“Snake on a Pole”
Life in the Wilderness
May 27, 2007
Numbers 21:1-9
We’re only going to make it 9 verses this morning, but we’re going read one of the most famous yet obscure little stories in the Old Testament. It’s the one that Kathy Moore has provided us with a portrait of in our foyer: The Snake on a Pole.
Not to be confused with the recent movie. “Snakes on a Plane.” This is the true biblical story of the “Snake on a Pole.”
Last week, we encountered the End of an Era. The generation that rebelled in the wilderness had, in large part, died. 40 years have passed with an average of 42 men dying per day. And the era ended with the major leaders also dying.
Miriam died. Moses disobeyed and would eventually die in the wilderness, and Aaron died, the first high priest.
So chapter 21 starts the beginning of a new era.
And it starts off a little better than the last one. Verse 1.
“When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked the Israelites and captured some of them. [Doesn’t sound good. How will Israel respond? Will they cut and run like they did 40 years ago? Not this time. V.2] Then Israel made this vow to the LORD: ‘If you will deliver these people into our hands, we will totally destroy their cities.’ The LORD listened to Israel's plea and gave the Canaanites over to them. They completely destroyed them and their towns; so the place was named Hormah.” [Destruction.]
Believe it or not, this is the first victory in the whole book of Numbers!
We’re two thirds of the way through Numbers and there haven’t been any victories.
The last time they encountered Canaanites, they got their tails whupped (chapter 14, verses 41-45).
But now, for first time, Israel took courage in the Lord, and He gave them victory.
And they liked their taste of victory.
Unfortunately, they liked it so much that it went to their heads. V.4
“They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way...”
Why did they have to go around Edom? Remember what happened last week in chapter 20?
Edom has refused for them to go through their land. And because Moses didn’t want a fight with their cousins, he is taking them around Edom.
But the people of Israel have tasted victory and they don’t want to way. V.4
“But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!’”
Maybe things haven’t changed so much after all!
These Israelites sound just like their parents.
Impatient. Unwilling to wait.
Speaking against God.
Speaking against their leaders.
“Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert?”
What are they saying? They are sticking their fingers in under God’s nose and accusing Him of doing them wrong!
And the complaints begin:
“There is no bread!”
“There is no water!”
“And we detest this miserable food!”
Room Service!
Verse 6.
“Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.”
God’s judgment. Why?
Point #1 of only 2 this morning:
#1. DON’T DESPISE GRACE.
Can you see what the people were doing?
They were taking God’s grace for granted. That is, they were acting as if they deserved God’s grace and that it didn’t meet up with their standards!
They were despising God’s grace.
It made them impatient.
It made them rebellious.
It made them discontent.
It made them complain.
They were despising God’s grace.
Can you believe that they were despising manna?
What was manna?
It was bread from heaven.
It was daily bread.
It was food that they didn’t work for.
It was food that they didn’t deserve.
It was a daily [miraculous!] provision for their physical needs.
And in John chapter 6, Jesus said that the manna pointed to Him. He is the Bread of Life.
So, in detesting (v.5) manna, they were, in effect, detesting Jesus.
They were despising God’s grace.
...And this is very easy to do.
Before we go looking down on the Israelites, we need to look at our own hearts.
How many times have we taken God’s grace for granted?
How many times have we complained about what we do not even deserve?
How many times have we become impatient with the route that God is taking us on?
Let’s think about that a little.
Kids. And that’s really all of us here. We’re all somebody’s child.
Have their been times, maybe recently, when you despised God’s grace to you in giving you your parents?
Your Mom & Dad are God’s grace to you. They are manna.
Have you honored them as you should or have you complained about them? Gotten impatient with them? Rebelled against them? Detested them?
Don’t Despise Grace.
Or here’s an easier one. Food itself.
We don’t get manna, but most of us have missed very few meals in our lives.
Are we thankful?
Or are we impatient, discontent, complaining?
In our house, 12 times a day (3 meals times 4 children), we get the question, “What are we having?”
And sometimes, I don’t want to answer that question, not because we aren’t getting something good and nutritious and life-giving. Heather is the best cook on Planet Earth!
But because our hearts are tempted to despise grace.
To not want the good thing we have because we have set our hearts on something else.
How about our jobs?
Does God owe us jobs? Does God owe me a job that is fun and exciting and never a dull moment and never requires that I do something I don’t want to do?
Does God owe me a job where I love all of the people I work with and they never rub me the wrong way? No.
But that’s how we act isn’t it?
Do we get up in the morning and say, “Thank you, Lord, that I get to go to work today!”
Or do we detest grace?
I’m not saying that it’s bad to wish your parents acted differently than they do sometimes or that it’s bad to want some kind of food other than what’s on the plate, or to want work to be better or even to seek another job. That’s fine.
But are we thankful? Are we patient? Are we submissive? Are we content?
