The following message was given at Grace Community Church in Mendon, Nevada. I came in here this morning to the church to complete the prep for Philippians chapter 1 verses 3 through 7. And I can explain why I'm not in Philippians in three words to you tonight. Carolyn, who's listening from home and probably hating that I'm mentioning this. Carolyn asked me today, what are you going to preach on? And I said, I'm going to just continue in Philippians. She's like, oh, don't do that. I thought, oh no, I'm already off to a bad foot in Philippians. And her argument was that we don't like, she doesn't like it when we skip what we're doing on Sunday, we bring into Wednesday and people miss it. And so I was already kind of wrestling with that myself. So I decided, well, if I'm not gonna do Philippians, let's do something with regards to biblical theology. Now, if you're not, uh super tidying your definitions on what biblical theology is uh there's a couple different branches of theology and I know we're in the in the woods already in defining different theological terms but hang with me when we talk about systematic theology or systematics what we're doing is we're taking all of what the Bible says and and we're not really all that concerned with things like development and timing and movement within it we're just saying well like what does the Bible say about oh we're doing it in Sunday school what's the Bible say about Christology and there's just a really systematic thorough looking at the the breadth and the depth and the height of all that scripture says for that. It's systematic. I love systematics. Brian loves it more than I love it. Charlie and I's love probably is closer to biblical theology, which is good in its own right, but it is different in this. Biblical theology is gonna trace themes, motifs, and development. It's gonna say not just what does the Bible say about this thing, How did the Bible tell it to me, right? So you can think of it one way if I were to just lay out cards from a deck of playing cards. We're in Nevada, so I guess this is a good illustration. Systematic theology would reorder them according to suit and put them in, you know, from greatest to least and would organize them that way. Biblical theology would say, well, in what order did the cards come and which cards led to other cards? We're gonna do that tonight. I'm interested in those themes, motifs, and the way that the Bible unfolds the gospel for us. We've done this before with looking at the temple motif of the garden, the garden being the first of the, well, the first and the greatest of the temples. the way that that theme is spread through scripture. I want to trace a different one with you tonight. We'll get to it in just a minute. We find it in the book of Numbers. But if you were to try to outline the books of the Pentateuch, so a little bit of my 7th and 8th grade Bible teacher coming out here. There's lots of ways you could do it. You could order them based on characters, based on events, but the way that I prefer is you could look at movement, and movement would help you order and think through those books, right? Genesis gets you from Eden to Egypt, and you can kind of think along that line that it takes from Eden to Ur, from Ur to Canaan, and then you know, closing out the book with Jacob moving to Egypt. And then you can move on to Exodus. Exodus goes from Egypt and winds up at Sinai. Leviticus is easy. It stays at Sinai. And Numbers is full of wanderings. We start at Sinai and we end up finally at the plains of Moab and then Deuteronomy ends there. The story that I want to consider tonight as kind of a base camp for looking at other things comes to us in that fourth book of the Pentateuch, comes to us in the book of Numbers. And so if you would like to turn there, we're in Numbers 21. I want to read the story for you. It's one with which you're very familiar. And then we're going to set the context and kind of lay out the borders of where we're going to be tonight. Numbers 21. We're just going to be looking at verses four to nine. Like I said, it's one with which you're very familiar. Beginning in verse four, it says, from Mount Hor, they set out by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom, and the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there's no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. Then Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many of the people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned. For we've spoken against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh that he may take the serpents away from us. So Moses prayed for the people. And Yahweh said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole, and if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. And that's where the story ends. And then it just moves on through the rest of it. And I want to isolate that tonight. I want to look at it under a couple of different headings. If you're keeping notes, cool. You can write these down. If not, just ignore them. The first kind of big title we're going to put over unpacking this is Wilderness, Life, and Death. By way of setting the context for this story, because all stories happen within a context, there's things surrounding it, it doesn't