Wednesday, August 21: Numbers 21– Snakes in the camp…

The account of the snakes drew me in. It began with the people growing impatient. In their impatience they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" (5). Impatience led to inappropriate actions. How often this is true in my life. In my impatience, I get angry and

·         think things that dishonor God.

·         I say thing that embarrass myself and hurt people.

·         I some things I do things that I regret and hurt others.

Impatience is a spark that sets things on fire and once the fire ignites, it is hard to regain control.

This maybe the first time I really considered the devastating effects of impatience. How wonderful that God offers to cultivate His fruit of patience (see Gal 5:22) in our lives as we learn to live by and cooperate with the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to all who follow Jesus.

The Lord sent judgment upon the people in the form of venomous snakes and many died (6). This brought the people to their knees in repentance and confession. "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us" (7).

The judgment accomplished God’s restorative purpose, the people turned back to the Lord. And then God gave them a way out from the judgment –a miraculous way out I might add.

God continues to show that when we sin, and we all will sin, God provides a way out from it. Through faith in Jesus, God offered a permanent solution to our sin-problem. When we sin, we can turn and confess our sins and be cleansed and restored. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1John 1:9).

What a wonderful gift forgiveness is!

Lord, as I pray, I return to the morning’s first theme… my impatience. I can be so impatient. And some situations seem to set me off more quickly than others. When I am late! When I am inconvenienced. When my agenda is disrupted. Acknowledging these specific times, I see how deeply selfish I am. It is all about me and when ‘me’ doesn’t get what I want I grow impatient and bad things happen.

Oh, God, I am in much need of the Holy Spirit’s cultivating work in my life… tending to and fertilizing patience, while at the same time removing and killing the deep roots of selfishness and impatience in my life. Keep working on me, Lord… please keep working in the garden of my life. In Jesus and for Your Kingdoms’ sake, I pray. Amen.