Look and Live - Numbers 21:4-9

 

Look and Live - Numbers 21:4-9

Background: From Potential Blessing To Present Balefulness

Last week the in our sermon the Israelites were in the middle of their preparations for taking the Promised Land. They were counted, which is where the book gets its name, they were given their law, their tabernacle, their priesthood and they were given the precious promise of God’s blessing. A blessing so important that the Lord had given directly to Aaron the high priest.

Numbers 6:24-27 - The LORD bless thee and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.

All that preparation, all that potential and then reality sets in and for the Hebrews faith steps aside.

The journey, the sin and the punishment

In Chapter 11 they barely leave Mt. Sinai before they start their complaining. Nu 11:1–3 And when the people complained, it displeased the LORD: and the LORD heard it; and his anger was kindled; and the fire of the LORD burnt among them, and consumed them that were in the uttermost parts of the camp. 2 And the people cried unto Moses; and when Moses prayed unto the LORD, the fire was quenched. 3 And he called the name of the place Taberah: because the fire of the LORD burnt among them.

The fire had barely stopped falling before the rebellion renews itself in vs. Nu 11:4–6 And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? 5 We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: 6 But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.

Then in Chapter 12 Aaron and Miriam add their jealousy to the journey, Nu 12:1–2.1 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. 2 And they said, Hath the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it.

Then we come to the crisis of the entire book in chapter 13 when the spies are sent out and 10 spies come back as cowards of unbelief and only Joshua and Caleb come back as heroes of faith. Nu 13:32–33.And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. 33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Forty Days of Spying, One day of Denying, brings 40 years of Dying.

For each day they spied the Lord gives them a year for not believing. The old generation will die and the new generation hardened by 40 years in the wilderness will conquer the promised land with God’s power.

In Chapter 15 Korah, Dathan and Abiram rebelled against Moses. The Lord opens the earth and swallows them their families and even their tents down into the pit, along with 250 of their cloesest followers. The next day the people accuse Moses of killing Korah and his followers and God strikes them dead by a fast moving plague. 14,700 people die in a few hours.

After this things seem to settle down for awhile, the people learn to fight while they wander the wilderness. Then in chapter 20, Miriam dies, the sister who watched over Moses when he floated in the basket in the river will watch no more.  In the same chapter once again the people complain and Mose in his anger disobeys God and strike the rock, water gushes from the rock but Moses is denied the Promised Land for his disobedience. Sin has consequences even when you are God’s leader and often the consequence is worse. At the end of the chapter Aaron dies and Moses, alone of the leaders of the Exodus is left.

Then we come to chapter 21. Throughout this journey the Israelites, the people of God, have rebelled and been punished, complained, and been punished, sinned and been punished you would think, there would have been a learning curve and things would have changed, but as the saying goes you would be wrong. So, we come to chapter 21 and perhaps the worst punishment for the people’s rebellion against God takes place.

It is a terrible punishment from God, but it is also a powerful foreshadowing of God’s son.

One of the last things Jesus told the disciple before he ascended to heaven is found in Luke 24:44-45 These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures.

Jesus knew that the disciple couldn’t really know Him, unless they also knew the Old Testament and His place in it. They had seen the substance but to know Him more, they also  had to see the shadow that was cast through the centuries. This is called foreshadowing. As a person approaches with the light at their back they cast a shadow before them. That light is the word of God and that person was Jesus the Messiah and Savior. The Old Testament is the shadow cast before Him. Here are just a few.

Foreshadowing of Christ in the Torah.

Noah’s Ark, Jacob’s Ladder, The Passover, Manna from Heaven, the Tabernacle, The Sacrifices, The Holy Days, The Bronze Serpent, The Sacrificial Lamb, The Cities of Refuge, The Rock Struck for Water.

So, lets spend the rest of our time on one of the strongest clearest foreshadowing of the Old Testament in Numbers 21:4

Rebellion Numbers 21:4-5

And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.

