The Bronze Serpent

I appreciate the song that we had leading into the sermon. Actually, for me, I set the mode and the tone for me on what I'd like to talk about today. The title of the message is The Bronze Serpent. The Bronze Serpent. Why don't you maybe take a second and think of what might come to mind when you think of the Bronze Serpent. If not much is coming to mind, I'll give you another hint, a name associated with it. Nehushtam. Nehushtam. There's accounts in the Bible that we look at, and they're interesting to us because we kind of wonder maybe what God had in mind as he rolled out a specific circumstance or Israel or Judah walked through various issues in their wanderings and in their desire to follow God or sometimes not. But we can go through the Old Testament and we see stories. We think, well, that's kind of an interesting story, but what do I do with it? The story of Nehushtam is one such story that sometimes comes up. I had a conversation recently and the person said, well, I'm not exactly sure what the point of that was. Honestly, when I began looking into this, I had some questions myself, but that's at least my hope we can unpackage it a bit today as we go through the message. But again, there's accounts in the Bible that we might even wonder, you know, why did God do that? And they might seem like odd occurrences to us. What was the purpose? And what was God wanting them to learn? Did they get the lesson? And what is it that we're to learn ourselves today? And again, as I say, the story of the bronze serpent is one such example for us. When Israel and Judah had this bronze serpent in their possession, it became known as Nehushtan. And there's only three short passages in the scripture that reference Nehushtan. And so we're going to look at all three today and we're going to see what it is that we can unpackage about Nehushtan and the lessons that God would have us learn today as His people. Nehushtan.

Let's begin by turning to 2 Kings 18. 2 Kings 18, the context here, takes place around the setting of King Hezekiah. Hezekiah, as you know, was a good king, one of the few. We would probably call him a righteous king in maybe loose form of that word. But he was a good king, and he sought to serve God and honor God. Once Hezekiah became king, he said about the business of clearing out idolatry in Judah, removing the symbols of false worship and religious practices. And his focus was on God. And Hezekiah's focus as well was on directing the people's focus to God as well. So if we begin the account today in 2 Kings 18, verse 1, it says, And Hezekiah did what was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father David had done. Verse 4 says, He removed the high places, He broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image, and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made. For until the days of the children of Israel, until those days, they burned incense to it, and they called it Nehushtan. Verse 5, He Hezekiah trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. So we have this very brief reference to this bronze serpent called Nehushtan. It's not much to go on. You could rewrite past it if you weren't careful here in verse 4. So there's not much. But let's just see what we can dig out as we begin today. Again, Nehushtan. Going back to 2 Kings 18 verse 4, it begins by saying that Hezekiah removed the high places. He broke the sacred pillars, He cut down the wooden image. And we would all recognize that these were objects of false worship in Judah at the time. Objects that were dedicated to false gods, and people congregated around them and offered incense, maybe even offered sacrifice, offered prayers in these high places and at these shrines that were set up to the false gods. And so Hezekiah is working here to get the nation back on track to point them into a pure relationship with their God. And in this process, again, he's destroying all of these articles of false worship. Carrying on to verse 4, it says, He broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made. Now, this is very interesting because the account actually says that Moses made this bronze serpent. And we might wonder what in the world, why in the world would Moses even make a graven image, even make a serpent? I mean, we remember God's commandments at Mount Sinai and the golden calf and all that went on with that. So it's interesting to consider the fact that Moses was actually the one who made this image. Another thing we could consider here is that Moses lived 700 years before Hezekiah. And Moses was the faithful man. He was one that served God. And again, in that context, we might wonder why he made this molded image, and we will see shortly. But again, 700 years, verse 4, again, broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made. And so for 700 years, the people of Israel and the people of Judah carted this serpent on a pole with them, round the wilderness wanderings, up to the brink, into the Promised Land, the conquest of the Promised Land, marching all through there. They never cast it aside. They never discarded it. They brought it along with them, this bronze serpent on a pole. Through the times of Joshua, through the times of David, through the times of King Solomon, it was with them until the day of Hezekiah, until he broke it into pieces 700 years after its construction. Interesting to consider.

Now, in addition to that, we see that they began to regard this bronze serpent in a way that was contrary to God's commandments regarding idols. Carrying on in verse 4, it says, For until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and they called it Neushtam. So they worshipped this image, this serpent on a pole. They burned incense to it. They regarded it as some god with powers, I suppose. They gave their reverence to it, their honor to it, built a shrine up to it, worshipping it, and they even gave it a name. The bronze thing.

