Faith: Looking Up with Trust

Illustration

In elementary school they used to test how many pull-ups you could do

Well as you know… I’m big boned... I couldn’t even get the helmet sticker in rec. football

I tries. I failed

I told Ms. Morgan it was because I couldn’t hold on after jumping to get it,

If I started on a chair, I could do a couple

I was wrong.

she even grabbed my feet to lessen my load. Did not help. She made me get down.

I was convinced that she could get me up there I could do the rest.

I didn’t have the strength to do any of it.

Context:

Israel during the Exodus.

Numbers 13- the spies are unfaithful

Numbers 14:11 “And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?”

Numbers 14:20–24 “Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word. But truly, as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, none of the men who have seen my glory and my signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have put me to the test these ten times and have not obeyed my voice, shall see the land that I swore to give to their fathers. And none of those who despised me shall see it. But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.”

Numbers 20: Adam dies

I. Israel has faith… but maybe not

Canaanite King fights and takes prisoners.

The people realize that they can’t defeat the people themselves, so they call upon the Lord

This seems to be a pretty faithful act

In the face of battle, they depend on the Lord

But then they become unfaithful. why? the didn’t like the food or the walk.

Compare- They must not like the Red Sea

Exodus 14:11 “They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?”

Numbers 21:5 “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 we loathe this worthless food.””

The food they call is worthless is the manna from God

Sin has a Consequence: Death

The people sin against God, and death is their consequence

God sends “fiery serpents”

This sounds cruel, but we should not be surprised.

Death is the consequence for our sins as well. And God is still the one who condemns. He is just and cannot let sin go unpunished

God Saved his people

He commands moses to make a serpent for the people to look to and be saved

There seems to be some irony here. The people have to look to the very thing that has endangered them.

All the people had to do was look up to the serpent.

Why would they look up? because they trusted in God

God Saves His people

John 3:13–16 ESV

No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And 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. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Belief in God. That is what we are called to.

Faith is a combination of belief and trust

“Biblical faith in God and his promises is hope for the future based on God’s work in the past that transforms life in the present.”

B. Vickers. Justified by Faith, p. 61.