just drop down out of heaven on golden tablets for us to read with special glasses. Israel's banned, as you know, redeemed from slavery in Egypt. God has wretched them free through ten plagues and he's Drowned their enemies and he's given them their law and he's welcomed them into covenant with himself and there's I mean it just if you just read through the progression of Exodus of God sending his law and inviting the elders up and going through what Theologically is kind of like a wedding ceremony right like God is taking to himself Israel as his people or as his bride they've They've set up the tabernacle. They've commenced offerings and worship and the priesthood. All of that is in place. And as they depart Sinai, they have all the treasures of Egypt. All of their enemies, well, the Egyptians, are dead behind them. They swiftly find themselves on the plains of Moab, looking across the river, and they have an idea. It's a good tactic to scout a land before you take it. And they send 12 tribes over there for 40 days, or 12 tribes, 12 people. They come back and you know the report that's given to them that's full of unbelief except for Joshua and for Caleb, right? 10 of the two reports come back. The 10 reports are evil, the two are full of faith, and Israel rebels against God. They think that the enemy, who are scrubs compared to the Egyptians, are too great, too numerous for them. They toy with the idea of throwing rocks at Moses and Aaron until they are dead, and it's not their brightest moment. It's actually in that setting where God through Moses tells them, because of your unbelief, you will spend 40 years dying. And he actually tells them why he picked the number 40. You will spend one year in the wilderness for every day that you scouted the land and didn't believe. I mean, just a fascinating, I mean, fascinating, sad, tragic section of God's word where, I mean, you can imagine, they go from like really sad, upset, and angry, and ready to kill people to like finding out basically a death sentence. And then right before their very eyes, the 10 spies drop dead. And if you're ever, well, I'm a big Bible trivia kind of nerd. So for me, little facts and details like this are interesting. It says they died of plague before the Lord. What does plague remind you of? What did God afflict Egypt with? It's fascinating that while they were protected from the plagues in Egypt to show that they were a unique people, In this scene, they're the Egyptians, as it were. They're the enemies. Those 10 spies were, at least. And so they begin a 40-year wandering around in the wilderness until that entire generation of adults, 20 on up, is, well, died off, except for the two faithful spies. It's actually in that scene that God shows them exactly what's gonna happen over the next 40 years. Remember when Moses first went to the palace of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh says just a really staggering statement that shapes the next several chapters. He says, who is Yahweh? I do not know him. and he's about to get a crash course in who Yahweh is. And remember, Moses throws down, Moses and Aaron, throw down the staff and it turns into a snake and it eats the snakes of Pharaoh. And as it were, God shows them on the floor of Pharaoh's palace, here's what I'm about to do to you. About to, forgive the analogy, I'm about to eat you alive. He just does that with the 10 tribes, or the 10 spies. He knocks them dead by plague with all Israel watching and says, that's what's about to happen. This story, which I think is a really bright gospel kind of a story, it actually is set against that really dark background. Those are the accompanying texts that surround this story. And so as they are wandering in the wilderness, here's where we're gonna invoke a little bit of looking at themes, motifs, and patterns. They are in the wilderness. Now, the wilderness, it's not just like it's a strict narrative fact, like, oh, it happened to be here. They were out by Ely. Like, no, there's more meant in wilderness. Like, if you were to ask me, like, how are you doing? And I said, like, man, I'm just in the wilderness right now. You would know, like, well, I mean, you live in Nevada, of course. There's nothing but bushes around here. Well, you would know that I meant something far more than that. I didn't mean less than that. We do actually live in the wilderness. However, there's more that's meant in the Bible. And if you just started thinking about how that theme of wilderness is played out, you would say, oh my goodness. There's all of these similar characteristics. Israel's in the wilderness, and Moses is in the wilderness. Elijah, after one of the greatest shows of strength, and then he is scared of Jezebel, and guess where he runs away to? Oddly enough, the wilderness. Jesus is in the wilderness. There's all of these themes that go along with that, and one of the major pieces of that theme and motif is that a wilderness is a place of trial and difficulty. And I'm sure you've noticed by now, unless you're like brand new to the faith, wildernesses are not fun. They're not theme parks. They're not times where we're like, man, not much to eat, lot of sharp rocks, awesome. Like no, they are hard, difficult times, and they have a way of drawing