So we're in Numbers chapter 21
and verse 4. And we're speaking about the
children of Israel, and this is what it says. And they journeyed
from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land
of Edom. And the soul of the people was
much discouraged because of the way. and the people spake against
God and against Moses. Wherefore have ye brought us
up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread,
neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light
bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of
Israel died. Therefore the people came to
Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the
Lord and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take
away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole And it shall
come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon
it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass
and put it upon a pole. And it came to pass that if a
serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass,
he lived. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. In this chapter, in the whole
chapter, we find that there are a variety of accounts given to
us of the journeyings of the children of Israel. So it's not
only this little incident about the brass serpent and the fiery
serpents or snakes that we encounter in this chapter. We also find
that there are a number of battles. that Israel had with the Canaanite
nations in that area. And it suggests that these were
a number of small battles, perhaps as a result of these local kings
harassing the children of Israel on their travels, on their journeys,
as they made their way along the borders of the nations or
got too close to some of their villages and cities. This was
not the invasion of Canaan which took place later and we will
come to that under the leadership of Joshua, but rather skirmishes in the area under the leadership
of Moses. And here we see that Moses, as
well as being a leader of the people and a religious leader
and a prophet, also was a general as well, and he was the leader
in military conflicts as well. And we read of battles and victories
against someone called Arad and someone called Sihon and someone
called Og. So they had some strange names,
these kings, and there were battles against these countries where
the Lord provided victories for the children of Israel. Edom
was another matter and we discover that Edom or the children of
Esau, their land was not entered into at all by the children of
Israel and the children of Israel went round about the borders
of Edom and it was a difficult journey for them. They wanted
really, in order to get to where they were going, to get to the
land of Canaan, to go straight through Edom, but the Lord directed
them around the borders of that nation and We're told that it
was a difficult way for them to go. The children of Israel,
they had to go around Edom and it proved to be a great test
for them. And the people spoke out against
God and against Moses. And right at the very beginning
of our thoughts today, we have this little lesson, I think,
that God had given victories to the children of Israel and
he had promised greater victories on the back of the wins that
they had had. Indeed he undertook to give the
whole land of Canaan to the children of Israel. And yet despite God's
help and despite God's promises, every little hardship along the
way caused another round of grumbling and dissatisfaction. And I thought
about that as I was reading this passage, and I thought, how much
that is like us. Even the Lord's people, we know
that God helps us every day, and we know that God has made
promises, and we know that the Lord Jesus Christ died for the
sins of people like us, and died for our sins as we trust in him. We know that heaven lies before
us and all the glorious things that are there and yet just one
little thing goes wrong and we end up grumbling and we end up
doubting and we end up feeling as if we've been abandoned. We
have evidence of God's goodness and we have evidence of his blessings
so let us trust him and let us seek his continuing help. The
children of Israel of course were very good at complaining
God had given them manna from heaven to eat, but the children
of Israel declared that our soul loathes this light bread. Even the blessings that the Lord
had given them, the children of Israel threw them back in
his face and said, we detest this food that you've given us
here in the wilderness. We've no real bread, they complained.
We've no water. That was despite the fact that
the Lord had given them water at Meribah and perhaps that suggests
that it only lasted for a little time and now they're back again
wondering where they're going to find water. And this old argument,
you've brought us into the wilderness so that we can die here. And
how ready these people were to complain against God and how
prone they were to blame God for their troubles. And perhaps
we can identify with that a little bit ourselves if we're honest. So now the Lord is going to teach
these people a lesson. And there is this element of
judgment in the things that happen in these verses before us. The Lord sent fiery serpents
amongst the people. And it seems as though these
serpents came in large numbers because the people, many of them
we're told, were bitten and many of them died. And perhaps these
kind of creatures were common in the wilderness and maybe they
were present all during the journey of the children of Israel over
the 40 years, but now it seems that they are multiplied or they
become more aggressive or maybe even more poisonous and potent
than usual. but many are bitten and many
die and it was a plague of snakes and fiery serpents and the people
were helpless before them. And I'm sure that the people
would try all that they could to prevent these snakes from
being so dangerous and disruptive. I guess they would get sticks
and they would try and hit the snakes and kill them. I guess
they would try and throw stones at them to frighten them away
or discourage them by whatever means they possibly could. But when they had tried everything,
everything that they could think of, and everything that they
could think of failed because they still got in amongst their
animals, they still got into their homes, they still caused
trouble in their lives. Then they were forced to come
to Moses and they were forced to ask help from the Lord. And Moses interceded for the
people once again. But what we find is that the
Lord didn't take the serpents away. Instead, Moses was to make
a replica, a brass replica or symbol of one of these fiery
serpents. He was to make it out of brass
or a kind of shiny bronze and he was to place it on a pole
in a prominent place in the camp so that if anyone was bitten
by one of these fiery serpents, one of these snakes, and looked
at the brass serpent on the pole, that person would be healed. And this is an extraordinary
miracle. The Lord said that by looking
at the symbol of a serpent, a man or a woman, a boy or a girl would
