She hurried back inside to check on her baby daughter sleeping on a small mat on the floor but it was already too late. A snake was there, poising to strike. She grabbed a stick to flip it away, but the snake was quicker than her. Baby Leah screamed when the snake bit her; and then just as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone. Outside the screams and cries of the people continued to escalate.
Suddenly the tent opening was pushed aside and her sister Meira burst through. “Oh Eliana.” she cried. “The snakes are everywhere and their venom is poisonous! Oh, if only we hadn’t complained against God and Moses. What are we going to do?”
“Meira,” Eliana wept. “Leah has been bitten.”
Suddenly Eliana’s ten year old son, Ariel, burst through the tent opening. “Grandma and Dad have been bitten Mom!” Tears poured down his dirty face and his eyes were filled with terror. “What are we going to do?”
Seeing Leah’s writhing form in his mother’s arms he turned even paler. “Did she get bitten too Mom?”
“Yes she did, son.”
Working quickly the two sisters made makeshift beds ready so that Eliana’s husband Itamar and mother-in-law Meira could be carried inside. Then they sat and waited. There was really nothing they could do. Eliana could slowly see the life draining from the bodies of her husband, daughter and mother-in-law and her heart filled with despair. If only there was a way for them to be saved!
Suddenly there was a commotion outside. The ever-curious Ariel quickly ducked his head out through the tent flap and then disappeared completely. Within a few minutes he was back. “Mom” he said excitedly. “God has made a way for us to be saved! He commanded Moses to build a brazen serpent and put it on a pole and anyone who looks at it will live!”
Eliana’s heart filled with hope. “Help me bring everyone outside,” she directed her sister and son. One by one they lifted their dying family members and brought them outside so they could look at the brazen serpent on the pole. Itamar was so far gone he could barely open his eyes, yet the moment he fastened his eyes on the gleaming serpent on the pole he could feel the healing begin in his broken body. Meira, who seemed the least affected of the three at first protested, saying, “How could just looking at a serpent on a pole heal her?” but when Eliana convinced her that she had nothing to lose she also looked and moments later exclaimed in amazement how she too felt the healing effects in her old body.
And then there was Leah. Leah, too small to understand, yet her small body too was struggling with the effects of their sin. Eliana lovingly cradled her in her arms and then turned her so she too faced the brazen serpent. “Look over there,” Leah, she urged softly. Her eyes open, she too looked, and with great joy and wonder Eliana felt her infant daughter’s tense body finally relax in her arms. She too was healed!
Now this story and it’s characters are fictional but it is based on the true events recorded in Numbers 21:5-9:
And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
Do you know what’s really remarkable? Of all the example Jesus could have used, He chose to compare Himself to the brazen serpent on the pole in this story.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. John 3:14-17
This is the good news! This is the gospel.
We have sinned and are all condemned to death, but God out of His great grace and mercy has made a way whereby we can be saved!
Think back on the story of the brazen serpent. Was anyone excluded? Was there anyone too young or too old or too sick or not sick enough? No. Did Moses go around and say: “Here is the brazen serpent and it can save you but only if you are elect or chosen or your name is written in the Book of Life. And since we can’t be sure of that, just wait around, maybe God will heal you or reveal Himself to you somehow and save you in a different way?"
No, he did not say that.
He only did what God directed him to do. He made the serpent, put it on a pole for all to see and told people to look at it and they would live.
And this my friend is the gospel: Believe in Jesus and live!
And no one is left out of the “whomsoever believeth” that God promiseth. Not even the smallest baby. When they’re too little to understand their lost condition or their need for a Saviour, we bring them to Jesus.
And you know what Jesus says about that? But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 19:14
If you refuse to believe in Jesus is there a problem with God? No.
There is however a problem with you because you refuse to obey what God commands.
In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 Thes 1:8
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? Ezekial 33:11
Because, really, only a stubborn fool would refuse to believe the gospel and instead chose to die in their sins and spend an eternity in hell.
Deceived people may blame others for their deception, but ultimately they will have to suffer the consequences: Everlasting death.
“Souls by hundreds come to faith in Jesus under a ministry which sets Him forth clearly and constantly. Few remain unbelieving under a preacher whose great subject is Christ crucified. Hear no minister of any other sort.” C. Spurgeon
Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth:
for I am God,
and there is none else. Isaiah 45:22
No comments:
Post a Comment