Scripture: Numbers 21:4-9
I want to make three points in today’s sermon. Point Number One: Praying and not complaining. Number Two: Enduring and not waiting. And Number Three: Looking to Christ and not perishing…
But first, praying and not complaining…
Actor Robert Duvall died last week at age 95, and as I was preparing this sermon I was reminded of a favorite scene from one of my favorite movies—indeed, my second favorite Christian movie, next to Chariots of Fire. The movie is called The Apostle, from 1997. It is not a kids’ movie, by any stretch—it’s PG-13—but at the heart of this movie is an explicitgospel message. Duvall plays a successful, energetic Pentecostal preacher in Texas named Sonny, who gets into a lot of trouble—most of which he brings on himself. At one point—after his wife leaves him and he loses his church—he moves in with his mother, played by June Carter Cash.
And one night, in the middle of the night, Sonny is pacing the floor of his bedroom—shouting at the ceiling. Turns out he’s praying. And here’s some of what he says:
Somebody, I say, somebody has taken my wife; they’ve stolen my church! That’s the temple I built for you! I’m gonna yell at you ’cause I’m mad at you! I can’t take it!
Give me a sign or somethin’. Blow this pain out of me. Give it to me tonight, Lord God, Jehovah. If you won’t give me back my wife, give me peace. Give it to me, give it to me… Give me peace. Give me peace.
I don’t know who’s been foolin’ with me, you or the Devil. I don’t know… But I’m confused. I’m mad. I love you, Lord, I love you, but I’m mad at you. I am mad at you!
Ever since I was a little boy and you brought me back from the dead, I’m your servant! What should I do? Tell me. I’ve always called you Jesus; you’ve always called me Sonny. What should I do, Jesus? This is Sonny talkin’ now.[1]
And as he’s pacing the floor and shouting at the Lord, in the middle of the night, the phone rings. This is back when you had those old-fashioned phones plugged into the wall. The ringers were loud. And his mother is in bed asleep. She answers it. It’s a neighbor calling: “It sounds like you have a wild man over there. Is everything okay? Is that your son?” And Sonny’s mother says, “That’s my son. Ever since he was a little boy, he either talks to the Lord, or he yells at the Lord. And tonight, well, he just happens to be yelling.”
If only the Israelites in today’s scripture had the faith of Sonny and prayed angry prayers to God…
So what’s going on here…?
The Book of Numbers covers the 39-year period between Israel’s departure from Mount Sinai—where Moses received the Ten Commandments and the rest of the law—and their arrival east of the Jordan River, poised to enter the Promised Land. Deuteronomy, the next book, records Moses’ final sermon before his death, after which Joshua leads the people into Canaan.
Today’s scripture comes near the end of those forty wilderness years. Verse 4 says: “From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way.” Notice that phrase: to go around the land of Edom. The most direct route to Canaan ran through Edom, but Edom refused them passage. So Israel had to take a long, frustrating detour—one that sent them back toward the Red Sea, near where their journey had begun four decades earlier.
We can understand their impatience. Another delay. Another obstacle. After all these years, they are still not home.
And what do they do?
Verse 5: “And the people spoke against God and against Moses. “Why have you”—and the “you” is plural, y’all, meaning Moses and Aaron—“why have y’all brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”
They contradict themselves in the same breath. “There is no food,” they say at first… except the manna—the miraculous bread from heaven God has provided every single day for forty years. It has sustained them completely. But because they are tired of it, they call it “worthless.”
And so their impatience turns into ingratitude.
And this is hardly the first time the Israelites complain, grumble, and murmur against Moses and Aaron. They complain in Numbers 11, for instance. Verse 10 says, “Moses heard all the families standing in the doorways of their tents whining, and the Lord became extremely angry. Moses was also very aggravated.”[2]
So Moses is angry too. In verse 11 he asks God, “Why are you treating me, your servant, so harshly? Have mercy on me! What did I do to deserve the burden of all these people?”[3] Sounds at least a little bit like Sonny in that scene from The Apostle. And in verse 15 he says, “If this is how you intend to treat me, just go ahead and kill me. Do me a favor and spare me this misery!”
Sounds like Sonny from that movie, doesn’t it? At the very least Moses’ complaint doesn’t sound all that different from Israel’s, does it?
Except… in the case of Moses…
There is no fire from heaven. No poisonous snakes. No rebuke. In fact, if you keep reading Numbers 11, while the Israelites get punished for their complaining, Moses gets the help he needs; God appoints others to share the burden of leadership.
So what’s the difference between Moses and Israel?
Only this: Like Robert Duvall’s character in The Apostle, Moses complained directly to God… instead of complaining about God to everyone else.
That doesn’t mean Moses is entirely right. It doesn’t mean his theology is correct. It doesn’t mean his anger is justified. It means he brings his complaint to the Lord. And the Lord does powerful things through his prayer.
God would much rather receive our angry prayers than our sideways grumbling to one another.
Angry prayer isn’t the absence of faith. It is faith wrestling out loud before God.
And God can handle that. God likes that!