something to the surface. Usually not good things. Remember, the first wilderness we run into is the place that Adam and Eve are chased to, east of the garden. It's actually where that wilderness theme begins, right after the fall. It's the place where one brother would kill another brother. And that theme goes through. The wilderness has a way of showing God's people what's in their heart. especially sin, right? And so, if you consider that kind of theme and then enter into this story, Israel is in the wilderness. They're in a tough place, and it's going to bring, usually out of the mouth gate, the things that are in the heart. And so, That's exactly what verse four and five do. They're going through the wilderness east of Edom, and guess what? Shock of all shocks, they become impatient. If you were in the wilderness without an air-conditioned minivan and your kids were with you with all your stuff, impatience would probably rise to the surface too. And verse five says they spoke against God. Now notice what they start, they accuse and question the character and the provision of God. Nothing has changed. When you go through a tough season or wilderness, what do we tend to question about God? His character, is he good? His provision, why aren't you answering me? That's what they do. They accuse him of bringing them out of Egypt just so he could kill us. Now there's an irony in there. It didn't start off that way, but because of their faithlessness and unbelief, that's kind of worked its way there. Because we found out in chapter 14 of the book of Numbers, that's exactly what's about to happen. But that was not the intent, nor should it have been the plan. And then they say that there's no food. Is that a true statement? What's showing up on the ground every day except for the Sabbath? Manna is. Yeah, and the first time it shows up, they're like, man, this is amazing. It's like light, delicate wafers, no carbs at all. Tastes like honey. They love it. Within days, they're like, I don't want to see this again. They call it worthless. The thing that's sustaining their very life, they hate it. I mean, and you would just have to stand on the sidelines and say, what a dumb bunch of people. God is miraculously providing for you, and you hate it. And nothing's changed. The wilderness still brings to the surface, well, those things bubbling below the surface of our hearts. They accuse God and Moses, they rebel against them, and their major complaint, while sure it has to do with the menu, they introduce another theme that we want to think about. They introduce this theme of, you brought us here to die. and lack of food would also tie into that, right? This concept of life and death, and if you were to just ask yourself, looking at it, like, yes, is this a historic story, or a bunch of people who are complaining said these words? Yeah, that's true, it is a historic story, but there's more theologically going on beneath the surface, because the Spirit of God inspired Moses to record this, I mean, there had to have been thousands of stories like this. He wrote this one down for a reason. Makes me wonder what it was. If you think back, when was the first time in the Bible you encountered the concepts or themes of life and death? I mean, you didn't have to read very far. You didn't make it out of the garden. In the middle of the garden is a tree of life. Also in the garden, a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat from that tree, what's the thing that It produces. Well, death. Those themes of life and death are hatched right there in the garden, and they follow us through stories like this. There's more going on than Israel being like, we're gonna die. You're like, well, I mean, I read chapter 14. I know you're gonna die, but I don't think that's at the beating heart of this story. has to do with more of a death in an ultimate sense, or life in an ultimate sense. There's one author by the name of Verne Poythress, which, if you're interested in having your biblical, theological itch scratched, which is a weird way of saying it, Biblical typology by Verne Poythress, delicious. Love Mr. Poythress' work, and he traces down lots of different themes like this. Poythress says of biblical theology, physical life is the life of God. So often symbolizes the deeper theme of true life in God's presence. And so this idea of will God let us die or will God save us and live, it has to do with more than just the things of this world. It has to do with a fuller ultimate sense, eternal living or life. eternal dying that's played out even in the tree of the garden or at the middle of the garden and the reason the way is blocked to Adam is because if he takes and eat he'll live for how long says forever and then when he ate the fruit did he fall over and die physically right then oh yeah he actually didn't there's an argument to be made that he began dying physically there but he also died in a much more serious way, which it's weird to talk about different levels of seriousness of death, you know, spiritually, right? And that all of us born under that Adam, well, we have the same sort of spiritual disease or death, right? And so as Israel is going through this wilderness, these bigger themes of wilderness trial, bubbling up the sin that's in the heart, eternal living, eternal dying, those are all kind of in the backdrop as this physical story plays out ahead, or before us, these bigger ideas come out. And Paul will tell the church that there's, in the Old Testament, in case you're wondering, like, I don't know, I think you're reading a little bit too much into it. Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, now these things he's talking about specifically Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness, took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. Even Paul says, you know what, there's way more going on there than you caught in your first reading. it's not just like you should know like oh man they complained a bunch of snakes bit them that's a rough day like no there's more at stake you're seeing unbelief producing death and you're seeing obedience and salvation and and wilderness and trial and all of that set play so that we would be instructed under the new covenant fascinating Well, let's actually get to the details. Point number two, a story about some snakes is what I'll call it. Verse six, in the midst of these people, as the words are still grumbling out from their lips, I love the brevity of this story. Then Yahweh sent fiery snakes among them. There's something I don't know. I'm sure Moses felt like it was poetic justice. I don't know, maybe I shouldn't judge Moses like that. I'm just gonna say if I was Moses, I'd be like, shows you guys for complaining. Look at that, fiery snakes. The snakes were not on fire. The fiery aspect of them was likely a reference to their venom which burned, right? So they bit you. The poison began to get inside of your system and would, over a period of what seems to be a pretty brief time, you would Did that literally happen on a particular day in the wilderness? Absolutely it did. But could you take a look at those same events, God sending snakes, them biting the people, the people then dying, and say, why did he send snakes? I hope you read your Bible with a little bit of like, questioning it. Like he does it a couple different ways. Sometimes the ground opened up and clapped shut, and you know, there's not a whole lot that happens or could be explained after that. Here he sends snakes, and he does it for a reason. It's not that there was a bunch of snakes nearby and it was convenient. Where did you first encounter a snake? Yeah, all the way back at the garden. And how did that snake, and again, I trust I'm not reading too much into it, How did that snake lure Eve into sin? Did it use poison from its mouth? In a way it did. Fascinating. So the original snake, not in a wilderness, but in the garden, lures mankind and poisons mankind with its mouth. And what was the effect of its bite? Death. Fascinating, the connections. Same kind of snakes, same sort of weaponized mouth, same result. You know, nothing's really changed at all. Is there a serpent that uses his mouth to poison people and it brings about death? It's okay, you can, the answer's yes. Yeah, it does. Yeah, yeah, isn't that still Satan's tactic? He's always questioning God's word. He's twisting it, he's perverting it, he's undermining it. And with slithery words, creating or nurturing unbelief. Guess what that unbelief causes in anyone's life now as it did back then? Death. You know, unbelief was what Israel experienced on the borders of the land of Canaan. They looked across, the spies come back. They say, they're really big, they're huge. Those are the sons of Anak over there. And instead of being like, who's Anak? They're like, we can't do it. That unbelief from the serpent's mouth takes root and like a poison, burns and brings death. Nothing's changed. Oh, sure, there's a day where a bunch of them were bitten by, well, literal snakes. But if you can't see those bigger themes at play, we're really taking a really too small of a view and saying like, sometimes we pretend we didn't read the rest of the Bible. But I want to read my Bible knowing all of what I know about all the rest of the parts. And if you do that, you'll be like, wow, it all fits together beautifully. And here's yet another occasion where serpents poison the people and death ensues. I mean, you were told that this would happen. Jesus is a little anachronistic. What did God tell Adam and Eve and the snake in the garden? I'm going to put enmity between my people and the snake. And you could trace the entire rest of well-redemptive history as the outplaying of the enemy-ness of people and the snake. Ultimately, it's found in Christ, the ultimate offspring of the woman who ultimately will crush the head of the snake, but the enmity between her offspring and his offspring Well, that drives most of the story. And that's what we're finding here. We shouldn't be surprised. Here again, God's people, as it were, being bit, unbelief, death, all of that ensuing. And some might say, all right, well. I can see some of the themes, I can see some of the connections, but really, I'm wondering, could you be making too much out of it? I don't think that I am. Actually, I'm really confident I'm not. Mainly because the New Testament has told me this is exactly how we should read things, right? We have that confidence when Jesus says like, oh, hey, by the way, That should