Or are we despising grace?
“We detest this miserable food!”
We could do it with our spouse.
Or our marital status, if we are single.
Or our country!
Or our financial situation.
Or our neighbors.
Or our school system.
Or our lot in life.
God’s been good to us.
Don’t Despise Grace.
See what happened? V.6 again.
“Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.”
Why snakes?
The first thing we think about is Satan. The Big Snake Himself.
And something else we should be reminded of is Egypt.
Remember what Pharoah wore on his head? A big old Snake.
These Israelites were acting like they wanted to go back to Egypt. And live in the land of death.
So, God said, “Okay, I need to remind you what Egypt is really like. Pain, suffering, and death. This is what it means to live under the power of Egypt.
A plague of venomous snakes. The King James has fiery, probably because of the flaming power of the poison in the snakes.
People dying left and right.
And the people repented! Maybe they are different than the last generation! V.7
“The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people.”
They owned their sin.
They agreed that they had been impatient, rebellious, discontent, and complaining.
And they asked for forgiveness and safety.
“‘Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people.”
And did God take away the snakes? No.
But He did provide a way of healing. And it was a shocker! V.8
“The LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.”
How strange!
God wants Moses to make a snake. Perhaps to remind them of why they need this healing. And he is to put the snake up on a pole. Raising it up above everyone’s heads.
We don’t know how big the pole was. But it probably was up very high to be seen by everyone in the camp.
And then if anyone trusted God’s word (this is not magic, this is trusting God’s word) and looked up at the bronze snake (or copper snake–same Hebrew word, I think it was reddish that shouldn’t surprise us either. If anyone trusted God’s word and looked up at the reddish snake), they would live.
V.8 “Look at it and live.” Look and Live.
Point #2 of 2.
#2. LOOK TO JESUS AND LIVE.
Don’t Despise Grace.
And Look to Jesus and Live.
Why do I say Jesus?
Because Jesus said that this snake was like Him.
In the Gospel of John chapter 3.
This is the only way in which it’s okay to call Jesus a snake! But that’s exactly what He did in the Gospel fo John chapter 3.
You might want to turn there.
It’s the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus who came at nighttime. I call it Nick and Nite.
They talked about being born again.
And Jesus said if you weren’t born again you weren’t going to see His Kingdom.
And Nick didn’t know what to do with that teaching. And that frustrated Jesus that the Teachers of Israel didn’t know these basic truths.
But He knew these truths because He had come down from heaven. John 3 verse 14. Kathy has it in a banner across the bottom of the painting in our foyer:
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. [And the most famous verse in the Bible...] For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Look to Jesus and Live.
“Shall not perish.” No eternal snake bites. “But have eternal life.”
Look to Jesus and Live.
That’s what it means in verse 14 that “everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
The “looking” in the story of the Snake on a Pole was “believing.” It was taking God at His word. If I look, I will live.
Do you know that there were probably some, maybe many, who refused to look at the snake on a pole?
They probably thought that they could survive on their own.
Or they had their own method of getting well.
“I don’t need that snake on a pole stuff!” I’m not looking!
And they weren’t trusting.
...And they died.
But Numbers 21:9 says, “When anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.”
Looking was believing.
And it wasn’t looking at just anything. It was looking at the provision that God had made.
It had to be the Snake on a Pole. Why?
Because that’s what God said.
And Jesus says that He is not a snake, but He is like this snake.
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
What does that mean, “lifted up?”
John 12:32. Jesus said, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.”
The Snake on a Pole.
The Savior on a Cross.
And I think there’s a double meaning here to “lifted up.” It’s not just that He was crucified, but that His crucifixion was the means of His exaltation. High and lifted up!
“...that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
Jesus Christ took on our snakeyness for us. Every snakey thing we ever did was laid upon His shoulders as He was lifted up on that Cross.
And He died for our snakeyness.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Look to Jesus and Live.
And that eternal life, starts now.
Eternal life is not just a quantity of life that goes on forever.
It’s a quality of life that begins right now as we look to Jesus by faith and changes our lives right now and then goes on forever.
Jesus said that He came to give life to the fullest.
And when we look in faith upon Jesus, we experience that life to the fullest.
Even today, the symbol of a Snake on a Pole is the symbol of healing.
It’s on every ambulance you’ve ever seen.
But the point was not the snake!
Years later, King Hezekiah had to smash that snake and do away with it because the people of Israel were worshiping it! (2 Kings 18:4)
But all along, it was what that snake pointed to that was important.
Faith in Jesus.
Look to Jesus and Live.
Have you looked to Jesus for eternal life?
There is no other way to be saved!
Are you looking to Jesus now for abundant life?
There is no other way. Nothing else will satisfy. Nothing else will make you happy.
Trusting in anything else will lead the way of despising grace.
Look to Jesus and Live.
