William Eno was a man who lived in the 19th through 20th centuries, growing up in New York City. He was able to witness some of the growing pains of the city, a city that was booming in many respects, but he noticed one shortcoming of the city when he discussed or told others about the details of the first traffic jam. in New York City. This was not involving cars, but it involved horse-drawn carriages. And what he said was that no one knew what to do in that moment. Everyone simply stopped moving. The police officers in the area did not know what to do. The drivers did not know. And so what did Mr. Eno do? Well, he would end up going to college, and he would invent things such as the stop sign, such as the one-way street, roundabouts, many things that have helped us on the road today. And the interesting thing about this man, Mr. Eno, is that he did all this. He invented these very important things without ever learning how to drive himself. This is just one example of irony. a state of affairs or events that seem deliberately contrary to what one might expect. And the scriptures have their own share of ironies, ironies of various kinds, and we'll come across one in our passage this morning. We might think about the story and the story of judgment that we hear, the bronze serpent, we might think that we know where it's going. But then the Lord, in his infinite wisdom, actually presents us a path that we never could have expected. And it results in his glory, in the salvation of Israel, and in bringing them back. So we'll see in this text how the Lord disciplines and redeems his people in an ironic way. We find ourselves in the third arc of the Book of Numbers. They have been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, but now they are starting to move towards the promised land once again. And has it been an easy road for them, has it? We know that they tried to go through the land of Edom. It had a rather convenient highway that would bring them to Canaan rather quickly. And when they spoke with the king of Edom and they asked for permission, he did not allow them to pass. Why was this? Was he perhaps a little jealous of the military might and the sort of traction that they were building as the people of God, and so he didn't want to deal with any possible struggles of a military perspective, perhaps. Was this just a case of longstanding sibling rivalry? The Israelites are the sons of Jacob, the Edomites are the sons of Esau, and perhaps this is just some familial struggles. We don't know. It could have been a little bit of both. But in the end, what this meant for Israel is that they had to take back roads to go to the promised land. They would not have an easy trek to that land. Israel also had to engage in battle. The previous section here, in the opening of chapter 21, gives us one of those occasions where they go to war with one of the Canaanite kings. It's been a tiring journey. It's been one that comes after 40 years of wandering. And yes, this is self-inflicted. They could have been in the land long ago, and yet they did not display faith in the God who saved them. But we can sympathize with their situation, can we not? The long car rides that start off promising, but then take longer than expected. There are road bumps ahead, things that we did not envision, and we get discouraged. We start to get grumpy. we grow impatient. In some sense, what the Israelites are going through is rather normal. We are a people prone to wander. As we go on our destination, as we walk towards the heavenly city, we can also be prone to wander. And this is what happened to the people of Israel. Our passage this morning says that they were literally growing short They were mentally spent on their journey. And we get to those points in our lives as well. We think about those things in life that just didn't turn out the way that we thought they would. You think of a particular job that you wanted, and it's not the job that you have at the moment. How about those relationships that you thought would last forever, and yet have fallen apart over time? perhaps life-given relationships that you've been blessed by, but it's met its end in death. There are so many frustrations that come in our lives as we live in a world filled with sin. How should then we respond to those difficulties, those frustrations? Well, the Israelites here give us an example of how we might respond, but it's not the one that we should follow. The Israelites had an opportunity to pause, to reflect, to think about what the Lord had done in bringing them up to this point. They could have turned to one another in the midst of their difficulties, in the midst of the long journey, the battles, the struggles, and said, wait on the Lord and be of good courage. The Lord has saved us. He will not abandon us. But what did they do instead? Look at verse five. The people spoke against God and against his messenger, Moses. In a sense, this is no different than what the Israelites have been doing since chapter 11 of Numbers. They are a complaining sort of people. But their way of speaking against the Lord intensifies. What do we read here? Why have you led us out of Egypt? They asked the Lord, can you hear the contempt in the question? They're saying, what, Yahweh, did you just save us from Egypt so that we could just die someplace else? What was the point of what you did so many years ago? This is not just impatience due to a long car ride. What the Israelites are showing us here is nothing short of open rebellion against the Lord who saved them. They say that they have no food