Look and Live

TEXT: Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:14-17

TOPIC: Look and Live

Pastor Bobby Earls, Northgate Baptist Church, Florence, SC

Sunday morning, November 7, 2021

Snakes are not my favorite subject. They’re certainly not on my list of favorite pets. In fact, snakes outrank bugs, spiders and rats when it comes to God’s creatures most likely to be avoided.

Having said all that, snakes are the subject of this morning’s sermon. In the Old Testament book of Numbers there is the interesting account of God once again dealing with His sinful and resistant people.

The children of Israel had been delivered from Egyptian bondage only to find themselves wandering in the Wilderness for 40 years. Although God allowed them a taste of victory on a few occasions, most of their time in the Sinai Peninsula was spent in hardship, headaches, and heartache.

As sinful humanity often does when things don’t go their way, the people began to complain, to grumble and point fingers, first at Moses, God’s man, but ultimately at God Himself.

The historical occasion describes the time when the children of Israel were denied access through the land of Edom, their genealogical brothers while on their way to the Promised Land. (Remember Jacob and Easu??) That’s where we can pick up our Scripture text this morning. Numbers 21:4-9,

4 Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. 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 isno food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.” 6 So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. 7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

Numbers 21:4-9

T/S—We begin with the Problem of sin. Look at verse 5.

I. THE PROBLEM OF SIN, Numbers 21:5, 7

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 our soul loathes this worthless bread.”…… 7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

Impatience, Stubbornness, and Rebellion characterized the ancient people of Israel. In verse 4 we are told, the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. The word “discouraged”is really the word “impatient.’

Numbers 11:6, “But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at.” (ESV)

Since they can’t go through the land of Edom, they are attempting to make a circuitous route around that land. The way is hard and becomes very discouraging to the people. In their plight of discouragement, they begin to complain and whine and murmur.

Doesn’t that sound like many of us today? When life is hard we complain and murmur. [1]

They described their food supply as “miserable” (haqqĕlōqēl, the Hebrew word means “worthless, or contemptible”). They basically threw back into the face of God everything God had so graciously given to them for some forty years. [2]

That’s what the psalmist meant when he wrote, “How often they provoked Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!” (Ps. 78:40).

T/S—That’s the problem of sin. Sin grieves the heart of God and provokes His righteous anger toward His people. Notice secondly the penalty of sin.

II. THE PENALTY OF SIN, Numbers 21:6

So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.

God’s discipline came upon the people in the form of fiery serpents. Snakes with poisonous venom for which there was no antidote caused raging fevers and agonizing deaths.[3]

The “fiery serpents” (hannĕḥāšîm haśśĕrāpîm, “burning snakes”), whose poisonous venom resulted in death to the many who were bitten.[4]

The adjective “burning” may refer to the burning sensation and pain brought about by the lethal injection of venom through the serpents’ fangs.[5]

Look at verse 5, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?

The people were right to say that they would die in the wilderness. Their destiny was fixed at the Jordan when they refused to enter the Promised Land God had brought them to and to accept His word. All sin is ultimately a rejection of or a rebellion against God’s word.

Genesis 3:1-2, Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

Adam and Eve sinned in Genesis 3 by disbelieving the word of God and through their disobedience when they ate of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Notice that it was also a serpent in the Genesis account that was used to deceive man to sin against God.

Romans 5:12, Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—

Disbelief always leads to disobedience that ultimately leads to death.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, Romans 3:23 and Romans 6:23 tells us The wages of sin is death.

“We have sinned, v. 7.” They are now ready to admit that they have sinned against the Lord and against Moses.

J. Vernon McGee says it like this. “That is a problem with many people today. They want to begin with God as a church member, as a nice little girl or boy. We all must begin with God as sinners. The only way that God will begin with us is as sinners.” [6]

T/S--That leads us to the Provision for Sin in verses 8-9.

III. THE PROVISION FOR SIN, Numbers 21:8-9

8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

What is God’s provision for sin? Man has no provision of his own. “None is good, no not one.” Psalm 14:3, Romans 3:10, 12. “Not by works” Titus 3:5

So how does God provide? He does the strangest thing here. God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to behold.

God brings salvation to the people of Israel in the most unlikely of ways. God instructs Moses to make a serpent of bronze, a snake and to strap it upon a pole.

I can imagine that the bronze or copper metal out of which the serpent was made must have shown brilliantly in the bright desert sun. Perhaps from miles away people would have seen the reflection of the sun gleaming from the serpent hanging from this pole.

Please notice that it was not the serpent that brought healing and forgiveness but the faithful obedience of the people who believed God’s word and were willing to look. The verb translated “look” (rāʾâ)often carries with it the idea to see with belief or understanding, and it is to be so interpreted in this context.[7]

Look and live. They were to look in faith. It took faith to look.

The very thing that brought about their suffering and death also brought healing and life.

For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. Romans 5:15

Now what is the meaning of all of this? What is the reason for the Bronze Serpent in the wilderness? Jesus tells us it represented God’s Provision!

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

John 3:14-17

Did you realize Jesus’ words of John 3:16 are associated with the Fiery Serpent in the Old Testament book of Numbers?

And do you remember how the Son of man was lifted up?

You say, on a cross. Yes, but He was dying on the cross as a substitute for each of us. We alone are as guilty and as sinful and as rebellious as were the people in Moses’ day. But Jesus had done nothing wrong.

Our Lord was made sin for us. On that cross, He took our place. God permitted this and did this because He loves us. But God cannot save us by His love. It doesn’t say that God so loved the world that He saved the world. Not at all. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Now what God asks you to do, my friend, is to look and live. Look to Christ! He is taking your place there. You are a sinner and you face the penalty of death. But Jesus died for you.

We read here that this serpent of brass was made, and those who looked to it lived. Those who did not look to it—died. It is just that simple today. Either you are looking to Christ as your Savior because you are a sinner, or you are not. If you are not doing it, I don’t care how many times you have been baptized, how many ceremonies you have been through, how many churches you have joined, or who your father and mother happened to be, you are a lost, hell-doomed sinner. You must look to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is just as simple as that.

Romans 10:9-10, 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

And 1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

[1]McGee, J. V. (1997, c1981). Thru the Bible commentary. Based on the Thru the Bible radio program. (electronic ed.) (1:ix-506). Nashville: Thomas Nelson. [2]R. Dennis Cole, vol. 3B, Numbers, electronic ed., Logos Library System; The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001, c2000), 347. [3]Earl D. Radmacher, Ronald Barclay Allen and H. Wayne House, The Nelson Study Bible : New King James Version, Includes Index. (Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers, 1997), Nu 21:6. [4]R. Dennis Cole, vol. 3B, Numbers, electronic ed., Logos Library System; The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001, c2000), 347. [5]R. Dennis Cole, vol. 3B, Numbers, electronic ed., Logos Library System; The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001, c2000), 347. [6]McGee, J. V. (1997, c1981). Thru the Bible commentary. Based on the Thru the Bible radio program. (electronic ed.) (1:ix-506). Nashville: Thomas Nelson. [7]R. Dennis Cole, vol. 3B, Numbers, electronic ed., Logos Library System; The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001, c2000), 349.