Series on "The Message of the Cross" - (27)
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August 06, 2007 |
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 Fiery Serpents and the Cross
"...Then the LORD said to Moses, 'Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.' And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived" (Numbers 21:4-9).
This issue of Manmin News will explore the incident of the fiery serpents the people of Israel experienced in the wilderness, the lessons we must learn from it, and its relationship with the cross of Jesus, and conclude "The Message of the Cross" series.
1.Israelites' Experience of the Fiery Serpent Incident on Account of Speaking against God and Moses
Events in Numbers 21 take place after the Israelites' Exodus from Egypt. After living in bondage in Egypt for more than 400 years, the people of Israel cried out to God and besought for salvation. God freed His elect from bondage by sending Moses on His behalf and allowing him to manifest wondrous works of His power.
The Israelites expected to reach "a land flowing with milk and honey" immediately upon leaving Egypt, but what unfolded before their eyes was to the contrary. God had His people live in the wilderness so that they would be qualified to enter the land of blessings. However, they failed to fathom His will and were quick to speak and grumble against Him each time they faced difficulties. As they were unable to show their faith in God to God, He subjected them to trials for 40 years in the wilderness.
Despite having been freed from bondage in Egypt, the Israelites accused God and Moses of trying to kill them in the wilderness and complained about the manna God had given them, saying, "We loathe this miserable food" (Numbers 21:5). God's wrath soon found its way to the people of Israel in the form of fiery serpents and "many people of Israel died" after being bitten by them.
Only then did the Israelites come before Moses to repent. When he interceded for them, God instructed Moses to make the image of a fiery serpent and set it on a standard at which the Israelites were to look in order to prevent themselves from undergoing further harm. When Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a standard, whoever looked up on it lived even after he was bitten by fiery serpents.
2.Spiritual Lessons to be Learned from the Fiery Serpent Incident
1)Regardless of the nature of our problems, we must find solutions from God.
As the Almighty with absolute authority over man's life, death, blessings, and misfortunes, God could bring about fiery serpents upon the Israelites and save them from the harm. Now, these fiery serpents did not just spring up from the ground. In the wilderness, fiery serpents and scorpions were common but as God had protected His people, such creatures could not go near them. As the Israelites spoke against God, however, they were no longer under God's protection and subjected to the harm wrought by the fiery serpents.
Therefore, the Israelites had to seek and find from God the root and the solution to the problem of the fiery serpents. By the same token, people must also find from God solutions to all the problems they face in this world. Here, "fiery serpents" refer to the enemy devil and Satan. Also, as God told the serpent that had tempted the woman in Genesis 3:14, "Dust you will eat All the days of your life," the "dust" here signifies man - Adam and all his descendants - who had been formed of "dust from the ground" and returned to flesh on account of his sin. Following Adam's sin of disobedience, the serpent - the enemy devil - began making prey of all fleshly people living amidst their sins and bringing upon mankind trials and afflictions.
When people of this world face accidents, suffer from illnesses, and are afflicted by difficulties, they tend to think of such events as the result of their fate or mere coincidence. Children of God, however, must seek and find the root of their problems and resolve them according to the word of God (1 John 5:18). As the people of Israel repented of their sins and came before Moses, children of God must also repent of their wrongdoings and come before Him. When people rend their hearts in repentance, destroy the wall of sins, and come into the light, God will resolve their problems regardless of their nature.
2)We must endure trials of faith only in gratitude and gladness.
By allowing His children trials of faith through which they can possess faith that is like gold, God has prepared in each of them a vessel worthy of His blessings (James 1:4). Even the fathers of faith were subject to all kinds of afflictions and extended amounts of time in trial until they received God's promised blessings.
Likewise, the trial in the wilderness to which the people of Israel were subject was a process they had to undergo in attaining Canaan, the land of God's blessings (Deuteronomy 8:15-16). If they had truly trusted God, instead of speaking against Him, they would have transformed themselves in gratitude to His love and blessings.
