[Mr. Steve Myers]: Do you like snakes? We've got all kinds of nodding going on right now. What comes to mind when you think of a snake? Maybe a beautiful garden setting, this beautiful little creature in, you know, taking care of all the bad things and you, “Well, I don't know. Maybe that doesn't come to mind.” Anything spiritual come to mind when you consider snakes. Probably. The Bible has a lot to say about serpents. In fact, I've related it to a story I heard that you might even say this man had a bronze serpent. You may have heard the story about this man that suddenly decided to be spiritual. Now, he was a little off base, but he decided to join a monastery, but not any old monastery. He wanted to become a monk and as he did that, he took a vow of silence, but there was a little addendum. Each year, the abbot, the director of the monastery would allow the individual monk to say two words. So a year goes by after this man has joined this monastery, kept silent this entire year, comes before the abbot and the abbot says, “What do you have to say, my son?” And the new monk said, “Bed's hard.”

Well, a whole nother year goes by in absolute silence and he appears before the abbot once again, another year later, abbot says, “Well, what would you like to say, my son with your two words?” And the monk says, “Food's cold.” A whole nother year goes by, the man appears before the abbot once again and as before, the abbot asked him, “What would you like to say this year, my son?” And the man says, “I quit.” Of course, the abbot then immediately says, “I figured that would happen. All you've done is complain since you've got here.” With his six words, right? Now, you could say that man had a bronze serpent. Now, why do I say it that way? Well, what is a bronze serpent anyway? Do you have any bronze serpents in your life? Maybe something you could call my bronze serpent? We could find a little bit about a bronze serpent mentioned in scripture in 2 Kings. So let's turn over to 2 Kings 18 at the beginning of that chapter. Here we find a new king has come into power in Judah. 2 Kings 18. Beginning of the chapter begins to describe something that's connected to this idea of snakes and serpents. And this is a scenario of new King Hezekiah. Now, he was unique, something a little bit different than the other kings. Let's notice what it says about Hezekiah. It says,

2 Kings 18:1 – “It came to pass in the third year of Hoshea the son of Eli king of Israel that's in the north that Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz became king of Judah in the south. He began to reign. He was 25 years old when he became king.”

Now, that's not the unique part. It says he reigned 29 years. His mother's name was Abi. Maybe that's unique. I don't know. But it says she's the daughter of Zachariah. But in verse three, we really see something different about Hezekiah. It says “he did what was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father David had done.” Now, that was unusual. That was unique. Most Kings did nothing like David. Most of them ignored God. Most of them instituted false practices. They didn't follow the true God. And so this was certainly something different, doing what was right in God's eyes. And not only did he think about it, but he also acted on that belief in believing the true God. So look what he did. Verse four, “He removed the high places.” That would've been those areas where they worshiped pagan gods, those high places sometimes called groves in the Old Testament. So he got rid of those. Not only that, it says he broke the sacred pillars. That would be the Asherah poles, those that were worshiping false gods. He got rid of them, broke them down to pieces.

Also, he cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent. So he destroys this bronze serpent. And this wasn't any old image of a snake. Notice what this bronze serpent was. “This was the bronze serpent,” it says, “That Moses had made.” Moses had made this serpent and Hezekiah destroyed it. Why? Well, he did what was right in the sight of the Lord. It says here, “Until those days, the children of Israel burned incense to it,” to this bronze serpent. And it says, “They called it Nehushtan.” They had a name for this snake, but Hezekiah scrapped the whole thing. Verse five, “He trusted in the Lord, God of Israel so that after he was none like him among all the kings of Judah nor who were before him.” He did what was right in the eyes of God. Now, why destroy this bronze serpent? How could he take that responsibility of assuming this would be the best thing to do? Well, he recognized how it had become something it wasn't intended to be. And we might say, “Well, okay. He recognized the snake, the snake among them.” And we might think of this story and say, “Well, glad I don't have any bronze serpents in my life.” Well, do we?