The Hebrews Sin

The are now marching in circles because of their lack of faith in God's promises which resulted in the refusal to go into the Promised Land and claim it

On this part of the journey they have circled back to just outside of Canaan but once again they are not allowed to go in.

They have just fought another battle, they have just finished another hard journey. They know as they camp that day, that they are close to the Promised Land and they also know they still will not be allowed to enter. The Bible simply says the way was hard and they became much discouraged.

In their anger and frustration they speak against God and against Moses. Not since the waters of Meribah have they done this but now it is not just complaining, it is very close to another outright rebellion.

Numbers 21:5 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.”

It was everything they hated from the beginning to the present. It is an all-encompassing complaint and a declaration of a revolt that is coming. And God responds appropriately with a harsh punishment.

Our  Sin

I wonder if the Israelites thought they were sinning? They weren’t rebelling they were just grumbling a little bit, but God did not see or hear it that way.

In our own life, we may not think the sin I am committing is a big deal But remember God doesn't see sin the way you and I do. What I think may be no big deal, God may see what is happening and what will happen. I may see sin as ignoring God but God sees sin as denying and rebelling again Him..

To God, sin is sin and it has consequences and must be dealt with. Either it is punished or it is forgiven but it is never ignored.

We see this clearly in Romans 3:10-26 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. …
…21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Sin is deadly as a snake, ask my Uncle the Marine. My Uncle Larry George was a Marine during the Vietnam war. He once told me how his sergeant  instructed the men how to deal with snakes they would find in the jungle of Vietnam.

“First you kill it any way you can. Then you cut if its head and then you bury the head at least a foot underground.” One soldier asked, “Sergeant, why do we have to bury the dead snakes head?  The sergeant looked at the man like he was dumb as a bag of hammers and said, “Cause you grunts are so stupid if you didn’t bury the head one of you would sit on it and then die from by being bitten by a dead headless snake.”

And that is just as true for us when we think we can deal with sin our own way instead of God’s way.

Sin is deadly and God must deal with it. Let’s read on and see how He dealt with here in vs. 6.

Retribution - Numbers 21:6

And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.

The Punishment

These are not mythical or imagined serpents but an actual species of snake that still dwells in the Sinai. The description of fiery was probably given because of the rust or copper color of the Saw Scaled Viper which lives in the Sinai desert.

God dealt with their sin as He had in the past with punishment, death in just a few minutes after they were bitten. And every person knew why they were being punished, they had sinned, they had rebelled, and God had punished sin .

Our Punishment

Real Consequences, Real Punishment. The fiery serpent was not mythical or imaginary and the punishment of God is also neither mythical or imaginary.

The world says Hell is not real, there is no literal place of that God has prepared for those who continue to sin and rebel against God. It is popular today for many to ignore Hell and for others to preach from their pulpits that Hell is only a metaphor, only a imaginary thing or if it does exits it is merely annihilation, you burn up and then no longer exist.

These deniers of God’s wrath ask, “Why must we believe in a place as terrible as Hell? Wouldn’t be better to just preach the love of the Gospel?

If you ever wonder why there is such rampant sin in today’s most popular churches, one of the reasons is sin is not condemned and Hell is not mentioned. These are forbidden subjects in the vast majority of today’s so-called churches.

But Hell Is Real, and yet Jesus warned of hell often. If I won’t believe in it then can I believe in Him?

Matthew 13:41-42 41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

There are many other times Jesus warns of the fire and torment of Hell, but I only really need one, because this is Jesus and if the Son of God said it then I must believe it, because He is the one I am believing for the salvation of my soul.

God in his holiness must deal with sin. Hell one eternal way God does so, but there is another, just as eternal but with God’s forgiveness and not His wrath upon me.

It is true for us and it was in this case true for the rebels of Numbers 21. Go to vs 7.

Repentance - Numbers 21:7

Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

 The Israelites Repent

They realize they have sinned against God. It did not matter what they thought was sin. It did not matter what they thought was insignificant or inconsequential. God was the only judge of sin and they now cried out, “We have sinned for we have spoken against the Lord.”

