Numbers 21: 4-9
*Background:
- End of 40 years desert
- Back at Kadesh (same place where 40 years earlier they had rebelled
- Edom wouldn’t let them pass, so forced to take a detour to avoid war
- Edom=Esau=their brother
- They just defeated king of Arad who had come against them (so where on an high?)
*They grew impatient, spoke against God.
I Cor. 10:9
9 We should not test Christ,[b] as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. ……..
11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.
12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!
( 3 greek manuscripts say Christ, 1 says Lord)
John 6:50
49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.
50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die.
51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
*Ultimately it was a rejection of Christ!
*Bitterness can set in in our lives!
-Hurt by brothers in Christ/ Disappointment/ Impatience/Sin/Rebellion/Brokenness/Guilt/Shame
*We blame God and our leaders (Our leaders are not ultimately responsible for our maturity (Train YOURSELVES to be godly)
*God gives a way out! Note: He doesn’t seem to remove the snakes (that area is infamous for snakes)/ He doesn’t miraculously heal anyone without any action from their side
– It took a choice of the will to step out of their tents and look at the snake! Surrender their pride/self righteousness/selfpity/right
John 3
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f]
15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[g]
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
– Lets step out of our tents of sin/of brokenness/selfpity
Lay down our pride and look to Jesus, and instantly you will feel his healing hand, washing you clean, healing you! He came to save, not to condemn! He loves you! He is waiting.