be cured of the bite of a real serpent, which otherwise was
going to be deadly. And we realise, of course, that
the healing of the bite and the poison, it didn't come from the
brass serpent. That was only a piece of metal
attached to a piece of wood. But rather it was God who gave
the healing to those who looked at the brass serpent as they
had been instructed and told to do. Having been bitten by
the serpent, if a man and a woman or a boy or a girl looked at
the brass serpent, they lived. If they did not look, they would
die. And I imagine it became a very
frequent event as there were a lot of snake bites. And if
a man or a woman was bitten, they would run to the brass serpent
and they would look at it before the poison took effect in their
bodies. Or if a child was bitten, the
parent or a friend would pick the child up and quickly carry
the child and say, look at the brass serpent at the top of the
pole. They would urge one another,
look and live. Don't delay, they would tell
one another, it works, it happened to me, I was bitten and now I'm
healed, you look too. It was a wonderful miracle of
healing. And there are lessons here, I
think, especially, perhaps, because the Lord Jesus Christ referred
to this incident in his own ministry when he spoke to Nicodemus many,
many years later. But here are a few lessons that
we can take from this passage. I think the children of Israel
probably tried to solve the problem of these fiery serpents for themselves. I don't know if the serpent was
fiery because it was a red colour, or because it was a golden colour,
or because it looked in some way like fire, or maybe the bite
made the skin go all swollen and burn like firewood. But did you notice that it was
only when they realised that there was nothing that they could
do that they went to Moses and they went to God? And that's
like us, I'm sure you'll agree. We try to solve all our problems
by ourselves before we ever ask the Lord for help. And it's only
when we are at our wit's end, it's only when we become overwhelmed
by our problems that we resort to praying for them. And I understand
that, that's just the way that we are as people. But I think
for this reason, the Lord sometimes appears to overwhelm his people
with trouble. Because it's in that little space
between where our strength ends and disaster happens, That little
space between where our strength ends and disaster happens, that
the Lord meets us with his help and his comfort. Usually the
Lord has to show us our weakness before we are humble enough to
seek his help. And so the Lord is good to us
to keep us honest and to keep us aware of our own limitations
and to remind us of how loving and gracious and kind he is to
his people. And sometimes he has to use these
problems to do that. And here's another application
which we can take. Maybe you think to yourself,
The people came to the Lord for help. If the Lord had sent these
serpents, could he not also have sent them away? If the Lord sent
them into the camp, could he not have sent them out of the
camp as well? That would have been a good solution
to this problem. Well, yes, he could have done
that. Do you remember in Egypt the
plagues of the flies and the plagues of the frogs? These creatures disappeared. They died or they disappeared. And the snakes, they could have
slithered back into their holes or wherever it was they came
from. Actually, it's interesting, Isaiah seems to indicate that
these fiery serpents may even have been flying creatures. They
may even have had wings. But sure, the Lord could have
taken them away. But sometimes the Lord doesn't
take away our troubles. Sometimes he provides a remedy
while keeping the problem. The snakes didn't go away, but
the Lord provided a remedy by this pole and the brass serpent. And he gives us grace to endure. The Lord provided here a means
of recovery. but one that required an act
of faith. A simple look was all that was
required, trusting the Lord for healing. Faith in the Lord. It was a case of look and live. I will save your lives, says
the Lord. But the snakes, they stay. They stay in place. And finally,
I want to draw your attention to the way in which the Lord
Jesus Christ uses this symbol of the brass serpent to teach
Nicodemus about the gospel and to explain about his own death. You remember this man, it's in
John chapter three, this man called Nicodemus, he was a leader
of the Jews and he was very high up in the religious structure.
And he came to Jesus during the night. He was a bit embarrassed
about coming to Jesus during the day. Maybe he thought he
wouldn't get access to speak to Jesus in the busyness of the
day. Whatever the reason, he came
by night. He spoke to Jesus about the things
that Jesus did. And the Lord explained to Nicodemus
something about the gospel and something about his role. This is what the Lord said to
Nicodemus. It's in John chapter three and
verse 14. He said, 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. And the Lord was drawing
the parallel between believing in him when he was lifted up
on the cross, when he was crucified, and the way in which the Jews
had trusted the Lord for healing in the Old Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
come to be a wise teacher, although he was a wise teacher. He didn't
come to be a prophet or a preacher, although he was both of those
things. The Lord came into the world
to save sinners by dying in their place on the cross. he had to
be lifted up on the cross. And this was the Lord explaining
to Moses that his ministry would end in him being crucified and
being lifted up in the same way as the brass serpent was lifted
up on the pole. Just as it was lifted up, Christ
would be lifted up on the cross so that salvation and deliverance
and life would be accomplished for his people. Their life for
his death. And today we don't die of snake
bites. Although I'm in Australia here
and there are lots of poisonous snakes in Australia. But we're
not dying of snake bites. But the Bible tells us Death
is the wages of sin. It is God who gives eternal life. It is God who gives heavenly
life. And he gives it to those who
look to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ in faith, trusting
in Christ's sacrifice for forgiveness with God. So the Lord Jesus explained
to Nicodemus how trusting in him allows us to experience peace
with God. We realise that the Lord takes
our sin on himself and dies in our place. And Nicodemus began
to understand that Jesus was no ordinary man, but he was the
son of God. And how looking to Christ in
faith brings peace and grace and life and joy. Even back in the wilderness in
the days of Moses and the children of Israel, these pictures were
given of the Lord Jesus Christ crucified. And that's the heart
of the gospel. And faith is God's gift to bring
us into the experience of everlasting life. May the Lord give us all
the grace to look and live, to look to Jesus Christ, the crucified
one, and to obtain life in him. Amen.