The Messiah in Our Failure

Intro

We’ve talked about patience before and how sometimes, it’s really not easy to have. When we know something is coming, a promise has been made…but we’re left in this place of just…waiting. But then the moments comes. We see the fulfillment of the promise in the distance. It’s approaching, and its arrival seems eminent.

Perhaps it’s been the birth of a child, a new job or a promotion, the completion of a degree, or any number of things. As it approaches, the anticipation grows exponentially with each step forward.

This is the moment the nation of Israel finds themselves as we open to the book of Numbers. Kind of a weird name for a book, but as you read through the first chapter, it begins to make sense. It starts out with a census, a counting of the people (well, all the men 20 years and up fit for war), followed by an organization of the people. Why this count? Well, they’re about to enter the Promised Land. This land that had been promised to their forefather Abraham, this promise they have waited generations to receive, they are now coming to its border. And God is going to lead them in taking this land.

He’s going to lead them every step of the way, in fact. The people are never going to have to guess which way to go, when to go, how far to go. And God makes this clear.

But this doesn’t turn out to be as quick of a journey as they would have liked. This journey of entering the Promised Land, receiving the promise of God, ends up taking 40 long years. The people of God are going to learn a very important lesson…that even as those called be His people, there are consequences to rebellion. There is judgement for sin. But in the midst of that judgement, an emblem of salvation and redemption is given.

Let’s pray before we jump in this morning.

PRAY

Failure to Enter the Promised Land

As the people of Israel pass through the wilderness in preparation of receving the land promised to them, God guides them every step of the way. As they set up the Tabernacle, the “tent of meeting” that God gave all the instructions for on Mt Sinai, listen to what happens:

Numbers 9:15–17 ESV

On the day that the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the testimony. And at evening it was over the tabernacle like the appearance of fire until morning. So it was always: the cloud covered it by day and the appearance of fire by night. And whenever the cloud lifted from over the tent, after that the people of Israel set out, and in the place where the cloud settled down, there the people of Israel camped.

So again, this reminder, as we saw a couple of weeks ago, God led His people, Jesus led His people, cloud by day and fire by night.

Numbers 9:23 ESV

At the command of the Lord they camped, and at the command of the Lord they set out. They kept the charge of the Lord, at the command of the Lord by Moses.

Now, it wasn’t all sunshine and daisies…there was come complaining, still…even in the mdst of all of this. There was rebellion by those who thought they could do a better job of leading the people (even Miriam and Aaron, the siblings of Moses).

But finally, the Lord leads the people to edge of the Promised Land. All they have to do is continue following the Lord, trusting Him for His continued Presence, Faithfulness, and Provision—just as He has proven it again, and again.

Instead…they get scared. We’re not going to jump into this too much this morning. This is actually the passage I preached on, Numbers 13-14, my first Sunday here. It’s the tragic account of Israel’s lack of faith. They send 12 spies into Canaan to scout out the land.

Ten spies get freaked out. They see the inhabitants of the land, and return with this account:

Numbers 13:27–29 ESV

And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.”

Two spies, Joshua & Caleb, return with a much different account:

Numbers 13:30 ESV

But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.”

The people of Israel decide to trust the 10…missing out on receiving the Promise of God…and it’s this decision that leads to the 40 year joureny through the Wilderness.

Numbers 14:21–23 ESV

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.

And so, the book of Numbers continues. Now, God never leaves His people through this time. He continues to guide them, to lead them—cloud by day, and fire by night. But this wondering is a Wilderness Season. A season in which the people of God are sanctified. There’s more rebellion, there’s more lessons to be learned. There’s grumbling and complaining even though this Wilderness journey is the result of their own actions, their own choices.

And this is where we are going to spend the majority of our time today, as we ask:

In the midst of their rebellion, in the midst of their failure, their continued sin and rebellion…where is the Messiah? Where is Jesus? When they refuse to enter the Promised Land, when they refuse to take hold of the promsie of God, where is the Messiah?

I invite you to turn with me to Numbers 21.

Fiery Serpents

38 years have passed. Imagine that. 38 years of circling the wilderness. And now, they are headed in the right direction. One problem…they come to the land of Edom and send a message to the King requesting safe passage through his land. And, he refuses. In fact, he brings his army to the border, threatening that if the Israelites attempt to pass through, he will destroy them.

