Appearances can be deceiving

Numbers 21:4-9

Appearances can be deceiving!

1. God’s grace appears foolish
2. This “foolish” grace is power

Do you remember the first time you got a vaccination?  You were probably pretty young at the time and didn’t know what, exactly, was going on.  Perhaps you were sitting on your mom’s lap – and then some nurse or doctor jabbed a needle into your arm.  I don’t know about you, but I’m sure I started bawling.

Why did our parents take us in to get shots?  They knew the dangers of tuberculosis, or polio, or measles, or mumps, or rubella – and this one vaccination could prevent such horrendous diseases. 

Preceding the invention of the vaccine, any one of these diseases brought untold sickness and suffering upon thousands of people – but now, there’s a remedy.  Have a doctor stick a needle in your arm? 

But if you had personally seen a relative die of tuberculosis or a child hobbled by polio, how simple – how silly – would that vaccination appear?  For someone who had never seen the power of vaccine, how simple – how foolish – would that little vaccination seem?  “You mean to say one little needle stick is gonna keep me safe from that debilitating disease?  Come on.  One vaccine protects you from such pain and suffering – and even death?”  Appearances can be deceiving. 

In the account before us today from Numbers 21, God teaches us another way – a Scriptural way – in which appearances can be deceiving.  This section of Scripture certainly teaches us that appearances can be deceiving.  God’s grace often appears foolish – but this “foolish” grace is power.

God’s grace appears foolish

In today’s reading, the Israelites are finally drawing near the Promised Land of Canaan.  In order to get the big picture, let’s first consider a little bit of Bible history. 

God had led the Israelites out of Egypt in the Exodus.  Wow!  They had seen the ten plagues, had walked through the Red Sea.  God had led them with a pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night.  God had provided food for them each morning – white flakes of bread that formed from the dew.  The Israelites called this bread “manna” – which means “What is it?”  Finally, God had brought them to the Promised Land – the land of Canaan.  Time to go in & conquer, right?

When they got to the edge of the Promised Land, Moses selected twelve men to explore the land.  These twelve men – spies – went throughout the land, scoping out the towns and the defenses and the people.  Ten of these twelve men brought a gloomy report: “We can’t conquer these people!  They’re huge!  Their cities are surrounded by walls.  We looked like grasshoppers – we don’t stand a chance!”   The Israelites didn’t trust the Lord or his promises to give them this land.  And so, God led the nation of Israel back into the wilderness forty more years. 

That’s where this account comes in.  The Israelites had been wandering for some time, wandering throughout the dry, hot, rugged and rocky wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula, between Egypt and Canaan.  It was finally time to start making their way back to the land of Canaan, finally time to seize the Promised Land. 

The Israelites came up to the border of Edom – a country that lay just south of the Dead Sea, directly in their path as they head up to Canaan.  This Edom was descended from Esau, just as the Israelites were descended from his brother Jacob.  What’s more, a major trade route – the King’s Highway, the I-94 of the day – went right through the middle of Edom. 

The Israelites sent the king a message: “Let us pass through.  We’ll pay for any food or water that either the people or livestock eat.”  But Edom denied them passage: “No way!  If you try to march through, we’ll attack and destroy you.”  Now Israel had to go around this nation of Edom – a detour out to the edge of the sandy Arabian Desert, under the scorching heat of the desert sun. 

You can almost hear their doubts: “What’s God doing?  He must be confused.  If our God is so great, why do we have to take such a long and difficult detour – why can’t we just walk on through?”  Moses tells us: “…the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert?  There is no bread!  There is no water!  And we detest this miserable food!’”

Perhaps we can be a little understanding of how these people felt.  They had eaten the same meal, every day, for the last forty years.  All they seemed to do was camp out in the wilderness, breaking camp and moving along when the pillar of cloud moved out in front of them.  Their lips – dry; their feet – sore; their enthusiasm – gone. 

The trying, tough, and tiring situation doesn’t excuse their sinful rebellion.  The Israelites had forgotten the LORD.  You almost want to jump into the story and say: Don’t you remember?  Don’t you remember the manna, every day for forty years?  Don’t you remember the pillar of cloud?  Don’t you remember water from a rock?  The Israelites chose to look past each of the marvelous miracles of God’s grace – simply because they had seen these miracles every day during the past forty years. 

The bottom line is that the Israelites sinfully rebelled against the Lord.  They rejected God’s grace and God’s appointed leader, Moses.  But this complaining only made their troubles worse - the LORD sent venomous snakes among them.  These snakes – hundreds, thousands of coiling and writhing snakes - bit the people, and many Israelites died. 

The people realized they had made a mistake.  Coming up to Moses, the people said: “We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you.  Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.” 

And so, Moses prayed.

You’d expect God to simply make all the snakes vanish.  Maybe you’d expect the dead Israelites to jump back to life.  You might even expect the snakes to lose their venomous fangs.

What does God do?  “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’” 

You could probably imagine the tension in the air as the people awaited God’s answer, their hearts in their throats as Moses prayed.  Does Moses tell them what God said?  Or, does Moses simply gather the materials and get to work? 

“What are you doing, Moses?  What are you making?” 

Imagine the look of shock – the look of surprise – as Moses slowly shapes a snake out of bronze, puts it on a long pole, and stands this pole up in the middle of the camp.  Are you serious, God?  A bronze snake on a pole?  Why not some astounding miracle?  What good is a metal snake going to do for me, if I’ve been bitten by a real snake, a poisonous snake?

How many Israelites refused to look at that bronze snake, just because it seemed foolish to do so?  Appearances can certainly be deceiving – God’s grace appears very foolish, right here.

