Numbers 21:4-9
From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 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 we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And 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. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
From the great white north of snow and wilderness to California was the rattlesnakes. We don't have those up there. Just in case you are wondering where winter is there's no rattling no snakes, the worst we got our the garter snakes, they're like about that long, you've probably got them here, that long, maybe that big around. Almost cute. So when we came here, I was a little worried. In fact, I was kinda like, are they hiding under every log? Gonna jump out of every great in the street, a little worried. Two and a half years later, I haven't seen a one, which is kind of nice. But today, we are talking about serpents like that. Fiery, or what we would call venomous serpents that go and bite God's people as part of their punishment. And so let's take a look at this story. Before we dive into what's actually happening, we should know what's happened in the past, for God's people. We're in the book of Numbers and Numbers begins at the base of Mount Sinai. God has already pulled them out of slavery in Egypt, they have gathered around the base, they've received the covenant from God, Moses and all that stuff. Moses has then received a whole mess of laws that are part of this covenant, that deal with things like worship, and, and food and just about everything that you can think of. In Numbers, we get some of those laws in addition, and then they finally leave the base of Mount Sinai and start heading towards the promised land. And they start to complain. They have no food. So God gives them manna for their breakfast appears right outside their front door, every single day. And then, after a little bit of time they go, we're sick of this man, oh, we need meat. So God gives them quail. It just lands in the camp. They don't have to worry about it. No hunting, no shooting, just to meet. Okay. So then they get to the promised land. They look inside, and they say, oh, no, the people there are super scary. God could never defeat them. Almost forgetting what he did with Pharaoh and Egypt, the mightiest army of the time. And so God turns them away, and tells them that they will be wandering in the wilderness until that generation dies off 40 years. And then after that, we get to this story. They complain again. And here's what happens. They are in the wilderness. And they say, 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 we loathe this worthless food. Now, first of all, that sentence does not make a lot of sense, right? There is no food and no water, but the food is terrible. Right? They're not saying there's no food, no water, they're saying, We're bored to God. The food that you've been giving us every single day is now boring. And we were better off as slaves in Egypt and not your people. That's a pattern that they had to talk about over and over again, in their complaining. Why did you bring us out here? And now all we have to eat is this food that you give us for free every single day. I think one thing that this can highlight is human nature is a bit like that. We get used to good things. When something really good happens in our life. We get to a point where it makes us happy for a little bit and then it just sort of fades into the background. It becomes a part of what we expect. So you can almost see God's people being like, oh, yeah, I mean, God gives us food every day. But what else is new? It helps us to see that this is part of human nature, both for you and for me, right? We get used to the amazing things that God gives us. Sometimes even bored with the amazing blessings that we have, whether it's blessings of body or blessings of soul, we get tired of our congregation grumble about losing an hour of sleep and having to get to church on time. We get tired of the shelters we live in the families we have, and we go, Ah, it's just so much work. That's because human beings aren't like that. We forget about the good things, and we focus on the bad. We find ourselves not being thankful for everything that we get out. And focus only on the places where life is not living up to our expectations. And this is why we have to continually remind ourselves of the blessings God has given us. When we read in the Lord's Prayer, about giving thanks for the daily bread that we have, give us this day, our daily bread. This is a reminder, as much as anything else, that God is the source of all the good things that we have, that he gives it to us out of His fatherly divine goodness and mercy without any merit or worthiness in me. The prayer is there to say, God gives this because he wants us to and we know that we know we should be grateful. And We gather here for the same reason. To remind ourselves that the gift of Jesus Christ is amazing. It is not a background thing that fades into our lives. But we need to talk about it all the time to remember how powerful Christ is to remember how joyous His sacrifice for us is. That we shouldn't take it for granted. But rejoice in it every single day, every single week, all our lives. Because if we don't, it might just fade into the background. Or we might just lose the joy that we need to have. Because it is the gift of life. What an amazing thing. Now God's people, ancient Israel, they have a problem they are complaining. And so what does God do? punishes them. It says, The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people so that many of the people of Israel die. We would call fiery serpents, venomous serpents, snakes, like the Rattlesnakes I worried about what's going on here is God had given Israel a covenant. What he told them was, if you follow my covenant, things will be great. You will be safe, you will win all your battles, your enemies will stay away, your vineyards will grow, your fields will prosper. And you'll have everything you could ever want. And if you do not, if you turn away, the opposite will happen. Your vineyards will not grow, your fields will not prosper, enemies will attack you, and you will be punished. And so that's what's happening. God sends the serpents amongst the people and they bite them. And then it goes. And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned. We have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that He will take away the serpents from us.