They’re forced to turn around. Go the long way ‘round in order to make it to the Promised Land. 38 years wondering through the wilderness, and the last two years are just as difficult as the first 38.

The people get frustrated. And that’s where we pick it up this morning.

Look with me, we’re going to read beginning in verse 4 of chatper 21.

READ Numbers 21:4-9

Pinacle of Complaint

“…we loathe this worthless food.”

The people become so frustrated, so angry, they begin seeing the miraculous provision of God as worthless (wretched, contemptible, despicable, miserable) and they come to loathe it (feel disgust, repugnance for).

The blessing of God becomes disgusting and repugnant in their eyes.

What a terrible place to be. And as we think back on the journey this people has been on, from Egypt up until this moment. The neverending, mind-blowing faithfulness of God…His continued streadfastness and grace…His miraculous provision and protection (another grace given- the entire 40 years they’re in the wilderness…their shoes don’t wear out!) As we reflect on these, I hope it is not shocking to us the judgement that comes.

This isn’t a random group of people getting a little frustrated. This is the people who were miraculously rescued from slavery in Egypt, who walked across the Red Sea on dry ground, who received bread from heaven each and every day, the people who were led every step of the way by very Presence of God—a cloud by day and fire by night.

Yet they lose sight of all of that, and in their frustration and anger begin loathing the blessing of God, seeing it as worthless.

Judgement

And so… a very just and very deserved judgement comes upon them.

Fiery serpents. Their rejection of God leads to a just punishment for their sin in the form of these fiery serpents.

Numbers 21:6 ESV

…many people of Israel died.

There is hardly a doubt in my mind that I would have given up on this people at this point. I would have walked away and let the serpents kill them all. Thankfully, God’s love and grace are far greater than mine.

Redemption

The people plead with Moses to pray on their behalf to the LORD. And the Lord hears their pleas and makes a way for their salvation.

Now, this is really interesting. More than interesting, it’s profound. Because as we, in a moment, unpack the question: “Where is the Messiah in the midst of all of this?”, this is going to make a lot more sense.

The Lord tells Moses to make a fire serpent, he makes it out of bronze, afix it to a pole, and then lift it up amongst the people. Whoever looks to the bronze serpent that was lifted up, he would live. The image of the curse is lifted up. Not a goat or a ram or a bull…those things the Israelites were used to sacrificing to God for the forgiveness of sin. No…an image of the curse, an image of the judgement. That’s what they are to look towards. And if they do…when they do…their life is spared.

So…Where is the Messiah? In the midst of the wilderness wonderings, in the midst of the complaining and rebellion—as it reaches its pinacle…where do we see Jesus?

I’m glad you asked.

A Lesson on Shadows

Before we jump in, another question: Why does my shadow look like me? When a light is shone on me, why does the shadow (from the proper perspective) look like me? If a cat is placed before a light, why does the shadow on the wall look like a cat?

Is it coincidence?

This is a silly question. Of course, the shadow looks the way it does due to the object that is casting that shadow. When the light shines from the proper perspective, the shadow looks like the object casting the shadow because that’s the definition of a shadow. It’s simply how light works. We would never say “a cat’s shadow looks like a cat, because the person viewing the shadow has in their mind what the shadow should look like, and so tricks their brain into thinking the shadow looks like a cat, when in reality it looks like a fish”.

Why are we talking about shadows?

Because last week we talked about shadow, and this week, we continue. Last week, we saw that the Sacrificial system, peaking at the day of Atonement, was a shadow of things to come. And this week, as we see this image of a serpent lifted up as a way of redemption and salvation for the people of God, we see a shadow of things to come.

And this shadow doesn’t look like what’s to come because we somehow want it to and so we force ourselves in to believing it. This shadow doesn’t look like the things to come because I want a really good sermon illustration, or because church leaders 2,000 years ago tried to force the Old Testament to come into alignment with the message of Christ.

This shadow looks like the things to come…because of the definiton of what a shadow is. As we look at the Old Testament and see shadows of the things to come, shadows of the Messiah Who is to come, they are not there by chance, or imagination, or deceipt, but because the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, who holds all things in His hands, who is working all things together for our good and His glory put them there.

He so shone His light upon the history of the world in order to give us these shadows as a confident assurance that His plans and His purposes from before time began have come and will come to pass.

So, turn with me, to John 3.