That's what Neushtam means in the Hebrew. It is the bronze thing.

Again, we understand that Neushtam was no god, no special powers related with this graven image. Just a hunk of metal.

So why did the people of Israel and later Judah regard this image so highly? Why, after 700 years, was it still in their possession?

What was so special about Neushtam?

Well, clearly, Israel had a problem. Judah had a problem when it came to honoring the true God, as he commanded. They always wanted some image. They always wanted something they could put their hands on. They always wanted some high place, or something that would fill the senses, the vision, the touch, the smell, the taste, the sexual indulgences, whatever it was, that they looked to the other nations around them. They wanted that for themselves. And they were God's people, but they had a problem, and they kept falling out of touch of the worship of the true God. And it got them in trouble many times along the way.

I was thinking about it earlier. You have Moses, who was a faithful man, who led the people of Israel. Moses died, and when he died, God allowed his body to be hidden away. Why would he do that?

Again, Israel's proclivity of setting things up to worship, can you imagine if they had the bones of Moses, what they would have done, the shrines, the worship, the incense, the reverence that they would have poured over this man's bones, God in his mercy allowed him to be taken away, and he waits in peace. But again, Israel and Judah had this problem.

So what was Nahushtan's origin?

Why did Moses even construct this image, this bronze serpent on a pole? Why was it there in the first place, and what significance did it play in Israel's history? In order to answer those questions, we need to go back to the time of Moses and look at the account that took place here. Again, as I said, there's three passages in Scripture, and they're quite brief. This is number one. Back in the time of Moses, we'll find passage number two. But before we go there, I want to take a side trip to 1 Corinthians chapter 10.

If you'll follow me, please. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 1. Because what we're going to find here in 1 Corinthians 10 is that the event associated with Nahushtan is here.

It's actually referenced in 1 Corinthians 10, not by name of Nahushtan himself, but by reference of the circumstances in the event that surrounded this bronze serpent.

So 1 Corinthians chapter 10, beginning in verse 1, the Apostle Paul writing, And he says, Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware, That all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, All were baptized into Moses, in the cloud, and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, For the drank of that spiritual rock that followed or accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for the bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now we might ask the question, why was God not well pleased with them? You know, why would God allow their bones, their bodies, just to be scattered out in the wilderness? What was the problem?

I think we know the problem. It's repeated time and time and time again through the Scripture. Israel had a problem of constantly complaining, constantly rejecting God, constantly desiring to return to Egypt, constantly tempting God and testing God in their words and their actions, and it was a demonstration, frankly, of their lack of faith. And as a result, God allowed their bodies to be scattered in the wilderness. Verse 6 says, now these things became our examples. As in, they're not just interesting bedtime stories that you read your kids and they have no real intent for us today. Paul says these are our examples. These are things that happened, and they're lessons that we can apply today in our spiritual lives. These things happened, became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. And do not become idolaters, as were some of them, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and they rose up the play, nor let us commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 fell. Nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents, nor complain as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. And so Israel's actions and the consequences of those actions, again, are written down as an example for us, that we would read, we would see what they did, we would see God's response, and frankly we would fear. We would fear in a proper way, in regard in a proper way, the God of Israel and the God we serve today. Again, it's for our example and for our spiritual lives. Now if we go back to verse 9 here in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, what we're going to find is actually the circumstance that surrounded Neushtam.

