a small part of the history of the Hebrew people as they traveled from Egypt through the wilderness and into the promised land. Along the way the Hebrew people destroy cities, topple rulers, and claim lands as their own. It's a truly exciting story of the historical accomplishments of a group of people.

Also a part of the history as told in Numbers is the struggles of the Hebrew people. They have to deal with hunger, thirst, death, and extreme desert conditions. At times the people are so disgusted with what they're going through that they complain about it. Of course, if we know anything about how the complaining was done in the days the Numbers was written we will know it's more than a letter or an angry phone call. The people in those days yelled, physically fought, and downright verged on riots when they complained.

God has had enough of their complaining and does what any leader would do when they've had enough - God fights back. The end result involves poisonous snakes, a bunch of dead people, and Moses with some kind of concoction that can kill people with a single glance.

So, you might be asking, what does this mean for me?

There will be days when we feel as though our journey is pointless. There will be times when we say the place we've been was at least bearable if not comfortable. There will be times when we say we don't want to go any further, even if it is God that is leading us. It's in those times we find our own struggles too difficult to bear and we abandon God in favor of the easy way out.

It's in the times that we come face to face with the snake on a stick that we have to dig deep within ourselves to face our deepest fears and remember that it is God who has brought us this far, and it is God who is willing to carry us to the end.

So, as we stand face-to-face with that which threatens to stop us in our tracks we have to make a decision to keep going, or let the difficulties stop us. My hope is that you will keep going.