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LOOK AND LIVE
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (Cf. John 12:32.) The story concerning the uplifted serpent is found in Numbers 21:4-9. Numbers 21:4-9 4 Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged [impatient] on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses: "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes [detests] this worthless bread." 6 So the LORD sent fiery [poisonous] serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. 7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD that He take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. 8 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live." 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. (NKJ)
OUTLINE THE SIN (4-5) – "the soul of the people became very discouraged because of the way" DISBELIEF – "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in this wilderness? For there is not food and no water" DISDAIN – "our soul hates this worthless bread" THE SERPENTS (6)
THE SALVATION (7-9)
THE SIN The nation had just buried Aaron and experienced victory over a band of Canaanites led by king Arad (Numbers 20:29-21:3). Now, instead of taking the shortest and easiest route to their destination they were forced (Nu. 20:14-21) to march around the land of Edom (21:4). The barren and tortuous terrain soon had Israel discouraged and disappointed. God had shown Himself strong in their battle against the Canaanites, but then he seems to abandon them to the desert. Discouragement and disappointment soon give way to expressions of unbelief —"Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in this wilderness? For there is no food and there is no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread."
False Accusation – "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in this wilderness?"The people accused Moses and God of delivering them from Egypt only to let them die in the wilderness. If God had wanted them dead, then He could have allowed Pharaoh and his army to catch them with their backs to the Red Sea. God could have crushed them under the waters of the Red Sea, allowed any number of enemies along the way to annialate them, or failed to give them water and food for one week.
An Outright Lie – "For there is no food and there is no water."This is a boldfaced lie. Everyday God fed them with Manna and supplied them with water.
The Truth Of The Matter – "Our soul loathes this worthless bread."Here is the truth in a nutshell. It’s not that God didn’t make provision for them, but they did not want what God provided. The bread they loathed was nothing less than a type of Jesus, the Bread from heaven. (See John 6:31-32; Nehemiah 9:15; Exodus 16:4.)
Divine Judgment There are those who would have us to believe that God would never do anything to bring discomfort to His people. Our text plainly says, "so the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people" (6). These serpents weren’t sent by the devil, but from "the Lord." God’s corrective dealings are expressions of His hatred of sin and His love for His people. Have you stopped to think that some of the problems you are facing just might be divinely placed roadblocks? Perhaps God is saying to you, "don’t go that way." God does speak through circumstances. The storm and the whale that threatened Jonah weren’t sent by the devil, but from "the Lord." The mule that wouldn’t move for Balaam was a blessing, not a bad thing. If the mule would have continued in the path chosen by Balaam, Balaam would have been slain by the sword wielding angel. The painful circumstances you are facing may be designed to turn you from your sin to the Lord.
Deadly Judgment These snakes that were everywhere were poisonous. They "bit the people" and as a result "many of the people of Israel died." Scripture clearly tells us "the wages of sin is death." It is an unavoidable reality—"the soul that sins it shall surely die."
No matter where they went the people could not avoid these venomous serpents. If they attempted to avoid one serpent, they backed into two more. They found serpents in their beds at night and encountered them in the morning when they went to pick up the manna. There was no escape from this plague. It was everywhere. We can run all we want to, but we cannot escape the penalty of sin—DEATH!
The Confession Every remedy begins with an admission that there is a problem. In this case the people admitted that they were the cause of their problem— "we have sinned." It was not merely a general confession of sin, but a specific statement concerning the nature of their sin—"we have spoken against the Lord and against you." Isn’t it about time we quit blaming our current ills on our ancestors, our environment, our neighborhood, and our friends? Assessing blame does nothing to bring a solution. The road to recovery begins with admission of our guilt.
The Intercession Based on the confession of the people, Moses is able to go before the Lord and ask for help. Our prayers for a solution are useless until we confess our sin. God does not save us in our sin, but from our sin. Until we deal with our sin we prevent God from dealing with our problem.
The Instruction The people asked that God would remove the serpents, but instead God gives them a solution required a faith response. God doesn’t wave His hand and make our self-made problems go away. More often than not He provides a solution that requires us to believe Him. His statement to the lame man was "take up your bed and walk." To the blind man in whose eyes he placed mud, Jesus said, "go and wash in the pool of Siloam." In our text God had Moses make a bronze serpent, put it on a pole, and then required that the people look at the serpent. Everyone who looked lived! Everyone who failed or refused to look died. By placing the serpent was placed on a pole, God sought to remove the visual barriers that would prevent the people from seeing the bronze serpent. It didn’t matter who the person was or what they had done, all they had to do was look to live.
Word began to spread throughout the camp that if you would look at the serpent you wouldn’t die. I’m sure some skeptic who lay dying inside of his tent may have declared, "I don’t believe there is any bronze serpent and if there is, just looking at it isn’t going to solve my problem. Please, go away and let me die in peace." Perhaps his neighbor responded by saying, "I was dying, but I looked and I was healed. Come on, I’ll help you get outside where you can see the bronze serpent." Not everyone will believe us, but we must continue telling people that there is an answer.
All they had to do was look and death was overcome by life. If we translate into New Testament terms it says, "whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."
Today, we are going to the Table of the Lord. As we do we are not focusing on ourselves, but on His provisions in Christ Jesus. The people who were bitten were not to look at their wounds, but away from themselves to the brazen serpent. We too are to look past these emblems to the reality that they represent. There are two emblems.
First, there is the fruit of the vine that is obtained by crushing. It speaks to us of the shed blood or poured out life of Jesus—Christ died for sinners. Sin’s penalty, power and ultimately its presence is broken by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We appropriate that victory by faithing God’s grace provisions in Christ.
Second, there is the bread, which speaks to us of His broken body—by His stripes we are healed. Like those Israelites who overcame death by looking, we overcome death by believing. ©1998 by Louis Bartet, all rights reserved. |