The Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fine serpent, and set it upon a pole. Then shall it come to pass, that every one that is bitten 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. Now, as we noticed last week as we come to this section and these chapters in the book of Numbers, we are coming to the end of the life of the first generation of the people of God who came out of Egypt. And we saw the way in which Miriam died at the beginning of the previous chapter, we see the way in which Aaron died before we enter into this chapter, and we see the way in which Moses himself was told by God in chapter 20, that because He did not show the holiness of God to the people that he would not enter. And so there is a generation that is coming to an end, and such is life in the world. A generation comes and a generation goes, and we often make comparisons between the generation that has gone and the generation in which we now live. And sometimes these comparisons can be encouraging and sometimes they can be discouraging. But we'll see today that there are comparisons to be made between the new generation and the old generation. And the other thing that we notice as we come to this part of the book of Numbers is that they are at a particular stage of their journey. They have been going around, without going around in circles, but they have been going around in the area around Kaddish as we saw in chapter 20. and from chapter 22 onwards we see that they are going forward through the plains of Moab. So there is a generation coming to an end, there's a stage of the journey coming to an end, and at that crucial time in their experience we are looking at this chapter 21 which helps us to understand where they're going from here and what kind of people they still are. in comparison with the generation that has gone before. And as we do enter into this part of the chapter we can notice as well that we are here and they have enjoyed a time of victory. So this chapter begins, they make promises to God God came and delivered the people to them and they called the name of the place Hormath. They are at a time of encouragement, a time of victory and you would think now that here they are, they should, they ought to be ready now to go forward in the strength of that victory. What do we discover as we come to this crossroads in the life of the people of God? I want you to notice first of all that we see in the chapter a rebellion. And in the rebellion it reminds us that as far as the people in the world are concerned there is nothing new under the sun. Are they different to the previous generation? Absolutely not. They are plagued by the same problems, they are plagued by the same sins and by the same complaints. And here we see the rebellion when they come from Mount Hor and they are setting out and they are going forward on their journey to the land of Moab. And from Mount Hor to go to the land of Moab, it's like just cutting across as if they're going directly east across to the plains of Moab. That's what they want to do. But lo and behold, there's an obstacle in their path. And the obstacle comes in the form of the people of Edom. And between Mount Hor and the land of Moab, there is Edom and the people of Edom. And they simply want to cross through the territory without having anything to do with the people of Edom. And we see in chapter 20, verse 21, that they refused to let them cross. Now that's really discouraging. Because instead of cutting across on a 50-mile journey, perhaps, from Mount Hoare to the Land of Moab, they have to travel southwards and back up northwards hundreds of miles instead of doing 50 miles. Now that is discouraging. When we're travelling ourselves and we are put on a diversion anywhere, it can be discouraging. I think often of a place called the Rice Dump in Thamford. which is on the road between Glasgow and Argyll, and very often the road is closed in that area, and there is a huge diversion if you want to get to where you're going. I often wonder why it's called the West End, in fact that's what it's called. But the road is closed and there's a huge diversion, so what do you do? Do you just say, I could, and go back home, or do you follow the diversion? It's understandable that when there is an obstacle put in your path, when things don't work out as you expect, and when the journey is not as simple as you thought, that you question whether you should proceed. And that's exactly what we see those people doing. When they come and realise that the border of Eden which you cannot go across there, instead you have to go all the way down south and back up northwards before you can get to where you are. And that was where the sin came to light. And is it not so often the case with ourselves? We have come from a place of victory, from a place of blessing, from a place of encouragement. Life is so good. And then bang, something happens. And instead of the straight way forward that I expected, it's not like that at all. And my heart falls And my heart falls and I begin immediately to ask and to question, why did this happen like this? Why is it not straightforward? And sometimes wishing perhaps that we weren't here, that we hadn't set out on our journey in the first place. And that's how we see this people becoming, in verse 4, the people spoke against God and against Moses. Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. The people became discouraged in verse 4. They became impatient. The idea is that in some way they became short-tempered. They lost their temper because of what happened to them, because they couldn't go forward in the way that they wanted. And they lost their temper, became impatient, and their temper was directed at God and at Moses, and their frustration was expressed against God's leader and against God himself. And the frustration is quite simple. It says, first of all, why did you not leave us when we were aware? If we had known this is what it was going to be like, we would have been much better back where we were. We wish we were in Egypt. And the other complaint and the other frustration and the other thing that emerges from the fact that they lost their temper with Moses and with God is that they are complaining about the Word of God itself and about the provision of God. There is no bread, neither is there any water, and your soul loathes this light bread." Quite simply, they find the bread of God contemptible. It's light, it's worthless, there's nothing in it for me. I wish I was back in Egypt. They find the provision of God in the desert, the bread that comes down from heaven to sustain them in the wilderness, they find the provision of the grace of God, they find it loathsome, they find it contemptible, and they don't get any satisfaction from it. And when we put that into the context of the New Testament and of what Jesus is saying, he reminds us that he is the bread of life. I am the bread that came down from heaven. I am the bread of life. And here we come face to face with the fact that when they are finding fault with God's provision, they are finding fault with God, but they are finding fault now in the light that we have against Jesus as the one who has come down from heaven, who is the bread of life, and if we eat of this bread we shall live forever. The fault is against Jesus. And we follow Paul in 1 Corinthians 10, and if Jesus helps us to understand what's happening, so does Paul. Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 9 says, we must not put Christ to the test, as our fathers did when they were destroyed by the serpents. So they're rejecting Christ, they see nothing worthwhile in Christ, and at the same time they're testing Christ, testing the patience of Christ. And these are the two elements in the sin that find expression here at Mount Hor, here as they are waiting to go forward on their journey. And so, their frustration, their impatience, leads them to confront God with the accusation that what he gives to them and offers to them is worthless and is meaningless. and they would rather be where they had been before. Has anything changed? Nothing has changed. We've seen the same problem from chapter 11 right through these chapters up until now, the same problem rearing its ugly head that these people are discontented, that they are frustrated and they don't find satisfaction in God. the generation that was rising up now after those who were dying in the wilderness, if there was no difference between them in the world in which we live ourselves, a generation comes and a generation goes. Is there anything different in the generations in their relationship with God? And if we understand that the teaching of the Bible and we learn from our own experience, we'll recognise that there is no difference. People still reject the Gospel. People still complain against God. People still say that Jesus is not enough for me. I find him worthless. Why should I believe? He's meaningless to me. And at the same time testing the very patience of Jesus who offers himself in the Gospel, that in a rejection of him and finding him such a worthless thing and precious, that we are really testing his patience with us. A generation comes and a generation goes. And we were privileged to have had that generation that has largely now gone, that generation who feared God and who loved God and who served God And we see the generations coming after them, and we see that there has been a clear breach and distinction between the two generations, because that godliness and godly fear has not carried itself through into our generation and into the coming generations. And I'm stating the obvious, but that's the way that it is. But in essence, there is something at our heart that never changes. in our relationship with God, there is that rebellion that always crops up in our hearts. What do you find in your own heart today? Is it satisfaction in God? Or is it frustration with God? Or is it a sense of seeing nothing that God can give to you that will satisfy you in your need? The rebellion against God. Secondly, We see in the passage a reconnection. They are wanting to disconnect themselves from God, and God does not, in his judgement, disconnect himself from them. Instead, he reconnects himself with them, and he reconnects them with him. And he does so, first of all, by reminding them and showing to them what belongs to the actual life that they are desiring back in Egypt. And he does that by sending certain messengers to them. The Lord, in verse 6, the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died. He sent serpents, fiery sent serpents. They came from him. They are sent