Complainers

"Do everything without complaining or arguing."  Philippians 2:14

Have you ever gotten tired of hearing someone's complaints?  Did you ever have a child who whined often?  Have you ever asked someone how they are, and they told you in great detail, giving you much more information than you wanted to hear and none of it good?

The Israelites were world class complainers.  And God grew weary of hearing them grumble the same old tired phrases.  Numbers 21:5,  "They spoke against God and against Moses, and said, 'Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?  There is no bread!  There is no water!  And we detest this miserable food!'"  Same song, umpteenth verse.

God had heard enough!  He sent poisonous snakes into their midst.  Many of the people were bitten, and some of them died.  The Israelites came to Moses and confessed that they had sinned.  Then they asked Moses to pray that God would take the snakes away.  God did an unusual thing in answer to Moses' prayer.  He instructed Moses to make a snake and fasten it to a pole.  Anyone who was bitten could look at the snake and live.  Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole as instructed.  Those who had been bitten lived if they looked up at the snake.  They had to believe what God had said, and look to prove their faith in His words, in order to be healed.

The bronze snake on the pole foreshadows Jesus on the cross.  The complaining of the Israelites represents our sins.  We are helpless to escape the consequences of our sins, but, just as God made a way for those who had been bitten to live, He made a way for sinners--and that means all of us--to be forgiven and have eternal life.  If we look to Jesus in faith, all our sins will be forgiven, and we will escape the punishment we are due.

Jesus recognized the connection between the bronze snake on the pole and the cross when He said,  "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him."  John 3:14-15

Father, thank You for providing a way for people to be forgiven and have eternal life through the death of Your Son on the cross.  Amen.