1 Corinthians 10 verse 9 says, Nor let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents. So Israel, because of their rebellion, fell into a circumstance where many of them actually were bitten by serpents and they died. And they died in a very painful way. And the lesson for us is don't tempt Christ, don't test Christ, don't test God, don't mock them, don't put them to the test, don't scorn or complain about their role in our spiritual lives. It is in the context of this plague that we find, again, the origin of the bronze serpent in Neushtam. So let's go back now and look directly at the account in the Old Testament. Let's go to Numbers 21. Numbers 21, this is passage number 2 of the 3 that refer to this bronze serpent. Numbers 21, we'll begin at the beginning of the chapter. I just want to set for you the context. This is the wilderness wanderings of Israel. This is following the great miracles that God had performed on their behalf. You recall, God brought them out of Egypt by strength of hand and opened the Red Sea before them, brought them through clothes to see on the Egyptians, God brought them up to his mountain, gave them his law, brought them to the brink of the Promised Land, and they refused to enter. They sent the twelve spies in, ten came back, brought a false or bad report, said, there's giants in the land, we can't do this. Let us, you know, appoint somebody and let us go back. And as the New Testament says, in their hearts, they turn back to Egypt. So the context here of Numbers 21, then, is the 40-year wanderings. Numbers 21 takes place actually at the end of the 40 years of the wilderness wanderings. They're getting prepared once again to come up to the brink of the Promised Land, and enter in, and these are the kids. Years ago on the members' website, there used to be a sermon called, The Wilderness Kids. Talk about the kids that grew up in the wilderness, that younger generation that wandered, and were being prepared by God then to enter the land. So this is where we're at towards the end of the 40 years of that wilderness wandering. Numbers 21, verse 1 says, The king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the south, heard that the Israelites were coming on the road to Atharim, and then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoner. So Israel made a vow to the Lord, and they said, If you will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. So you have this attack against Israel, people are captured, taken prisoner, and Israel cries out to God, and they say, God, if you will be with us, give us the victory. We'll completely level their city, we'll wipe them out, this will be a complete process. Verse 3, And the Lord listened to the voice of Israel, and they delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them, and their cities, so that the name of that place is called Horma. If you look at it in Hebrew, Horma simply means utter destruction. God fulfilled their request for deliverance. Israel responded by fulfilling what it is they had promised God as well. And so this was a high moment. God was with them, he was leading them, they were submitting to God, he was giving them victory. This was a high moment. I mean, this is momentum you could ride all the way into the Promised Lamb. I'm going to read through the rest of the account, and then we'll come back and break it down a bit.

Verse 4, verse 21, verse 4 says, 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. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, saying, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in this wilderness? For there is no food, there is no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.

Verse 6, So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and they said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against you, Moses. Pray to the Lord that he will take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. Verse 8, Then the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent, set it on a pole, and it shall be that every one who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.

So Moses made a bronze serpent, put it on the pole, and so it was if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. That's it. Six verses, short passage, and we may still kind of wonder, well, that's kind of a curiosity. What did God have in mind? There's actually a lot packed in here for us to unpackage and hopefully come to understand a little more fully. Let's go back to verse 4 and walk through this as we can, piece by piece.

Numbers chapter 21 and verse 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. A number of Bible commentaries, or not commentaries, but translations, parallel translations, or you could go to Bible Hub where they're all lined out and look it up, many of them translate this word, discouraged, as impatient.

They became impatient. These children of Israel had felt they'd spent enough of their lifetime wandering around the wilderness. They wanted to get to the Promised Land, but you know what? God was taking them on another loop around the wilderness. Again, 40 years. They're probably saying, haven't we been here before? If you go back again and look at it, it says, they went by the way of the Red Sea. Well, wasn't that 40 years ago? God had opened the sea, or nearly 40 years, and brought them through. They really hadn't gone very far, had they?

God was bringing them around the wilderness again, and they're probably thinking, haven't we been here before? I recognize that mountain. I know that tree. Isn't that the pit where we buried the garbage five years ago? Aren't those my grandparents' graves? Around and around for 40 years. People were becoming discouraged in their own minds. They were becoming impatient. Haven't we been here before? And brethren, I think in our own mind there's lessons we can learn, because if we aren't careful, you and I can become impatient in our calling before God as well. Because some have been called into this way of life 20, 30, 40, 50, 60... Do I have 70 years ago?

And we've been wandering in some sense in a spiritual wilderness, waiting for the kingdom of God. And obviously, decades and decades ago, the thought was it would be here. The promised land, we would enter in, and it would be here.

And there are still trials, and there are still struggles, and there are still obstacles, and we go, haven't we been here before? And if we're not careful, we can almost become impatient, discouraged. And our response can become like Israel. We must be cautious that it does not. Verse 5, And the people spoke against God, and they spoke 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 loaves this worthless bread.

That's pretty big. That's quite a complaint. They complained against God, they complained against Moses. They blamed them for their circumstances, blamed them that they were wandering in the wilderness, blamed them that they hadn't entered the promised land, blamed them that their parents were dying, blamed them for a number of things. In addition to that, they were sick and tired of eating that worthless bread. I've had it since I was a kid, they probably said.

Right? Under 20 years old, now you're out there 40 years, you're probably 60 years old, you've been eating that bread since you were a kid. And some of them said, we loathe this worthless bread, we detest it. For you and I today, God has provided for us the bread of life, has He not Jesus Christ? Christ says that He is that bread that came down from heaven, that we may eat of it and not die.

