I want to begin our message this morning by talking about how a virus works; which I think is an appropriate topic, considering what we’re facing right now in our nation and the world. So, I want to start by saying that viruses do not contain the enzymes needed to carry out the chemical reactions for life. Instead, they carry only one or two enzymes that decode their genetic instructions. So, a virus has to have a host cell in order to live and to replicate more viruses. Outside of a host cell, viruses just can’t function. Now, scientists say that, for this reason, viruses tread the fine line that separates living things from nonliving things.
Viruses, what they do is they, lie around our environment all the time waiting for a host cell to come along; and then once inside, the viral enzymes take over and begin making copies of the genetic instructions to make new viruses. And once the new viruses are made, they break the host cell open and destroy it, which can lead to debilitating symptoms within a person. It can even lead to death.
The Bible mentions something that works like this, which is the devil and his demons. Like a virus, Satan and his minions have no life within them; and they lie in wait for a host. 1 Peter 5:8 warns, “Your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” The devil infects people, seeking to infiltrate their life with sin, which ultimately ends in spiritual death (Romans 6:23); so, Satan is the virus and sin is the illness.
But thankfully, many viruses can be kept at bay, or even eradicated, with a vaccine. The way a vaccine works is actually quite amazing. The virus is manipulated and a person is injected with a dead strain of the virus; thus, the vaccine imitates an infection, which causes the immune system to produce antibodies. And once the infection goes away, the body is left with a supply of “memory” antibodies, which will remember how to fight that illness in the future.
Just as the Bible warns of something, or someone, like a virus; it also speaks of something, or Someone, like a vaccine. Just as a vaccine imitates an infection, God’s cure for sin came into the world imitating the form of human flesh, identifying with our weaknesses; being in all points tempted as we are, yet – and this is most important – yet, without sin (Hebrews 4:15). The Bible tells us of God’s cure for sin, that “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21); and a little later on I’m going to tell you what, or rather Who, the cure actually is.
Now, the technique for developing a vaccine was supposedly discovered quite recently, around 1796 by Edward Jenner; but God has been using His perfect and once-and-for-all vaccine for nearly 2000 years! He was even using a prototype since the time of Moses; one known as the Law! This morning, as we look at Numbers chapter 21, we’re going to see two ways in which the vaccine for sin has been used by the Lord throughout history. We’re going to see how it was used on the children of Israel, and how can be used on people today; and so, I’ve entitled our message this morning, “The Ultimate Vaccine.”
The Fiery Bite of Sin (Numbers 21:4-9)
4 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. 5 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.” 6 So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. 7 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 take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 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.” 9 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.
Here, we see the Israelites having to “go around the land of Edom” (v. 4), as the Edomites refused to allow them to pass through their territory. The Scripture says they “became very discouraged” (v. 4). Just prior to these verses, we learn that the people had just been shown a great victory against the Canaanites; yet, even though the Lord had shown them His mighty power and granted them a victory at Hormah, they began to lose faith. They started complaining about their situation, and they doubted God and His servant Moses, saying, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?” (v. 5).
So, the Lord’s anger was kindled because of the Israelite’s lack of faith, and He sent fiery serpents among the people. Now, the word “fiery,” in verse 6, is translated from the Hebrew word saraph, meaning “burning.” Fiery does not describe the appearance of the serpents, but the inflammation and pain caused by their venom. Those bitten died quickly, and apparently their death was excruciating.(1)
“A bountiful supply of manna had been sent from heaven each [and every] morning since shortly after the exodus . . . but the people had gotten so accustomed to their blessing that they detested ‘this good-for-nothing bread’” (Numbers 11:4-6), as they called it.(2) The Israelites were unthankful and they began complaining, which was considered as sin in the sight of the Lord!
In verse seven, we can see how the people realized their sin, and they acknowledged it, saying, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you.” And then, they asked Moses to pray for them; demonstrating an example of confession of sin and intercession, which is the biblical precedent and starting point for getting our lives right with God.
