Relationships are rewarding things. But they can also be very fragile. Easily broken.
And one thing that can destroy a relationship is a lack of trust.
Many marriages fall apart because a husband or wife doesn’t feel like they can trust their partner anymore.
The same thing is true in our relationship with God. And that’s why it’s the one thing that God really requires of us in our relationship with him.
He requires that we trust him.
When we learn to trust him, everything else falls in place in our life with him.
When we don’t, everything falls apart.
Adam and Eve learned this in the garden.
The one thing that God said to them was “Trust me. Don’t eat from that tree that gives you knowledge of good and evil. There are some things you’re better off not knowing.”
But they didn’t trust him, they ate from the fruit, and everything fell apart as a result.
God asked the same thing of the Israelites. “Trust me. Believe that I love you and that I’ll take care of your every need.”
But time and again, the Israelites failed to trust him. Instead they complained whenever things got tough.
That’s what happened in this passage. They started complaining once again. “There’s no bread. There’s no water. And we detest this miserable food.”
What food were they referring to, by the way? Manna. The bread from heaven.
But from one side of their mouth, they were complaining that there was no bread, and from the other side they were saying they didn’t like the bread that they had.
It wasn’t that God didn’t provide. It was just that they weren’t content with what they had.
Water, of course, was always a problem. But God had proven himself faithful time and again. No one ever died from lack of thirst. God always provided what they needed.
Yet the people complained.
So God sent poisonous snakes among them, and now people really did start dying.
Why? Because God didn’t provide?
No. Because they didn’t trust him.
The Israelites then repented, and said, “Moses, please pray for us. We were wrong.”
Moses did pray. But God didn’t just heal the people. They had to do something.
God told Moses to set up a bronze snake, and told the people, “If you want to live, look up to the snake. If you do, you will live.”
Why did God do that? Because he wanted to reestablish what had been broken. Trust.
And he was saying, “The reason why this happened is because you didn’t trust me. So the answer to this problem is simple. Trust me. Believe me when I say that if you look at the snake you’ll be healed.”
Everyone who looked at the snake lived.
But I wonder if any of the Israelites refused to do so because they couldn’t believe just looking at the snake could heal them.
God required faith. Everyone who chose to trust lived. Anyone who didn’t, died.
Someone once said that the opposite of sin is not good works. The opposite of sin is faith.
Sin is basically saying to God, “I don’t believe in you. I don’t believe your way is best.”
And because people take that attitude, it leads to all the other things we call “sin.”
But sin at its base is saying, “God I don’t trust you.”
That’s one reason why doing good works doesn’t balance out the bad things that you do.
God isn’t looking for good works in and of themselves. He’s looking for faith.
And that’s why when God talks about the way of salvation, he doesn’t say “Do good works.”
He says, “Put your faith in my Son. Just look to him and you’ll have eternal life.”
Because more than good works, he wants us to trust him. He wants us to believe in him. He wants us to have faith in him.
Without that, all of our good works are like filthy rags to him.
As Jesus said hundreds of years later,
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (John 3:14-15).
God doesn’t require good works of us for salvation. He requires faith.
But the good works we do are the fruit of our faith.
After all, if we truly trust God, won’t we do all that he asks?
How about you? Do you trust God?
Moment to Moment (Bible blog) 