So I hope that’s an encouragement: When you’re mad, when you’re tempted to complain… go directly to the Source. Go to the One who’s ultimately responsible for putting you in that situation in the first place. Complain to God.
The great nineteenth-century English pastor Charles Spurgeon was reflecting on Lamentations 2:19, which says, “Pour out your hearts like water before the presence of the Lord.” Prayer is “pouring your heart out like water” before the Lord. I love that. Spurgeon asks, “How does water pour out?” Answer: “The quickest way it can—that’s all; it never thinks much about how it runs. That is the way the Lord loves to have our prayers pour out before him.”
I know I’m talking to many people who find prayer difficult. And yet these same people—me and you—often wake up feeling stress, worry, and, yes—even anger about something happening in our lives.
I’ve told you before—in all seriousness—I’m a “recovering angry person.” For a host of interesting psychological reasons, I’m sure—mostly related to my family of origin—anger comes easily to me. And when I say I’m a “recovering” angry person, I mean I’m very aware how easily I can fall off the wagon. In which case, taking my anger out on some poor, unsuspecting victim can be as easy as—well—“pouring out water.”
But here’s the good news: If what Spurgeon says is true—even more, if what Lamentations says is true—then prayer should be that easy. I can begin prayer with what makes me angry. The Bible gives me permission. It says, “Pour it out”—“pour out your anger like water… in prayer… to God.”
But maybe you’re not dealing with anger at the moment. It may be fear. Or anxiety. Or grief. Or disappointment. Whatever it is—all those things we keep bottled up—pour them out to God. If you’re struggling to pray, start there. Start with what you feel most strongly.
Pouring out water is easy.
Pouring out your heart in prayer can be, too.
And that’s Point Number One: Praying and not complaining…
Point Number Two: Enduring and not waiting…
Shortly before he was murdered in December 1980, John Lennon released a comeback album, Double Fantasy. There was a moving song on it called “Beautiful Boy,” a lullaby to his five-year-old son, Sean. It includes this famous line: “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.”
And isn’t that true?
It was true for the Israelites. They did not anticipate this months-long detour around Edom on their way to Canaan. And forty years earlier, when they left Egypt, they certainly weren’t expecting a generation-long delay that would keep many from entering the Promised Land at all.
That 39-year detour wasn’t anyone’s plan… yet life continued to happen. Because, as the song says, “life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.”
Or… life is what happens when you’re busy waiting for something else to happen.
Waiting…
Our church is currently waiting, aren’t we? Our Building and Land Committee and Finance Team have been hard at work preparing to build our permanent church home. We even have a new address now: 516 Godfrey Road. You’ll be hearing more about where we are in the process soon.
And it’s exciting. I can’t wait. You can’t wait…
But as we’ve seen in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob… as we see with Israel’s 430 years in Egypt… as we see with their 40 years in the wilderness… waiting has always been part of trusting God.
God’s people today aren’t so different. Peter calls us “strangers and exiles” in this world, waiting for the new world to come.[4] Hebrews says we have “no lasting city here,” but “seek the city that is to come.”[5] We’re all waiting, after all,for Christ’s Second Coming, for future resurrection, for the day when God will “wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”[6]
As Christians, we’re all waiting for that!
But not only that… many of us are, like Israel, in our own “wilderness” right now—a place we don’t want to stay long, a place that feels temporary and uncomfortable… And we’re waiting to leave…
What are some wilderness places in which we may find ourselves? Maybe we got a scary diagnosis from our doctor, and we’re anxious to be healthy again. That’s a wilderness. Maybe we were laid off from our job, and although we’ve been looking, it’s taking a long time… and we’ve got financial commitments! That’s a wilderness… Maybe we broke up with a significant other… a boyfriend or girlfriend… We had a romantic relationship, and we were certain that this person was “the one.” And now we’re lonely and worried and waiting. That’s a wilderness.
Waiting is part of faith. Christian faith and waiting, as I’ve said before recently, go hand in hand.
But here’s the nuance: we’re not merely waiting… we’re enduring.
I think I like that word better… Enduring.
Because waiting can whisper in our ear, “Nothing good is happening right now.”
But enduring says, “God is at work right now.”
That’s Paul’s point in Romans 5:3–4:
We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.[7]
Problems produce endurance. Endurance produces character. Character produces hope. And if we only have hope, we can handle anything that life throws our way!
Endurance includes waiting, to be sure—but it means God is shaping us while we wait. He is sanctifying us in the wilderness in which we find ourselves.
James chapter 1, verses 2 through 4 makes this point even clearer:
Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.[8]
“When your endurance is fully developed…” you will be “complete, needing nothing.”
Endurance isn’t just “white-knuckling it” in order to survive. It’s cooperating with God as he does good work within us.
Endurance says, “I don’t like this wilderness. I wouldn’t choose this wilderness. But I also know that God isn’t wastingthis wilderness.”
Personally, I don’t like the wilderness, either, either—but I can certainly testify that God has done the best work in my life when I find myself in it.
See… John Lennon said, “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.” But I want to say, God is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans! How about you?
Now… let me tell you something all of us can do to help pass our time—indeed, to “endure”—while we’re there in the wilderness.
