Numbers chapter 21. Now if you are following along in the Pew Bible, this is found on page 178. Numbers chapter 21. And this morning we will look at verses 4 through 9. Numbers 21 verses 4 through 9. Page 178 in the Pew Bible? When you found that in your copy of God's Word, would you stand with me for the reading of God's Word, Numbers 21, verses 4-9, page 178 in the Pew Bible? And this is what Holy Scripture says. Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. And the soul of the people became very discouraged 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 is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread. So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he may take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole, and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. And so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived." And this is the word of the Lord. Thank you, you may be seated. The traditional symbol for medicine and health care is known as the rod of a sclepios. It is a staff that has a serpent entwined upon it. Now, this is often confused, even in the health care industry, with a different symbol. You might have seen a symbol that has two snakes intertwining a staff that has wings at the top. That's actually an entirely different symbol. It's not supposed to be the symbol for health, but it often ends up being the symbol for health because people have confused the two. But the Rod of Asclepios is actually a single rod that has a serpent that entwines it. In Greek mythology, that is called the Rod of Asclepios because in Greek mythology, the deity that is associated with healing and medicine is the god Asclepius. And people have tried to figure out in their mind, why is there this connection between a staff and an entwined serpent as a symbol for healing? And people have posed all kinds of different theories related to Greek mythology. They've said, well, in Greek mythology, sometimes their rituals involve the use of snakes. Sometimes their ritual involved poison from snakes. And there are all kinds of theories about it. Let me throw one more theory into the mix. Maybe, in ancient culture, there was some distant shadow memory of the event that we just read about in Numbers 21. A memory of a snake lifted up upon a pole that brought healing to all who looked at it. We have been looking at types. types that point us forward to Christ. And this is the final one that I'm going to do in this mini-series for now. This type is that bronze serpent. As we come to Numbers chapter 21, we have already noted in the past Israel's sad history of complaining. It seems almost that at every turn they're complaining, murmuring, charging God and Moses foolishly, claiming that God and Moses have intentions of just letting them die in the wilderness. By the time we get to Numbers chapter 21, let me give you a little list of the times that Israel has complained. When Moses first came to Israel, and then to Pharaoh, and said, let my people go, you might remember that Pharaoh made the Israelites make bricks without straw. When that happened, the Israelites complained. In Exodus 14, you might remember that as they came to the Red Sea, they complained against God and Moses, you've brought us out here to die. And of course, God parts the waves of the sea, parts the sea, and then as they have passed through on dry land, He causes that Red Sea to come crashing back down upon the Egyptians, delivering His people and defeating their enemies. But it's only one chapter later where, once again, the children of Israel complain at Marah. There's bitter water there, and they complain that they've just been brought out of the wilderness to die. Once again, God delivers them, having Moses throw a tree into that water, and that water becomes sweet. One more chapter later, in Exodus 16, they complain about hunger in the wilderness of sin. Remember, we talked about manna as that type of Christ. Well, they complain that they didn't have food. And once again, God delivered them by bringing manna. In Exodus 17, we talked about this as well, they complained about thirst, and God brought water from the rock. Again, another picture of Christ. We move forward in the story to Exodus chapter 32, when Moses is up on the mountain meeting with God, they complain about Moses' absence, and ask that a golden calf be made for them to worship. In Numbers 11, they complain about manna. They complain, we always have to eat manna. In Numbers 12, Moses and Aaron complain about Moses' leadership. In Numbers 14, the story of when spies went into Canaan. Ten were bad and two were good, as the Children's Song says. The 10 brought back the report. It's a beautiful land, but there's giants and walled cities, and the people say, we can't go up there. Remember, Joshua and Caleb said, no, if the Lord delights in us, we can go up. Let's go. The children of Israel complain that they've just been brought here to die, and they actually get to the point where they're wanting to murder God's leadership once again. And, as if that were not enough, in number 16, Korah, Dathan, Abiram complain about Moses' leadership. And they're able to get a lot of people on board. God actually causes the very earth to open up and swallow them, dramatically showing that He is God and the leaders that He has chosen are the right leaders. That's not all the complaining that they do though. We looked last week at Numbers 20. How in Numbers 20 they complained about lack of water another time. And you remember this time Moses, instead of speaking to the rock, he strikes the rock twice. But there's another example of their complaints. And now we find yet once more, the people complain. Despite the pattern of God's