Snakes, Sin and Salvation Numbers 21:4-9
Today we see the nation of Israel on their trek across the desert. As we noted before, they are under God’s grace. Remember God parted the Red Sea, fed them manna and quail, and gave them sweet water from a stone. It is after all this that the people claimed they could do whatever God demanded so God gave them the Ten Commandments and said “This what you have to do.”
One would think man would have learned, apparently not; verse 4-5, “…but the people grew impatient on the way, they spoke against God…” Here are God’s chosen, criticizing and complaining against him.
Many people ask why do we study the Old Testament? In this case I believe it is to show us that mankind hasn’t changed much if at all during all the time we’ve been on earth.
God promised to lead the nation out of Egypt and into the Promised Land and he’s in the process of doing just that. As you read through scripture you will notice God never promised the journey would be across fields with soft grass and fragrant flowers. Israel faced hardships on their trek.
We know God. We believe in Jesus. We have been given God’s promises. Let’s review some of these promises. Hebrews 8:12, “For I will forgive their sins and remember them no more.” Has God done this? Yes. Through faith all our transgressions are forgiven; all of them, past, present and future. No longer do we have to worry if we do something to make God angry because all his anger was directed on the person of Jesus at the cross.
Exodus 3:5, “’Do not come any closer,’ God said.” We were unable to approach God but he promises us in John 14:9, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” God promises us that through faith in Jesus we have unfettered access to him. Did he fulfill this promise? Mark 15:38, “The curtain of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” God himself tore apart the veil that separated us from him so as believers in Christ we have free and total access to God.
God promised us eternal life and Jesus’ resurrection fulfills this promise. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:42-43, “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.”
We have God’s forgiveness, his availability, and his glory in heaven forever. These are the promises of God, but we have never been promised a mortal life without troubles. The Israelites grew impatient, do we? Have any of us lamented “God, what is taking so long? Why do I have this physical ailment? God, why; why are things so difficult”?
This story from the desert near Edom shows us that as believers, as those God brought into his family, we haven’t changed much over the centuries. We still turn our back on God when he doesn’t do what we want, when we want and how we want.
Many times the players in these stories have two sides for us to explore. Today the Israelites represent those who know God but they can also represent the unsaved as well and I find this in verse 6, “Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many died.”
In Genesis the snake represented Satan, here the snakes represent sin; sins that poison us and cause us death; that eternity outside of the Father and in the pit. The fact that people died points us toward the interpretation that the nation represents the unforgiven for sin cannot cause the saved to be separated from God, cannot cause our spiritual death.
So now with this elucidation, how do the unsaved get away from the snakes, away from their sin? Verse 7, “The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the Lord…Pray that the Lord will take the snakes from us.’”
Jesus is called the second Moses. Like Moses Jesus came to represent God, to teach us and to lead us out of bondage. In our account the people turn to Moses, they admit their transgression; their cursing of God. They realize they need Moses to intercede for them with the Father.
We have not changed. Each person must recognize they sin and that this sin is against God and that it causes death. Each person must recognize that they need Jesus to intercede on their behalf before God; Hebrews 7:24-25, “but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”
Moses was a man, the people had to hope his prayers on their behalf would be answered by God. Jesus is God’s son and our savior. His very existence on earth was for our salvation. When we pray to Jesus for him to intercede for us with God we never have to doubt God will respond. God’s response is an ironclad guarantee.
Verse 8, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’” God told Moses what to do to help the people bitten by the snakes by giving them a picture of Jesus on the cross.
As God, Jesus knew the Father’s plan from the moment of its inception, Genesis 3:15, “…he will crush your head…” From creation Jesus was the means God would use to help all the people out of their sin.
But in our scripture God told Moses to make something, Jesus didn’t make anything. God told Moses to make a representation of their sin, a snake, and then put it up on a pole. 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin…” Jesus didn’t just take our sin to the cross, Jesus didn’t like the bronze snake become just a representation of our sin; Jesus became physically sin in order for sin itself, not a representation but sin itself would be displayed on the cross for all to see and to be punished by the entirety of God’s wrath so it is now destroyed and wiped out forever from the lives of the believer.
I believe it is important to look into the Old Testament. It is where the foundation of our faith resides. It is God’s explanation of what and how he will deal with mankind’s sin. In today’s Old Testament account God tells the ancients several lessons, lessons that are also good for us to see.
We’re shown that as the saved there are times we are not so different from the unsaved; we doubt God’s actions. We complain when God doesn’t do what we want him too. We can see God as distant and apathetic.
We’re shown the truth of the world is sin leads us to death and only our turning to Jesus can do anything about it.
We’re told Jesus intercedes with the Father for us and only faith in the cross can save us.
We’re shown that in order to become our savior Jesus became what God detests, sin itself. Jesus became a murderer, an adulterer, a coveter. Jesus became the very sin of the world, the sin of men’s hearts so God could send all the power of heaven against it and remove it from those who recognize it in themselves and pray Christ intercedes for them with the Father.
I can think of no one else who deserves our praise, who deserves our worship, who deserves our devotion, who deserves our very being other than our Lord and savior Christ Jesus.
Amen.