Dear friends in Christ.
Back in 1896 when the first modern day Olympic Games
were held, weightlifting was included, though it wasn’t an event in its own
right as it is today. Instead, it was
originally held as part of the Field event, which was the predecessor to
today’s Track and Field or Athletics event.
Because of this, weightlifting was not regularly a part of the Olympics
until 1920, when fourteen nations competed.
Though there have been a number of different types of weight lifting
competitions through the years, today there are only two types of lift
competitions—the snatch and the clean and jerk.
Though similar, the essence of the snatch is to lift the barbell from
the platform to locked arms overhead in a smooth continuous movement, while in
the clean and jerk competitors first lift the barbell from the floor to chest
height and then lift it up to locked arms overhead. But regardless of which style lift a
competitor is performing, each one knows just how important it is to find a
specific point to focus on during the lift, for by looking intently at that
single point, a weight lifter is able to focus all his attention on the task of
successfully lifting the weight he has chosen to lift. Well, in our lesson today, our Lord is calling
on us to do the very same thing. He is
calling on us to look to him and live.
He is calling on us to move the eyes of our faith from the things of
this world and focus them on him so that we might live.
Look to the Lord and live! Truthfully, this is all that the Lord really
wanted from his people, Israel, as he led them through the wilderness on their
way to the land of Canaan. However,
looking to the Lord and guarding their lives against sin seemed to be the very
last thing that thing that the Israelites wanted to do. For as you know, the Israelites were famous
for their grumbling and complaining
against the Lord as well as their stubborn refusal to follow his will in just
about every situation. In fact, this is
exactly what Moses is revealing to us in our lesson today as he writes: “They
traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But
the people grew impatient on the way; 5 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!” 6
Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many
Israelites died." (Numbers 21:4–6, NIV84)
Sadly, it seems that whenever the going got too
tough, or the way to the Promised Land was just too long, rather than guarding
against sin and following the Lord’s will, the people embraced their sin and
complained against him. It seems that
whenever even the slightest thing went wrong the people stopped looking to the
Lord and looked at themselves as they complained about the things that they
didn’t have. Yet, before we go and judge
the Israelites too harshly, we have to ask ourselves if we are any different
than they were. If we are honest with
ourselves, then we will immediately realize that we are no different than they
were. For how often doesn’t it happen
that whenever the going gets too tough or slightest thing goes wrong, we, like
they, fail to look to the Lord? How
often don’t we fail to guard ourselves against our sins, and begin to complain
and wail against the Lord just as they did.
Just think about it.
Though we haven’t had much to complain about when it comes to snow or
ice, how often haven’t we been surprised by the cold temperatures and began
complaining about them? Or how often
don’t we complain about traffic and road construction? How often don’t we complain about mosquitoes,
lady bugs, and box elder bugs? How often
don’t we complain about taxes, insurance, and the costs of prescription
drugs? How often don’t we complain about
our jobs? How often don’t we complain
about our homes, or our friends, or our families? How often don’t we complain about our church,
or our pastor, or our childcare, or each other?
How often don’t we complain about our synod schools, or our synod
officials. In short, How often don’t we
fail to guard our lives from sin by complain about anything and everything that
crosses our minds? How often don’t we have
opened the floodgates and allowed our sins to pour out before the Lord our
God? So often we have failed to guard
our lives from sin and have failed to look to the Lord who saves us!
In fact, if there ever was a people who deserved the
Lord’s wrath more than the Israelites, it is us. If there ever was a people who deserved the
Lord to unleash poisonous serpents in their mist, then we would have to stand
up and declare that we deserve it. For
the truth is, even though we know exactly what the Lord’s will is for our
lives, we have done the exact opposite on just about every occasion. But even though the Lord has not sent
poisonous snakes among us to chastise us as he did with his people, he still
uses the tool of his law to turn us back to him. Sometimes all it takes is the prick of our
consciences constantly reminding us how we failed the Lord before we turn to
him in repentance. Sometimes it takes
the heavy hand of his commandments pressing down on our backs before we
recognize what we have done. But then
there are the times that it takes the full 16 ton weight of God’s Law falling
on us and crushing us to the ground before like so many of the Warner Brothers
cartoon characters before we realize how we have completely failed to look to
the Lord and guard our lives from sin.
But even though it might take the full weight of God’s Law to crush us
to dust and make us realize how horribly we have sinned against the Lord, when
that realization finally comes, it is the Lord who gently speaks to us and
tells us, “Turn to me for forgiveness. Look
to me and live!
Look to the Lord and live! Turn to the Lord for forgiveness! These two short phrases form the point of
what the Lord was saying to his people when he sent the poisonous snakes among
them. For in the same way that he
sometimes crushes us with the full weight of the Law, the Lord intended to
crush his people with the full weight of the consequence of their sin, and
recognize it they did. When the people
saw how those who were bitten by the snakes died, they quickly realized their
sins and turned to the Lord for forgiveness as Moses tells us, “The people came
to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you.
Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the
people. 8 The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone
who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put
it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the
bronze snake, he lived." (Numbers 21:7–9, NIV84)
When the Israelites turned to the Lord for
forgiveness, the Lord not only forgave them; he also gave them tangible
assurance that if they looked to him in faith they would live. This is why the Lord had Moses set up the
bronze serpent for the people and tell them that if they were bitten, they
could look at this snake and live. He
did this to give them a visual reminder of what faith was all about. For just as the forgiveness of sins came to
the people Israel through faith in the Lord God, healing from the fatal snake
bites came only from looking at the bronze serpent with their eyes, and looking
past it, with the eyes of faith, to the Lord so that they might live.
We have the same assurance from the Lord our God
today! For when we realize the enormity
of our sins against the Lord and turn to the Lord for forgiveness, it is the
Lord who says, “Look to me and live!”
For in the same way that the Lord gave tangible assurance to the
Israelites of the forgiveness of their sins, the Lord has given us the same
tangible assurance of the forgiveness of our sins through his Son, Jesus Christ
our Savior. For in the same way that
Moses lifted up that bronze snake in the desert, so also has God the Father
lifted up his Son, Jesus Christ, in the desert of Golgotha, for the forgiveness
of all of our sins. In the same way that
those who looked at that snake with the eyes of faith lived, we who have been
bitten by the poisonous vipers of our sins, and have been crushed by the full
weight of God’s law, have looked to the Lord our Savior, and have lived. We have looked to the Lord our Savior who was
lifted up on the cross, sacrificed for our sins, and raised to life on the
third day, and we are assured that we have received the forgiveness that he won
for us. Now, whenever we look at the
cross, we don’t see a broken and dying Savior, but we see the Savior who
conquered sin and death by his death and resurrection. Now, when we look at the cross, we don’t see
a device for execution, we see a symbol of comfort and hope. For whenever we look at the cross, we see
more than just two pieces of wood. We
see our Savior to whom we turn for the forgiveness of sins. We see our Lord to whom we can look and live.
What a great comfort it is for us to look to the
Lord our God and focus the eyes of our faith on him. For in the same way that weight lifters focus
all their attention on a single point so that they might successfully lift the
weight they are lifting, we who now look to the Lord in faith know that we will
live. Though we may not always be
successful at guarding our lives against sin, we know that when we turn to the
Lord in repentance he will forgive us, and having been forgiven, we will seek
to look to him once more so that we might continue to live for him.
Amen.
Pastor
David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