or water, but is that actually true? The Lord has provided them food from heaven. Listen to this retelling from Psalm 78 about what the Lord has done. Yet the Lord commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven, and he rained down on them manna to eat, and gave them the food of heaven. Man ate of the bread of angels. He sent them food in abundance. Quite a contrast to what the Israelites are saying in these few verses, is it not? To this abundance of food, the food of heaven, as a psalmist declares, they say, we hate this. Now, boys and girls, have you ever had food on your plate that you didn't want to eat? perhaps vegetables, a food you've never tried before, and the adult who made the meal, perhaps your parents or family members, friends, might encourage you, take a bite, just try and see if you like it or not. They'll speak nicely to you, right? But then what happens when you say the words, I don't like this, this is gross? Their tone might change a bit. Will it not? Well, how do you think the Lord will respond when the people of Israel taste of the food of heaven, of the food that he prepared, and say, this is gross? He would not be pleased. The Israelites called this food worthless. One commentator says, think of any negative word. Any word at all that is negative, that is bad, it would fit with this Hebrew word that they use for worthless. The Israelites reject it. They want nothing to do with it. The Israelites have rejected the Lord's saving work and his providence in giving them food. When a child does not eat mom or dad's food, some sort of punishment usually follows. Well, it's the same in the case of the Israelites. If you're punished for not eating mom and dad's food, what do you think when you will not eat the Lord's food? The Lord responds to this act of rebellion with retribution. The Lord responds not with words, as he's done elsewhere in the book, but right away with action. The holy God of Israel will not allow open rebellion to be swept under the rug. He must judge Israel for this sin. And the way that he does it is quite perplexing. The Lord sends forth fiery serpents, verse six. What are these fiery serpents? Some commentators have their thoughts, some take a more fanciful route. They say, well, maybe something like fire-breathing dragons. Others begin to think about it and focus on the effect of the snake bite. Well, when a venomous snake bites an individual, what does it feel like? It feels like you're burning, like a fiery serpent. Whatever they are, this is bad news for the Israelites. These serpents are not your harmless garden snake hanging around in the backyard. One bite would prove lethal. If you are bitten, you would die. We don't know how long it would take, but no amount of antivenom would help the Israelites here. But this is not just bad news for the Israelites. This is bad news for us as well. What does this passage show us? It shows us the gravity of our sin. The judgment against Israel speeds up the punishment, but all sin, without distinction, deserves death. Sin deserves to be punished. But why does this happen to God's people? Israel is God's possession, His royal priesthood. He delivered them out of the land of Egypt. They're His, He saved them. Why are they still being punished? Hebrews 12 provides us some insight. Hebrews 12 gives us the heart behind discipline from the Lord. Listen to Hebrews 12, six. For the Lord disciplines the one that he loves and chastises every son and daughter whom he receives. Israel was disciplined sternly yet out of love. Even this form of judgment that would result in death for those rebelling against God is being used to bring people back, to bring Israel back to himself, which is what occurs in our passage this morning. The Israelites are woken up As they look around, their eyes are opened to the spiritual significance of their words from verse five. They see loved ones beaten, bitten, loved ones dying. They themselves are being bitten by these fiery serpents and they realize the significance of these words. This is not just another display of are we there yet syndrome. No, we have sinned against the Lord. They rebelled and rejected the God who delivered them from Egypt. But what can Israel do now? Numbers 15 tells us that there is no sacrifice available for intentional sin. Sin committed with a high hand. That means you knew that it was sin. You did it willingly. Has no provision of sacrifice. What can we do? Will all of Israel die by the bite of a serpent? Many years ago, a serpent helped end life in the garden for Adam and Eve. Will fiery serpents end the people of Israel? No, there is still a way out. they must go to their mediator, which is what they do in verse seven. Verse seven tells us what they did. The people came to Moses and said, we have sinned. We have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord. Intercede for us. It's the only way we can survive. And this is what Moses does. He's a faithful mediator. It's not the first time that we see Moses pleading for the people of Israel before the Lord. He's done it a few times just in this book. This brief passage does not tell us what he says, but we can imagine the words that Moses spoke. He appeals to God's character. Lord, you are slow to anger. You're abounding in steadfast love. He appeals to the promise. Lord, you promised our father Abraham that out of this people, the nations would be blessed. He pleaded Israel's case as any good mediator would. And yet, this is only a shadow. This is but a veil that points forward to the mediator of a new and better covenant. What