“What Do We Make Of Snakes” 

Doug Lambert 10/03/2024

Readings - In Text

Numbers 21: 4 - 9 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

“4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom, but the people became discouraged on the way. 5 The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” 6 Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a serpent of bronze and put it upon a pole, and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.”

Here we are again with “God’s own people” and feeling that this was yet another occasion when Moses must have been tempted to tell God that the Israelites were his people and he was welcome to them.

Reacting to the story as “another chapter of whinging from this ungrateful mob” fails to recognise the reality of their situation. In the first instance we need to note that this was not a small band of wanderers, their precise number is the subject of enthusiastic debate with estimates ranging from less than 30,000 to over two million. The actual number is not especially relevant to us but by whatever measure it was a large number of people which means there will inevitably be friction. What’s more, they were moving from a largely urban existence to being nomads. Life had been harsh under the Egyptians but it was structured and familiar, the nomadic style of the exodus was very uncertain. Where were they going? What was their future to be? How will I feed my family. Not everyone copes successfully with this degree of change.

The story exposes the failure of the people themselves to develop a trusting relationship with God, a God who always provided for them throughout that exodus journey. They seem to have difficulty in perceiving of God as wanting to have a close relationship with them. His desire can be seen in the provision of leadership to take them out of Pharaoh’s clutches, the provision of food and water, he guided their leadership towards the promised land. Further, he gave them a code of conduct; he encouraged a form of worship which recognised that relationship with him; yet still they struggled with God’s longing to be respected, trusted and loved.

Like most history stories this one is told from only one perspective. This means we can only speculate about God’s intentions, and generally speculation is something to be avoided, especially over these spans of time. It can take you down many interesting little burrows, but doesn’t generally lead to reliable conclusions. We can simply note that, yes, it was God who let loose the snakes, however it was also God who provided the antidote. It’s this antidote which is the point of the story, one which required the victim to look directly at the symbol of the snake, name the poison and own up to what had brought the snakes amongst them. In other words, to be healed necessitated looking at the source of death whilst recognising and repenting of death-perpetuating behaviours.

Ephesians 2: 1 – 10 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

“2 You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3 All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, doing the will of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else, 4 but God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved — 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them.”

A central theme in Ephesians is the concept of making something new together. The “we” for the writer was a reference to Jews and non-jews and the context makes it clear that we too are included. What is being described is a vision of God filling all things, it’s another way of referring to the kingdom of God. The writer acknowledges that this goal had not been achieved, that it was an ambition of God, a work in progress if you like, and it still is.

Ambition is a worthy quality. It drives young people looking for careers, or to explore the world, or people who volunteer in the interests of a better community etc. Then there are those whose ambition it is to be elected to public office, thereby serving the community. Others set out to create a business entity of one form or another, or participate in the family enterprise. Others again seek their fulfilment within public and corporate enterprises. These are all laudable ambitions.

There are also ambitions which might have a similar genesis but seem to lose focus somewhere along the way. The desire to make money essentially for its own sake is one such example; the pursuit of power within an entity as a reflection of personal worth, the achieving of public office and then pursuing a self-centred agenda are others.

There are substantial historical records of nations, and individuals, taking divine ambition as a justification for creating their own empires. That stuff about our flag will fly and our values will be reflected in every land is an ambition going back at least to the 11th and 12th century Crusades. Nor did those ambitions cease with the final crusade, they manifested themselves again as various European countries set out to conquer Africa, India, South America etc. Much of that was hidden under a banner of spreading God’s kingdom and well-meaning they may have been but it was exploitive and conducted with ruthless zeal.

Political leadership today is still inspired by those who like to profile themselves and even their nation as saviours, pursuing their goals through cynical media opportunities, trade manipulation, threats, outright war. The media itself also plays a

role here, but before we get too sanctimonious, so do we, if only because that media is totally dependent on our, preferably passive, participation.

Paul recognises that we humans not only have a predilection to make the wrong choice, but remain happily confident that we are on the right one regardless of countless signs pointing elsewhere. I am resisting the use of illustrations which involve tourists and maps etc. There are all sorts of influences which will pull us off course - ego, peer pressure, marketing, to name but three. As the With Love to the World author wrote this week, “God instead of pulling us back from danger … chooses to pave even those wrong-direction paths through death and out the other side to new life”. This is not a God who ever says “you’re on your own mate”. God’s very being is grace. Grace which gently leads us from life as is, to new life, here and now.

John 3: 14 – 21 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

“14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned, but those who do not believe are condemned already because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

Snakes are creatures which have fired up human imagination back into our mythical beginnings. Snakes feature prominently in myth and in poetry, so we have the indigenous people’s belief in the rainbow serpent, or the Genesis story set in the garden of Eden.

Humans react differently to the sight or feel of a snake, there are some who keep them as pets, whilst others are repelled. I have a friend who is prone to bolt on seeing a snake in their immediate vicinity. This reaction is actually a natural part of our fight or flight instincts, it’s just a bit more pronounced in their case. There are people who see the snake or its image in a far more positive light, so we have the Rod of Asclepius, a serpent entwined rod and a common symbol for medicine and healthcare.

In verse 14 John makes a connection back to that Moses story, to the lifting up of the bronze serpent in the wilderness thereby drawing parallels with Jesus’ death on the cross. He is using the story of the image, familiar as it would have been to his audience, in a similar way to the author of Numbers.

In this gospel reading we come across that very familiar verse in John 3:16 about God’s love for the world. So familiar that it sometimes tends to obscure our view of what John is saying. He writes in the context of the earlier story of Nicodemus, the church leader interested in exploring this new Rabbi’s teaching. Like many others

then and since Nicodemus kept missing the point, he could not see that there had to be radical change in human behaviour in order to participate in God’s kingdom. The accepted social order had to change. Observing particular rites, or obeying selected rules of behaviour, was not the primary focus of Jesus’ call to be part of the kingdom. His was a call to recognise our own humanity and our interdependence with other people, the need for us to consciously act in the best interests of all.

John’s gospel uses the illustration of light coming out of darkness quite extensively. John pictures Jesus opening up the world to new scrutiny and changed behaviour. Behaviour which focuses upon God’s love for the world, for people, plants, and particles. John saw that rejecting the light/love/truth (he uses these terms interchangeably) as exhibited in Jesus was a moment of judgement. Rejection is to choose death, not hellfire and damnation etc., not physical death - that one is not an option for us mortals. John is writing of death in the sense of separation from the spirit of life. John’s message in verse 16 -

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life”

is incomplete without the following verse 17 -

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him”.

This is referring to the whole of reality, God’s reality, God’s ambition. Not yet an accomplished goal, rather a work in progress. We continue to play an integral part in the realisation of that ambition, indeed without us it will not be achieved.