give us confidence in understanding these things. And so, as the people realize the predicament they're in, they're now a snake-bitten people, poisoned by that serpent. They ask Moses to intercede for them. They need a mediator. Really interesting theme, start piling up. Snake-bitten people need a mediator with God or they will die. That sounds a lot like a much bigger redemptive thing, right? And so Moses, now again, if I were Moses, I'd be like, actually, I'm at lunch for another half hour, guys, so hopefully that venom doesn't work too quick. Like, no, that's not how Moses handled it. Moses, as mediator, prays for the people. Now obviously you know Christ's a greater Moses, a greater mediator. Even here, the prefiguring of that office that we will need in our lives is being shown in the life of Moses, right? So, we as a snake-bitten, poisoned, unbelieving people are always in desperate need of the meditatorial, intercessory role of Jesus Christ, far greater than Moses. Moses went to God to intercede for the people as a sinner. Oh, you've got a much better one, don't you? You have the Lord Jesus Christ who goes with perfect intercessions for snake-bitten people, and all of his intercessions and mediations receive a yes. He's never failed. So even there, we're seeing pictures that point forward and show us our need and the types, right? Prophet, priest, and king, any kind of prophet, any kind of priest, any kind of king are all types that would then point forward to Christ. Verse eight, Yahweh says to Moses, here's what you should do. Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole, and everyone who's bitten will see it and live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, set it on a pole, and if the serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. So a bit of an odd sort of way of dealing it. He could have just said, okay, it's fixed. Snakes go away, poison gone. But he doesn't. He tells him to put the snake on a pole, And to raise it up, now I'd wager, and we'll get to why I think this in a minute, I'd wager while we know that the snake was made out of what? It's called the bronze serpent because it was made out of bronze. Yeah, you're right. The pole is never said to be made out of bronze. I'd wager it's wood. Wager it's wood for a reason, but we'll get to that in a second. So he raises this bronze snake up on a stick, and anyone who looks at it lives. The thing works, and then that's the end of the entire story. Now, you would think, the people of Israel, what would you do with that bronze serpent after that day in the wilderness? Yeah, worship, you'd think you'd hang on to something like that. Like maybe this thing works again. It's, I guess, similar to like not taking all of your antibiotics, which is a no-no, and then keeping them for down the road, which I'm sure any doctor would tell you is a no-no, don't do that. They kind of hang on to the snake like old antibiotics. It's a no-no, you shouldn't do it. You realize that dumb thing follows them around, not like because it has a mind of its own, because they carry it with them. If you just read your Bible, all the way in 2 Kings, under the new reign of King Hezekiah, it says that he did a lot of great stuff, 2 Kings 18.4. Hezekiah removed the high places. He broke down the pillars. He cut down the Asherah. And he broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it. They even had a name for the dumb thing. It was called Nehushtan. And you're just going like, this means of deliverance, this gift. They're like, you know, we should worship this thing. that they had just made and put on a dumb stick. Man, they didn't learn anything. They carry it around wondering, like a good luck charm, maybe there'll come a time where this thing starts working again. Fascinating how we cling to old ways of deliverance or escape. Just fascinating. That would have been hundreds and hundreds of years later. And Hezekiah, thankfully, had had enough and cut the thing up. Well, that's how the story ends, but that's not the extent of those themes, right? They put the serpent on the pole and people get healed. And if you're not thinking kind of bigger, more broadly, you kind of go, huh, weird story. I'll check the boxes that I did my reading today. But if you stopped and asked questions, What would be the question you'd ask? And if you get it right, it functions as the third point. What question would you be asking at this point in the story? Why put a snake on the pole? At least that's the one I would ask. What an odd thing, right? Like, can you imagine if you had a bunch of rattlesnakes afflicting you, like, you know what? I'm going to put a rattlesnake, like, not a dead one, but just like a bronze one. You'd be like, no, I've seen enough snakes. I don't want to see any more around here. But that's what they do. Why a serpent? Now there's a really easy surface level answer. Well, because it's the dumb thing that bit them. That's not really a satisfactory one. But there's a reason I say, why a snake? And part of it's tied to this story, but there's something I read further down in the Bible that made me ask it a whole lot more. Jesus actually says that he, like the serpent, will be raised. Jesus actually says that I'm that bronze serpent, which then makes