gracious provision and His just punishment, the people once again complain. Now it's good for us to remember that these people are now in a condition of wandering. They came right to the edge of the promised land, but were not allowed to enter in because of unbelief. And now they're in that wandering stage. But it's also important for us to recognize that this is almost at the end of their wandering. Moses is just about to die. Of the 40 years of wandering that has transpired, probably 39 plus have happened at this point. Pretty much everyone who had rebelled and refused to enter into the promised land are now dead. And the people that are there for the most part at this point are people who will have the privilege of entering into the promised land. They will see God's goodness in a very real way in the land of the living. And still they complain. The scripture tells us that they became discouraged as they journey. They're going around the land of Edom, and they become very discouraged in the way. It's very good for us just to take note of this in passing, to be careful in our own times of discouragement, that we do not lose faith in our God and do not fall to murmuring. And this is what they say. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread." Now let's break that apart a little bit. Once again, they complain that God has brought them to die in the wilderness. When the reality is that most of them, at this point, are a year or less from entering the promised land. Furthermore, they complain that they've been brought to die in the wilderness when God has over and over and over again delivered His people, even when they complained and murmured. And then, as if that were not enough, they complain with one breath that there is no food, and in the next breath they complain about the food they have. Do you notice that? They say, there is no food. And then they say, and our soul loathes this worthless bread. It's a reminder to all of us that in our faithless discouragement and murmuring, we say things that just don't make sense. We become irrational when we're irritable. There's no food and water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread God had at every moment prepared for the needs of His people. He had preserved His people in the wilderness. And even by their own testimony it was not true, for there was bread, there was food. But notice how they describe that bread. And this is perhaps incredibly shocking, Our soul loathes, hates this worthless bread. We detest this worthless bread. What kind of bread is this? Worthless bread? This is bread from heaven. This is bread that has sustained the people of God for almost four decades in the wilderness. worthless bread. This is God's own provision for a murmuring people. It is a provision that has sustained them. It is a provision that will sustain them, all the way to the Promised Land. And yet, they complain that it's worthless. When we doubt God, and doubt His goodness, We often have a tendency to look at even His gifts as though they were some kind of blemishes or curses. The very thing that they ought to have been praising and thanking God for, instead they have come to hate. There are a lot of practical lessons for us, of course, from this passage. I wonder if we have learned them. I think that it takes a lifetime of learning. Maybe we think we've grown in a certain area and we fall back. I read before from 1 Corinthians 10, God, through Paul, says, but with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now, these things became our examples to the extent that we, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted, and do not become idolaters, as were some of them. We think about that, we think about their desire for Egypt, we think about their activities at the base of Mount Sinai, we think about their asking for a god to be made for them in the midst of their complaining. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and rose up to play. And I will not go into all of the details about that, but when it says they rose up to play, it's not talking about Nintendo, okay? Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 fell. Nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by serpents. That brings us right here, doesn't it? Nor complain, as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." And there's a lot of warning for all of us in that passage, isn't there? But I want us today primarily to turn from these lessons that we can learn and should learn from the failures of the Israelites, I want us to turn from these lessons to lift our eyes to that bronze serpent who is the type of our Savior. We see in the passage that as a result of their wicked murmuring, God sent fiery serpents among the people." The fiery there describes the fact that they are poisonous serpents, and when they bite, the feeling is like one of burning because of the venom. In fact, certain venom actually that is poisonous will actually, in a sense, burn as it consumes the flesh that it impacts. He sends these fiery serpents among the people. They bite the people, and many of the Israelites die. And many of them face death, having been bitten. The people come to Moses, and they recognize that they have sinned. They say, we have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that he will take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. God could have, in this moment, simply eliminated the serpents. He was the one that sent them. He could have sent them packing. He was the one who sent them. He was the one that created them. He could have simply eliminated them. But God didn't do it that way. Now the reason why God didn't do it that way is because He is using this, He is going to use