Snakes on a Plain - 1 December 2006

Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people. Numbers 21:6-7

I will make no apology for the pun in the title because as I write this the film Snakes on a Plane is causing ripples in the film world and disagreements among cinema fans everywhere.  Whether or not it is a good film I leave for you to decide but we can all see the inherent horror of being stuck on a long flight in a plane full of poisonous snakes.  There is no escape.

And in a way in this passage from Numbers which relates the ongoing journey of the Israelites that is just what was happening to them.  They had no houses to go into, they were stuck in this area which was literally infested with poisonous snakes and people were dying.  Mothers were afraid to let their children out of the tents.  It was a matter of life and death.

But there is hope; the Israelites were getting the idea at last.  First they admitted that they may have been to blame for the situation. ‘We sinned’ and then they asked Moses to pray.  But they were not quite there yet, because they had already decided what God was going to do about it.  Of course God was going to take the snakes away. WRONG.

Moses who by now knew the futility of this went into his tent and prayed on behalf of the people.  And then he listened to God, and God told him what to do.  He was to make a bronze snake and put it up on a pole and anyone who looked at it would be healed of their snake bites.  Result.

If God had taken away the snakes the Israelites would have been grateful for a while, but also perhaps fearful that the snakes might return.  God gave them a reason to be grateful every day for His healing.  What He was saying to them was ‘I am greater than the circumstances’.

This is the next lesson in trust, how to trust God when He doesn’t do what we want Him to and we don’t understand.  How to trust God when the circumstances that are hurting us don’t change.  It is a situation that we all come up against sooner or later and it is impossible to see (except in hindsight perhaps) that God who sees all things could be working for good in what we see as a wrong situation.  Job knew, as did Habakkuk when he prophesied these words.

Though the fig tree does not bud,  and there are no grapes on the vines,  though the olive crop fails  and the fields produce no food,  though there are no sheep in the pen     and no cattle in the stalls,  yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Saviour. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; Habakkuk 3:17-18

Ask God to be your strength in the circumstances of your life today.