Moses-The Friend of God-Part 15- Look and Live

Introduction-Numbers 21:4-9

Last Sunday evening we saw Moses make a costly mistake in the midst of a moment of frustration and pressure.

Tonight we will look at another important moment in the life of Moses and the children of Israel.

Even after God provided for their needs by bringing water out of the rock once again it was only a short time before the people were rising up in rebellion against Moses and against God again.

What happens next serves to try Moses and the people and also provides an illustration of salvation that would be spoken of by Jesus Himself many years later.

John 3:14 KJV 1900

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

The People’s Sin (Vs. 4-5)

As the children of Israel continue to journey through the wilderness they begin to be discouraged because of the difficulty of the way that they must travel.

Rather than turning to God to find strength and comfort in the midst of their difficulty the people begin to speak against God and against Moses, the leader that God has chosen to set up over them.

They begin to murmur and complain again suggesting that God has brought them out of Egypt just to allow them to die in the wilderness.

They complain at their lack of bread and water and at the nourishment that God has provided for them in the form of the manna.

The people are simply discontent with all of their circumstances and they have chosen to blame God for their situtation.

They have apparently not yet learned that their murmuring and complaining is sin in God’s sight.

In murmuring and complaining about their circumstances and speaking against God and against the one He had chosen to lead them the children of Israel were rebelling against God and His authority over them.

God’s Judgment (Vs. 6)

The people’s rebellion against God and Moses brought judgment from God upon them.

The Lord sent fiery (likely speaking of poisonous) serpents among them, many were bitten and as a result many died.

This was God’s way of revealing to the people that what they were doing was sinful.

God judges sin because it is by this that we may recognize our error and be move to correct it.

If there were no penalty and no punishment for sin we would continue in sin and we would never repent and turn to God.

The People’s Confession (Vs. 7)

When the people are forced to face judgment from God they recognize what they have done and they approach Moses to confess their sin.

They come to him ready now to acknowledge their sin and seeking a remedy for the judgment they are now facing.

They ask Moses to pray that God would remove the serpents from them so that no one else would be bitten and die.

Moses’ Intercession (Vs. 7b)

Moses once again demonstrates his care and compassion for the people who have just been speaking against him by praying for them.

Moses never fails to intercede with God on the behalf of the people.

There is a great lesson for us to learn in this fact as we should be willing to intercede with God for others (even those who opposes us) as well.

God’s Solution (Vs. 8)

God does not choose to take away the serpents from among the people but rather He instructs Moses to make a fiery serpent of brass and to place it on a pole to be lifted up among the people that those who would look upon it should live.

We can be sure that Moses probably wondered at this solution and may have questioned why such a means should be necessary to the people’s deliverance.

This is God’s chosen method of delivering the people from the fiery serpents.

When they looked to the brazen serpent and were healed they would know that it is God who had delivered them.

Moses’ Obedience (Vs. 9a)

The last time Moses was in a similar situation, being asked to do something that seemed illogical to solve a difficult problem he made a costly mistake by failing to fully obey the Lord.

This time however it seems that Moses has learned from his mistake because he does exactly what God has instructed him to do.

Moses fashions the serpent of brass and sets it upon a pole in a manner that all the people would be able to see it.

Salvation by Faith (Vs. 9b)

Once Moses had done as God instructed now those who were bitten by the serpents must choose to look to the brazen serpent in order to be saved.

This was an act of faith on their part, they could not heal themselves nor could Moses heal them but they must by faith do what God has demanded and trust that He would heal them.

God did not take the serpents away but He provided a means for their salvation from the effects of their poisonous venom.

Any man that would but look to the brazen serpent would be healed and would live but those who refused to trust God and who would not look to the serpent would die.

The Purpose

These events served first as a test of the faith of both Moses and the people.

This was an opportunity for God to demonstrate His power in response to their faith.

Moses had to believe that the means God prescribed would work and thus it was faith that led him to fashion the brazen serpent and to set it up in the midst of them.

The people had to believe that they could be healed by merely looking to the brazen serpent as God had said.

They could seek other means for their healing but ultimately the only way their lives would be saved was to believe God and look to the brazen serpent and be healed.

Yet this entire event also has a greater significance in that it serves to illustrate some wonderful truths concerning the savior that would come to save mankind from sin.

Just like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so that all could see, so also must you and I lift up the savior so that all men may see Him.

Just like the brazen serpent was the only means of salvation for the children of Israel so also is Jesus Christ the only means of salvation for lost humanity today.

Jesus became sin for us to become the means of our redemption from sin just as the serpent on the pole was alike in kind to that which was destroying the people.

John 3:14–15 KJV 1900

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.