this as a type of the Christ to come. So the Lord tells Moses, make this fiery serpent, set it on a pole, and it shall be that everyone who has bitten when he looks at it shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, put it on a pole, and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. This punishment was deserved, and it was deadly. Those bitten by these snakes would die as a result of the poison. But God made provision. One author says this, the bronze serpent was God's provision for the perishing. We think about this, think about the background of the children of Israel in Egypt. Do you remember any occasions where there were serpents encountered back in Egypt? Well you might remember when Moses stood before Pharaoh. And the magicians of Egypt cast their rods down and they became serpents. But God had Aaron toss his rod down, Aaron's rod. And what happens? That rod becomes a snake that consumes the magician's snakes. That is, God's power and God's judgment were seen as sovereign over all those other serpents. It would have been a pretty frightening thing. Mike is not here today, but it would have been a pretty frightening thing, not just for people like Mike who are terrified of snakes, but for just about anyone to see rods cast down and they slither around. And yet there's one rod that's cast down and it consumes all of them. God's power and judgment is sovereign over all the serpents, over all those serpents of evil. And here again, in a different kind of way, we see that God's serpent, the serpent of God's provision triumphs over all other serpents. No matter how powerful and deadly those serpents were, the serpent of God's provision, the serpent lifted up upon the pole. When people looked to that serpent, they were healed. That symbol of that serpent was never meant to be an end in itself. It was never meant to be an object of worship. The instructions were simple, from Moses to the people who were perishing. Look, and you'll live, essentially. We sing that hymn, don't we? Look and live. You might imagine some hardened, rebellious, cantankerous old Israelite, grumpy as could be, he gets bitten by the snake, and he hears, if you just look at that snake on the pole, you'll be healed. Well that's ridiculous. I've already been bitten by one snake, why should I look at another one? And he might resist that. The way of mercy is open, but he refuses to look. He will die in his iniquity, because he didn't believe the message and didn't look to God's provision. Over time, what had been a symbol of God's kindness and grace in the wilderness would become an object of worship. Hundreds of years later, it turns out, in the time of Hezekiah, when Hezekiah comes to reign, the people of Israel are actually worshipping the bronze serpent that Moses had made. Actually, the scripture says they burned incense to it. That was not the point. This was a symbol that showed God's grace for the perishing. And yet they look to it as a god. You might remember what Hezekiah did. Hezekiah broke that thing into pieces. He destroyed that snake. And you might say, how could you do such a thing? Hezekiah, that's an important historic artifact. How could you destroy such a valuable thing? It's better that that thing be destroyed than that it be worshipped. It was never meant to be worshipped, but it's anti-type was. The type, the bronze snake. The anti-type, Jesus Christ. The type, the shadow, the bronze snake. The reality, Jesus. The foreshadowing, the bronze snake. The fulfillment, Jesus. particularly Jesus lifted upon a cross. So let's turn to John chapter 3, to see the connection here. I'm sure that some of you are already thinking in your mind of this passage. You remember this connection already. John chapter 3. starting in verse 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." Jesus Himself identifies Himself, particularly His manner of death, and what it accomplishes. He identifies that with the type of the bronze serpent. We could say it this way. Jesus is God's provision for the perishing. More so, Jesus is God's provision for the spiritually dead. He was lifted up to save us. Again, notice those words. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Jesus is so much greater than that Old Testament type. For Jesus saves us spiritually, completely. That snake in the wilderness, a person bitten by a fiery serpent could look to the snake and be healed of that bite. The venom that coursed through their veins would no longer be deadly. They were saved. But every single one of those people who were bitten by snakes and looked to the serpent and were healed still died. They still died. The Old Testament type saved those who were physically afflicted. But the context of this passage focuses us upon the spiritual. That we, who look in faith to Jesus, would not perish, but have eternal life. That bronze serpent saved, for a time, physically, And that was all. But Jesus provides for us eternal life. Again, look at verse 15. That whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. As if that were not enough, verse 16, which we, I think, all know so well. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Jesus saves us spiritually. Furthermore, Jesus saves us eternally. Once again, those that Old Testament type saved physically in that moment, those who look to that serpent would still die physically eventually. But those who look in faith to Jesus have eternal life. The very Life of God, by His Spirit, is in the soul of the believer. And they will never perish. Even if a person perishes physically, they will live spiritually. And they will live again physically, because Jesus, who was lifted on a cross, also was raised from the dead. And so, Jesus saves eternally, spiritually, and in time, by virtue of His own resurrection, we will be lifted to new life, given resurrected bodies. What a glorious thing to look forward to. But Jesus, we must note, saves not only spiritually and eternally, But Jesus saves sacrificially. And that really is the point of the lifting up. It's not just about exalting Jesus. Of course we should exalt Jesus. But this idea of being lifted up is speaking about the manner of Christ's death. We see this later in John 12, 32-33. By the way, Jesus will use this expression throughout John's Gospel, this idea of being lifted up. But Jesus will say in John 12, 32-33, and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself. There's a guy in the church that I used to attend, who was a very zealous man, and very, very loved to share the Gospel with people. And his key verse was this verse. If I am lifted up, I'll draw all men to myself. And he would quote this. He says, I just lift up Jesus. I just lift up Jesus. And that's a good thing to do. But in context, that lifting up actually refers to the manner of death. Because we read one verse further, Jesus says, if I have lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself. This he said, signifying by what death he would die. Should we lift up Christ? Certainly. But the point of comparison here, the point of this type and anti-type is that just as that serpent was lifted up on a pole, so our Savior would be lifted up on a cross. In that Old Testament type, an inanimate substance, bronze, was beaten together and shaped into Something that looked like a snake. But that was simply a metal that was shaped together and then put on a pole. In the anti-type, the fulfillment of this, Jesus takes upon himself flesh and blood. That's what we just celebrated at Christmas time, the incarnation. He takes upon himself flesh and blood so that he can become the anti-type as he himself is lifted up physically to die on a cross. That death on a cross was a horrible death, a shameful death. It was a death that was feared, loathed, despised. And yet Jesus despised the shame of that. It was lifted up so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And again, we think about that this season and we remind ourselves that Jesus was laid in a manger that he might be lifted on a cross. This was foreshadowed in the Old Testament in types and predicted in particular prophecy. Prophecies such as Isaiah 53. where we read, he is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him, stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. all we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Later, in the same chapter, the scripture says, He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge. My righteous servant shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." Jesus numbered with the transgressors. The death upon the cross is the death of criminal. But it was more than just the fact that it was the death of a criminal. Jesus was numbered with the transgressors in a far more profound sense. The sense in which we sing in our hymn, in my place condemned he stood. He's numbered with the transgressors. He pours out his soul to death. I've told you this story before, but a woman that I know, her dad was a Jewish man, one of the top psychologists in New York City at the time, a younger man with a brilliant career ahead of him. And one day someone read to him, Isaiah 53. And this young man, though from a devoutly Jewish background, had never encountered that passage of scripture. So when he heard it, he thought that it was something else. He thought it was something from the New Testament. And his response to this person was, anyone who is standing at the cross could have written that. And the person turned the Bible around and showed this man that this is a prophecy of Isaiah, hundreds of years before Jesus was even born. And God used that testimony and that passage to convert him. And his whole life changed. Because he saw Jesus as the fulfillment of that prophecy. He saw Jesus as the One who had poured His soul out unto death. He saw Jesus as the One upon whom the Lord had laid the iniquity of us all. I wonder, friend, if you have seen Jesus in this way. And seen Jesus in this way in a particular sense. Do you see, number one, that Jesus is the one who was lifted up upon the cross so that whoever believes in Him would have eternal life? But have you seen that for you, for yourself? Not just in some sort of an abstract way, yes, Jesus is the Savior of the world. But rather, that Jesus is my Savior. Have you placed your faith and trust in Him? I can imagine someone there in the wilderness, as people are dying of these snakebites. He might be told by everyone, that snake over there that you look at in faith, that is the way to get healing. And he might even on some level believe it. But until he personally looked at that snake, that venom would still have its deadly effect within his own body. It's one thing for you in some sort of a random, abstract way, yes, Jesus is the Savior of the world, to believe that, but until you believe in Him, you are still on your path to a Christless eternity. You are still in the way of death. Oh friend, turn and trust in Him today. And let me say to those who have trusted in Jesus, may 2026 be a year in which we lift up the one who was lifted up. May this be a year that we exalt Christ with our lives, with our lips. May this be a year where we are focused upon the greatness and glory of our Savior. Oh, many of us have wasted far too long living for our own desires, our own ambitions, our own selfish and silly, our own selfish and silly lusts. Let us live for Jesus in 2026. So brothers and sisters, let us lift up the one who was lifted up.