Moses' intercession points us to is the arrival, the future arrival of the Messiah, of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what does 1 John 2 say about the ministry of our Lord? If anyone does sin, and sin we do, we have an advocate with the Father, an advocate. We are all sinners. We have all been bitten with a fatal bite due to our sin. We are due to die. And so what can we do? Plead to our mediator. Go to him. He will plead our cause before the Father. And so then, having heard the pleading of Moses, who points forward to the greater mediator, how does the Lord provide a way out for Israel? Well, to save Israel from the fiery serpents, the Lord uses a fiery serpent. Interesting. He commands Moses to make a serpent out of bronze or of copper and to set it on a pole. Why does God command Moses to make a serpent? It's quite perplexing, given the history of serpents. Well, we already mentioned a serpent before, the serpent in the garden, Satan. We know that Adam and Eve were tempted by the serpent. But all throughout the ancient Near East, serpents carried a religious significance. You can read of various ancient Near Eastern cultures that have gods of healing. In what form would this god take? The form of a serpent. Is the Lord seeking to make some sort of polemical comment? Maybe he's speaking against those pagan nations who have created false gods and have formed them into the image of a serpent? Perhaps, not exactly sure, but we can say two things about this use of the serpent. One, the Lord is not using the false gods of their day in order to accomplish his purpose. He is the one living and true God. He does not need help, especially from false gods made by fallen creatures. But secondly, what's the second thing we can say about this bronze serpent? This is the most important. The source of Israel's judgment becomes the means of their salvation from judgment. Why does God ask Moses to build a bronze serpent? Because the source of their judgment is going to be used as the means to bring them out of that judgment. This is the irony in our story. This is the irony of redemption. And we'll get back to that in a little bit. So what is Israel to do with a bronze serpent then? They are not to bow to it. They are not to touch it. They are not to pray to it. The other cultures would do that. Israel will not. What are they to do? They are to look. Not just look, but look in faith. believing that the Lord is able to save them from their affliction. What we don't find in this passage is the taking away of judgment. God does not figuratively snap his fingers and drives the serpents away. The serpents will still bite. Israel will still be disciplined. And so will we throughout our lives. But when Israel looks up and they see the symbol of God's grace, the serpent on a pole, they will be saved from impending death. They will be spared from the full force of that judgment. And this is so important to the passage that is repeated twice. If someone is bitten, all he or she must do is look and live. look, and live. We saw a few moments ago that in Moses' intercession, we see in a shadowy form the intercession of Jesus Christ. But the passage does not end here. Jesus himself alludes to this very story in John chapter three. We read these words earlier in our service. In a conversation with the Jewish leader Nicodemus, Jesus speaking to him in verse 14 says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up. that whoever believes in him would be saved, may have eternal life. The serpent on a pole was a sign, and it was not the end in itself. Just as a sign on the road informs us of what is to come, so the serpent functions as a sign, pointing past itself to a future point in history. It points Israel to their true Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the language that Jesus uses in John 3. It must happen. The Son of Man must be lifted up as the serpent was lifted up. Lifted up not on a pole, but on a cross. This narrative in the life of Israel, where they are judged and saved by means of the judgment, shows Israel that God's salvific purposes will come about through suffering. through suffering, it must come through suffering. It is through the suffering of Christ lifted up on the cross that we are saved from God's just wrath against sin. This is the irony of our redemption, that we are saved by means of suffering. Did anyone anticipate God using a serpent to save Israel from the bite of a serpent? Did anyone anticipate God using the death of his son to save us from eternal death? No. This is what the world calls foolishness. But ironically, this is the greatest display of wisdom that we have ever seen. We could not have thought this up ourselves. It could only have come from God, who is wisdom. But there are some differences between the serpent and the son. I'd like to list three. Three differences between the serpent and the son. One, the serpent is inanimate. It was simply the means used by God to save. The son is a person. The Son of God took on human flesh. Jesus Christ actually saves. The serpent was the means of redemption. The Son is the redemption. It is found in Him. Two, the serpent is not worthy of our adoration, but the Son is. As you read throughout the Old Testament, we do find the bronze serpent again in 2 Kings chapter 18. And what do we see the people of Israel doing there? They are idolizing the bronze serpent. They are worshiping it. And so what does King Hezekiah do, the good king? He smashes the bronze serpent into pieces so that Israel would not be tempted to idolize the bronze