I'd like to take a little bit of time to look at this Old Testament item and how this concept of a bronze serpent applies to us because there is a biblical lesson, multiple lessons, actually, in this particular snake, in this serpent. We could ask ourselves, “Are there any serpents, any bronze snakes that are obstructing my spiritual growth? Is there a Nehushtan in my life? Do I have any spiritual obstructions, things that are keeping me back from full dedication to God?” Because that's certainly what happened to Judah. And it's interesting when you find the source of where this snake came from wasn't ever intended to trip up the people of God. It wasn't made by Israel's enemies. Nope. That's not who made it. It wasn't to trick them, it wasn't to mislead them, it was supposed to be something good. In fact, this snake was built by God's direction. God said, “Do this, make this snake.” And yet the long-term effects were disastrous. It was a terrible outcome. And so it ends up resulting in the deviation and the departure from the true worship of the one true God. And that's where there's a connection to us. Are there things in our life that if we don't learn the lessons of things that could obstruct us from right worship, from a good relationship with God, that it could turn into a bronze serpent?

Well, let's get the background. Let's get the background to this particular snake. And you can find that over in the book of Numbers, Numbers 21:4. Here in numbers 21, it will give us the background to this Nehushtan. And, in fact, if you were to read through Numbers, if you haven't read through it lately, it would probably be fair to rename it. If you had to rename the book of Numbers, you could probably call it the complainer chronicles because it's about Israel coming out of Egypt and going through the wilderness before they come into the Promised Land. And it could be the complainer chronicles because here's the people, they've been in the desert wandering in this wilderness almost 40 years by this time and most of those who originally left Egypt, what happened to them? Yeah, they died. They died. Why? They were kind of fulfilling that very name. They died. They didn't trust in God. They whined about their circumstances. And most of those were already dead by this time. But there was a problem. You know, you've heard that phrase like father like son? Yeah. Some of the new generation had taken on the same characteristics from mom and dad. The new generation in a way was following in those same footsteps.

So instead of thanking God for their deliverance, instead of appreciating the fact that they were no longer under Pharaoh's thumb, thanking God for the delivery from slavery, for caring for them for 40 years throughout the wilderness in this hostile environment, what did they do instead? Complained, they grumbled, they barely ate, they whined about it, they fussed, they, they yammered about all the problems that they had. And here in chapter 21, we can read about one of those instances. Look at verse 4. Verse 4 we pick up the story of their complaining chronicles. It says,

Numbers 21:4 – “They traveled from Mount Horeb along the route to the Red Sea to go around Edom, but the people grew impatient on the way.” They grew impatient. If you read this in the King James, it says they became discouraged. And you might think, “Aw. Those poor Israelites. They've been in the wilderness so long, that would be discouraging. You know, what a difficult life that would've been.” But that's not what the word means. That's a very poor translation. This particular word, qatsir, is the word in Hebrew and it's actually a farming, a word that they used in reference to harvesting. Harvesting.

So what in the world does harvesting have to do with how the people now came to this particular attitude? What does that have to do with anything? If you look up the verb, it means to cut short. To cut short. And of course, that kind of makes sense when you're harvesting. If you've got grain that's growing, you cut it short. When you harvest the grain, you cut it short as that grain is brought into the storehouse. So this idea of qatsir most oftentimes in the Old Testament is translated as reap or reaping because you're harvesting the crops. Now, if you used it as a noun, the noun would mean to end because crops aren't growing anymore. The harvest has come, so it's end to the growing season. It's an end to that time. The harvest is coming to an end. So no wonder qatsir would be used as this harvesting, reaping, farming kind of principle.

So, okay. What does that have to do with the Israelites and their perspective on what was happening? Well, there's an abstract concept that's happening here. It's meant in this particular phrase. So you're harvesting, something's coming to an end, what's come to an end? Their endurance. Their patience has come to an end, their willingness to cope with this situation has come to an end. They don't want to put up with this anymore. They're not looking to the goodness of God, so they are vexed, they're grieved, they're troubled. They are indignant, not only with their situation, but the one they want to blame for putting them in this situation. And of course, who would that be? Well, God, it's Your fault. So verse 5. Verse 5, look at qatsir. It says, “They spoke against God, against Moses and said, ‘why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?’ ”

Well, that's kind of... Isn't that kind of wacky to say that? How long have you been living out here? Well, most of this generation would say, “Ah, my whole life.” We didn't die in the wilderness. You think they're kind of exaggerating here a little bit? Yeah, I think so. Because then they said, “There's no bread.” Wait, didn't God miraculously provide you bread? Wasn't there this bread from heaven? What was that called? Yeah. Little manna that continued all throughout this whole time. “Well, no, we're sick of this.” So they said, “Look at this. There's no water.” Now, without water, you'd be dead too. But didn't Moses strike the rock and water came out as just one example of God's providence? Yeah. And to sum it up, end of verse 5, they say, “We detest this miserable food.” “Oh, yeah. Didn't we stuff our faces with quail and didn't we have all the manna we could eat and...” I mean, they were so dissatisfied with God's provision for them that they actually had the audacity to say they loath the miraculous manna. They abhorred it. God miraculously gave them food and they came to this point of saying, “We are sick and tired of this, God. We don't want to put up with this anymore. We are at the end. We don't like what you've done. In fact, we were better off in Egypt.” And of course, we read that and we think, “How in the world could they be so ungrateful? How could they be so insulant, so callous toward a loving, merciful, good, and gracious God?” Do you ever think that?

