The Ultimate Vaccine

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).