They asked Moses to intercede for them and Moses prays for a different outcome for these sinners.

Our Repentance.

The only way to avoid God’s punishment of sin is seek His forgiveness and that begins with repentance. I must know I have sinned against the Lord. Confess that I am a sinner and then be willing to turn from that sin and turn to God. I must turn from my sin and myself and turn toward my Lord and my Savior.

John the forerunner of Christ preached, Matthew 3:1-2 John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, 2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Later we read in, Matthew 4:17 Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

There are some who say they Gospel were for the Israelites, they needed to repent but Paul is for the Gentiles and there is no need for us to repent, just to believe. But listen to Pual in Romans 2:1-4 Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. 2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. 3 And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? 4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

I have a granddaughter was born with serious allergies. Something as simple as a peanut could have killed her. So everywhere she went she carried an epinephrine pen. Using it would save her life. But if she didn’t open the little pouch she always wore and reached inside for the pen, the medicine inside the pen couldn’t do its life-saving work. Repentance is like reaching for the epinephrine pen because you know you will die if you don’t reach for it. Repentance is reaching out to God because you know sin will eternally kill you if grace is not given.

Repentance is the first step toward God and away from sin and unless you take that step there can be no salvation. The Israelites reached out, called out and God then did the saving.

Restoration - Numbers 21:8-9

8 And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Deliverance for Israel

This was nothing like the other ways God had delivered Israel. And there is a reason for that. God has two purpose in mind. One to save those who repent but also to save those who will repent for centuries after.

God tells Mose to construct a serpent of bronze and raise it on a pole in the middle of the camp. Those who are bitten must look upon the uplifted serpent and they would live.

God still loved them and in spite of their rebellion, and He provided a way of salvation.

The bronze serpent raised up by Moses was a picture of their sin and its punishment. When they looked up see it, that was an act of their faith. They were acknowledging their sin and trusting in God to deliver them its consequence of torment and death.

Deliverance for Us

This is one of the strongest, clearest foreshadowing of Jesus Christ and our salvation through Him, given in the Old Testament. It is so clear that when Nicodemos came to Jesua and asked Him who He was and how to be saved Jesus took him back to Numbers 21.

He told Nicodemus, John 3:14-15 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Jesus reveals why God didn’t just immediately stop the fiery serpents, but instead had Moses make and then raise a brazen serpent in the middle of the camp where all could seen it.

That bronze serpent was a picture of their sin and punishment. It was a shadow of the true salvation that would take place when Jesus would take our sin and punishment upon Himself.

Isaiah saw it in Isaiah 53:4-5 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:
yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him;
and with his stripes we are healed.

Jesus took on our sin, suffered in our place, died in our stead and God accepted His sacrifice as ransom for our sin. His death paid the price for my rebellion against God. The only one who never sinned had to pay for me the one who never can stop sinning.

Jesus said, in John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. Every time the good news of the Gospel is preached, Jesus is lifted up and all the world, no matter where they are can see Him paying the price and then defeating death rising from the grave. Proving He is the resurrection and the life.

The Hebrews had to looked and live. Today whoever we are we must also look and live.  upon the crucified Christ. They must see their sin and punishment being borne upon the body of Jesus nailed to the cross.

Look and Lived

The old hymn said it this way
I’ve a message from the Lord, Hallelujah!
The message unto you I’ll give.
’Tis recorded in His Word, Hallelujah!
It is only that you “look and live.”

“Look and live,” my brother, live.
Look to Jesus now and live.

Conclusion:

This is story is the shadow but it is not the substance. The Bronze Serpent is not the Savior. In the same way, you hearing about the story will not do anything except inform you unless you do what Moses told the Hebrews to do and what the Jesus tells us to do. Look and Live!  

Have you? Will you? I can’t imagine anyone in that camp being bitten by those deadly serpents not immediately looking for that raised standard of salvation. Nor can I imagine anyone knowing that sin is deadly, and that hell is real, not look to Jesus and live eternally in the grace He offers us.