And doesn’t God’s grace appear foolish today?  Perhaps you’ve lost your job, as the economy has slowed to a crawl.  Perhaps your health has disintegrated, and there’s nothing you can do about it.  Maybe the cares and worries of this life just harass you, endlessly.    

Whatever that particular problem, pain, or annoyance is in your life – I’m sure the temptation has come, at one time or another, to ask God: Lord, why do you have me here?  Are you sure you know what you’re doing?  Come on, I trust you – but this is serious!  Lord, it sure is difficult to trust you when others get all your blessings – and you seem to have forgotten about me. 

These difficulties of life attack our faith, just as those snakes attacked the Israelites.  We begin to doubt God’s faithfulness, we ask questions about God’s power – and what is God’s solution?  What has God given me, today?  Jesus, hanging on a cross.  God himself, nailed to a tree.  This sounds the most foolish of all!  The sinful nature says: what good is a dead Savior?  Yeah, Jesus may have saved me from sin – but what about right now? today? my job, my health, those worries?  GOD’S GRACE APPEARS FOOLISH. 

But, dear Christian – appearances can be deceiving.  For this “foolish” grace of God is power. 

“Foolish” grace is power

Moses was raising that pole in the middle of the camp.  A bronze snake on a pole, in the middle of a sea of writhing, creeping, slithering, poisonous snakes.  

And then what happened?  “Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.” 

Huh?  You can’t be serious.  How does that happen – real venom, injected by real snakes into the real bloodstreams of real people, and they lived?  …people falling over, losing consciousness, dying from snakebites, and they lived?  But it’s right here, in God’s own inspired words: “When anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.” 

How many Israelites refused to look?   Moses had walked through the camp carrying a long pole and a metal snake.  The people wondered: “What’s going on?  Is that snake just a warning for all the other travelers, to stay away from this nest of snakes?” 

God’s words to Moses must have spread as fast as those very snakes.  Moses himself probably told whoever asked him: “Look at this bronze snake, and live!”  And how many Israelites scoffed: “Ha!  I’ve got a better solution.  I’ll take care of this myself.”  How many Israelites turned their backs on God’s solution, preferring to muddle on through by themselves? 

But one person looked…and another looked…and a third.  More people looked, and more people were healed!  This bronze snake hoisted high above the camp was the proof of God’s promise – the proof of God’s grace to the Israelites.  How many Israelites flipped open their laptops, emailing their relatives that night: “I felt that snake bite me!  I could feel my throat closing up, I knew, I just KNEW I was going to die – but then I looked at that bronze snake, and here I am!”  Although appearances were deceiving, the powerful grace of God was at work in that bronze snake on a pole.  God’s foolish grace is power. 

God’s promises didn’t end with that snake on a pole.  That metal snake, high up on a pole, was a foreshadowing of Jesus.  That snake provided a temporary blessing – those Israelites didn’t die, that day.  God has given us a greater blessing, a greater promise fulfilled in Christ.  Jesus himself tells us in John, chapter 3, verses 14 and 15 – immediately preceding John 3:16: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” 

Jesus, God himself in the flesh, nailed to a tree.  There’s nothing, absolutely NOTHING, that sounds more foolish.  Why would God even become a man?  Why would God choose to suffer?  Why would God choose to save you – to save me – by DYING?  Yes, appearances can be deceiving – and this foolish grace is power! 

Just as God’s promises about the bronze snake saved the Israelites from physical death, so also God’s promises about Jesus – God’s actions by dying in our place – save people from spiritual death. 

And do you recall those complaints from earlier, those special problems and burdens in your life?  That lost job, failed health, those worries that attack you again & again, or some other problem burdening your heart & life.  Our flesh asks: What does a Savior, nailed to a cross, have to say to me – today?  If that is God’s answer, it sure doesn’t seem like much help.

Read the story of the crucifixion – and you can’t help but notice Jesus’ love for you.  Before reading about the crucifixion, you read through numerous miracles and healings and parables.  Jesus demonstrated his love for people in a variety of different ways, even before he walked up that hill called Calvary, on the Friday we call Good.  But there - your Savior on a cross - is the ultimate proof that God loves you, and God loves me.  The God who chose to live a perfect life in our place, and die an innocent death in our place, is 1) powerful enough and 2) loving enough to solve each and every one of our earthly problems – just as he solved our most important spiritual problem.  This foolish grace is power! 

When your sinful nature tries to distract you with the how foolish God’s plan looks, remember today’s account from Numbers 21.  God provided a solution – but God didn’t take the snakes away, either.  By letting the snakes slither about the camp, God trained his people to trust his promise and look at the bronze snake. 

That’s the way it happens in our lives, too – looking to our Savior doesn’t miraculously end all our troubles.  By sending and allowing these troubles to happen to each of us, God trains us – his people – to trust his promises and look to our Savior.  Promises like: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”  “Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”  “Everyone who believes in him, Christ, will have eternal life.”  God’s foolish grace is power! 

And, dear Christian – if seeing your Savior on that cross offends you, if Jesus dying on that cross appears foolish to you – cling to God’s promise, the promise attached to that Savior.  “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  That is the foolishness of the Gospel; that is the Gospel by which you are saved.  In the so-called foolishness of this Gospel, God’s righteousness, power, and grace are revealed – grace that God has given us heaven itself. 

Appearances can certainly be deceiving.  God’s grace often appears foolish – but this “foolish” grace is power. 

I don’t know what it was like to receive the first vaccination against a new disease.  But I am still astounded that such a little injection can provide such great benefits. 

I’m even more astounded that such a humble thing – a snake on a pole – could deliver people from physical death.  But most astounding of all, dear Christians, is that our humble Savior – humbled on a cross, a God that looks foolish before men – came to save us from certain, eternal death.  Appearances can certainly be deceiving, for God loves to hide his power under such “foolish” grace.  And that’s a good thing. 

“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”