Our Old Testament Scripture passage this morning tells a story about the children of Israel to which, I think, we will respond with a lot of empathy.  The Israelites’ dramatic rescue from the Egyptian army on the shores of the Red Sea is a distant memory, and their journey towards the Promised Land has been long and arduous.  Our scene today finds them still in the desert, still trying to reach Canaan.  The latest in a series of setbacks, miscues, and hardships is that the Edomites have denied them access to their country, meaning that the Israelites must go around Edom to reach their destination, rather than the shorter and more direct route through it.  The people are understandably hot, weary, and worn out from being continually on the move.  Any of us who have traveled with tired children or who have travel horror stories of our own to tell can appreciate the difficulty of the situation.

It does not surprise us, given the trying circumstances, that the Israelites have grown impatient with Moses and his leadership.  And, what comes next probably doesn’t surprise us either.  The people do what many of us have done when we are tired, hungry, impatient, and have just suffered a significant setback:  they complained.  This wasn’t the first time along this journey that they had complained, but unfortunately, this time they didn’t just complain to Moses or even against Moses.  This time they turned on Moses and on God.  “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.”  Wait a minute!  They detest the food, but didn’t they just complain that there was no food?  Do you see what has happened?  In their impatience and exasperation, the people exaggerated the situation.  Despite the fact that God was providing manna every day for them to eat, they accuse God and Moses of giving them no food at all.  Despite the fact that God has provided water all along the journey, even bringing it forth from a rock, when necessary, to quench the people’s thirst, they claim that God has abandoned them to die of dehydration.  Despite God’s consistent provision for them, supernaturally guiding them day and night and sending their daily portion of bread and water, the people accuse God of utter neglect and complete abandonment. 

As soon as the words of accusation are out of their mouths, the slip of the tongue occurs.  They know it isn’t true that God has forsaken them, refusing to provide for their needs.  What is really true is that the people are sick and tired of manna.  God has miraculously provided one thing, but they want another.   Have you ever felt that way?  Have you asked God for something and God responded, but not with the answer or outcome you wanted or expected?  I think it is a temptation that is common to all of us, to fail to be grateful for what we do have in our haste to complain about what we don’t.  

God responds to the complaints of the Israelites by sending poisonous snakes into their camp.  Snake bites become rampant, and many people die.  If we don’t read the story carefully, that may seem like an extreme punishment for a few complaints about the food.  But, remember, the real issue was not food, but the people’s accusation of God as One who had betrayed, neglected, and abandoned them.  These were serious charges, and they were lies.  In fact, these charges are what the Bible calls blasphemy which means curse or vilifying.  Blasphemy is such a serious offense that in ancient Israel it received an automatic death penalty.  Listen to Leviticus 24:16:  “One who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death; the whole congregation shall stone the blasphemer.  Aliens as well as citizens, when they blaspheme the Name, shall be put to death.”  Since apparently a large portion of the congregation is participating in this offense, stoning one another is not going to be practical.  That’s why the people rightly understood the presence of the snakes as the means by which the death sentence was being carried out. 

I think it is noteworthy that the people don’t even complain about the snakes as an unfair punishment.  The Israelites knew they were wrong.  They have complained in the past, but they knew that this time, they had gone too far.  They had crossed the proverbial line, and as soon as they felt the impact of their impulsive speech, they went straight to Moses and confessed.  “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.”  God’s people recognized their sin and confessed it.  And, God responded to Israel in the same way that God responds to our confessions of sin, by forgiving them and providing them a means of restoration.  But notice, God’s response was not exactly what the people wanted.  They wanted the snakes gone entirely, out of the camp, off where there could be no further bites.  God, however, leaves the snakes among them, and the snakes even continue to bite.  The difference is that the bites are no longer deadly as long as the people are looking in the right place.  And, this, of course, is the crux of the story. 

The question for Israel, and the question for us is, where are we looking?  Like Israel, our lives are full of issues, events, people, and situations that try our patience, that exhaust us, annoy us, and wear us down.  There are seasons of life in which we know and experience the wilderness, when we feel lost, and God seems far away.  There are times when life is mundane, when our job is monotonous or the needs of young children or dependent parents are relentless and draining.  There are times when the business of life just happens—tires go flat during rush hour, the airline loses our luggage, money is uncomfortably tight, or the aches and pains of aging are more limiting than one is ready to accept.  Worse, there are times when life squeezes especially hard, when health fails completely, when your troubled teen is struggling, when death occurs for a loved one long before it should, when depression shrouds us in darkness.  Life is chronic, and none of us escapes it.  The only choice we have is in our response.  Do we look down, focused on the problems and the pain and the unfairness of life?  That was the response of the Israelites, and it severely impacted their perspective.  They were so focused on the problem of the moment that they forgot the goodness of God, the blessings, the guidance, the protection, the provision.  Their skewed perspective resulted in complaint without the balance of gratitude, exaggeration at the expense of the truth, loss of relationship where intimacy had been, and finally death instead of life.  Do we realize that thankfulness is so critically linked to how we experience daily life? 

As we first hear or read this passage of Scripture, I think it’s a natural response to regard the presence of the snakes as a punishment, and a pretty harsh one at that.  But, I wonder if we can be open to seeing them as a gift?  Once Moses has lifted the bronze serpent, the people are no longer condemned to death as a result of the snakes.  The serpents are still in the camp, still lurking under rocks, still coiled beside their tents, still slithering among them and even still biting.  If the tribes stay focused on the snakes, if they keep their eyes glued to the ground, they are still in danger of dying.  It is only when they lift their heads and look up that salvation is available to them.  The snakes, then, are a gift because they serve as a reminder that their focus is to be on God.  It reminds them to remember God and God’s faithfulness to them.  It reminds them to be thankful.  It reminds them that they are dependent on God, not on themselves. 

We are approaching Holy Week, and it is appropriate for us to begin to meditate on the events of the last week of Jesus’ life.  The triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper with his disciples, his agony in the Garden, his arrest, his betrayal by Judas and the denial by Peter, the trials, and at the end, the final walk to the cross.  On the cross Jesus is lifted high in the same way that Moses lifted the bronze serpent on the pole.  Like the children of Israel, salvation is freely and lovingly offered to us, if we will only look in the right place.

So, where are we looking?  Down at the tops of our shoes, complaining about the food, about change that is inevitable, about losing control?  Or, will we respond to the difficulties and trials in our lives in faith by looking to God?  Will we develop a heart of gratitude, grateful even for the snakes in our midst that nip at our heels but which remind us to stay connected to God?  Will we choose to see God’s presence in all the circumstances of our lives, receiving even the difficulties as means of grace through which we may know and love God?  I know that what I am suggesting is radical, it’s counter-cultural, and it’s hard.  It is discipleship.  It is the life to which we have been called as followers of Christ.  And, it is also the life of our greatest joy, our most complete wholeness as individuals, and our deepest fulfillment as the unique people God created us to be.  The life of discipleship is the life of complete freedom in Christ, where we are so free that even the presence of snakes does not deter us from gazing into the face of Christ.  Jesus wanted so much for us to have that life that he hung on a cross for our sakes.  Christ is high and lifted up, waiting for us to receive it.  Look up!  Amen.