me ask that question a whole lot more. Why was that a snake on the pole? If I were to just take a step back, like, I go from Numbers chapter 21, and I go all the way to John chapter three, and I'm like, oh, Jesus says that he's like that, and I run all the way back to Numbers 21, And I gotta keep going that way. What is, because it's an odd thing to look at, right? A serpent. What was the very first thing in all the Bible that's cursed? The serpent. Why would you put the very, I mean, like, some things that happen first don't really matter, like, it's just by happenstance, but other things that happen first are kind of important. He's the first thing cursed. Genesis chapter 14 says, and Yahweh said to the serpent, because you've done this, misled Eve, more cursed are you above all the livestock. I mean, that's pretty extensive. More than all the other critters, you're the most cursed one. Even more than cats. Sorry for those of you who like cats. And on your belly you shall go and eat dust all the days of your life. So you read that. You read a verse like Genesis 3, 14. More curse and now you're gonna crawl on your belly. A couple more questions should boil up. The first question that should come to your mind is, if he crawled on his belly after that, what did he do before that? And your mind would jump to Revelation 20 where he's called a dragon. Fascinating, I'll just leave that there. Carolyn thinks I'm crazy when I was talking to her about this today, but anyway, we'll move on. After you got past the did it fly or have legs question, you'd get hopefully down to a further question, why look at a cursed thing? Right? To be healed, they were told, you see that stick? And there's something on top of it. That's a snake, the most cursed thing, the most cursed animal and the first cursed thing there ever was. Yeah, look at it and you'll get better. I think we're meant to ask some questions like this. It's not just that the snake was cursed once. It's actually cursed twice because I mentioned it's probably on a wood pole. You got something against wood poles? No, I don't have anything against wood poles, but I read the rest of the law, and the law told me in Deuteronomy 21 that if a man commits a crime that's punishable by death, he should be put to death. And when you hang him on a tree, piece of wood, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man on a tree is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that Yahweh, your God, is giving you as an inheritance. So the snake's double cursed. It's a cursed animal, and it's propped up in a cursed way. Fascinating, the imagery behind that law. So remember who gave the law, right? It's God. God wove this piece into it. It's actually the first time in all of the book of Deuteronomy He curses something. It's actually this curse. The snake was the first thing cursed in all the Bible. In the re-giving of the law, Deutero, second law giving, Deuteronomy. This is the first thing cursed there. You hang someone on a tree and they're cursed. The imagery is this. When you, not to get morbid. I guess we're talking about someone dying, so it's morbid. Anyway, we'll embrace the morbidity. When someone is raised on a tree, There's something being symbolized. If you dangle someone between heaven and earth, it shows something. Neither heaven nor the earth want this one. And it's a way of cursing them. It's not a light thing. It's the thing that God did to the snake. He cursed it. It's the thing that God did to the ground. It's the thing that God does throughout, I mean, lots of different places in the Bible. And he wove into the law this peace, if ever one hangs between heaven and earth, he's cursed. And here in this story we find a snake, cursed creature, hanging on a stick, cursed means, and if you looked at it, you would be made well. This is at the point of the story where I'm hoping you're going like, I hope this is going somewhere because this is a long walk for something. Well, let me quote Mr. Poitras again. He says, this story of redemption in the promise of the offspring of the woman, back in Genesis 3, implies that there will be a final remedy supplied by God, right? When God says, this might be commentating on what Poitras says, Parthos says, when you read Genesis 3.15, the seed of the woman will crush the head of the snake. You know that there's gonna be this long season of enmity or being an enemy of the snake, but there's going to be a final end to that wretched thing. There's gonna be a crushing of the head of that snake, and it'll come about by one who is born of a woman. Now already you've connected all the dots as to exactly who that is. Poitras continues, this final remedy will itself achieve redemption through a cursed object. So tie the pieces together. Israel found healing and life by gazing upon a cursed thing. Poitras says, When God showed you that in Genesis and then in Numbers 21, he's showing you there's a much bigger salvation coming. And salvation, that salvation is had by gazing in faith upon a cursed one, we'll say. Not a thing, but a one. It's interesting that if you consider what Christ said of himself in John chapter 3, you'd begin, I think, to see where Poitras and others are going with it. John 3.13 says, no one has ascended into heaven except