Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for beauty of the morning. Praise the Lord for the creatures of God, both big and small. This past Sunday I came across another red fox. Today I saw a flock turkeys. The other day I saw a big herd of deer. When I was growing up in India I saw lots of wild animals, including many snakes. I have even killed a few deadly snakes.
If somebody mentions snake stories in the Bible, the first one that pops into most people’s minds is that of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, getting tricked by a clever snake into disobeying God. There are also those who might remember another story from Numbers about poisonous snakes and the bronze snake on a pole. Many might put it quickly out of their minds, however, because it seems so odd. But it pops up again in the Gospel of John, where Jesus compared himself, lifted up on the Cross, to the snake lifted up in the wilderness. If Jesus is comparing himself to a snake on a pole, maybe this story deserves a bit more attention. The people of Israel were wandering in the wilderness during the 40 years between leaving Egypt and entering the Promised Land of Canaan. These folks had seen God’s finest hour to this point in history. They remembered being slaves in Egypt. They also remembered all the miracles that were performed to help win their release out of Egypt -- all the plagues that touched Egypt but not them, including the first Passover where the Angel of Death took the firstborn of every home in Egypt, but passed over the Hebrew homes and left them alive. They had watched the waters of the Red Sea part and then crossed over on dry land, only to see the Egyptians drown behind them. These were also the people who stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai, saw the mountain smoke and shake, and received God’s law. They heard God promise to be their God and to make them God’s people, and they promised to obey God’s commandments. The Israelitessaw God’s care for them visibly every day as God led them through the wilderness, by a great cloud during the day and a pillar of fire by night. And these are the people who saw God provide for them whenever they complained (which was a lot). When they griped over their hunger, God sent manna, a miracle food that appeared every morning for them to gather. They complained of their thirst, so God miraculously gave them water from a rock. They got bored with the manna and complained again, so God gave them quail. God did all of these things, and yet there was no gratitude. There were only complaints. They never acknowledged that God had already done so much for them. They didn't express gratitude. There was no humility in their asking, and it wasn’t even really asking. They were whining, groaning, and complaining, “Why did we ever leave Egypt! At least there we had food and water. Why did you ever bring us out of there! Did you just want to see us starve in the wilderness?” God put up with that sort of complaining time after time from His people, Israel, and now it started up once more. This time God responded with a plague of poisonous snakes. God as we see Him in Numbers 21 plainly had enough. The infestation of poisonous snakes woke them up, and they realized this was a punishment from God. They went to Moses and admitted that they were wrong to complain about him and about God, and they ask Moses to pray for forgiveness. This is the appropriate and faithful response to God’s wrath. Their repentence showed that they knew that God is just and that He would not give them a punishment they did not deserve. To ask for forgiveness showed their faith that God is not only just, but merciful. They understood that it is in God’s nature to forgive.
When the people asked Moses to pray for them that God might take away the snakes, Moses did as they asked. God’s answer was perfect. He did not take away the snakes, but instead provided a way for people bitten by the snakes to be healed. Moses was instructed to make a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. From that moment onward, whoever was bitten was to look at that bronze snake in order to be healed and to live.
The snakes stayed and the snakes continued to bite people. If God had chosen to do so, He could have just rendered all the snakes harmless or He could have sent them away. Instead the poisonous snakes stayed, and God provided a way for people to survive the snake bite and live. This is evidence of God's mercy. The bronze serpent is a symbol of mercy...a gift...a way out. Beyond being a gift of mercy, it was also a way out that teaches. In order for someone who was bitten to live, they had to be willing to look square in the face of their trouble. They had to look at that bronze serpent and remember everything about it. In looking at that bronze serpent, they would remember that God sent those serpents as punishment for their sin. If they were willing to look at the serpent and be reminded of all of that, they would be healed. John Chapter 3 verse 14. “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” With these words, this strange snake story from the book of Numbers, is tied into the saving work of Jesus Christ. John compared the snake on a pole to Jesus on the Cross. In order to enter the Kingdom of God, we have got to be able to face the crucifixion. We have got to be able to look at Christ on the Cross, to be willing to remember both our sin and God’s mercy. The Cross, like the bronze snake, is a symbol of both.
The empty Cross symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus and therefore our own resurrection. But the Crucifix, the Cross with Jesus dying on it, is the one that John says we must look to. That’s the one that reminds us of our sin. It reminds us that, as a result of our sin, death came among us. It is also the one that will let us avoid that death and live. We can never come to repentance if we refuse to acknowledge and repent of our own guilt. But the Cross, like the bronze serpent, not only reminds us of our guilt, but also of God’s forgiveness and mercy. While we are reminded of our sin and its penalty, we are also reminded that God has provided a way out, so that we may live. Just as the bronze serpent provided physical healing and life, so the Cross provides us with spiritual healing and eternal life. Before we can have either healing or life, we must recognize the extent of our sin, the justness of God’s punishment, and the wideness of God’s mercy. It was all there in the bronze serpent, it is all there still in the Cross. If we are willing to look at it, spend some time with it, let it speak to us, we will be ready to hear the next verse of the Gospel of John, “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The serpent and the Cross are ultimately about life, mercy, forgiveness, and love. Verse 17, “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” Lent is that uncomfortable time of the year when we remember that God’s forgiveness comes in response to our sin, and that our sin has real consequences. We have no chance of understanding what Easter is all about if we aren’t first willing to admit that there are times when we actually do things that are not pleasing to God. We sin. We have to first look at the snake on the pole...Jesus on the Cross...and realize that He is up there because of sins we have done. Then the poison can leave our system. Then our healing can begin. Then we can see the wideness of God’s mercy and understand the extraordinary message of the empty tomb. As you prepare your hearts for Easter, spend some time at the Cross.
In Him,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2lhR2aBpo0
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