Scripture and God's Love

            There is a passage of scripture in Numbers that has always been a problem for me.  It describes the way that the Hebrews under Moses were struggling in the desert and had been given manna to eat, but were complaining of not only the manna, but also of being brought out of Egypt by Moses.  Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in this wilderness? they ask.  They complain that there is no food and water, and that the food, the manna, is terrible.  God hears their complaints and sends serpents among them to bite them and some of them die.  They complain of this to Moses and Moses relays these prayers to God who tells him to make a serpent and put it on a pole and to tell all of those who are bitten to look at the serpent and that they will be saved.  Moses does this and those who are afflicted by the snakes are saved. 

            My problem with this is that is sounds to me as if God, who has saved these people from slavery all of a sudden doesn’t care very much about their comfort.  When they complain, he strikes at them, and only offers relief when Moses tells God of their problem. 

            When I look at my Christian faith, it is based on the overwhelming love that God has shown to humanity by over and over again trying to find ways to save us from the terrible things that we are prone to do.  Finally sending Jesus to come among us to discover what is like to be human, limited and fallible and from within that life giving us comfort that indeed God understands what humans endure not only from the world but from each other. 

            It is intriguing that when Nicodemus speaks to Jesus in John’s Gospel, and asks him some significant questions, that Jesus cites the story of Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness as the basis for the fact that Jesus himself must be lifted up also so that those who believe in him might have eternal life.   In that passage, John goes on to elaborate that those who do not believe will not be saved.  I’ve always thought that was the disciple’s own interpretation of that event, not necessarily something that Jesus said.  I would rather base my faith on the overwhelming love of God, who accepts all of us the way that we are and that love will see is through even though our different beliefs may seem to divide us. 

         Is it possible for those of us who don’t understand eternal life to receive it anyway?  I know that it is.  Our God loves us completely.  There is a reference in Paul’s letter to the Romans about the refiner’s fire that burns out all of our impurities.  I think that this is what happens when we meet our God.  None of us is perfect.  We all have parts of us that ought to be changed.  Our God certainly knows this.  But beyond our imperfections is the desire of God to keep us near.  To provide for us the kind of life that was intended for us from the beginning, and to have us be before God the way that we were originally created to be.  That for me is a primary statement of God’s love.  There is much in scripture that I think is there to scare us, to drive us by fear into the arms of God.  There is certainly enough in life already to do that.  I am comfortable relying on my God to take care of me even through death.  That is certainly the promise that we are given in the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.