He is the bread of life. This bread that they detested was the manna. It was the daily food that God had miraculously provided for them, so that they would not starve in the wilderness. And again, the response was, we detest this worthless bread. And I would say, for you and I, let us be cautious, not to become of the same attitude, let us take of the bread of life daily with gladness of what God supplies.

Verse 6, so the Lord sent fiery serpents. You know, this was a big complaint. Big. The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died. You know, I can only imagine how painful of a death that would have been. Be bitten by a poisonous snake, just the sting of the bite, and you have the venom moving throughout your body, coursing through your veins until you died.

Very painful death. It couldn't have been a pleasant experience, but it was the price for complaining against God. For complaining against Moses and the bread that God provided. I don't like snakes. I don't like spiders either, but I think snakes takes the cakes. I don't like snakes. And that is one thing that I would say Indiana Jones and I have in common.

If you watch the Raiders of the Lost Ark, they took that lid off of that pit where the Ark of the Covenant was supposedly down in the hole, and they're holding this torch looking down in there, and his partner says, Indy, why does the floor move? And they drop this torch down into the cavern, and it's just snakes. Indiana Jones says, snakes. Why did it have to be snakes? I don't like snakes. My wife loves snakes. Not the poisonous ones, but she loves snakes. Out in our pasture, there's bull snakes that roam around every now and then, and if she finds one, she goes out there, and she'll pick it up by the tail, and it's wiggling, and then she'll take her other hand and kind of grab it behind the head, and as it's wrapping itself around her arms, she'll just be petting the snake.

And then she'll bring up, isn't he a pretty snake, she says. He hisses at me, I hiss at him, and, you know, no snakes for me. Thank you. Most of my childhood memories actually are formed around snakes. Maybe, I don't know, you need trauma to form a memory sometimes, maybe. And I recall as a kid, we lived on the inter-coastal waterway in Florida, just a piece of property, and the inter-coastal ran right behind our house, and there were water snakes, poisonous snakes, that would come crawling out of the water every once in a while.

One day, my mom, walking next door to my grandparents' place, almost stepped on a four-foot water moccasin, just right out there on the lawn. A neighbor came over and shot it with a shotgun. I remember going to visit my uncle up in Georgia. Our family went up to visit my dad's side of the family, and they lived by a lake, nice brown, murky Georgia lake, and went out on the boat, and the family, people getting out there and water skiing, and I remember sitting in the boat, just kind of looking over at that brown, murky water, where you really couldn't see below the surface.

But what I did see once in a while was a snake hit by a boat propeller floating on top of the water, and as a kid, there was no way you're going to get me into the water. I do not like snakes. This would not have been, by any stretch of my imagination, a pleasant trial, a pleasant plague brought upon Israel, but God sent these fiery serpents that bit the people. They said, many died. Verse 7, it says, Therefore the people came to Moses, and they said, We have sinned. Pray 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. At least there is acknowledgement here. Acknowledgement of sin. Acknowledgement of the fact that we crossed the line.

We spoke against God, spoke against Moses, spoke against the food that God had provided us. They acknowledged their sin, and they pleaded for Moses to ask God to send relief. You know, God, please just take the snakes away. In order for you and I to receive God's forgiveness, brethren, we too must first come to acknowledge our sin. We must first come to understand where it is that we crossed the line.

Where it is that we are in opposition to God. The first thing we must do is see that sin for what it is and acknowledge our part and cry out to God, seeking His mercy. That is what Israel did here.

We've sinned against God, they said. We have sinned. Verse 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. So Moses made a bronze serpent, put it on a pole, and so it was. If a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. So this fiery serpent was set on a pole, it was lifted up, where the people could see it. This is the one that Judah named Nehushtan.

So whenever you had an Israelite there in the camp, it was bitten by a serpent, the people were to look at the bronze serpent for their healing, and God would heal them. It wasn't that the image had any power of itself, but it was the instrument that God had set up for them to look to, and God would heal them. It's interesting to note that being lifted up on a pole was an ancient sign of triumphant victory.

A lot of the ancient cultures around that time, if they had a war and they conquered the opposing army, or the opposing king, they took the head of the king, or they took the head of the general of the opposing army, and they put it on a pike, and they lifted that head up on a pole, and they would march it around, and people would celebrate, they would make great merriment around this head, because it was a symbol of the victory over the enemy.