For example, in the New Testament parable of the prodigal son, in Luke 15:21, the prodigal confessed his sin, saying, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.” Now, in looking at the Israelite’s confession, I want you to notice how they were “specific” in stating “exactly” in what way they had sinned. So, when the Lord convicts us of our shortcomings, then we too need to be specific when confessing our sin to God.
When the Israelites asked Moses to pray for them, Moses became their intercessor. And today, when someone acknowledges his or her sin before God, then Christ becomes our intercessor. Hebrews 7:25 tells us of Jesus that “He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them,” and then, in 1 Timothy 2:5-6, we read, “There is one God and one mediator [or intercessor] between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all.”
So, Moses prayed for the people just as they requested, “but the Lord didn’t answer in the way the people might have expected. Instead of immediately removing the serpents and healing the people who had been bitten, God instructed Moses to make a serpent of [bronze] and put it on a pole where all the people could see it. If those who had been bitten looked at the serpent they would be instantly healed.”(3)
So, why did God have Moses do such a thing? Could the sight of the serpent have cured them? Well, not exactly. You see, it wasn’t the sight of the serpent that cured them, but in looking up, they were looking upward unto God to see Him as the One who healed them. The end result was that the serpent, which was the very thing that harmed the Israelites, became the agent of healing.
The Symbol of Death Brings Life
Now, from this passage of Scripture is derived a well-known symbol in American society, which is the symbol for the American Medical Association and various other practices of medicine. This iconic symbol is none other than the serpent on the pole. The serpent on the pole represents healing, but many people do not realize that the healing it represents isn’t the medicine of man, but the divine medicine of God.
When the serpent, which was the agent of harm, became the agent of healing, it was sort of like a vaccine. So, let me apply this. As we walk through our own land of Edom, what we call “life” and all its various trials, we too can become discouraged because of the challenges along the way. We might do as the Israelites, and question and complain, saying, “Why, Lord, have you brought me here? Are you just going to leave me here with no deliverance?”
When we begin doubting God, we fall prey to sin. Let me point out that when the Lord sent fiery serpents among His people, He was allowing them to feel the bite of sin. Proverbs 23:32 tells us about sin, that “it bites like a serpent, and stings like a viper.” In the book of Revelation, Satan is called the “great red dragon” (Revelation 13:3). So, the devil is the fiery serpent who comes against us. The Bible tells us that he is the serpent who will bruise our heel (Genesis 3:15), and that his temptations are as fiery darts (Ephesians 6:16).
In looking at verse seven, we learn that when a person sins, that he needs to confess to God in what way he has sinned, and then ask for the Lord’s forgiveness. 1 John 1:8-9 tells us, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
In our passage from Numbers, we see how the people asked God to take away the serpents, but the Lord did an unexpected and ironic thing. He took the symbol of their suffering and turned it into a symbol of faith and life. God took the agent of death, and made it the agent of healing. In other words, it became a vaccine!
Later on, by means of the long-awaited Messiah, God used this same procedure in bringing about a cure. God made the symbol of human suffering a symbol of faith; so that when a person confesses his sins, asks forgiveness, and looks up to Christ, the Son of Man, he shall live. In John 3:14-15, Jesus said, “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.”
So, what exactly is a person’s symbol of suffering in this thing called life? What is it that’s prone to sin? Well, the answer is the mortal body, or one’s flesh. As with the serpent, the Lord changed our symbol of suffering into a symbol of faith – not faith in human flesh or some form of humanism – but faith in the Son of God. Romans 8:3 says, “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh.” You see, Jesus Christ was made flesh, according to John 1:14. He came to us in the image of our suffering, though He never sinned; and He defeated sin while in human form.
Now, I’m a big movie fan, and one of my favorite movies is “The Matrix.” I like this movie, because it contains so many parallels to the spiritual realm and spiritual warfare. There’s a scene in that movie where Neo has been captured by Agent Smith, and Smith expresses his disgust with human beings, likening them to a virus. And then, not long after, Neo escapes; but then he’s shot dead by Smith. And next, the movie portrays something that can only be explained as a miracle. Neo comes back to life! And immediately he defeats Agent Smith, and destroys all the other evil agents bent on the destruction of the human race.