Life in the Wilderness
May 27, 2007
Numbers 21:1-9
We’re only going to make it 9 verses this morning, but we’re going read one of the most famous yet obscure little stories in the Old Testament. It’s the one that Kathy Moore has provided us with a portrait of in our foyer: The Snake on a Pole.
Not to be confused with the recent movie. “Snakes on a Plane.” This is the true biblical story of the “Snake on a Pole.”
Last week, we encountered the End of an Era. The generation that rebelled in the wilderness had, in large part, died. 40 years have passed with an average of 42 men dying per day. And the era ended with the major leaders also dying.
Miriam died. Moses disobeyed and would eventually die in the wilderness, and Aaron died, the first high priest.
So chapter 21 starts the beginning of a new era.
And it starts off a little better than the last one. Verse 1.
“When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked the Israelites and captured some of them. [Doesn’t sound good. How will Israel respond? Will they cut and run like they did 40 years ago? Not this time. V.2] Then Israel made this vow to the LORD: ‘If you will deliver these people into our hands, we will totally destroy their cities.’ The LORD listened to Israel's plea and gave the Canaanites over to them. They completely destroyed them and their towns; so the place was named Hormah.” [Destruction.]
Believe it or not, this is the first victory in the whole book of Numbers!
We’re two thirds of the way through Numbers and there haven’t been any victories.
The last time they encountered Canaanites, they got their tails whupped (chapter 14, verses 41-45).
But now, for first time, Israel took courage in the Lord, and He gave them victory.
And they liked their taste of victory.
Unfortunately, they liked it so much that it went to their heads. V.4
“They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way...”
Why did they have to go around Edom? Remember what happened last week in chapter 20?
Edom has refused for them to go through their land. And because Moses didn’t want a fight with their cousins, he is taking them around Edom.
But the people of Israel have tasted victory and they don’t want to way. V.4
“But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!’”
Maybe things haven’t changed so much after all!
These Israelites sound just like their parents.
Impatient. Unwilling to wait.
Speaking against God.
Speaking against their leaders.
“Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert?”
What are they saying? They are sticking their fingers in under God’s nose and accusing Him of doing them wrong!
And the complaints begin:
“There is no bread!”
“There is no water!”
“And we detest this miserable food!”
Room Service!
Verse 6.
“Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.”
God’s judgment. Why?
Point #1 of only 2 this morning:
#1. DON’T DESPISE GRACE.
Can you see what the people were doing?
They were taking God’s grace for granted. That is, they were acting as if they deserved God’s grace and that it didn’t meet up with their standards!
They were despising God’s grace.
It made them impatient.
It made them rebellious.
It made them discontent.
It made them complain.
They were despising God’s grace.
Can you believe that they were despising manna?
What was manna?
It was bread from heaven.
It was daily bread.
It was food that they didn’t work for.
It was food that they didn’t deserve.
It was a daily [miraculous!] provision for their physical needs.
And in John chapter 6, Jesus said that the manna pointed to Him. He is the Bread of Life.
So, in detesting (v.5) manna, they were, in effect, detesting Jesus.
They were despising God’s grace.
...And this is very easy to do.
Before we go looking down on the Israelites, we need to look at our own hearts.
How many times have we taken God’s grace for granted?
How many times have we complained about what we do not even deserve?
How many times have we become impatient with the route that God is taking us on?
Let’s think about that a little.
Kids. And that’s really all of us here. We’re all somebody’s child.
Have their been times, maybe recently, when you despised God’s grace to you in giving you your parents?
Your Mom & Dad are God’s grace to you. They are manna.
Have you honored them as you should or have you complained about them? Gotten impatient with them? Rebelled against them? Detested them?
Don’t Despise Grace.
Or here’s an easier one. Food itself.
We don’t get manna, but most of us have missed very few meals in our lives.
Are we thankful?
Or are we impatient, discontent, complaining?
In our house, 12 times a day (3 meals times 4 children), we get the question, “What are we having?”
And sometimes, I don’t want to answer that question, not because we aren’t getting something good and nutritious and life-giving. Heather is the best cook on Planet Earth!
But because our hearts are tempted to despise grace.
To not want the good thing we have because we have set our hearts on something else.
How about our jobs?
Does God owe us jobs? Does God owe me a job that is fun and exciting and never a dull moment and never requires that I do something I don’t want to do?
Does God owe me a job where I love all of the people I work with and they never rub me the wrong way? No.
But that’s how we act isn’t it?
Do we get up in the morning and say, “Thank you, Lord, that I get to go to work today!”
Or do we detest grace?
I’m not saying that it’s bad to wish your parents acted differently than they do sometimes or that it’s bad to want some kind of food other than what’s on the plate, or to want work to be better or even to seek another job. That’s fine.
But are we thankful? Are we patient? Are we submissive? Are we content?