The lifting up of the snake on the pole in Israel was a sign of God's victory over the power of the serpent. It was a sign, it was a type, actually, it was a forerunner, of the victory of God over the power of the serpent. And anyone looking to it would be healed of the snake bite, and they would be relieved of the pain of death. Again, that venom, coursing through your body, death was imminent, and the only way out was to look upon the serpent.

If we're going to understand the full context of this account, we need to be clear, again, on what the Bible shows, the representation of the serpent to be. Because throughout Scripture, and I believe we understand this clearly, though, the snake, the serpent, is representative of sin, is representative of Satan the devil, the originator, the instigator of sin. I'll give you just three notes to jot down, three Bible passages. We're not going to turn there. You can look them up later. Genesis 3, verse 13. Eve stated, the serpent deceived me and I ate. The serpent deceived me and I ate. The serpent, again, the originator of the sin and the deception, perpetrated upon mankind from the beginning.

Revelation 12, verse 9. It calls Satan that serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. In effect, the whole world has been bitten by the snake. It's venomous, coursing through their veins. They're under the penalty of that venom, that bite, that serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world.

1 John chapter 3, verse 8, states that, He who sins is of the devil. He who sins is of the devil. So again, the typology, the symbolism of the snake is tied to sin. It's tied to the serpent, Satan the devil, the instigator of sin. And so what these scriptures show us is that those who sin are under the influence of that serpent.

They've been bitten by him. The poison of sin is working its way through their bodies, again coursing through their veins, the result of which will be death, if not intervened upon. Wages of sin is death. Israel learned the hard way, the result of the serpent, the fact that it brings pain. It brings trauma. It brings distress. The bronze serpent on the pole represented the sin and the consequences of that sin. And when people looked on it, those people of Israel, when they looked to it and at it, and they acknowledged their sin, then God brought forgiveness.

He relieved them from the death penalty. Again, the snake did not heal them. No power in that graven image. It was God who healed them. But the people had to look to the cause of pain and death, and they had to acknowledge that the ways of the serpent kills, or the ways of God bring life.

And that is the symbolism behind that serpent that was raised up, and the serpents that struck at the people of Israel bringing agony and death. It was a representation, it was a type of their sin against God, that they would come to understand that the serpent brings death. Interestingly, it doesn't appear that God simply took the snakes away. People said to Moses, pray to God, have him take the snakes away. God said, make a snake, put it on the pole so that somebody who's bitten, that they look at it and would live.

It doesn't actually say that God took the snakes away immediately. But he did provide a way out, a release from death for those who would take it. God provided the release from the consequences of the snake bite for those who would look at the salvation, at the saving grace that God was extending, who would look to it, who would acknowledge it, who would accept it.

But they had to follow through with God's instructions and look at the bronze serpent on the pole. I'd like to take you back, just in your mind, go back 3,400 years, put yourself in the camp of Israel under this plague with these serpents, and consider this question, do you think they just glanced quickly at the serpent on the pole? You know, just a passing glance. If you were bitten, if you had that agony of the pain of the venom going through your system, and you were dying, and you just saw your neighbor die, and you knew that you were dying, and that was the position that you were in, would you just simply cast a passing glance at the bronze serpent, or would you not look at it intently?

Would you not focus your gaze, your attention on it? Would not the instrument that God provided to save you from death have your full attention and focus, because it was the means that God had established for your healing? I can speak for me. I would say, if I were bitten by the snake, I would look at that bronze serpent on the pole as quickly and as intently as I could, because that is what God had commanded for the healing. If I had a loved one who was bitten, I would have dragged them from where they laid into view so they could look at the serpent on the pole and be healed and restored.

I'm sure we would all have done the same. Again, it's important we understand that the bronze serpent had no power of its own. It was symbolic. It was a type. It was not to be an idol before the people, and it was not to be worshipped. But unfortunately, as the case was, time and time and time again, with Israel and with Judah as well, idolatry developed and it developed around this image.

The bronze serpent on the pole remained in Israel from the time of Moses until the day of Hezekiah 700 years later. But its purpose had been served long ago. There was no power. There was no blessing in packing this thing around, setting it up, burning incense to it, any of those things. The power and the authority was of God.

That was the focus. But at a time and at a place and during a circumstance, God chose to use that specific image for a purpose. But the glory still belonged to Him, not to the graven image, and that is why Hezekiah took Nahushtan 700 years later and he broke it into pieces. And he tore down the high places and the pillars and all those other instruments of false worship. The glory always goes to God. That was Hezekiah's focus, and that was the focus that he was seeking to restore to Israel.