Well, maybe we should do a little personal attitude check though, in the meantime because I know I never ever grumble. I never have a complaint in life. Don't ask my wife. She doesn't have the right perspective sometimes, but do I ever grumble and complain? Do I ever whine about things? Does it ever lead me then to question what God is doing? What are You doing, God? Have you ever questioned God's ways? Why did You allow this to happen in my life? How could You allow this? You ever question God's motivation? I mean, even after everything He's done for us, we might say or be even deceive ourselves into believing, “I would never be like those... If I was there, I would've been different. I wouldn't have treated God with such ingratitude.” “But, boy, God, I should be making a whole lot more money than I am. Why do I have to work this lousy job You've stuck me with?” Does that ever come to mind? “My finances are in a mess, and God, You could get me out of this if You would. Why don't You? I don't understand this. What about this lousy house that I live in that's fallen apart? I can't even get it fixed up.” Do we ever do those types of things? That's what the Israelites were doing. And even you take it as farther because it's not just material things. Maybe we don't express it, but sometimes it may be even deeper than that, deeper than materialistic things.

Have we ever thought, “God, why haven't You fixed this relationship? God, You know I want to be married, where's the wife? Where's the husband I've been looking for? Why haven't You provided me with a mate? You know I could do so much more if I had a godly mate, what are You doing?” Ever feel that way? Or, “God, You love marriage, but why do we have so many problems? Why don't You fix these issues that I have in my marriage?” You see what we're doing is exactly what the Israelites did. Oh, it's different, different circumstances, but in a way we're blaming God for leaving us stranded in the wilderness. Isn't that what we're doing? It is. Just a different way. And so it's important as we rehearse the story to see where we may fit in this whole scenario because what this comes down to, what were the people doing? It wasn't just that they were whining and complaining and that they were sullen and ungrateful, this is sin. This is sin. Plain and simple. Because of their sinful attitude, because of their disrespect for God, because of their ungrateful words, God had to act. God couldn't leave them in that situation, He wants the best for them. So what does He do? Notice verse 6.

It says, “Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them and they bit the people and many Israelites died.” Whoa, that doesn't sound like a good solution. Really? Wow. If you read this in the King James, it would say, “God sent fiery serpents, fiery serpents, poisonous snakes.” That's what he's talking about here. Poisonous snakes. Fiery because if you got bit by one of these snakes, it would feel like fire's going through your veins from the burning effect of the poison, of the venom that is in these snakes. And they died. They died. And you might think, “Well, why snakes?” I mean, what do you think of when you think of snakes, especially biblically speaking? I mean, it seems to speak to sin, doesn't it? We know that serpent was right there at the very beginning and there's this close connection to sin, but here God takes snakes and He uses them to correct them, to discipline them, to help them to change their attitude. Do you ever think of a snake as something to change your... Okay. Well, put it this way. You got a snake that crawls into your tent, you think that might change your little outlook a bit? I think that would probably bring a pretty instant attitude change. Like, “Whoa, we'll get this out of here.” And it did. How quickly did they change their attitude? How quickly did they at least take on some kind of form of repentance? Oh, it took about half a verse.

Look at verse 7. Yeah. They died because they got bad and it says the people came to Moses and said, “We've sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you.” That's pretty quick change. Snake in a tent will do that. “Yup. We sinned against the Lord, we sinned against you.” “Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” They realized they didn't have the solution, they couldn't come up with the answer. It was beyond their means to be able to have a solution to this issue. So they knew God did. So they asked Moses, “Pray. Pray for us.” So Moses prayed for the people and God provided a solution. What was the solution? God directs Moses to mold a snake, a serpent, an image of a snake and set it on a pole right in the middle of the camp, right? In the middle of the camp of the Israelites. Verse 8 describes it. “The Lord said to Moses, make a snake, put it on a pole. Anyone who's bitten can look at it and live.” And live.

