From the Daily Lectionary for Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Lent
Numbers 21:4–9
From Mount Hor the Israelites set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. 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.” Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. 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. 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.” 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.
This is another reading we don’t encounter in the Sunday lectionary. It makes us nervous to think that God would send poisonous snakes among us; particularly for complaining about the food! But again, this is primitive theology, namely the theology of God’s Covenant between God and the people Israel: If you follow in the ways of God, you will be blessed; and conversely, if you turn from God and God’s ways you will be cursed. That is the heart of the Deuteronomistic historian’s theology. As I wrote in a previous reflection this theology gets challenged in the Book of Job; and then certainly, it is challenged in the teaching and preaching of Jesus.
But even in the Pentateuch, the first five books of Hebrew scripture, of which the Book of Numbers is one, the “quid pro quo” of the Covenant doesn’t always hold. The compassion of God often gets the best of God, and God makes an exception to the curse side of the contract. Compassion, an emerging character trait of the Hebrew God, an emerging pattern in the way of things. And often, it is because someone intercedes on behalf of the suffering… In the case of the Pentateuch, Moses is the one who pleads with God for mercy on behalf of the morally challenged and afflicted Hebrews.
The energy of the story, the climax if you will, is that God at the behest of Moses, becomes, not a destroyer, but a healer extraordinaire for the wandering exiles. The point of the story is that we are in this ambiguous, and dangerous, mess together… and that includes God as well. Perhaps another way to say that is that there is healing in compassionate solidarity. To be in solidarity with one’s neighbor is to be in solidarity with God. Solidarity, a watchword for us in this time of pandemic, a time to recognize that we are our brother’s, our sister’s keeper; that our lives are indeed intimately contingent to each other. And that we intercede on behalf of the greatest good. If we learn as much during this time of crisis, we will have taken no small step into the marvelous kingdom of God.
A Prayer for Mission (BCP p. 257)
O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you, bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit on all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
