Have you ever had one of those days when it felt like everything that could go wrong would go wrong? I was at a conference in Canada recently and I was a little nervous about the last day. For a number of reasons, I was left to fend for myself in our exhibitor booth, which alone is not a big deal. But what was a big deal was that I had to break down our booth by myself and make sure everything was in order for our shipment to clear customs to get back to the U.S. Oh, and I only had 30 minutes to do that if I wanted to get to the airport on time. That morning, I checked out of my hotel, left my luggage with the concierge, and then exited to walk across the parking lot to the convention center. As I walked across the slushy snow in the dark it happened: I stepped right into a puddle. My immediate thought was, “Oh, no! This is great! What a great way to begin a stressful day—with a soaking wet foot. This is going to be a long, painful one.” But thankfully my ninja-like reflexes enabled me to hop out of the puddle without getting very wet. You know what? My immediate thought was wrong. Sure it was a challenging day in many ways (including delayed flights that got me home quite late), but everything worked out fine. God was gracious.

God’s Righteous, Loving Discipline

If I had to guess—or just wanted to like now—I would have to say that the Israelites lived in a perpetual state of “woe is us.” It sure seems like they woke up thinking that everything that could go wrong would go wrong that day. They were so negative and gloomy, much of which was because of what they brought on themselves. And that is what we see again this week. Having turned their backs on the promised land, and more importantly on the God who promised it to them, the Israelites found themselves wandering in the wilderness without food. Shocking, right?!?! They turned from a land flowing with milk and honey and toward a land of barrenness and grumbled when they got hungry. So what did God do? He disciplined them. And He was absolutely right to. And He was absolutely loving for doing so. It might be easy for us (and our kids) to reach the wrong conclusion that God was rather mean to His people after the Exodus account itself. It seems that once the people were out of Egyptian bondage, God was pretty hard on them. We might begin to feel like the Israelites likely did—that everything God could do against them, He did. Yes, God was hard on the Israelites, but we need to be careful to understand why. It was not because He was mean. Just the opposite, He was loving and His discipline was an extension of His love. Loving fathers discipline their children for their good. Unloving fathers allow their children to continue pursuing paths that lead to destruction. And no father is as loving as God our Father. No father is wiser. No father is more righteous. If the Israelites felt like everything that could go wrong was going wrong, it is because their hearts were still wrong. Loving God would not permit them to stay in that condition, which is why He sent the snakes.

God’s Gracious, Merciful Salvation

I have never been bitten by a venomous snake (it’s hard for them to bite you when you are running away from them shrieking), but I can imagine what one must think in that moment: “Oh, boy. This isn’t good.” Or something to that effect. The moment that snake bites you, you know its venom is making its way through your body to do its damage, perhaps with lethal results. And there isn’t really much you can do about it. Can you see why God sent the snakes? The Israelites understood they were needy of God when it came to food, but they were blind to the more important truth that they were needy of God for everything else too. The Israelites needed to be humbled. They needed to understand that God is sovereign and that they can, and should, trust Him. Venom was the perfect illustration. Remember that God’s discipline is always restorative, never punitive. That is why He didn’t just provide snakes, but He also provided instructions for Moses to mount a brass snake on a pole so that anyone who was bitten could look at that snake and be spared. God was providing salvation—life—to all who trusted in Him. Sound familiar? The gospel is a call to repentance, and humility is an enormous part of that repentance. We need to turn from ourselves—the pride and the selfishness—and turn to Christ in a posture of total need and dependence. Sometimes God uses a snake or two to bring this to pass. Sometimes he uses something like a puddle. Sometimes an illness or broken relationship. While all of these ways are painful, they are all good if God is using them to turn us toward Him.

It is uncomfortable to see ourselves as needy and weak, but we are, and that is exactly why Christ is the only answer.” — Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp [1]

Preschool Tip: This session might be a little frightening for preschoolers, especially your younger ones. You can help prevent that in the way that you tell the story, but beyond that, focus on the truth undergirding the snakes not the snakes themselves. Extol God’s goodness and His love. But be sure to share that God’s discipline is one way that He loves us. Our little ones need to become familiar with that beautiful truth. Kids Tip: Consider helping your kids grasp the why behind the what this week. Knowing what happened—how God sent snakes—is important, but our kids—especially our older ones—need to learn to dive deeper into God’s Word and consider why God did what He did too. In this case, it makes no sense to look at a bronze snake to be healed. And that is the point. Our kids need to understand that God was doing something that made no sense and that the people needed to trust God that it would work. Because that is something we call faith. [1] Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp, How People Change (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2008), 12. https://vimeo.com/album/5635208/video/307183526