out by him. Under his control, under his influence and under his authority, they are under him. They come to afflict him. And when I ask myself, why would he send a serpent And I go and I learn from what they tell me about Egypt and in Egypt the serpent is a symbol of power. And I go and I understand and I learn that Pharaoh's crown had the image of a cobra on it to show his power and to show that he was there to protect the people around him from danger. The serpent is a symbol of the power of Egypt. And Isaiah in chapter 30 makes reference to that when he speaks about Egypt and he speaks about that viper, that fiery flying serpent. Here are people who have come from Egypt, they have learned to understand that the serpent is the symbol of power in Egypt and now they want to go back to that very place. But it's not just a serpent that God sends, he sends a fiery serpent. And that fiery serpent is such that in his bastion there is such venom and such poison that it places their whole beings on fire and many of them are dying. And by the way in which God is speaking to them, he is convicting them about Egypt and he is reminding them that the very outcome of the life that they are looking for in Egypt is in itself death. And He has rescued them from there. So if you want to go back there, you are going back into a situation where you will die without my grace and without my salvation. And when I bring the understanding of the serpent in Egypt, when I bring it alongside my understanding of my Bible, I see that there is a serpent in the Garden of Eden. And that Eve says, I listened to the serpent, I ate of the fruit. He is somebody who is there, who is cunning, who is crafty. And I hear Jesus saying in John chapter 8 that he was a murderer and a liar from the very beginning. He's on Pharaoh's crown as a symbol of death. He's in my Bible as a messenger of death and as a murderer from the beginning. And we follow him down right through the New Testament into the book of Revelation and he's there as that old serpent, Satan and the devil. Here is a symbol that represents, a message that represents all of the power of Egypt that will lead to death and all of the influence of Satan as the god of this world, says Paul, and says Jesus himself, the prince of this world. He sends the fiery serpents. And when the fiery serpents, when they do their work, many of the Israelites died. Fell at Mentor, the famous place They weren't able to go back, they weren't able to go forward. It was the termination of their existence in the world. And I hear God saying in Genesis chapter 2, of all the tree of the gardens you can eat, but you shall not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. There is history in the history behind the death of the people of Israel in the wilderness. There is theology behind the death of the children of Israel in Egypt. And there is the relationship of God with a lost world behind what's happening in the wilderness and the experience of these people. and they are fully aware of it. People are dying around them, they are in danger of dying themselves because of the judgement of God. And today God will not reconnect you with him or him with you without drawing attention to the fact that your life apart from him is under the condemnation of death. Because in the words of Paul in Romans 6, quite simply, the wages of sin is death. That's eternal death as well as physical death. It's death as the penalty of sin. And God will, through his word, he will come and he will convict you in your heart that you are wrong in your relationship with him, and that you will come to understand that that relationship is broken, and because of its brokenness, that you will die. And of course, everyone sees and believes we're going to die. And it's not that kind of conviction. The ungodliest person today believes that they will die at some point. But it's having the conviction that death is the penalty of God because of our sin, that it has an eternal element to it, and that there is that sense of being separated from God and under the wrath and curse of God for all eternity. The conviction. that life in that godless world is under the condemnation of God, is waiting the execution of the penalty of God's just wrath and sin. Today, unless we believe that, Jesus will remain worthless. In the wilderness, unless they believe, and they couldn't deny it now, unless they believe then the manna is going to be meaningless. The bread of life and the sentence of death, it's quite simple. It makes absolute sense, common sense, never mind spiritual or sacrificed common sense, it makes sense. There is the conviction that we've lost without Jesus. And in his reconnection with them, that drives home the point. And we see them crying out to God in verse 7 to Moses. 