Look and Live (Numbers 21:4-9, John 3:14-15)

Their Sin (vs.5)

Notice how their sin is one that everyone has committed. (Complaining) (Not murder, adultery, fornication, BUT COMPLAINING)

Sin is in everyone of us!

Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”

Notice how they were not satisfied with what God had given them.

Their Sentence (vs.6)

Because of their complaining (sin), God sent fiery serpents to bite them and die. (Everyone got bit)

The first time we see a serpent in the Bible is in Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” .

The devil is still doing today what he did in the garden of Eden. (He’s deceiving, demoting the Word of God, and destroying lives)

The devil and sin go hand in hand, just as God and holiness go hand in hand.

Their Sensing (vs.7)

They realized that their sin brought a sentencing. When this happened, they came running to the man of God and seeking his assistance in praying for them that the sentencing would be taken away.

Thank God for Holy Ghost conviction that tells every lost person that they will die lost and go to a devil’s hell if they don’t seek for help with sin.

Their Serpent (vs.8)

God made it very clear unto Moses what to do. (the LORD said)

Thank God we have a more sure word of prophecy!

God said to make an image of the very thing that was killing them and to put it a pole to where everyone could see it. If one looked at the serpent, believing God’s word, they would live.

Jesus Christ was made the very thing that was killing each and everyone of us. (2 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” )

Their Salvation (vs.9)

We don’t look to the cross to save us, we look to the Christ to save us. (If we had a literal piece of the cross and held it in our hand, it would be just a piece of wood.)

No one looked to the pole to save the children of Israel, they look to the thing that was on the pole to save them!

Even years after the children of Israel were saved looking at this serpent, they didn’t worship God. In fact, they burnt incense to this serpent.

2 Kings 18:1–4 “Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did. He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.”

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

- Our salvation is pictured in this text. Jesus Christ (our serpent) hung upon a cross (the pole) so that everyone that was bitten by the serpent (sin cursed world) could look and live (eternal life through the shed blood of Calvary).