Bible Tuesday for Sunday, Lent IV, 2015

Numbers 21:4-9

[The
Israelites] set out from Mount Hor by way of the Sea of Reeds to skirt the land of Edom. But the people grew restive on the journey, and the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why did you make us leave Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread and no water, and we have come to loathe this miserable food.” The Lord sent fiery (seraph) serpents against the people. They bit the people and many of the Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Intercede with the Lord to take away the serpents from us!” And Moses interceded for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a (seraph) figure and mount it on a standard. And if anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will recover.” Moses made a copper serpent and mounted it on a standard; and when anyone was bitten by a serpent, he would look at the copper serpent and recover.

The above translation is from the Jewish Study Bible and sheds new light on this very familiar pericope. First, in this translation we see that “seraph” in Hebrew, translated as “fiery” and generally understood to be a sign from God, is used to describe both the live and the copper or (frequently translated as “bronze”) snakes. God leads and protects the Israelites with a pillar of fire by night, every night, as they traverse the wilderness. Here, that same fire is a sign of punishment and healing, in the form of snakes.

The text seems to answer the question, “Does God punish people?” with the decisive answer, “Yes!” These snakes are sent by God and are killing people because of the grumbling of the wandering Israelites. This, by the way, is the last incident of grumbling by the Israelites recording in the book of Numbers.

This story appears to related how some Israelites in and around Jerusalem came to worship the god Nehushtan, symbolized by a fiery serpent. 2 Kings 18:4 says “[King
Hezekiah] removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).”

Psalm 107: 1-3, 17-22

Praise the Lord, for He is good; His steadfast love is eternal!

Thus let the redeemed of the Lord say, those He redeemed from adversity, whom He gathered in from the lands, from east and west, from the north and from the sea.

There were fools who suffered for their sinful way, and for their iniquities.

All food was loathsome to them; they reached the gates of death.

In their adversity they cried to the Lord and He saved them from their troubles.

He gave an order and healed them; He delivered them from the pits.

Let them praise the Lord for His steadfast love, His wondrous deeds for humankind.

The psalmist praises God for God’s grace and forbearance to the Israelites as God kept the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all Israel.

Ephesians 2:1-10

You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once lived, 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, following the desires 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[a]—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 to be our way of life.

“Following the ruler of the power of the air…” Gnostic writers of Jesus’ time and earlier referred to “aion” here translated as “air” as an embodied spirit, whether for good or evil. Since the writer does not describe this spirit as Holy, tradition would have it that it is an embodied spirit of mischief if not outright evil.

“Heavenly places” is yet another play on “aion” but in this case coupled with a word giving it decisively divine vs. evil or earthly meaning. “You were de4ad through the trespasses and sin…” but now you are “made alive together with Christ and raised up with him…”

Finally, while as Lutherans we firmly believe and embody that good works will not earn us salvation, nevertheless, the writer of Ephesians tells us that God “created us in Christ Jesus for good works.” What is your purpose in life? To be God’s hands and heart in the world.

John 3:14-21

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.[a]

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.”

This is an unusual story only found in the gospel of John. The author is juxtaposing several things in order to illustrate that Jesus is truly and wholly everything he and God claim him to be.

Light vs. Darkness: Throughout the gospel, the reader/hearer is told “Jesus is the light of the world.” In this story, Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the dark of night and of ignorance. Cryptically, Jesus shines light into the darkness and reveals the truth. “God so loved the world that he gave his only son…”

Salvation vs. Condemnation: Those who know God (children of Israel) should recognize Jesus because he bears the truth of God. Because many do not, especially Nicodemus’ colleagues, they are condemned. God does not condemn them. Their lack of recognition and acknowledgment condemns them because through it, they opt out of the Kingdom of God. Those who believe receive faith and salvation.

Old vs. New/Partial vs. Fully: The copper snake that Moses raised up only saved the people from death by snake bite. Raising Jesus up on the cross in death will save all who believe into him. The Hebrew prophets and scriptures revealed truth but the people only saw it partially. Jesus is the full truth, the Word made Flesh, who can be looked upon face to face.