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. Their conviction arising from what's happening around them, leads to their confession of sin, to Moses and to God, and crying out to God for God's mercy, that God will do something to remove this fiery serpent. And how many of us were taught, and how many of us have prayed the simple prayer, Lord be merciful to me, a sinner. It's kind of in here, because that's really what they're saying. It's crying out to God, knowing that if there's going to be mercy from anywhere, or help from anyone, it's going to come from God alone. It's the confession that I'm a sinner, and it's that reaching out to God, knowing that He is the only source of first hand of salvation. And that's the way connection is completed. They were saying not too long ago that they wish they were not here at all, that they were back under the power and authority of Pharaoh in Egypt. But now the point has been driven home and they understand that whatever, that they must be under the power and the influence and the protection of the God who has brought them out. the reconnection that comes via conviction, that comes by confession. Today there is no mercy from God, there is no grace of salvation without a confession of a sin and a crying out to God, recognising that there is a path to a recovery, that God in his infinite wisdom, but he can cater for my every particular need and rescue me from my danger and from death in the way in which it is around me, in every physical aspect of it and in every eternal aspect of it. The reconnection. Isn't God gracious that he doesn't tell him to go away that he does something that persuades them, intellectually and emotionally, that they must look to God alone. That's as ready to receive what God can give to us. That persuasion. And that leads, thirdly, to the restoration. There must be a cure. If God doesn't have a cure, then there is no cure. And we see the restoration, first of all, in God's provision of something new. And we see that in the command given to Moses, make a fiery serpent. bronze serpent. Something new that God is going to, that God is telling Moses to create, not just something new, but something new that corresponds to the very problem that these people are facing because of their sin. They have been bitten by bronze serpents and they are dying, these fiery serpents, and here God is making them go and make a bronze serpent. And it's marvellous the way in which that's how God provides grace and salvation for us in the Gospel. What He does is make something new that corresponds to me in my sin and in my sin situation. And He does that something new because in the Word there is nothing there that suits, that corresponds And I hear Paul saying in Romans chapter 8, summing up this very thing, that what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. In other words, there was nothing in the law of God that could possibly bring recovery and salvation to these people. God needed to do something new What new thing did God do? God sent his Son. That's the miracle. That's the new creation. You have prepared a body for me, says Jesus in Hebrews chapter 10. And it's not just any kind of body, but Paul says God sent his Son into the world in the likeness of sinful flesh. Do you see the correspondence? The marvellous way in which I go to Bethlehem and I follow Jesus in Galilee and I follow him all the way through his journey in his ministry and I see somebody that's like me. And he's like me because when he came into the world, God ladled him my sin. He bore my sins in his own body right up to the cross. He's so like me because he's veiling my sin, yet he's so unlike me because he's not a sinner. God has done something new. And I come to the Gospel today with my conviction of my sin, with the confession of my sin, and I'm looking for God to do something that will take away my sin. And I come face to face of the new creation that we have in Christ Jesus. How can this thing be, says Mary? The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. And the Holy Child that will be born from you will be called the Son of God. The Gospel in numbers. The Gospel in the Gospel of John. of the new things, the Word of God, the Son of God became flesh. He put his tent down and I look at him in the Gospels and he's so like me. And when I come with my confession of sin and crying out to God, I'm like immediately to focus my whole emotions and my whole intellect, my whole thinking, my conscience, everything that makes up my relationship with God and myself, my whole being is persuaded to look at what God has done in Jesus Christ. Isn't it a marvel? Here we have the Son of God, and in some invisible, real way, He's burying your sins in His own body. And He goes through life, and the Bible tells us that God made Him to be sin. He knew no sin. Here I am, full of my sin, and a sinner. And the Bible tells me that God has made Jesus just like me. Remembering of course that he's without sin himself but he's bearing my sin. A new creation. And from that new creation there is a location. Where am I going to look for this fiery serpent, this bronze serpent? Set it up upon a pole. The pole that was set up in the Old Testament as the rallying point for the people to gather to. The tribes would gather to the pole when they were preparing for war. It was the focus of the community. It was the place where people would gather to hear any kind of news that affected the whole community. And as well as that, the pole was the place where the power of the God of the people was made known. If we go to Egypt, the power of Pharaoh's God was found where the pole was found. And so here he says, put the bronze serpent, set it up on a pole where all the people will come to it. And where on this pole the power of God will be displayed. Set it on a pole. And I come to the new creation