Life is mix-master—a capricious, mind-boggling entanglement of roads with one common theme: all roads have a destination. On any given day, we can find ourselves on paths we never planned. The question is how do we navigate the road we are on to get where we want to end up?
The original audience of WTGB (Words To Grow By) is nursing home residents. Most of them tell me they never imagined they would be in their present road condition. WTGB’s purpose is to provide them with an encouraging word from God. The road they are on does not exempt them from the daily pursuit of spiritual maturity and the joy of God’s voice directing them through the test and turns of life. Their journey is universal; their pursuit is your pursuit. With every sunrise, we all face the question: How do you pass the road test? The Israelites did in Numbers 21: 4-9. Fresh from their Egyptian exodus, a Golden calf detour, and a victory at Mt. Hormah, they came face-to-face with a fork in the road, a snake in the road and a sign on the road. Each represents choices, consequences and clues—a road map to get you where you want to be.
First, every road has forks—choices. Do I go left? Do I go right? —the choice before the Israelites who were in a difficult place. Do they go against the leadership of Moses and take a quicker path to the Promise Land, or do they follow God’s leader and go forward on a longer, more difficult route to avoid our vengeful brothers—the Edomites? Look at Numbers 21:4-5:
4 Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey. 5 And the people spoke against God and Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.”
It is in moments of bumps in the road—difficulty and disappointment—that our distrust in God is exposed. The impatience of the “Right Now” people showed their disregard for what God had done for them at the Red Sea. When it comes to destination, our choices reveal our faith when we face forks in the road.
Second, every road has snakes in the road—consequences. For every choice there is a pleasant surprise or a poisonous snake; a blessing or a curse. For the “Right Now” complaining crowd, it was the latter.
6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
The road of the impatient, unbelieving is full of all kinds of deadly snakes: If snakes were friends, you may have already suffered their bite:
Rattle snake friends who announce with their gossipy conversation that they are bad news, but you listen to them anyway, only to have them turn on you.
Boa Constrictor friends who are good at camouflaging their danger. They wind up choking the life out of your blessings.
Asp friends who are small, but deadly. They poison your life with gradual, innocuous, addictive ways that puncture your promising future. Ask Cleopatra about their danger.
Bad choices have negative consequences—snakes. Listen for the rattle.
Finally, every road has signs—clues to a path best taken. For the repentant Israelites, it was, not a biting serpent, but a bronze one of salvation God provided.
9 And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.
The snake on the pole was a foreshadowing of Christ on the cross according to John 12:32: If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.
If you seek a blessed destination to the difficult road you are on, make choices that are Christ-focused. You may not be there yet, but you are well on your way to where you want to be to be blessed.
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