Look, and Live! Numbers 21:4-9
Copyright 2006, J. Mark Jones all rights reserved, may be used with credit.
EOLS: We are invited to look by faith at Jesus’ finished work on the cross so that we might be saved.
It’s the most prevalent advice, the common denominator that you see when you go looking for insight and information into snakes and their relationship to human beings. I say it’s good advice!
Stay away from snakes!
Have you ever cringed while watching Steve Erwin catch a Green Mamba barehanded and swing him around and say “y’er aright mate! Isn’t he a bee-auty?”
I read of a man named Bill Haast in preparing for this sermon:
William Bill E. Haast (b. 1910) has been bitten by poisonous snakes more often than any other known human. He has been milking poisonous snakes of their venom since 1948 for medicinal and research purposes. From 1948 until 1985, Haast operated the Miami Serpentarium, a tourist attraction south of Miami, Florida, where he milked poisonous snakes for their venom in front of paying customers. He is now the director of the Miami Serpentarium Laboratories, a facility near Punta Gorda, Florida, which continues to produce venom for medical and research use. Haast physically extracts venom from poisonous snakes by holding them by the head and forcing them to strike a rubber membrane covering a vial. As a result of handling these snakes, Haast had been bitten 170 times as of early 2003.
Soon after opening the Serpentarium Bill Haast began experimenting with building up an acquired immunity to the venom of King, Indian and Cape cobras by injecting himself with gradually increasing quantities of venom he had extracted from his snakes. In 1954 Haast was bitten by a common, or blue, krait. He at first hoped that his immunization to cobra venom would protect him from the krait venom, and he continued with his regular activities for several hours. However, the venom eventually did affect him, and he was taken to a hospital where it took him several days to recover. A krait anti-venom was shipped from India, but when it arrived after a 48-hour flight, Haast refused to take it.
Haast received his first cobra bite less than a year after he started his immunization program. During the 1950s he was bitten by cobras about twenty times. His first King cobra bite was in 1962. (from www.wikipedia.com Bill Haast entry)
Some people are just crazy.
For my purposes, the only good snake is a dead snake! I can handle admiring them on television and behind thick glass, but I don’t want to see them up close! And when I do, I find that double-ought buckshot in a Remington pump will take care of business very nicely!
We spoke last week about the natural “enmity” that is between snakes and men, and how it relates back to the story of creation, when the devil indwelt the body of a snake in order to tempt Eve to disobey God’s direct commandments.
We spoke about the curse that was upon that very animal, and we also spoke about that first glimpse into God’s Plan of Redemption when He said:
Genesis 3:14-15
(14) So the Lord God said to the serpent: "Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life.
(15) And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel."
There was absolutely nothing random or chaotic about this scenario. Sin did not catch God by surprise, and His plan was in full force from the beginning. It was the plan of redemption, of His ability and his initiative to reach down and draw all men to Himself.
In that holy moment, just after God himself had killed animals to provide a skin covering for their shameful nakedness, the first mention to mankind of this wonderful plan was formed. God promised that the Seed of the Woman would come forth to crush the head of the deceiver, the enemy of our souls. The Gospel, the Good News was first revealed to man at the very point of His need. In one Holy Moment, we see God’s wrath and judgment come forth, and in the same instant His grace and mercy is revealed.
And the Gospel is continuously preached from the most ancient hour of human history, right through to this very moment. Christ is present with His mercy and grace from Genesis to Revelation as the Word of God progressively reveals God’s plan!
Throughout the Pentateuch, from Genesis to Deuteronomy, we see a “scarlet thread” of blood redemption through a coming deliverer who is graphically pictured and sometimes physically present.
Perhaps one of the most powerful Messianic Messages that we find in the Pentateuch comes from the Book of Numbers, where Moses and the Children of Israel experience God’s judgment and in the same breath, His mercy and grace.
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.
The Children of Israel had been wandering for many years. Aaron the High Priest has passed on and they have completed a period of mourning for him. His mantle has been passed to his son Eleazar. We then read of a great victory against Canaanites given by the Lord in response to a vow by Israel.