that God has done in Jesus Christ, and Jesus himself is speaking to Nicodemus. And he's got numbers 21 in his mind. And he's trying to convince Nicodemus of the truth of what he was saying. And he says to Nicodemus, as Moses lifted up the servant in the wilderness, so also must the Son of Man be lifted up. The serpent is on a pole and Jesus Christ is on a cross. And on the cross he is there corresponding to my need. And there, going back to Romans chapter 8, Paul reminds me that God did then condemn sin in the body, in the flesh, in the human nature of Jesus. And on the cross at Calvary, all that my sin deserved, Jesus suffered it. The whole penalty of my sin. And when I look at it, at Jesus on the cross, I see Him suspended there, and I see all of my sin. And I see what God thinks of my sin. And when I see Jesus dead on the cross and taken down from the cross and put into the tomb, I see my sin removed. I see it destroyed. I see its power broken. And I see that because of the power of God and the cross of Jesus to sever from my sin and wipe it all away. And I look at my sin as the power to kill me because of the judgment of God. And I look at the cross of Jesus and the cross of Jesus says to me, Oh death, where is your sting? It's gone. Because he died, I will not die. Because when he died, in Hebrews chapter 2, he died as someone who destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is the devil. Here he is, resting with a very serpent, that's represented in this image in the wilderness. Jesus is resting with the serpent and he throws him out, he casts him down. Now, says Jesus in John 12, now is the prince of this world cast out. A new creation on a strange location on the cross of Calvary. And there I find the restoration. There I find the cure. And my sin persuades me that I cannot do anything but look to Him. just as the people, as the children of Israel, they are dying, their whole insides on fire because of this fiery serpent and there is nothing they can do themselves and nothing Moses can do but hold up the pole. They are absolutely persuaded, it doesn't make sense to do anything else but to look at the pole. When he beheld the serpent of brass He lived. It's as simple as faith. And you will notice that in verse 8 we read that, When he looks upon it, he shall live. And in verse 9, When he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. There is A small distinction, at least in the Hebrew language, the distinction is this, that in verse 9 it's about gazing with wonder and with admiration. I can look at anyone or anything in the passing and it's meaningless to me. It doesn't change me at all. And we spend our lives doing that. And sadly we look at things and they become a distraction to us because we are drawn to them. But here is a wonderful gaze that's caught up in the wonder of what God has done in Jesus. And I'm hooked. And you can watch perhaps your children or grandchildren, and they're caught up with something. You speak to them and there's a world of their own. There's no word that you're there at all because they're so caught up with this new thing that they haven't seen before. What faith does with Jesus shuts everything else out in the sense that nothing will distract because the mind, the emotions, the will, the whole of the person is caught up in wonder. And in that wonder there is the expression of faith, and in that expression of faith there is the cure, there is the healing. Whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. And the wonder of the gaze is in the words that we have in John 3, 16 surely. Why do I wonder at what has happened to Jews on the cross? For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Today, any other decision with regard to Jesus doesn't make sense. It goes against all the evidence of the Bible. It goes against all the evidence in your mind. And you must believe. You must be persuaded in your heart that you cannot do anything else. And that's the restoration that God promises. It's the miracle cure. And it's as simple as it looks. So let's today remember these people. And let's remember that they were a reminder of Jesus when he was speaking about the people needing to be born again. And let's remember that we have a rebellious heart. And let's remember that when God speaks to us, He wants to reconnect with us. And let's remember the wonder of the provision of God in the restoration that we have in the cross of Jesus. For God so loved the world that He gave that whosoever believes would not perish but have everlasting life. May God bless this work. Let us pray. Gracious God, we are thankful to you that you have not given to us what we deserve, but that you have created something new, something that never ever entered into the heart of man, that you have done that new thing in the passion of your Son. May we give thanks to you today for him, for his revelation, for his work, for his suffering, for his death, for all that he is at the centre of the gospel, and we pray for faith to believe in him, to be caught up in the wonder of Him, and to her hearts filled with a sense of thankfulness and joy that here is the real revelation of love, and may her hearts be so moved because you have loved us first in such a marvellous way. Bless us, we ask in Tamarishie, for we ask these things for Jesus' sake. Amen.