The Serpents and the Serpent

Intro

Numbers 21:4-9

College students and turning their semester around. Some are serious. Some are not. All of them say they are. We find out the next quiz. The next paper. Grades are the evidence of hard work or no work at all. We know this, hard working culture. Christian faith, what is the evidence of faith?

Main Idea: Repentance is evidence of faith

Numbers is the book of wanderings. The forty years in the wilderness are recorded here. Manna. Victories. Traveling. Disobedience. Death. Numbers 21 is sandwiched between God doing miraculous things.

Truth #1: Sin always leads to death (4-6)

Exp. Passage is surrounded with victories. Defeat Canaanites and then turn south in verse 4. Likely that at the end of their 40 years, they believed they were going the wrong way. Beginning to act like their parents. Verse 5. Complaining to Moses and God. Their question displays where their heart is. Egypt. Illogical question. God said younger group would live. No food. Worthless = despicable. Clear rebellion towards God’s provisions. Kept them alive for 40 years, provided victories.

App. Typical of humanity. We are good when God is doing what we want, but the moment things go in another direction, we resort to ingratitude. Which of those two places do you find yourself? Good where God is leading? Ungrateful because it isn’t what you want?

Exp. Verse 6. Fiery = venom in the veins. Many of Israel died. The thing they feared was now happening because of their unbelief. Why serpents?

Imagery of physical enemy: Egypt.

They have been brought out of Egypt but Egypt hasn’t been brought out of them.

Imagery of spiritual enemy: Satan.

The enmity between Satan and the offspring of Eve continues. Sin continues to lead to death.

Ill. Sin leading to death is inevitable. Inevitable: newborn and sleep. Touch hot surface = burn yourself. Don’t put gas in car = stranded. These will happen. That’s the assurance of sin. It will lead to death. Either immediately or much later.

Arg. Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Adam and Eve led to death. David’s sin with Bathsheba led to death.

App. Verse 7. The situation causes the Israelites to respond a certain way. Rely on our mediator. Moses was the mediator for the people. We have a mediator who stood the gap for us. The snakes for the Israelites were punishment for unbelief. Jesus took our punishment for our unbelief. How:

Look at him

Repent to him

Truth #2: Repentance always leads to life (7-9)

Exp. Verse 7 is an act of repentance. The people begin the passage complaining, and now they are begging for mercy. You might think their repentance is forced. I would say this: God has every right to lead you to repentance. This is the posture God wants us in. Away from sin and towards him.

App. God doesn’t always wait for you to come around. Sometimes God steps in and brings us to that place. God had to bring Israel to this place. We are no different.

Marriages - bring things to the surface you’ve been hiding.

Work - makes things more difficult so you have to rely on him.

Sin - it may not be blatant like the Israelites, but it is just as much an affront to God.

Ill. He has the right to lead you to repentance. Just as a parent has to help a young child see the error of his ways. Children don’t fully grasp the weight of their actions. Parents must lead them to understand. God does this for us.

Exp. God would provide a way out. Verse 8. We have to ask why a snake? John 3:14-15, “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.” Symbol of death. Two images:

Death of Israel’s mortal enemy: Egypt

Death of man’s spiritual enemy: Satan

Christ - Bronze Serpent brought physical healing, Jesus brought physical and spiritual healing. Bronze Serpent prolonged life, Jesus gives everlasting life. BS defeated the bite of snakes, Jesus crushed the head of the serpent. This story points to Jesus even how it ends in verse 9. It would take immense faith to merely look at the pole and believe you would live. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

App. What do we do?

Repent. Not just confessing. Not just acknowledging. It’s a specific turning away from sin and turning to Jesus.

Repent from unconfessed sin that has been eating away at you

Repent from blatant sin that you have been unwilling to give up

Repent from self-righteousness that keeps you from God and others

Repent and give your whole self to Jesus

Years of repentance are necessary in order to blot out a sin in the eyes of men, but one tear of repentance suffices with God.

Anonymous