Rather than this, accountant scripture is more than just an interesting story because it has spiritual implications for us today. And I would hope you are kind of seeing those as we're moving through this story. But as has already been mentioned, the entire world has been bitten by the serpent. The entire world has come under the consequences of His poisonous venom, and the whole world lies under the wages of sin, which is death.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the message, there are three locations in scripture where the bronze serpent is mentioned. And I'd be remiss if I didn't tie all of this together through the example we find in the third account. So let's go now to the New Testament, John chapter 3, verse 1.

John chapter 3 and verse 1. I'll read some of the run-up to the focus I want to pull out. John 3, verse 1, it says, There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night, said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do the things or the signs that you do unless God is with them. And Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered, Most assuredly I say to you, Unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. So we understand that being born of the water and spirit, it's the repentance process, it's the baptism process.

It's having the laying on of hands and receiving of God's Holy Spirit. Those are things that seal you in covenant with God through Jesus Christ by then which you may enter the kingdom of God. Verse 6, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the spirit. You and I can't see the wind visually by just going out and looking around, but we can see the effects of it. Blows through the trees and the trees move. We can see the effects. And it's the same with the spirit of God. We cannot see it visually, but we ought to be able to see the effects of it in those who have God's spirit.

Verse 9, Nicodemus answered, and he said to him, How can these things be? And Jesus answered and said to him, Are you a teacher of Israel and do you not know these things? Most assuredly I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. Now notice verse 14 specifically, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

That's big. That's impactful. Jesus Christ is telling them how he will die. He is going to be placed on a pole, and he is going to be lifted up. Let me read it again. Verse 14, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Then it rolls into some very well-known verses. 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. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. It's a powerful set of scriptures, brethren. Very powerful, and it ties together all the symbolism of what we saw in ancient Israel. The symbolism of the punishment, the symbolism of the miracles that God performed in the wilderness, the symbolism of the raising up of the serpent on the pole. The question we might ask, and honestly, until I really looked into this a little more, wasn't exactly clear. What's the connection between Jesus Christ and the snake? Just as the snake was lifted up, Jesus Christ will be lifted up. Why is Jesus Christ equating himself with the snake? The snake represents sin. And we know Jesus Christ was perfect, wasn't he? He was without sin. There was no flaw or blemish. Nothing about him that was offensive. He was the Lamb without spot. So why is he being compared to the snake? And what lesson does God want us to learn? Well, again, Israel had to learn in the hard way that the result of the serpent brings pain and death. And when they looked to that bronze serpent that was on the pole, they acknowledged their sin. As they did that in the penalty of their sin, then God intervened and healed them. And then that pole with the serpent raised up, they looked to it. God, we have sinned. We acknowledge that. They looked to that instrument of salvation that God provided and they were healed. What does the snake have to do with Jesus Christ? The lesson here is the same. And that is, if you and I are going to be saved from the wages of sin, which is death, then number one, we have to acknowledge sin. We have to acknowledge by nature, in our carnal nature, that we are sin. We have to acknowledge the effects of sin, in that venom, which leads to what? Death. All right. And we must be willing to look on Him who became sin for us so that we might be saved. And that's the connection.

In Israel, the serpent represented sin. For you and I, Jesus Christ, raised up on the pole, is the one who became sin for us. Sin in our place.

We're the ones that deserve to be lifted up on the pole in terms of death. All right? Not in terms of salvation, but in terms of death. And Christ took that upon Himself. Again, He was perfect. Never sinned. But He became sin on our behalf. And He died on the pole, and we must look to His sacrifice, brethren, if we're going to be saved. That's the lesson. Let's notice a few Scriptures quickly in this regard. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. Apostle Paul, he says, For He made Him, God made Jesus Christ, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Again, the point is, if we're going to be saved from death, we must look to the sacrifice of the one who took our sin upon Himself and became sin for us. It's the process that you went through at baptism. If you haven't been baptized, it's the process you need to come to in your mind, coming up to that point. I have sinned. I acknowledge my sin. I need to look to the sacrifice that God has provided for the remission of sin and for life. Galatians chapter 3, verse 13. Again, the concept that Christ became sin for us. Galatians chapter 3 and verse 13 says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. There's a number of passages in Scripture that says, God the Father has redeemed us. There's also passages that say Jesus Christ has redeemed us. They're not in conflict. It's a perfect relationship. Again, verse 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 the tree. So in order for someone who has been bitten by the serpent to live, they must be willing to look at the cause of the pain, which is sin. They must be willing to look at the consequences of that sin, which is death. And Jesus Christ took both of those upon himself. If you and I were standing there personally at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, what would we see? We would see the brutal, grotesque nature of sin put upon Him, through the scourging, through the crucifixion. He was the Lamb without spot. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. But at that time, on the stake, at the crucifixion, when He became sin for us, you would see sin visually in all its gore, of one who is under the curse and the brutality of the consequences of sin and ultimately the penalty, which is death. Christ took those upon Himself.