But then, they were forced to take the long road around Edom. The Edomites they felt were too powerful for them, and they would not give them passage across their territory. Once again, it was a circular route for Israel, and it was along this way that the nation as a whole became very discouraged once again.
They began to rail against the Lord and complain. They even cursed the very provision of God…the manna that He gave for their provision by His daily grace. They called it this “worthless bread” and said they “loathed” it.
It’s worth realizing right here that discouragement is the first step to falling into the trap of the devil. When the road gets long and weary, the enemy of our souls is right there to remind us that “you’ve been walking too long. It’s not this hard for everybody. Nobody understands what you’ve been through. Nobody cares. You’ll be here forever.”
Have you been forced to take “the long road?”
The next step is murmuring and complaining. Brothers and sisters, when we complain, we are saying to God “I don’t like your plan.”
And that is a very dangerous place to be. It even caused them to curse the very grace of God-the very thing that He had given them to sustain them. Every step of the way God was directing their paths. He was meeting their needs and teaching them daily. Yes, it was hard, but God was in charge.
And as a result of their rebellion, God removed his hand which had held back the serpents of the desert. Snakes came from everywhere. Fiery serpents which inflicted flesh inflaming and poisonous wounds were attacking people right and left.
Isn’t it interesting that it is the beast that God cursed in Genesis 3, the one that he placed at odds with mankind forever, is the one that now is unleashed when God removed his protection because of their rebellion? The cursed creature returns as a direct curse against God’s people who had turned their backs on him.
These were nomadic desert dwelling people, and snakes were a fact of life. They had always dwelt among the desert vipers and from birth they were taught-Stay away from snakes!
They knew to be very careful at night. They knew to never pick up a rock suddenly and to make plenty of noise when coming into an area with lots of crags and holes where snakes could hide. These folk were savvy outdoorsmen and tent dwellers. They didn’t go camping for fun, camping was their life.
I would imagine that there was the odd snakebite that they had to deal with. They probably had some folk medicine remedies and the priests likely played a part with prayer and a cleansing rite. Snakebite was probably a relatively rare thing, yet it was a fact of desert life. Outdoorsmen rarely deal with snakebite.
But think with me one day…and it seems very random; suddenly everywhere they look they see vicious snakes. They are coming in droves! They are slithering out from under every rock.
A mother is cooking outside her tent. She opens her kettle to wash it and a twisted band of vipers lash out at her, biting her hands. Her scream almost harmonizes with another scream of a child across the way who was bitten when reaching for the leather ball that he and another child had been kicking.
Suddenly Eleazar and the priests are inundated. A line of screaming frantic people is forming outside the Tabernacle. People are dying left and right and the dead bear these fiery, inflamed puncture wounds. The ones who are still alive are fading fast and screaming for help.
The doctors in the camp can’t get to the dying fast enough. The priests can’t pray for all the people who are wailing and screaming with this sudden plague. Men, women, children, rich and poor are being afflicted. Screams echo across the desert and the slithering beasts are suddenly everywhere with their hideous fangs ready to pump venom into anyone in their path. These cursed beasts seem to have a supernatural power on this day.
It’s truly a living horror film, a nightmare in real life.
Eleazar and several of his priests gather quickly and compare notes. They run to the tent of Moses where they lay it out for him. Moses very quickly realizes what has happened. The curse of God is upon them. People are already beginning to wail in repentance.
The judgment of God has come upon them because of their rebellion. The curse has come and the people are acutely aware of it. Many are beginning to repent and beg God for mercy. A wave of repentance begins to streak across the land and yet the serpents are not relenting. The curse is in force.
Dodging serpents in the streets, pierced by the cries of his people, Moses runs to his place of prayer and comes before the Lord God. Crying out in desperation He asks for forgiveness for himself and for Israel.