So what did Moses do? Exactly what God directed to him. Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole, then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. So you imagine this situation, you've got fire burning through your bloodstream, you've been bitten by a venomous snake, you are in the process of dying. If you looked to the snake, you would live. There's something else going. That can't just be a symbol for sin. How can you look at that and live? Does that make any sense whatsoever? But this is the way God provided healing. You follow God's direction. You look to God and what He provides, He ultimately gives healing. And so if you got bit and you looked at the snake, you're going to be saved. You're rebellious, you get bit, you refuse to turn to God, you refuse to look at that bronze serpent, you're going to die. That's what was going to happen. You would die from the venomous bites. Now, you might wonder, “Well, why would God choose that image? It seems so odd in that way.” Well, we know if this unusual method was intended to bring life, it was intended to bring healing to a dying people. And if you think about that spiritually for a moment, where do we look for healing? Where do we look for life, real life, lasting life?

It is interesting that Christ Himself refers to this event during His earthly ministry. And there's some interesting connections that He makes to this particular story and you can find it over in the book of John, the gospel of John. John chapter 3, we're going to look at verse 10 in John chapter 3 because it begins to answer that question, why a bronze serpent up on a pole? And of course, when you think about that, that thing must have been pretty good size. Probably wasn't what like just a teeny little snake wrapped around a pole that if all of Israel could look on it and be saved, do you remember how many Israelites there were that were going to go into the Promised Land? Yeah, only a couple million. Had a couple of million people and then they could all look and see this thing if they'd been bitten? Yeah. I wonder how big. I mean, we don't have any details about the size of this thing, but it would've been obvious. Had to have been obvious so that they could live, so that they could be saved. And here Christ refers to this event and gives really an amazing connection because this section of scripture that Christ refers to this bronze snake is right before probably the most popular and maybe what could even be referred to as the most quoted scripture in the Bible. The most quoted scripture in the Bible, John 3:16,

“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Any connection to that snake in those words? Well, Christ refers to that. And in this particular section of scripture, Christ is talking to a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a very important man during the time of Christ. He wasn't just any old guy, he was a prominent Pharisee. So he's in this ruling religious class of the day and even more than just being a Pharisee, he was a member of the Sanhedrin. He would've been one of the few that would've been on the...what you could call the Supreme Court of Israel, the ruling body, the Sanhedrin. And so Nicodemus is one of those guys and also recognizing, there's something different about this Jesus. This Jesus seems like He might be fulfilling those different aspects of the Messiah.

And so he goes by night to talk to Jesus, try to get a little more detail to try to sort this whole thing out. And so Christ is talking to Nicodemus and in this conversation, Christ brings up the snake. John verse 10. It says,

John 3:10 – “Jesus answered Nicodemus and said and ‘You're a teacher of Israel, you don't know these things? You don't understand spiritual things?’ He says to Nicodemus.” He says, “Most assuredly.” That's the word amen that's translated. Amen. This is absolute fact. “You can believe this. This is undoubtable. We speak what we know and we testify what we've seen and you don't receive our witness. There's been a witness before your eyes all this time and you haven't even recognized this, Nicodemus.” He says, “If I told you earthly things and you don't believe, that's the things you can see, you can feel, you can touch it. It's right there.” He says, “If you don't believe that, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things. If I relay spiritual things to you, how can you ever comprehend it if you're unwilling to recognize even the physical things?”

So He says, verse 13, “No one has ascended to heaven, but He who came down from heaven. That is the Son of Man who's in heaven.” Which seems kind of an out-of-the-way comment. What does that have to do with anything that you're talking about at the moment, Christ? Coming down from heaven? Well, because He says, “I'm going back to the throne of God.” And so what's the connection? That snake. That snake. Verse 14, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, for whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” And so we see this beautiful connection between that bronze serpent. Okay. It's there because Israel sinned. Snakes are often associated with sin, but here we see that snake associated with the saving power of Jesus Christ. We look to Christ and we can have eternal life. And it's not just looking, it's being in Christ. And so we see God's perspective is He wants people to repent, He wants people to change. So it says in verse 15, “Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” And that quotable verse follows, “God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” And He adds to it. God didn't send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. What a beautiful perspective.

