a hard look
The passage about poisonous snakes seemed pretty random, Tuesday, April 8. I didn’t expect it to stay with me, nor for it to become the message I have been given to speak, repeatedly, held at the ready as relevant.
The people are out in the desert where there are poisonous snakes. They are impatient and unhappy. This is not the freedom they were looking for.
The people spoke against God and Moses: “Why did you bring us up from Egypt to kill us in the desert, where there is no food or water. And we detest this miserable bread!” Numbers 21:5 (CEB)
God’s provision is scorned; God’s protection is lifted, the snakes begin to bite the Israelites, and many die. They know they were wrong, and sense that the Lord sent the snakes as punishment.
The people went to Moses and said, “We’ve sinned, for we spoke against the Lord and you. Pray to the Lord so that he will send the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. Numbers 21:7 (CEB)
Here’s where it gets weird. God hears Moses’ prayer, but answers in the strangest way. From the God who commanded never to make an idol, “—no form whatsoever—of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth” (Exodus 20:4) and Moses who destroyed the golden calf that the people made (Exodus 32)- we get this response:
The Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous snake and place it on a pole. Whoever is bitten can look at it and live.” Moses made a bronze snake and placed it on a pole. If a snake bit someone, that person could look at the bronze snake and live. Numbers 21:8-9 (CEB)
Why? And what is the message that I have been carrying around for the last six weeks? The people have to take a good, hard look at what is poisoning them in order to be healed. They wanted the snakes to “begone!” Close our eyes and make them go away. Put the responsibility on Moses and on the Lord. But God doesn’t send off the snakes, or cause them to stop biting the people, or inoculate folks from the venom. The people have to look at what poisons them, really see it and confront it, in order to be healed.
This is a hard message. We need to be willing to look at what is poisoning us, as a people, what we have brought on ourselves. Our scorning of God’s provision, our ignorance of God’s protection, and what happens if God removes that protection. What is the poison that is killing us? Our violence, our greed. Our failure to love God and neighbor. Healing can only come when we are willing to take a hard look at our past mistakes and their consequences.
The NCF Reparations Committee statement of 2022 describes the first step of healing as “Understanding: Grapple with the what, how, and why of injustice done (EDUCATION).” All over the world, when communities embark on the process of repair, they must begin by confronting the harm. Take a hard look at the past in order to move towards healing. The CU Reparations Coalition asks our local institutions to address the injustices in our own town, for our own healing (letter here.)
Put differently, Jesus said, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32 (CEB)
May we have the courage to take a hard look at what is poisoning us, that we may be healed, to face the truth, we may be set free.
-Pastor Renée