And God reveals his plan. It’s something tangible, it’s a hard copy and not just a concept. God tells Moses to make an image of that very thing that has become a curse, place it on a pole, set it up high and tell people to “look and live.”
Moses wasted no time-he ran to the workshop of his best brass artist. He fired up the smelting pot and in record time fashioned this strange looking, macabre symbol of a brass snake on a pole.
As the brass was cooling Moses called a crisis meeting of all Israel and announced God’s mercy was upon them. To all who were dying, to all who were bitten by the curse…
Look and Live.
Think with me what it must’ve been like to have been bitten by one of those vile creatures.
You’re in the middle of a desert. Thousands around you are wailing and screaming. If there was any sort of a folk medicine remedy, it is hopeless now because so many are dying. You can’t even get near the Tabernacle to talk with a priest. The thoughts begin to plague you as your flesh dies and the symptoms set in.
Nausea is beginning to overwhelm you and breathing is laborious. Pain streaks from the wound to every extremity of your body like a lighting bolt, on cue with every beat of your heart. Your vision is blurred and it’s hard to stand up as your legs are becoming rubbery.
In the middle of a valley of death, you realize:
I am dying, and there’s not a thing I can do about it.
There is a curse, and it has entrapped me. I am alone and desperate.
The people around me have no power to save me. I am in this dying state because I am part of this world, and because I was a part of the rebellion against God.
I am in dire need of an antidote, a cure. I realize it and it’s too late.
You pray and cry out to God. You repent as you grow weaker and weaker.
Suddenly you hear a commotion in the streets. You hear cries and shouts. The wailing and horrific screams are now punctuated with occasional shouts of joy. As the tumult grows closer, you see an entourage and you recognize Moses, the man of God coming with a bizarre apparatus.
It is a long pole with a snake made of solid brass. It glistens in the desert sun and Moses’ people are shouting “Look and Live!”
In that moment as the very breath of life is beginning to leave your tortured body, you realize that your prayer has been answered. The Man of God and his entourage are here and there’s no time to analyze the situation or wait to see what’s going to happen. In that instant you realize that God has answered your prayer and He has heard your cry.
You raise your aching and spinning head and make the best attempt to focus your eyes upon that brass serpent high on that pole. In that instant you place every bit of faith within you in Jehovah God, realizing that He is Lord, and that His ways are perfect. He has heard your prayer. You repent before Him as you look to that symbol.
You begin to feel peace sweep across your tortured body. Suddenly, you realize that you just took a deep breath and your heart is slowing down. Your headache is no longer pulsing all the way to your toes and the bullets of sweat have stopped and your forehead feels cool to the touch.
Your eyes can now focus and you look at those three spots where the vicious beasts had sunk their fangs deep in you. The blackened dying tissue is literally disappearing before your eyes. The blood flow is returning to your hands and arms!
Suddenly you realize: I am healed. I am free! You begin to shout and cry at the same time. Life vitality has returned to your body which moments ago was already beginning to convulse as you lay dying. You have a burst of energy and new life flows within you. In a moment, you realize it is the Gift of God. It was by faith. And your faith flows in you and through you.
Your elation is interrupted by the screams of your neighbor. Instinctively you jump to your feet and run to his tent. He is lying in a pool of his own blood and his body is jerking spasmodically.
You notice two hideous fang marks with blackened flesh. You recognize the curse, the same on that was about to take your own life moments ago.
There’s no time for talk, this man is dying and very quickly. You lower yourself to the ground and try to talk to him.
“LOOK! Moses is out there…let me turn you where you can see…Look at the brass serpent and live!” You reach for his arms to try to turn him towards the hill where Moses now stands with the pole.
His entire body stiffens and through stammering lips he says “I will not!” He refuses to look at the Man of God who is carrying God’s remedy to the curse.
“But you can live! LOOK! I was saved! I was where you are…I looked and I live!” The dying man once again turns his head the opposite direction and refuses to look to his salvation. He coughs another pool of blood and his body convulses one last time, and then it is silent and still.