Or are we despising grace?
“We detest this miserable food!”
We could do it with our spouse.
Or our marital status, if we are single.
Or our country!
Or our financial situation.
Or our neighbors.
Or our school system.
Or our lot in life.
God’s been good to us.
Don’t Despise Grace.
See what happened? V.6 again.
“Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.”
Why snakes?
The first thing we think about is Satan. The Big Snake Himself.
And something else we should be reminded of is Egypt.
Remember what Pharoah wore on his head? A big old Snake.
These Israelites were acting like they wanted to go back to Egypt. And live in the land of death.
So, God said, “Okay, I need to remind you what Egypt is really like. Pain, suffering, and death. This is what it means to live under the power of Egypt.
A plague of venomous snakes. The King James has fiery, probably because of the flaming power of the poison in the snakes.
People dying left and right.
And the people repented! Maybe they are different than the last generation! V.7
“The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people.”
They owned their sin.
They agreed that they had been impatient, rebellious, discontent, and complaining.
And they asked for forgiveness and safety.
“‘Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people.”
And did God take away the snakes? No.
But He did provide a way of healing. And it was a shocker! V.8
“The LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.”
How strange!
God wants Moses to make a snake. Perhaps to remind them of why they need this healing. And he is to put the snake up on a pole. Raising it up above everyone’s heads.
We don’t know how big the pole was. But it probably was up very high to be seen by everyone in the camp.
And then if anyone trusted God’s word (this is not magic, this is trusting God’s word) and looked up at the bronze snake (or copper snake–same Hebrew word, I think it was reddish that shouldn’t surprise us either. If anyone trusted God’s word and looked up at the reddish snake), they would live.
V.8 “Look at it and live.” Look and Live.
Point #2 of 2.
#2. LOOK TO JESUS AND LIVE.
Don’t Despise Grace.
And Look to Jesus and Live.
Why do I say Jesus?
Because Jesus said that this snake was like Him.
In the Gospel of John chapter 3.
This is the only way in which it’s okay to call Jesus a snake! But that’s exactly what He did in the Gospel fo John chapter 3.
You might want to turn there.
It’s the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus who came at nighttime. I call it Nick and Nite.
They talked about being born again.
And Jesus said if you weren’t born again you weren’t going to see His Kingdom.
And Nick didn’t know what to do with that teaching. And that frustrated Jesus that the Teachers of Israel didn’t know these basic truths.
But He knew these truths because He had come down from heaven. John 3 verse 14. Kathy has it in a banner across the bottom of the painting in our foyer:
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. [And the most famous verse in the Bible...] For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Look to Jesus and Live.
“Shall not perish.” No eternal snake bites. “But have eternal life.”
Look to Jesus and Live.
That’s what it means in verse 14 that “everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
The “looking” in the story of the Snake on a Pole was “believing.” It was taking God at His word. If I look, I will live.
Do you know that there were probably some, maybe many, who refused to look at the snake on a pole?
They probably thought that they could survive on their own.
Or they had their own method of getting well.
“I don’t need that snake on a pole stuff!” I’m not looking!
And they weren’t trusting.
...And they died.
But Numbers 21:9 says, “When anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.”
Looking was believing.
And it wasn’t looking at just anything. It was looking at the provision that God had made.
It had to be the Snake on a Pole. Why?
Because that’s what God said.
And Jesus says that He is not a snake, but He is like this snake.
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
What does that mean, “lifted up?”
John 12:32. Jesus said, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.”
The Snake on a Pole.
The Savior on a Cross.
And I think there’s a double meaning here to “lifted up.” It’s not just that He was crucified, but that His crucifixion was the means of His exaltation. High and lifted up!
“...that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
Jesus Christ took on our snakeyness for us. Every snakey thing we ever did was laid upon His shoulders as He was lifted up on that Cross.
And He died for our snakeyness.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Look to Jesus and Live.
And that eternal life, starts now.
Eternal life is not just a quantity of life that goes on forever.
It’s a quality of life that begins right now as we look to Jesus by faith and changes our lives right now and then goes on forever.
Jesus said that He came to give life to the fullest.
And when we look in faith upon Jesus, we experience that life to the fullest.
Even today, the symbol of a Snake on a Pole is the symbol of healing.
It’s on every ambulance you’ve ever seen.
But the point was not the snake!
Years later, King Hezekiah had to smash that snake and do away with it because the people of Israel were worshiping it! (2 Kings 18:4)
But all along, it was what that snake pointed to that was important.
Faith in Jesus.
Look to Jesus and Live.
Have you looked to Jesus for eternal life?
There is no other way to be saved!
Are you looking to Jesus now for abundant life?
There is no other way. Nothing else will satisfy. Nothing else will make you happy.
Trusting in anything else will lead the way of despising grace.
Look to Jesus and Live.
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