So that bronze serpent lifted up on a pole is this beautiful symbol, this beautiful picture, what you could call a type. It is a type of Jesus Christ. It's a type of what God is doing in His plan. It is a symbol of what God intends for mankind. He wants people to be saved. He wants to give them eternal life. So it's about salvation from sin. Where do we look for salvation? We look to Christ. We look to Christ for His sacrifice, forgiveness of sin through His sacrifice because, ultimately, Christ is telling Nicodemus, “I have to die.” The Christ, the Messiah would have to die. God is not establishing His kingdom at this very moment. “I will have to die. I will have to be in the grave three days and three nights. I will then be resurrected and lifted up. I'll be lifted up so people can look to Me as a spiritual head of the church, as their sacrificial Savior.” He says, "There is life in Me and I will be spirit.” He's telling Nicodemus all of these things.

And so as that snake was lifted up and the people could look to it and be saved, so Christ would also be lifted up. And it's also interesting that the Greek adds a little bit more meaning to this whole concept as well. It's not just that they lifted up this snake on this pole in the wilderness, what Christ refers to here as being lifted up, yes, it can mean to raise up, which Christ certainly was resurrected to spirit, but in the Greek, the word can also mean exalted or glorified. That Christ would be glorified, that He would be lifted up. And that is our means of salvation. And so it is an amazing connection when we put the story altogether. God instructed Moses to make that bronze serpent. He didn't make a bronze lamb. Now, that doesn't mean Christ isn't the Lamb of God because He is. That's a whole nother metaphor that's used there. Christ was certainly the Lamb of God who sacrificed His life like that lamb at Passover for our sins, but He was also the serpent. He was also the bronze serpent who took our sins. That representation of sin that when we look to Christ, there is a solution to sin. He bore our sins as He was crucified. In fact, there's so many passages that refer to that. There's one, in particular, that seems to be, I think, intricately connected to this concept and it's over in 2 Corinthians 5:21. If you'll turn there with me, it makes this point of being a bronze snake rather than a bronze or copper lamb. Why the snake? Well, we see 2 Corinthians 5:21 reflect this very fact.

2 Corinthians 5:21, here Christ is writing to a church of God who probably in a lot of ways could be compared to those ancient Israelites. Think of God's church in Corinth back in the first century. They were the most wonderful, loving, caring people that had so much concern for each other that they just got along so well and there were no divisions among... Sorry. A little bit of sarcasm there. Yeah. They had problems with each other. There was sarcasm among themselves, there was division and they were divided into different sects and groups, and they were discriminating against each other a lot like ancient Israel. And so here the apostle Paul is inspired to write to Corinth to remind them of where their real hope is, in fact, where there is any hope whatsoever for mankind.

And so in 2 Corinthians 5:21, he was inspired to write,

2 Corinthians 5:21 – “For He made Him.” And of course, this is He, God the Father made Him, Jesus Christ, “who knew no sin to be sin for us.” And maybe at first, that sounds a little bit like this bronze serpent. Like what? What is he talking about? How exactly did God make Jesus to be sin for us? How did He do that? And how did that tie into this bronze serpent? Well, we know a couple of things that it doesn't mean. It definitely does not mean that Christ actually became sin itself. That can't be what it means because the Bible is clear passage after passage. It says He committed no sin. He's holy, He's blameless, He's good, He's righteous, He's pure over and over again. So for Jesus to become sin, even for a moment, would deny scripture. So that's definitely not what it means. It also does not mean that He became a sinner. That can't be. Not even for a fraction of a second could He have become a sinner. And it's really odd when you read what some scholars write about 2 Corinthians 5 and other passages about Christ and how He took on sin. Some scholars will even write things similar to saying Christ is the greatest sinner of all time.

Was that true? I mean, not at all. No. To think of Christ as the greatest sinner, I mean, they think that because, well, okay. He took mankind's sins. Yes, that's true. But He suffered in our place. He died for us. He took our punishment. We're the ones that deserve it, but Christ took it for us. He took the penalty for our sins. So that's what Christ did. He didn't become a sinner Himself. Not personally, not at all. Couldn't happen that way. And it doesn't mean that He's actually guilty of sin. Is Christ guilty of sin? Well, to be guilty of sin, that would mean you'd have to transgress the law, you'd have to be a sinner. And if He was guilty, then He deserved to die. Then He should die because He deserves it then if He's a sinner. But when we look at what scripture says, we know He was sinless, He was sinless. And even at the crucifixion, the Pharisees knew there was no reason for Him to be crucified. And if you rehearse that story, they got pilot to take the blame for the crucifixion because we can't find any reason to put Him to death, is the conclusion they came to. And so when we recognize that, we can begin to see how Jesus was sin for us. In fact, if we read the rest of the verse, take a look back at 2 Corinthians 5:21. I think we begin to see the answer right here. It says, “For He God made Him Christ who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” And so we have sin on one hand and righteousness on the other. We have this serpent, that snake that's representative of sin and yet we have the one who was sinless to be the one who bore that sin.

