Did you ever wonder? Did you ever wonder?
I do. Did you ever wonder? Why the sun always rises but the stars never fall? Why dry land is never satisfied by water? And why fire never says enough?
Enough. I mean, it just seems kind of bizarre to think that we're going to compare a serpent to Jesus. So, let's go back to that story and in Numbers 21, where it says, The Israelites traveled from Mount Horor along the route to the Sea of Reeds in order to go around the land of Edom. The spirit of the people became impatient along the way. They spoke against God and Moses. Why have they brought us from Egypt to die in the wilderness?
Because there is no bread, no water, and our very spirits detest this despicable food. So Adonai sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died. The people came to Moses and said, We have sinned when we spoke against Adonai and you. Pray to Adonai for us that he may take away the snakes. So Moses prayed for the people. And Adonai said to Moses, Make yourself a fiery snake and put it on a pole.
Whenever anyone who's been bitten will look at it, he will live. So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole, and it happened that whenever a snake bit anyone, he looked at the bronze snake, and he lived. With that in mind, if you look at that verse in John 3 14, it reads, Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
Well, you know, I've wondered about that actually for years. I mean, I could see that, yeah, we need to look up to Christ when we're, you know, being tempted and those kind of things. But I just never related. Why in the world would the serpent be used in Numbers 21? You know, I knew that the serpent was what had bit them, you know, clearly, and the serpent was clearly what bit Adam and Eve in the garden.
But how would that be a picture of Christ in any way, shape, or form? So what I did was I went to study the commentary of Matthew Henry, my personal favorite. And as I did that, I came across this, although I know I'd read it more than once before. This time it actually, something took hold, and maybe I've thought of this before, but this time I really saw it for the first time in my mind.
And I'm like, oh my goodness, that is so amazing, so beautiful. So what Matthew Henry said that just really flipped my switch, and reading from his commentary on Numbers 21. So Christ, though perfectly free from sin himself, yet was made into the likeness of sinful flesh. In other words, what is as disgusting as a snake to most people?
I mean, I know there's those people who really like snakes, but for the most part, people run when they see a snake or they're disgusted. And so we know that, you know, Satan was a picture of that first sin, this serpent. And so, wow, when they, when Christ is being compared to this serpent, he was made to be our sin. And so as he's lifted up, he's lifted up as a spectacle, right? As an ensign, as the word is actually the word pole, in Hebrew, like the banner over me is love.
Well, wow. When we look up and we see Christ on that pole, on that cross, we're literally looking at our own sin. And what Jesus quoted there is not unlike what's written in Romans chapter eight, verse three, which is spectacular. It says, for what was impossible by the Torah, since it was weakened on account of the flesh, God has done sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as a sin offering.
He condemned sin in the flesh. So such a picture we have here, as we wonder about the serpent up on the pole. And as I study this more when in Ephesians six, when it talks about stand, therefore that word stand begins with this idea of the hand of God coming down. And then you have this Zadok, which we talked about in a previous chapter being righteousness. But that last letter that Bet is talking about looking up towards the kingdom. So as we stand, we can look up and see this serpent, our sin up on the cross that is Jesus. And it'd be lifted up as an ensign really, as the banner over me is love and a spectacle over Satan. Do you ever wonder? I do.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-12-25 07:05:19 / 2023-12-25 07:07:35 / 2