Did you know that “The Matrix” got it inspiration from the Christian faith? You see, Jesus, while in the form of human flesh – while in the form of this very thing that is prone to sin, resulting in spiritual death – let me saying it again: while in the form of human flesh, Jesus died on the cross, taking the penalty of our sin on Himself. But, let me tell you, Jesus rose from the grave! He defeated death, and He defeated sin! Jesus, the Scripture says, took the keys of death and hell away from the devil (Revelation 1:18), and He defeated sin once-and-for-all for each and every person who chooses to confess His holy name!
Now, I encourage you to listen closely as I share some observations made by commentator Warren Wiersbe. He notes that “Moses didn’t hide the bronze serpent; he lifted it up on a pole, and put the pole [out] where everybody could see it.” He explains that had it been tucked away in some holy place, such as the tabernacle court; and had the people been invited to come into that holy place for their healing; it would have given them the wrong impression of what had truly saved them. Their healing would have been equated with the priests and the keeping of the law.(4)
Let me share with you again what Romans 8:3 says: “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh.” According to another passage, which is Ephesians 2:8-9, there is nothing we can do, in and of ourselves, to be saved from sin and make it to heaven. Good works can’t save us, and keeping the law can’t save us. Just as “the uplifted serpent was the only cure in the camp . . . Jesus Christ is the only Savior of sinners in the world.”(5)
Here’s something else that Wiersbe notes. He states, “Nobody could look at the bronze serpent for another person; each dying sinner had to look for himself or herself. The salvation Christ offers is personal and individual, and each of us must look to Christ by faith. No matter how hard they tried,” he says, “no dying Jew could save himself or herself. The only salvation available was what God had graciously provided, and if you rejected it, you died.”(6)
Know What You Worship (2 Kings 18:1-4)
1 Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.
In this passage we see a warning to know what or whom we worship. We learn how the bronze serpent that Moses had made was later called Nehushtan (literally translated “a thing of brass”), and it had become an idol in the land. So, King Hezekiah tore it down during his religious reforms.
Over time, the history of the exodus and the wilderness wanderings, and the accounts of God’s mighty deliverances had been lost, as generations had gone astray from the Lord. The Israelites had forgotten that the life people acquired from the serpent wasn’t derived from the image itself. They had forgotten the One behind the image or symbol, which was Almighty God; and let me caution you that the same thing can happen, and does happen, even today.
For example, you might see someone wearing a cross necklace, with it being nothing more than a trinket having no real meaning. You see, many who wear a cross don’t even know the One whom the cross represents. It’s just another good luck charm to protect them in times of trouble. This is called idolatry, and it’s the same thing that happened later in Israel’s history with the bronze serpent.
I’m here to tell you today that you need to know the One behind the image; the One behind the cross. You need to know the source of spiritual healing, and His name is Jesus. Jesus came to forgive us of our sins and bless us with eternal life. He is the One who was lifted up on that pole called the cross, and He is the One and only One who can turn death into life! The apostle Peter said of Jesus that He “bore our sins in His own body on the tree . . . by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
Time of Reflection
So, this morning we have learned about a deadly sickness that has plagued mankind since the beginning of time. This illness is called “sin.” We’ve also seen the use of a vaccine devised by God in the time of the wilderness wanderings, and later refined to perfection in Jesus Christ.
Unfortunately, the viral nature of sin still thrives today; however, there is a cure. But for some strange reason, people would rather die in their sin than live eternally, and that’s why sin is still so prevalent; but for those who desire life, Jesus is the cure. I want to close by inviting you this morning to confess your sins to God, and pray to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of your life.
NOTES
(1) Warren Wiersbe, “The Complete Old Testament in One Volume,” The Wiersbe Bible Commentary (David C. Cook: Colorado Springs, Colorado, 2007), p. 283.
(2) Ibid., p. 282.
(3) Ibid., p. 283.
(4) Ibid., p. 283.
(5) Ibid., p. 283.
(6) Ibid., p. 283.