And so we see very clearly, our sin was imputed to Christ, that it was put on Christ. It was accounted to Christ. What I deserve, the punishment for my sin was attributed to Christ. And so when we think of that, He paid the debt for our sin to God. He had no sin Himself, He definitely was sin-free, but sin was attributed to Him. It was reckoned to Him. Sin was accounted to Him and He took the penalty that we deserved. And yet at the same time, what we find here in Corinthians through faith, through faith in Christ, we can be imputed His righteousness, His righteousness. We can be justified. We can come before God and when we repent and we are forgiven of our sins, we are justified in God's sight. That means we're forgiven of sin, we're brought into a right relationship with God, our sin is accounted as righteousness now because Christ took that penalty for us and we stand justified before God, we're now in a right relationship. We're now in a right relationship with God and we stand before Him sinless. At that moment that we are forgiven of sin, we are justified. We are acquitted of sin. For that moment that we repent, we truly repent and are forgiven by God. Just as Christ is sinless, we are as well.

And so there's this beautiful connection between sin and righteousness that is found in this whole metaphor of this bronze snake. Christ's righteousness is applied to us and what an awesome God we have. In fact, when we think about it, we look at this story and we realize as well, even the story continues to point to Christ in that God instructed Moses to make a model of a snake. Wasn't a real snake. He didn't run out there in the wilderness and tried to grab a slithery creature and then wrap it around a pole and stick it up. No. He said, “Build a model. Build a replica of a serpent on the pole.” Not the real thing. And so that even connects to Christ because Christ wasn't a real sinner. He never sinned, but He took our sin and made the means of salvation. We can be saved by looking to... In fact, it is the own only means, the only way to salvation. The one way is to look at the serpent, look to Christ, look to Christ. And so when Christ was crucified, He was never contaminated with sin. It never got on the inside. He was not infused with sin in any way. He became the sin-bearer. He was judged like He was a sinner. That's true. You know, God made Him to be sin for us. That's true. Even though He was sinless, He was treated as though He wasn't. Even though He remained holy, and perfect, and righteous, He was regarded as guilty. In fact, guilty of all the sin of the world in that regard and He became our substitute in that sense. He was the recipient of God's judgment against sin and that judgment that we deserve. And so it's such a beautiful sense that it all fits so wonderful.

In fact, if you turn with me over to Romans 8:3, it summarizes that concept in a beautiful way because it's not only true in a New Testament sense, also true in that experience of ancient Israel. Romans 8:3 describes it in just a quick little synopsis of what was going on with what Christ referenced to Nicodemus and what happened in the wilderness to ancient Israel. Romans 8:3, it says “That God, sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh.” And He did all of that for us. For us. And He took the penalty that we deserved. How thankful are we for that? How much do we recognize that? Is that something that's continually on our mind as we go to God for forgiveness? What a blessing to have a savior that we can look to. At any moment, we can look to Christ and we could change. We can change our attitudes as quick as those snakes came into the tent and we can be forgiven. We could be right with God once again.

Now, with an item like that, boy, that's something you'd want to hang on to. I want to hang on to that righteousness, I want to hang on to that reminder. And so what do you think the Israelites did? They did. They hung on to that bronze snake and that pole and they carefully preserved it. So if you can imagine, how long would you hang on to something that you thought was a keepsake? Okay. Don't look at my garage, there's things that have been there for I don't know how many years. Yeah. We sometimes tend to do that and the Israelites' no different. They carefully preserved that snake and it wasn't just for 10 years, or 50 years, or 100 years, they kept that thing to the time of Hezekiah. From the time of Moses all the way to Hezekiah, you know how long that is? About 700 years. 700 years, they kept that relic. And I'm sure at first it was probably a pretty cool reminder. What a good reminder that God gave us miraculous healing, that God saved our lives. That is a reminder. We don't ever want to disobey, we don't want to get into to snake kind of living, we don't want to be sinful. Look at that snake's going to remind us of that. And certainly, at first, it would've. Seems like a good thing. I mean, it was never intended to represent anything else, it was just designed for healing and for life. But what happened? It turned into something totally different. I mean, it became a religious relic, it became an item that was worshiped. Actually, it became like a pagan idol. And they worshiped that snake.