you descended from heaven, the very son of man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the son of man will be lifted up. And whoever believes in him, notice all the themes come crashing back in, will have what? Eternal life. You might say, well, in what way would you call Christ a cursed one? Oh, he was hung on a tree. And Paul connects those dots for us in Galatians 3.13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. He quotes actually Deuteronomy 21 in that text. Paul said, you know that whole thing back there with Moses and the serpent, oh, it was pointing to a much bigger salvation. That you would gaze upon one who bore the curse for you. and in looking on him, you'll be saved by the bite of the serpent. In gazing on him as a, I know it's very odd for us to be thinking of Christ on the cross as a cursed one. If he isn't a cursed one on the cross, then guess what the law still has for you and for me? Curse. It's actually by, it was God's grace. Who gave the law in Deuteronomy? He did. He wove into his law, I don't know what else to call it, a mechanism by which one could be accursed, hang him on a tree. And I don't even have to ask you, did he know when he wrote that exactly what it was aimed at, that it was aimed always and ever at Christ? You know the answer to that. Imagine, I know it's hard for us, imagine God telling Moses, hey, write this down. You hang a man on a tree and he's cursed. A tree? Write it. Why? You'll see later. He wove away because there's nothing that Christ did on his own. that was curse-worthy. Now, you and I, we've managed that. We've managed it, well, quite a lot. There's a lot of stuff in my life and your life that's curse-worthy, that has earned the curse of God. We weave it into our kids' catechism. If my Geneva was in here, but she's out there and kids deserve God, I could ask her, Geneva, what does every sin deserve? The wrath and the curse of God. And when Christ died as he always had to have died on a tree, he bears the curse for all who would look to him by faith. You realize then that there is now because of that, it's staggering to think about, no curse left for you. A real man bore your curse on the tree. And it was the law of God that allowed him to be a curse-bearer, because nothing that he did earned it. But that law written, given on the plains of Moab, in a wilderness, oddly enough, to a ragtag group of faithless, doubting, wandering, complaining people. He told them, write this in the law. If you're hung on a tree, you're a curse. And he knew the whole time that Christ would be that ultimate one. He knew when he told Moses, put a cursed thing on a stick and hold it up, it'll save him. He knew exactly what kind of a gospel he was proclaiming. He's woven through all the old, all these same themes that come crashing in on our Lord Jesus Christ. So that the Old Testament then functions as schoolmaster preparing us for Christ, and after we find Him, we then run back. It's like watching a movie for the second time, and you see all the stuff you missed before. So the second time you read, and they raise the snake, you go, I see what they're doing now. He's been showing us our need of Christ to be a curse for us this whole time. I want to simply... I think a good question at this point is like, okay, what do I do with that? It's neat to see some big themes and stuff in the Bible, but what do I do with that? What do you want me to change about the way I live? Here's... I don't want to say it in a diminutive way. Here's all I want you to do with it. I want you to rejoice that there is now. no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There's no curse left. There's no guilt, power, authority, tyranny, slavery, or any of that that sin can threaten you with because Christ, for the joy that was before Him, endured the cross, something that made him a curse. So that you and I, rather than receiving the curse of God, oh, you receive the opposite. All the blessings due to a son and due to a daughter. All I want you to do in that is to treasure Christ more fully for who He is and what He's done, and to then rest in Him and what He's done. Don't try to add to it. You can't. Don't try to like, oh, I can work off some of the curse. No, you can't actually. Yeah, you can't. Rejoice in the full and free Savior you have in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our great God and Father, we thank you that you've sent the Lord Jesus Christ into the world to save sinners. And what a salvation has he worked for them. Oh, Father, we thank you that in your wisdom and in your power, you have saved serpent-bitten people like us. What can we do but give you our thanks and praise in our hearts? Oh, forgive us for all the ways we try to add to what our Savior's done. Cause us more and more to look to Him and not to ourselves. To trust Him. Oh, one who'd be willing to be made a curse is so trustworthy. Help us to evermore put our life in His hands. and to know that in Him we find all that we need. And He lacks nothing. We pray this in our Savior's name. Amen. We hope that you were edified by this message. For additional sermons as well as information on giving to the ministry of Grace Community Church, please visit us online at gracenevada.com. That's gracenevada.com.