Numbers 21:4-9: How to Live when You're Dying
Have you ever gone to church and you looked at the bulletin and you thought to yourself, I don't think this sermon is really going to apply to me. Maybe it's Father's Day and the sermon is talking about being a father, and you think to yourself, "I don't have any kids - I'm not a father - this doesn't apply to me." Or there's a sermon series on marriage, and you are single, and you say to yourself, "This doesn't apply to me, I don't have a spouse." What about the sermon for today - how to live when you're dying. Well, I'm not dying, you might say to yourself. I haven't been diagnosed with any bad diseases - I know people who are in bad shape, but I'm not one of them. I'm not really all that old - so I'm not sure if this sermon for today is really for me - how to live when you're dying. I'm not dying."
I'm glad you're not dying. It's a blessing from God if you're not on your deathbed right now. That's a good thing. But if you think about it, we're all dying, in some way or another. I don't want to be a negative person, but this sermon, these words of Scripture, might apply to you and to me more than we might think. Let's take a moment and let God speak to us through this part of the Bible - and as we do, you might find out some things out about God and about yourself that you had not thought of before. How to live when you're dying - God teaches us how, here in Numbers 21…
In this part of the Bible we meet a bunch of people that were not very happy. It's the people of Israel - God was leading them out of Egypt and to the promised land of Israel. But something was happening that was making the people very unhappy - it wasn't an easy trip. They were literally in the middle of nowhere, in a very hot and dry desert. And the trip was taking longer than they wanted. It says here that "the people grew impatient along the way" - kind of like how you and I feel when the red light is taking too long to turn green - magnify that by 1000. They started to complain: "They spoke against God and against Moses." They didn't like the food that God was giving them. They didn't trust that God was going to give them any water. They were not happy and they started to attack God with their attitudes and their words. And they started to attack Moses.
Then God does something here that, at first, seems to be a little harsh. It says that God sent venomous snakes among them that bit the people and many Israelites died. Why did God do that? These people needed to learn that their complaining was very inappropriate. You're not supposed to be disrespectful to God and accuse him of not loving you or caring for you. You're not supposed to forget about all the good things God has done for you in the past. You're not supposed to attack God or God's representative Moses. Really, what these people were doing was rebelling against God and rejecting his love with their complaining. They were pushing God away and they needed a wake-up call because they were spiritually dying. If they kept rejecting God like this, they would all end up in hell.
And so God sent the snakes. People were getting bitten. People were dying all over the place. It was a wakeup call. And God's plan worked. "The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against God and against you." They confessed their sins of rebellion and disrespect, and asked Moses to pray for them. They realized that they were dying, not just because of the snakes, but because of their rebellion against God.
Now let's stop there and apply this to ourselves. Have you ever been bitten by a snake before? I'm very thankful that that has never happened to me. I've had a lot of bug bites in my life. I've been bitten by a few dogs, but never a snake. What about you? Do you realize that all of us have been bitten by a snake, in a way? Do you remember how Adam and Eve fell into sin? They rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden when they listened to the temptation of the Devil. What disguise did the Devil take when he tempted them? He took on the form of a snake. And Adam and Eve let the Devil bite them, tempt them into sin. And that's when the deadly poison of sin entered into the world.
And ever since then, we've all inherited that deadly poison of sin. In a sense, you have been bitten, and so have I - sin lives inside of us, and it's been there ever since we've been conceived. And if sin is inside of you, then you are officially dying, there's no way around that. You can take a test to see if sin is inside of you and if you're dying.
Here's the test - have you ever been angry at God before, like the people of Israel in this story? Have you ever been discontent with the way God has taken care of you? Have you ever doubted God's love? Have you ever complained under your breath about the life and the circumstances God has given you to? Have you ever had a bad thought about one of God's representatives, whether it be a pastor or teacher or a parent or grandparent? Has something every come out of your mouth that should not have been said, just like the people of Israel here? Have you ever had to say, "I'm sorry" in your life? Or maybe you should have, but you didn't?
You see, there is sin inside of you. That's the diagnosis. And when you have sin, then it's only a matter of time until you die. It's bad news - you're dying, even if you don't feel it right now as you sit there. Dying of sin. That's what everyone dies of - there are different earthly causes of death - old age - cancer - car accident - the list goes on and on - but ultimately, the reason people die is sin. If there were no sin, there would be no death. Even with all the advances in modern technology and modern medicine, the death rate has remained the same in the United States and all over the world - 100% - no one escapes it, because everyone has sin.
And so, how do you live, when you're dying? The people asked Moses, "Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us. So Moses prayed for the people." God did not take the snakes away, at least, not at first. But God did give them a way to live, even when they were dying. He told Moses to take some metal, some bronze, and shape it into a snake, and put it up on a pole where everyone can see it. And then, when someone was bitten by a poisonous snake, and they looked at that bronze snake up on that pole, they would live. God's promise of life was connected to that snake on the pole. Look at it, and live.
What does God want you and me to look at, when we realize that we are dying of sin? Where do we place our eyes? There is no bronze snake on a pole for us. But there is something else - instead of a pole, there is a cross. And instead of snake, there is Jesus. Look at Jesus on the cross, and live, God tells us. Jesus talked about this in the New Testament when he said: "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."
Have you ever thought about that before - a person who has sin on the inside and who has been committing sins all his life - that person looks at Jesus on the cross - believes in him - and that person lives forever. It's that easy! There are no hoops you have to jump through, no promises you have to make, no contracts you have to sign, no religious rituals you have to go through - the person who is dying of sin looks at Jesus on that cross, believes in him, and has eternal life.
A little girl and her father were going to a funeral. The Mom had died suddenly. She was a Christian, and the father told his daughter that Mom had gone to heaven to be with Jesus. But the girl still looked confused. "I thought that if you believed in Jesus, you would have eternal life," she said. "Didn't Jesus say that you would never die?"
The girl knew her Bible - Jesus did say "I am the Resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even thought he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." "Why did Mom die, if she believed in Jesus?" The little girl asked her dad. How do you answer that? Jesus says that believers live forever.
They were waiting at the corner of a busy street, and just as they were standing there, a large bus drove by them, and just for a moment, they were covered by the shadow of that bus. And that gave the father an idea. He said, "What would you rather get run over by - the bus, or the shadow of the bus?" "The shadow," said the girl. "That's right," said the dad. "The shadow doesn't hurt you. That's what Jesus has done to death - we don't get run over by death - just its shadow. Death doesn't hurt us - we're still alive after we die. We're in heaven. We're with Jesus. We live forever. Death is just a shadow. And the little girl understood.
That's what happens when you believe in Jesus. Death still comes. But it's not really death - it's just the shadow. You look at Jesus on that cross. You believe God's promise of eternal life. And you live, even when you're dying.
Those people in the desert looked at that bronze snake on the cross, and even though they were bitten by poisonous snakes and surrounded by other people who were dying, they lived. God gave them his undeserved love, and God gave them life. Today we are those people. We have been bitten by sin, and we are surrounded by death. And yet God gives us his undeserved love. We look at Jesus on the cross. We believe in God's promise of forgiveness and eternal life. And we live forever. Death is only a shadow. By God's grace, we have a life that never ends. Amen.
