
Numbers 21: 1 – 9
So I’m on a bit of a personal quest, seeking to uncover the Father’s loving heart in the pages of the Old Testament. Today’s First reading from Numbers at first glance is just the challenge I’m thirsty for. His big Father heart is sooo big in this passage that I can’t believe I could ever miss it.
The Israelites have been wandering a fair amount of years now, God has provided time after time, He has listened to their needs and fulfilled them. They are close to the promised land but still someway from gratitude and perfection it seems.
“The people spoke against God and against Moses” This isn’t just a moaning about how hard the journey is but a direct hit to God himself. Their own forked tongues bring on the fiery serpents, (Psalm 140:3) they are being bitten by their own sin. How much quicker we learn when the consequences directly match the crime. This is when God does something beautiful. He uses his faithful servant Moses to lift the sin up to Him, where it now, under His authority becomes the very thing that heals them of the wounds of their own transgressions, against Him who is healing them.
A personal act then has to be made, each person bitten by their poisonous words has to lift their heads up and “gaze intently” (in the Hebrew) upon what God has done with their sin to be healed from it. Wow. That there is Mercy.
Now we see the cross don’t we.
Now we see Gods son lifting up our sins so that we too can be healed from them. Jesus personally takes those sins and lifts them up to the Father so we can be healed from them. If we don’t personally lift our gaze up to Him on that cross holding our sins, He cannot heal us from them, we remain with our eyes cast down in self afflicted agony.
A little later we discover the Israelites have kept the Bronze serpent and made an idol out of it. (2 Kings 18) King Hezekiah (he was a good guy) sees this for what it is and destroys the bronze serpent. It seems more than odd to worship a bronze serpent after all those years of being prepared and wooed in the Desert by God but our attachment to sin needs continual work, it needs continually to be lifted up for God to claim authority over. We may not be able to receive the sacrament of Confession right now but we can still lift our eyes up to the cross in awe of His incredible Mercy. He is crying out, bring them to me, let me heal you from your sins.