Staring at death 3-26-06

I just finished my rough draft of Sunday's sermon. Any comments are greatly appreciated.

Staring at death 3-26-06: "Eleazar was priest for the wandering people of Israel. He hated snakes. In the wilderness there were a lot of snakes and he did his best to avoid them. They had been in the wilderness a long time. He was just a boy when he started wandering. His father Aaron was priest, now he is dead and gone. His Uncle Moses still leads the band through the wilderness, but God told him that he was not long for the world now. The going has been rough, but the people have had God."

Tozer: The Gaze of the Soul

I find myself quite often quoting in my head or to others the concepts from the "The Purstuit of God." The previous post brought back to my mind Tozer's concept equating faith with looking. Here's my oft quoted selection for you:

The Gaze of the Soul: "In a dramatic story in the Book of Numbers faith is seen in action. Israel became discouraged and spoke against God, and the Lord sent fiery serpents among them. `And they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.' Then Moses sought the Lord for them and He heard and gave them a remedy against the bite of the serpents. He commanded Moses to make a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole in sight of all the people, `and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.' Moses obeyed, `and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived' (Num.21:4-9)

In the New Testament this important bit of history is interpreted for us by no less an authority than our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is explaining to His hearers how they may be saved. He tells them that it is by believing. Then to make it clear He refers to this incident in the Book of Numbers. `As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life' (John 3:14-15).

Our plain man in reading this would make an important discovery. He would notice that `look' and `believe' were synonymous terms. `Looking' on the Old Testament serpent is identical with `believing' on the New Testament Christ. That is, the looking and the believing are the same thing. And he would understand that while Israel looked with their external eyes, believing is done with the heart. I think he would conclude that faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God. "

The Red Heifer - staring death in the face | The Shalom Center

Without the context of the cross what does Nubmers 21:4-9 mean? For Jewish rabbis it appears in the context of other parodoxes:
The Red Heifer - staring death in the face | The Shalom Center: "The burning cow becomes a spectacle, literally, of redness for the priest to stare at hard. Look hard at all this red, then quickly shut your eyes: You will see a flash of green, a field of green. Green grass, green growth, green Tree of Life, green Garden.
If you look upon the color of death, you will live. . . .Paradox upon paradox. Death purifies from death, but the process of purification itself makes for impurity."

"Later in the portion (Num 20: 8), when the people are athirst God tells Moses to speak to a rock so that, for/ before the eyes of the people, it will turn to water. If they stare hard at hardness, dryness, deadliness, unchangeableness, it will turn to flow, to giving life."

"And finally (Num. 21: 4-9) , God tells Moses to cure the people of a plague of fiery snakes. How? By raising before them a nahash n'hoshet for them to stare at. What does this Hebrew phrase mean? According to the dictionary, a brass or copper serpent. But if we listen to the sound of the words, we might hear "a copper copperhead," "a serpenty serpent," a "super-serpent."

What cures us from serpents? The cure is a serpent that we call forth for ourselves , even more deeply "serpenty" in its essence than the deadly living snakes.

And what do you do with these super-serpents? Look hard into their faces. Stare hard at death, the face of fear, and you will be freed to life.

Stare hard at death -- and blink. Shut your eyes tight. Stare, and stop staring. Then the colors of life will appear."

Christian Century: Snake on a stick - Living by the Word - Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:13-21 - Column

Christian Century: Snake on a stick - Living by the Word - Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:13-21 - Column: "In order to teach the people, God did not cancel the plague of snakes but commanded Moses to craft a bronze (or copper) snake. Forget for the time being that divine injunction against making idols 'in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath' (Exod. 20:4). Sure, an image of a snake will inevitably pose all manner of difficulties in years to come. We will no doubt regret our theological laxity, but let King Hezekiah contend with the problem later (2 Kings 18:4). When you're up to your ankles in adders, it is not a time for qualms about theological niceties and deliberations on religious aesthetics. If the problem is a plague of snakes, then the cure is another snake, a snake hoisted on a standard for all to see. The equation is simple: when someone is bitten by a snake, he is to lift his eyes to the elevated bronze snake so as not to die from the bite. We cannot help worrying, however, about this solution. At best it seems like cheap grace: one glance at a snake on a stick and all is restored. At worst it reminds us of magic or of those healing idols of winged serpents that were left behind in Egypt.
The rabbis shared our uneasiness. It is not the snake, they declared, but rather what looking at the raised snake causes us to do. The Mishnah Rosh Hashanah explains: 'Does the serpent either kill or sustain life? Rather whenever Israel looked upward and submitted their heart to their Father in heaven, they were healed.' The Wisdom of Solomon chants its agreement, praising God and clarifying that 'the one who turned toward [the snake] was saved, not by the thing that was beheld, but by you, the Savior of all.'"

Take Faith Home

Take Faith Home I have found this a great resource for connecting with the home. One of the greatest features I like about the RCL is that with all the great resources available, there is a great opportunity for reinforcement: Everyone is thinking one the same themes regardless of age. I find this a powerful way to encourage diversity in the community of faith. We are currently using these take home sheets with our Family Sunday School which meets at our house Sunday Nights.

Things lifted up

Things lifted up

• A snake on a pole


• Jesus on a cross


• Us – raised up with the Son.