serpent again. Jesus, on the other hand, is worthy of our adoration. We are to bow before him. We are to come to him in worship and adoration for who he is, because he is God. So the serpent, not worthy of adoration, but the son is. Then three, when Israel looked up, they looked up and saw the serpent on a pole. But when we look up, spiritually speaking, when we look up with the eyes of faith, we do not see the sun on the cross. We see him lifted up in glory, ascended. And as you read the gospel of John, you come to realize that this being lifted up language that Jesus uses throughout has a double meaning. Jesus spoke of the cross. He was to be lifted up in suffering. But then right behind, as he used this language of being lifted up, what was he also looking towards? His being lifted up in glory. His being lifted up in suffering and in glory. And that is where we see him now, in his ascension. We look up to Christ in the heavenly places where he lives, where he reigns, and where he gives us life by his spirit. Christ was lifted up in suffering and in glory for our salvation. As one pastor put it, God raised his son so high that all the world may see him, believe in him, and live. And if you don't know this son of God, Jesus Christ, today is the day of salvation. Look to the son and live. Come before him admitting your need for salvation, your need for redemption from sin, and you'll find a savior who is better, who is greater than the bronze serpent from our passage. And as we bring things to a close, I would like us to consider one point of application. We talked about this earlier in our time together. It's worth considering again. We are spared from eternal death because of Christ. But what does that mean for discipline today? We mentioned this earlier. God disciplines us as children, out of love. The Lord, in his kindness, will discipline us in our moments, days, seasons, years of rebellion. The Christian life is not a life spared of discipline. Now I don't wanna speculate and try to discern whether certain providences in your life or in my life are certainly a sign of judgment. That can be unhelpful, that can be even harmful at times. But one way we do know for certain that the Lord uses for discipline is through the use of godly elders, through the means of church discipline. The Lord uses that in a powerful way. It's not meant to be heavy-handed. It's not meant to be done out of contempt for a wayward individual. It's done in love, out of a desire to see him or her repent and turn back. And this passage illustrates this for us. The Lord judged Israel in order that Israel would be saved from themselves and return to their God. And this is why we are disciplined, brothers and sisters. Do not consider God's discipline as a sign of your rejection, of his rejection. It is a sign of your acceptance. He disciplines you because he considers you to be a son and daughter. He will not allow you to destroy yourself. So we are not spared of discipline, but we are spared of its full force, because that has been paid by the Lord Jesus Christ. So what are we to do in these moments when the Lord disciplines us? How should we respond? We are to look up. We are to look up with the eyes of faith and see the Lord Jesus Christ standing as our mediator, as our advocate. We are to remember that he received the full force of judgment that was due to us. We are to remember the cost His life. And we are to turn from our sin and to turn to God. We will not be rejected, but we will be received. Why? Because the Lord has promised that it would be so. Because Christ has exhausted the full force of God's wrath by His death. Because Christ pleads our case before the Father. It's because Christ promised that you would be received again into his arms. It's not because of your goodness, my goodness. It's not because of our faithfulness. It's because of Christ's faithfulness. And that is why we can call this message Good News. Let us pray. Father, we Lift up the sun. We want to see him exalted as he is. We want the world to see him as he is, in glory, ascended, risen, reigning, and giving life. We pray for those that are not near you, who have not seen the glory and the beauty of Jesus Christ and of his gospel. We ask that your spirit may use this word to pierce their hearts, to show them their need for a Savior, and to show them in its full display the Savior that they don't deserve, but that it is available to them even now, the Lord Jesus Christ. We think of His dear brothers and sisters, some of whom are in periods of spiritual decline, perhaps even waywardness, And Lord, we ask that those moments of discipline, those occasions would not be received in vain, but may be used by you to turn them away from their sin, to turn them away from the paths of destruction, that they may walk in that straight and narrow way again. And Lord, we all are in need of the Lord Jesus every day. May we not take him for granted, but may we glory in his finished work accomplished for us and now true in us by faith. Help us, Lord, remind us of that beautiful truth so that every day we may walk as a people renewed and being renewed, as we may walk as a people with a renewed sense of mission. knowing that you desire the nations to be saved, many more, and Lord, we think of how the nations have even come to our neighborhoods, and we ask that you may provide us opportunities to share this great and glorious news. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who is greater than the bronze serpent. We thank you that he is with us even now. It's in his name that we pray, amen.