You see, it wasn’t just peering at a religious icon. It was about submission. It was about repentance. It was something tangible that a person could do-it was God’s plan to draw men’s hearts to Him.
Some did and some didn’t. Many died, and others found new life as a gift.
Sound familiar? It should.
I love it when the New Testament interprets the Old Testament for us. It’s even better when Jesus Christ himself preaches the Old Testament and explains how He is the fulfillment of the redemptive plan of God which we see woven throughout the entire Word of God!
In that most familiar passage where Jesus spoke with Nicodemus by night, just before he uttered the magnificent John 3:16, Jesus told Nicodemus:
John 3:14-16
(14) And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
(15) that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
(16) 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.
Jesus is telling Nicodemus that He is about to be lifted up, and that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life! Nicodemus was an astute student of Moses. As a Pharisee, he likely had the entire Pentateuch committed to memory.
He knew exactly what Jesus was referring to. He knew that Moses had lifted up the curse on a pole by God’s direction, and it had been the salvation of the camp, as people would look and live.
Consider with me also that as a student of the times, in Roman occupied Palestine, Nicodemus knew full well how people were “lifted up” on a cruel Roman Cross. In that second he knew exactly what Jesus was saying-he was going to be crucified and it would bring life to those who would believe.
Knowing the law so well, Nicodemus also knew
Deuteronomy 21:22-23
(22) "If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,
(23) his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.
And in that holy moment, Nicodemus understood that this Man he had come to see at night, was God’s sacrificial lamb who would be slain for the sin of the world, and it would happen soon. What a revelation!
Paul preached to the early church and further developed the concept:
Galatians 3:13
(13) Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"*),
And oh what a glorious picture emerges: LOOK and LIVE!
Isaiah the Prophet proclaimed it when he heard the Spirit of the Lord say:
Isaiah 45:22
(22) "Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
Dear friends, today…Look and Live!
As his death drew near, John recorded the words of Jesus again identifying himself with the Brazen Serpent lifted up by Moses:
John 12:31-33
(31) Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.
(32) And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself."
(33) This He said, signifying by what death He would die.
Look and Live!
Notice with me the similarities in design: God provided a rich word-picture which would speak to every generation, from the ancient day to our present day and into the future:
1. There is no other way
Look to the Savior-
2. The symbol is lifted high.
He is high and lifted up for all the world to see and come
3. The design is for salvation
the goal is to reconcile God and man
4. The cure is complete
deadly poison and deadly sin are eradicated by the antidote-simple faith in the Son of God who was made to be sin for us!
When Charles Spurgeon, the great London preacher from the last century, was 16 years old and unconverted, he happened into a small Methodist Chapel with 15 people in a snow storm. The preacher was a layman. He took his text from Isaiah 45:22, "Look to me and be saved all the ends of the earth." At one point he looked right at the boy and said, "Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look. Look. Look"
Spurgeon said,
"I saw at once the way of salvation. . . Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, Look! what a charming word it seemed to me! Oh! I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun."
So, as we close…what does this sermon mean to us today?
1)God’s plan is for you. He lifted up His own Son so that you could see your salvation. He gave everything so that you could have life.
2)It’s for the Christian too-He gave it all so that you could live victorious. You are not defeated. Look and live. Remember the life that was given you and receive it daily. Do not be defeated by the long road!
3)It is not about just simply looking at a religious icon.
It is interesting that the Bible goes on to tell us that eventually Israel started worshiping the Brazen Serpent. King Hezekiah ordered it to be destroyed. Anthropologists tell us that an entire cult of serpent-worship in ancient history may have sprang from this. It shows us the end of works-oriented wooden, faithless religion.
It’s about obedience and faith. It’s about realizing your condition and your need-and realizing that only God can do something about it. If you feel like you are being consumed….look to Jesus. He became sin, accursed for us!
4)It means that God’s salvation is for everyone. It calls to every generation.
5)It means that sin is like an insidious poison in our lives, and the only remedy available is faith in Jesus Christ. This speaks to the Christian as well as to the unsaved.