Just As…

In this passage, Jesus is going to point back to this moment in Numbers 21, but it’s in the context of a conversation He’s having with a man named Nicodemus. So we’re going to unpack this conversation together.

READ John 3:1-16

So Nicodemus is a Jewish religious leader, a Pharisee. This is the group that, as a whole, hates Jesus and what He is teaching because it comes against the religious system they have built that gives them power, control and wealth. But Nicodemus is beginning to see—no normal person can perform the signs Jesus is performing—God has to be with Him. So, he comes to Jesus at night, and tells Him just this…

But Jesus has no time for flattery—instead, he cuts right to the heart of the issue—He cares too much about Nicodemus (and us) to let us stay in that place of thinking that our words of flattery have any power to draw us near to Him.

John 3:3 ESV

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

He goes on to expound upon this reality of the necessity of being “born again” or “born from above” in order to see the Kingdom of God, to know the things of God. This new birth, or birth from above, is of water & spirit. And immediately, any good Jew (which Nicodemus certainly was), would have understood this language.

Ezekiel 36:25–27 ESV

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

This is the message throughout the Prophets of the Old Testament—the coming era of renewal ushered in by the Messiah.

But Nicodemus still doesn’t get it. Jesus is unpacking here this earthly reality, and it’s earthly because it’s dealing with the only way to see beyond the here and now, into heavenly things. Nicodemus made this claim that he understood that Jesus had to be from God, that God had to be with him…but Jesus is saying: You can’t understand this, unless you are born from above…unless the Spirit of God has His way in your life.

And there’s a very particular way this has to happen. The only way for Nicodemus, for any of us, to be born from above, born again, to be able to see beyond the here and now, beyond this earth, into heavenly things, into the things of the Kingdom of God…

John 3:14 ESV

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

Okay, why this connection? Why point to this moment? Out of all the accounts from the Old Testament to point to (there’s so many, as we’ve already seen in this series, where we see Jesus showing up in the Old Testament), why does Jesus point to this one?

Galatians 3:13 ESV

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

The Israelites looked to the curse…a symbol of the cure…the bronze serpent, in order to find life.

Christ became a curse for us.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

It is the curse of sin that leads to death. “The wages of sin is death…”

Just as the Israelites received the just and deserved curse of those fiery serpents for their rebellion against God, so there is a deserved curse we bear as fallen and rebellious humanity. This poison courses through us, and we are completely helpless, and in desperate need of a cure.

And just as Moses raised that bronze serpent in the wilderness…the Son of Man was lifted up…becoming the curse on our behalf, bearing the full weight of it upon Himself, so that we can can have life.

Look to the Cross

But there’s something we must do.

Look.

Back in Numbers 21, it was those who looked up to the bronze snake whose lives were spared. I think implying that there were those who refused.

Just as there are those today who refuse to look up, refuse to look to the cross.

One of the first Bible verses probably many of us ever memorized comes next in John 3…

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

This isn’t just believing He existed, this isn’t just ascenting to a set of beliefs…

It’s looking to Him…only Him…as the One who bore our curse, who took our punishment upon Himself.

Conclusion

So, there are two groups of people here this morning, and I want to talk to each group separately.

1. Those who have never looked to the Son of Man

Those who are still under the curse. Who still have that poison coursing through your veins, leading to an eternal death, the just punishment for your sin.

And there are perhaps many reasons you’ve never looked to the cross…

-Perhaps you’re in denial. Perhaps you simply don’t want to admit you need a cure, you need a saviour.

-Or, maybe your self-reliance has you convinced that you can somehow saved yourself.

-Or, you’re looking to other cures. Snake oils (pun intended). Perhaps religion, or good works, or blind faith or hope…

Whatever it is, whatever you’re leaving on, trusting in…it doesn’t work! There is one name by which we can be saved, and that’s Jesus Christ. He is the One, the ONLY ONE who can save you.

Will you look to Him? Will you look to the cross?

2. Those who have looked to Him.

Are you continuing to look to Him? Or have you become distracted?

Colossians 2:6 ESV

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,

We never graduate from Christ. We never graduate from the cure that was once and for all given to us in Him. Don’t slip into self-reliance, don’t slip into legalism, or condemnation.

Look to the Cross. Look to the One who became sin, who became the curse, so that He might save you. And don’t stop looking to Him.

Are we crying out to those around us, still dead in their sin, under the curse of the fiery serpents…LOOK TO THE CROSS!