And as we read in Kings, they burnt incense to it. They treated it just like any other pagan idol. And, in fact, they took such a liking to it, they gave it a name. They gave it a name. Nehushtan. Nehushtan. That's our idol. There's our savior, there's our god, which is such an amazing thing. And so it's no wonder when Hezekiah came along and did what was right in the side of the Lord, he destroyed it. He scrapped it. He got rid of that stumbling block so it would never stand in their way with the right relationship with God. And of course, think about that occurrence. Well, we love Nehushtan. This is such a wonderful thing. You measure what the people were thinking, they had become so idolatrous that it was everywhere on every high place. Seemed every mountain had their Asherah poles. They had their Nehushtan as well. And when he got rid of that thing, can you imagine the fake news that probably went out? “Oh, what's the deal with Hezekiah? He smashed the serpent. He got rid of this. What? I didn't hear God tell him what to do with that. Why didn't he do that? How could he be so bold to take that upon himself? Doesn't he realize what this is? Doesn't he know? Hey, that was a savior to our people years ago. What right did he have to get rid of that? Who ordered the destruction of... He can't do that.” I mean, you can imagine the word that went out. But he was cleansing and cleaning up the land. He was getting rid of idolatry, getting rid of ungodly practices and he did the right thing. He, in a way, was going back to that timeframe when those snakes first appeared and there was a saving power among the people.

Here, Hezekiah is trying to get Judah back on track in the right worship of God. And even today, even today, we recognize a snake wrapped around a pole. What does it represent? It represents healing. It's probably the most widely recognized, probably the most universal symbol of medicine and healthcare, and healing, and healing, that snake that was intertwined around the staff. Now, it's interesting as well, sometimes it's known as the rod of Asclepius. And of course, we've all heard of the god Asclepius, right? Okay. Nobody's ever heard of Asclepius. The rod out of Asclepius is a Greek myth. Asclepius was one of the Greek gods. You'll never guess what he is the god of. He's the god of healing, the god of medicine. And so he's the Greek god in Greek mythology. And so if you were to see, Google it, look up a statue of Asclepius and you'll see he's normally standing by a snake that's wrapped around a pole. It's coiled around it because he's the healer and there's that snake. Now, what's interesting, if you look into that story a little bit, did the rod of Asclepius come first, and then it was associated with medicine? That's what a lot of people say, but there are researchers, in fact, quite a few researchers that says that's not where Asclepius originated. That's not where the serpent originated in its connection to healing. You know what they found? It's connected to your Bible.

In fact, you look through Greek mythology and you connect their gods and their whole system of pagan worship, oh, they've got their own version of Adam and Eve, they've got their own version of Noah's Ark, they've got their own version of many of those stories and Asclepius is no different. It is connected to the bronze serpent. There is so much evidence that links one of the tribes of Israel with business in the Greek world. You know what tribe that was? It was actually probably the most pagan tribe of the Israelites. That was the tribe of Dan. And almost from the start of going into the Promised Land, they set up a golden calf in the territory of Dan. Of course, they were the seafaring people. They would get out there and travel around and they definitely traded. And there's evidence they did trade with the Greeks. And so there's plenty of evidence that the tribe of Dan brought those stories of the Bible.

In fact, the Greeks have their own Samson, don't they? What do the Greeks call Samson? Hercules. Yeah. They've got their own version of these things. So the tradition of pagan worship related to a snake on a pole it was probably passed on to them by the tribe of Dan. And it fits the Bible account so beautifully because here's this snake wrapped around a pole representing life, representing healing, representing everything that could be good. Look to the snake and be saved. But what did Israel turn that snake into? A pagan idol. What are the Greek gods? They're all a bunch of pagan idols. And so this idea of saving power and healing and life just like the Israelites did, the Greeks did the same thing. Now, the snake on a pole is associated with Asclepius rather than associated with Christ. And I think that's much more than just a coincidence.

So as we consider this whole story of the bronze serpent, it is filled with many lessons for us today and how we need to look at our own life. What do we most often look to? You know, are we most often looking to Christ? In fact, as we think about what happened and Nehustan ended up resulting from what was saving the people initially, I mean, are there those objects in our life that actually obstruct us from taking the spiritual path, from growing closer to God? Are there any bronze serpents that are hindering God's work right now? I mean, we can't just go through the motions of being religious because that's what the Israelites did. “Well, we turned it into an idol and we're burning incense. And boy, it sure looks good, seems good.” But boy, did it separate them from God. And in fact, when we consider that, it certainly can show itself in the sinful mindsets that we can have that are connected to the complainer chronicles.