Hebrews 2, verse 14 and 15.

Hebrews 2, verse 14 and 15. It says, Christ came in the flesh, and He lived as a human being, just as we do. He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy Him who had the power of death, that is the devil, that is the serpent, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ destroys death. Hold. It destroys the power of the serpent. It is victory. Christ lifted up on the pole, was a symbol of the victory of God over the serpent, through Christ.

The serpent would bruise His heel, but Christ would bruise His head. Satan is not long for his devices in his ways, but the victory over the serpent is through Jesus Christ. The bronze serpent on the pole in Israel represented the sin and the consequences of that sin, so that when the people looked at it and acknowledged their sin, they were redeemed from the death penalty.

Likewise for us today, Jesus Christ, at the time of His crucifixion, took upon Himself the sin of us all, so that when we look to His sacrifice, we see what He became on our behalf. We must also see the consequences of what He took on on our behalf. We must acknowledge our need for the forgiveness God offers, so that through Him we too can have eternal life.

In the beginning, you go read about the serpent raised up on a pole that people had a look at, and you might wonder, what in the world is God doing? That seems a little odd, but it is a lesson of our spiritual salvation, brethren, that we must learn.

The symbol of the graven image of Jesus Christ on a cross. You're going to find those if you go look around. You find them on churches. You find them on street corners. Some people maybe wear them around their neck, the crucifix. The symbolism, the graven image of Christ on the cross, is not something that we're to worship today, just as Israel wasn't to worship the serpent on the pole. Again, there's no power in that image. The glory goes to God. The power is of God. It is of what God does. So we don't look to that. We don't worship that. However, the lesson of sin must be so ingrained in us that it guides our lives and our actions. We look to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ so that we might live. That's a lesson.

Sometimes, the United Church of God gets questioned about our Christ focus. Do we focus too much on Jesus Christ? Do we spend too much time looking at Jesus Christ as if that's a bad thing? And, brethren, all I can really say is that when we look to Jesus Christ, we're looking to the one who the Father has personally allowed to be lifted up to be the instrument of our salvation and the symbol of our victory over sin and death. And we must look to Him. It is what God has called us to do. It is not in conflict with looking to God. It is in agreement with looking to God. It is what God has put in place for our salvation. As those who have been bitten by the serpent, we must not simply cast a passing glance at Him. And if you're in Israel and you're bitten by the poisonous snake, are you just going to casually glance at the serpent on the pole, or is it not going to be a big part of your focus? For those who have been bitten by the serpent, which is everyone, we must not simply cast a passing glance at Him. I'll just reference Hebrews 12-2, because you see Jesus Christ did not stay on the stake, on the pole, but He died, all right? And then He was resurrected. He sits at the right hand of the Father, and we still look to Him. Hebrews 12-2 says, looking unto Jesus. It is what we do, looking unto Jesus, the Author and the Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. The amazing thing about looking to Jesus Christ is that if you do that, and you look to the Jesus Christ of the Bible, all right? Not some other description of who and what Christ is, but if you look to the Jesus Christ as is portrayed in the Scripture, you're going to see the captain of our salvation who points us to His Father. It is a perfect relationship. Again, it's not exclusive, one or the other. If you've ever been bitten by the serpent, again, all of mankind, and fixing your focus anywhere else, then the only begotten Son of God will result in nothing short of your death, because it is the fixture, He is the instrument that our Father in Heaven has established to be so. So we can all take hope, we can take comfort. Romans 6, verse 23 tells us that the wages of sin is death. That's the bite of the serpent, and that's the penalty apart from the salvation that God provides through His dear Son. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus Christ is the central fixture of God's plan of salvation for all of mankind. And brethren, we must never stop looking to Him.