When we endure trials of faith in gratitude and gladness, we will surely enter the Promised Land of Canaan. When we prepare within us vessels worthy of His blessings in the midst of trials, overcome them, and testify to our faith, even the enemy devil and Satan could not accuse us of any wrongdoings at the time of God's blessings.
Speaking and grumbling against God, however, would only prolong the trials and that alone will testify to one's lack of faith and not yet having become the vessels worthy of God's blessings.
3)We must realize God's love by which He has helped us possess faith by looking to the bronze serpent.
When the Israelites were bitten by fiery serpents, they survived only when they looked to the bronze serpent set on a standard. Does this mean God could not heal them by His power, without having them look upon the bronze serpent? If the people of Israel had the kind of faith possessed by the centurion featured in Matthew 8, who said to Jesus, "Just say the word," then all God would have had to do was to say, "Be healed."
Yet, the Israelites did not possess this kind of faith. As no great manifestation of God's power would have served a purpose if people did not believe, God gave the Israelites a visible emblem of faith. As they saw the figure of a fiery serpent set on a standard, the serpent that had bitten and nearly killed them, the people of Israel could believe with greater conviction that God had saved them from the harm of the fiery serpents.
The same can be said of the way in which Manmin Joong-ang Church today manifests signs and wonders as the evidence of the living God at work. As Jesus tells us in John 4:48, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe," people with hardened hearts will not believe in God the Creator and Jesus Christ the Savior, about whom are written in the Bible, no matter how often and extensively they are preached the Gospel.
At times, we find believers compromising with the world and failing to live by God's Word. Upon seeing, hearing about, and experiencing the works of God's power that no man can match or imitate, even the unbelievers will come to acknowledge God more easily and the believers will come to possess true faith and live by God's Word.
3.God's Providence of Salvation by Having the Israelites Fix Their Eyes on the Bronze Serpent Set on a Standard
What we find in John 3:14-15, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life," refers to the crucifixion of Jesus. Just as the fiery serpent was set on a standard, the sinless Jesus was hung on a cross to redeem us from our sins.
The serpent signifies Satan. Why, then does the Bible equate looking to the bronze serpent set on a standard to fixing our eyes on Jesus hanging on the cross? That is because the crucifixion of Jesus directly signifies the destruction of the enemy devil and Satan. As the fixing of our eyes upon Jesus hung on the cross is the same as witnessing the destruction of the authority of the enemy devil and Satan, when we believe it we will gain eternal life.
According to the law of the spiritual realm, the wages of sin is death; therefore, after Adam's sinning, he and all his descendants were condemned to death. After a life of all kinds of trials and afflictions under the authority of the enemy devil and Satan in this world, one would have fallen into hell and become subject to eternal punishments there.
Jesus came into this world in order to save mankind, and the enemy devil and Satan, by instigating evil people, had the sinless Jesus crucified. They believed that the killing of Jesus would ensure their eternal grip on the authority of death but they ended up losing that very authority.
The law of the spiritual realm dictates that the punishment of death is intended only for sinners but the enemy devil and Satan violated that law and killed Jesus, who had neither the original nor self-committed sins. Thenceforth, they were now forced to release from the authority of death and hand over to Jesus anyone who believed Him to be his or her Savior. Therefore, all those believing Jesus as their Savior will receive salvation and when they pray by faith in His name, they will be set free from all trials and afflictions.
Among the people of Israel, the obedient lived when they looked to the bronze serpent set on a standard but the disobedient and the hard-heartened died from the poisonous fiery serpents. By the same token, people who accept Jesus Christ today will attain salvation but there is no salvation for those who do not believe and they will inevitably fall into hell.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, may each of you become grateful for the love of God who willingly sacrificed His Only Begotten Son in order to save all mankind, not waste any time in taking after the Lord, and receive blessings in this world and dwell in the eternal glory in the heavens, in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ I pray!
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