Complaining. We live in a culture of complaint. Isn't that what our world is? Anybody been on social media lately? No, we don't complain, do we? Not at all, not at all, but it's a choice. It's a choice we can make. And Israel's lesson in this is so much more powerful when we recognize the significance of what that attitude brings because it is easy. Isn't it easy to whine and complain? I find it pretty easy. It's so much easy to focus on the bad news, the things that are wrong rather than the things that are good. I can focus on my lack of food rather than the miraculous manna that God's given. And we can do that and we can focus on the things that are wrong or we can gossip about people behind their back rather than see what's good or give a compliment. And we can dwell on the things that fall short rather than what's working well. And so we've got to train our minds to look, to look to Christ. I mean, it is interesting that so many studies have shown that people are taking action when things are bad, when they're not happy, when they're dissatisfied. And the Israelites were dissatisfied. They were dissatisfied with God and, boy, when those snakes showed up, it was time to take action. In fact, it's interesting when you look at just commerce and business. They worry about social media, they worry about what someone's going to say because they recognize, “Okay, somebody compliments our product. Yeah. That'll help a little bit.” People say, “Okay. That's right.”

But if people say something bad and that takes wings, doesn't take much for that to happen on the internet. They know you're going to tell a whole lot more people if it's lousy, if it's terrible because that's kind of what social media's all about. But we got to remind ourselves, we can't be like that. We cannot be like that. We can't be grumbling and whining and complaining about our jobs or other people or whining about my coworkers, or focusing on the obstacles rather than focusing on Christ, focusing on the solution. Because for some reason, we have this tendency to think, “I deserve everything that's right, that's perfect, that's good and I shouldn't have any problems. I shouldn't have anything to complain about in my life. And I don't know why I have to face this. And as I do, I'm ready to tell you how lousy the situation is and how difficult it is.” And what that really comes down to is what the Israelites had to face. It's the same thing that Paul was writing Corinth about, it's the same thing that he wrote the Romans about, same thing that Christ was telling Nicodemus about. He was telling them it's hard for us to let God be God. It's hard for us to let God be God.

We come together on the Sabbath and we sing to Him, don't we? Aren't we praising and worshiping God? We come together and we assemble, we recognize we need to do that. What about the rest of the week? I mean, normally, you're not big whiners and complainers at church. We put on our best face, put on my nice tie. I look pretty good. What's the rest of the week look like? I think all too often we use God as more as a crutch and a servant and expecting Him to do what we want and when He doesn't, now I'm not happy. And I might grumble under my breath so that it's not really that obvious, or maybe it is. Maybe it is a little more blatant. But God's called us to be exterminators that we've got to exterminate the snakes. We've got to get rid of what that bronze serpent turned into. And when you really get down to it, that aspect of complaining and whining, it's a sin and it's reminding us that's not going to help us. Things are going to get worse if we continue to do that. It's not going to take you where you need to be it, it's not going to help you develop a right relationship with God, it's actually going to be more stressful, more difficult. And on top of all of that, it's a sign of rebellion.

Whining and complaining is a sign of rebellion. Now, sounds pretty harsh, but what did it signal in Israel? They turned away from God. They turned away from God and they saw all the problems. They saw all the difficulties and they started to look back, “Oh, Egypt is so wonderful. It's so great.” But that wasn't true, but they kidded themselves. They deceived themselves and they could only see the problems before them. I mean, if they really believed God was God, should have had a different perspective because that was going to lead them to turning away from God and God certainly didn't want that. And so for us, if we really truly deep down believe God is God and if we truly believe God knows everything, God understands all things, and that God can do anything, then I need to be praying more. I need to be closer to God. And every time I get that urge to whine and complain about something, I got to think of Nehushtan. That's who I got to think. Now, I don't want that. I don't want that because God has provided the way to look, God has provided the solution to that attitude, God has provided a way to life. And so, fortunately, there is a solution to the bronze serpents in our life and it's certainly not complaining. That's dangerous. It's being thankful in all things because it is possible after all. The overriding lesson here is it's possible to do all things without complaining and disputing. It's possible to do all things without murmuring and grumbling if we're willing to be a spiritual Hezekiah and scrap the bronze serpent.