The scripture I’m referring to comes from Luke chapter 10. It’s the well-known story of Mary and Martha, the two sisters who invite Jesus and his disciples into their home. Martha is preparing a meal for the men, and she’s stressed out… as we often are when we’re entertaining guests in our home. And her sister, Mary, is no help at all!
Mary, from her sister’s perspective, has the nerve to sit at Jesus’ feet and let him teach her while Martha is doing all the hard work! Martha doesn’t know why Jesus is even letting her sit there. She tells Jesus, “Tell my sister to help me, Jesus!”[9]
And Jesus tells her no, he’s not going to do it. Instead, he says, in verses 41 and 42, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”[10]
Most of us have heard sermons about how we’re either a “Mary” or a “Martha”; both are good, both are necessary; churches need both.
But I’m sorry… that’s not Jesus’ message at all! He is lovingly and affectionately rebuking Martha. He isn’t saying, “What you’re doing is fine, Martha. Keep on doing it.” No, he’s saying, “What Mary is doing is better than what you’re doing! Be more like her! Spend more time listening to me! So I can help you and heal you—and give you what you need!”
That’s my invitation to you, especially during this season of Lent: Make more time to be with Jesus. You actually have no higher priority in life. Jesus says so! It often seems like there are other, more urgent tasks to be done. But there really aren’t!
Choose Jesus! Choose your “good portion.” Choose your “greatest treasure.” Listen: no “wilderness” experience can ever rob you of the joy that you have in him! Let him help you in the “wilderness.” Let him heal you in the wilderness… Find the joy that comes from treasuring Christ… even when you’re in the wilderness!
That’s Point Number Two… Enduring not waiting…
Point Number Three: Looking to Christ and not perishing…
If I asked you to name the most popular verse in the Bible, I’m sure you could do it: John 3:16. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”[11] We used to see signs and banners hanging in stadiums: “John 3:16.” Do people still do that?
Regardless… don’t miss the first word of that verse: for.
Whenever you see a “for” or a “therefore” in the Bible, see what it’s there for. “What’s the ‘for’ for?” “What’s the ‘therefore’ there for?” That word “for” tells us this: What I’m about to say depends on what I just said.
So what did Jesus just say in John chapter 3?
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life…” John 3:14 and 15.
And immediately following that: “For God so loved the world…”
So if you want to understand John 3:16, you oughtought to first also understand today’s scripture from Numbers 21.
And what’s going on? And what’s happening here?
Fiery serpents are biting peoplepeople. The venom is spreading. Many are perishing. That is a picture of our deadly serious problem with sin. Sin is lethal.
And what do the people do? They say, “We have sinned.” That’s confession. That’s repentance. They recognize the real problem isn’t Moses. And it isn’t the wilderness. It’s their rebellion against the Lord.
So they go to Moses and ask him to pray for them. Moses, in other words, becomes their mediator. And Moses intercedes for them.
Already, I hope, you’re starting to hear the gospel: The people recognize their sin problem. They confess it. They need a mediator to solve this problem. And God provides one in Moses.
And what is God’s remedy? A bronze serpent lifted up on a pole.
Verse 9: “And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”
Think about how strange that is. This bronze serpent—an image of the very thing that’s killing the people—somehow becomes the very means of their salvation!
The Israelites do nothing to earn this healing. They don’t fight the snakes for this healing. And they don’t manufacture medicine for the healing.
They simply look… And they live…
Notice it doesn’t even take heroic faith on the part of the snakebite victims to be saved. If you’re dying from deadly poison and someone says, “Look up and be healed,” you look! You’ve got nothing left to lose at that point!
And that’s Jesus’ point in John 3: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”[12] It’s not about the strength of our faith; it’s about the object of our faith—it’s about Christ and what he’s done to save us!
On the cross, Jesus becomes like that bronze serpent on the pole—not sinful in himself, but bearing the likeness of our sin. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake, he made him”—God the Father made God the Son—“to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him”—in Christ—“we might become the righteousness of God.”
On the cross, in other words, a great exchange takes place: Christ takes our sin. We receive his righteousness. Christ bears the curse. We receive life. The serpent was lifted up—and the poison lost its power. Christ was lifted up—and sin lost its power.
In Numbers 21, if you refused to look, you died. In John 3, if you refuse to believe, you perish eternally.
But the good news is this: the Son has already been lifted up.
He’s done everything necessary to forgive you, to save you, to give you eternal life, and to make you part of God’shis family forever.
Lift up your eyes to the Son of Man.
Look—and live.
[1] “The Apostle”: Honest Prayer.” preachingtoday.com. Accessed 24 September 2020.
[2] Numbers 11:10 NLT
[3] Numbers 11:11 NLT
[4] 1 Peter 2:11
[5] Hebrews 13:14
[6] Revelation 21:4
[7] Romans 5:3-4 NLT
[8] James 1:2-4 NLT
[9] Luke 10:40 paraphrase
[10] Luke 10:41-42 ESV
[11] John 3:16 KJV
[12] John 3:14-15 ESV