Fourth Sunday in Lent - 2024

In Isaiah 55 we read, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (v. 8-9). God’s ways often seem counterintuitive, even foolish to us. Joshua is instructed by God to march around the well-fortified walls of Jericho blowing trumpets in order to breach the walls. Gideon went into battle as instructed and defeated the Midianites with 300 soldiers equipped with trumpets and torches hidden in clay jars. The Syrian Commander, Naaman, was told to dip himself seven times into the muddy Jordan River to be healed and cleansed of leprosy. This is to mention but a few. And God’s remedy in our first reading for the lethal bites of the fiery serpents has to rank right up there with one of the most unusual. What’s going on there?...