Numbers 21:4-9 (NRSV)
Read Numbers 21:4-9 on biblegateway.com
Verse 4From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. Verse 5The people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food." Verse 6Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. Verse 7The people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. Verse 8And the Lord said to Moses, "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live." Verse 9So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
Devotion
My, we are a complaining people, aren’t we? In the lesson from Numbers, the last of the complaint narratives, the Israelites direct their dissatisfaction not just to Moses, but to God. They long for the stability of their homes in Egypt, the sustenance of daily nourishment and the security of a comfortable life. Yet they are in the wilderness because they have been freed from the house of slavery. And so, we are left to ponder our own reaction to our freedom from sin, our freedom from death. Do we find ourselves impatient and complaining – or do we confess our sin with joyfulness?
Prayer
God of the wilderness and God of the Promised Land, soothe our impatient hearts and our complaining voices with your spirit of joy. Amen.