So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone He would look at the bronze serpent, and live. There's an interesting detail in this, the people say, take away the snakes. But God doesn't. He doesn't remove the suffering for their sin, instead instructs Moses to snake on a pole. And then everyone who is bitten, poisoned by these snakes could turn and then be healed. This is a very different thing than take away the snakes. The snakes kept on biting. And the people of God kept getting sick, which meant they had to continually turn to this bronze serpent that Moses had set up and receive healing every time it happened. This is a way God reminded them that they constantly needed him that in their daily life, they would have to turn and look for healing. Because if he just took the snakes away, well, they'd go back to forgetting about him. But every time they got bit, one more time, they would turn to Him and look for healing. Now, this story has a number of lessons for us regarding our life in Christ. But it's important to point out the differences as well. The covenant that we have, is a covenant that is different from ancient Israel. For them, it was a community and national covenant, when the whole community sinned, the whole community was punished. When God's people turned away from God, God sent a direct punishment because of that. And that is what those fiery serpents were all about. We do not have a promise like that. The covenant is not, if you sin, God will punish you directly for that sin. You see, for us, Jesus Christ fulfilled the law of Moses, the law that the ancient people broke. And so that kind of promise is lifted from our shoulders and placed on his, which means that there is no covenant that says, if you sin, you will be punished. But very simply, in Christ, there is no punishment. In Christ, we are all saved. Which means that we cannot turn to the bad things of this world, and say, we know why they happened. And in Israel had Moses who could go out to the people and say, Hey, guys, God told me that you're getting these snakes because you did this. We don't have anyone like that. Despite what you might see, on the television, every time a hurricane comes, or a major earthquake happens, some guy will stand up and say, I know why this is happening. It's because my favorite political thing happened. Or my favorite spiritual hobbyhorse was broken. And they have no idea. There is no Moses or prophet who can come down and say that they act like they have some kind of spiritual insight that the rest of us do not have, and they are wrong. And sometimes we do that for ourselves. We say when something bad happens, I bet God is punishing me for whatever it is that I did. We don't know that either. We don't know why. Bad things happen or the suffering is brought into our life, other than the very simple fact that the world is filled with sin. We are broken, and all of us will one day die. That's it. That's the message. We have suffering. But what we have is a gift from Christ that gives us healing in the midst of it. And that I think is where we can understand the pattern from the book of Numbers is that when we cry out to God, forgive us for our sins. He does not take away death from the world. What he does, is he lifts up his son Jesus Christ on a cross to give us healing With a promise of resurrection. This is what Jesus tells us. In John chapter three. He says, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. Jesus Christ is the escape from death and sin and suffering in our world. He is the one who gives us healing, so that everyone who turns to him and believes on this crucified man will be saved. Doesn't take away the pain of the things we face, the challenges of this life or the hurt that we run into. But he does give us a promise that He will be with us even into death, and raise us on the last day. What this does, is it actually turns our suffering into something that can drive us to Jesus Christ. Because every time something really bad happens, you can say to yourself, I have healing. I have an escape. Someone went to a cross and died for me and experienced death so that I can follow him through the grave into everlasting life. It doesn't have to turn into a moment for despair, or a time to wonder what God is doing and why he is sending this to me. It can be a way to point us to our Savior. That's what the snakes were for. After the bronze serpent was lifted up the snakes brought people back to God, turn and be healed. And our Savior Jesus Christ does the same. When we face the inevitable results of a sinful world, when we get sick or hurt, or whatever happens to us, these things ought to turn us to our Savior. Because everyone who believes on Him has life. Everyone who turns to him is saved. In Jesus name, Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai