Now, that is a statement that at first glance seems very strange. We normally would compare a serpent to the Devil; but here, the Lord Himself compares Himself to a serpent. So since He did it, He had good reason for doing it, aside from the fact that His mention of the serpent lifted up in the wilderness shows that He accepted the Old Testament as the inspired Word of God. One reason Jesus used the uplifted serpent was because of the curse.

THE CURSE

In the Garden of Eden, God told the serpent, “Because thou hast done this thing, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.”

Jesus in like manner, was made a curse for us. Paul tells us in Galatians, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangeth on a tree.” As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up.

Then too, the uplifted serpent and the uplifted Christ were without poison. The serpent on the pole looked like the serpents that bit the people, but it had no poison. Concerning Jesus, Hebrews four states it for us, “He was tempted in all points like as we are and yet without sin.” In John eight, verse forty-six Jesus issued this challenge, “Which of you convicteth Me of sin?” There were no takers. Judas said, “I have betrayed innocent blood.” Satan said, “We know Thee who Thou art Thou holy One of God.” Pilate said, “I find no fault in this Man.” Then there is the rejection of the Word of God.

REJECTION OF THE WORD

The fourth verse of Numbers twenty-one tells us that the people of Israel became discouraged, and spake against God and against Moses. They said, “Our soul loatheth this light bread.”

God had given them a heavenly handout. They received free food from Heaven every day. It didn’t cost a penny. All they had to do was go out, and pick it up, and eat it. They did not need money to buy it, or even food stamps, and they murmured about it. In another place they talked about how wonderful it was while they were slaves in the land of Egypt to eat onions, leeks, melons and garlic. They had forgotten that Pharaoh was a hard taskmaster; all they could remember of their days of slavery was the onions, leeks, and garlic. Pharaoh surely did feed well.

In a similar way is it not true that we have the bread of life, namely the Word of God, the Bible? Most of the members of the Church of Christ have never even read the New Testament one time all the way through. Years ago I made a survey, for a whole year in revival meetings by asking on a given night, large crowd or small, how many present, have ever read the New Testament through even one time? On the average, I found no more than three to six people regardless of the size of the crowd who lifted up a hand. By their actions it seems that most of our people “Loathe that light bread.” Many would rather feed their souls on the onions and garlic of the tabloid newspapers and the soap operas, than to feast on the bread of life. The modern-day onion and garlic is far tastier than the bread of life. Our souls loathe that light bread.

The Church today is lacking in the kind of people mentioned in the city of Berea who searched the scriptures daily whether these things were so. The reason for the neglect of the Word of God is because they loathe that light bread.

In Acts four; verse 31 there is a peculiar verse according to the standards of today. It actually says, “They preached the word of God with boldness.” Boldness is something that is taboo today. We must please everyone; boldness will drive away the crowd. Someone wiser than I, has observed that Church leaders today are more concerned with entertaining the goats than feeding the sheep. They loathe that light bread.

In Acts twenty, Paul told the elders of Ephesus that he commended unto them the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and give you the inheritance among them that are sanctified. But in spite of that wonderful warning and promise, many Church leaders today evidently loathe that light bread.

Then there is that wonderful compliment Paul gave the Church there in First Thessalonians when he said in the second chapter, “And for this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that, when ye received from us the word of the message, even the word of God, ye accepted it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God.” Even though the Bible is still the actual Word of God it is still true that most loathe that light bread.

THE LESSON OF HISTORY

And now consider the lesson of history. It has been said many times that they who ignore the lessons of history are bound to repeat them.

The sixth verse tells us that the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and the serpents bit the people and much people of Israel died. Actually the fiery serpents were there in the wilderness all the time, but the Lord had guarded in His providence the people even as they were provided manna to eat, and water from the rock. Moses in his farewell address mentioned the serpents in Deuteronomy eight, “Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought?” It seems when they continued their complaining the Lord withdrew his protection, and the serpents came in.

Is there not some message here for America today? We have been blessed by God for over two hundred years, and now that God’s moral laws and the name of Christ have been trashed, could it be that God’s protecting hand has been removed, and the terrorists have appeared? Former President Reagan said, “If ever America gets rid of ‘this nation under God,’ it will be a nation under.”

We need to remember the warning of Paul in First Corinthians ten, “Neither let us make trial of the Lord as some of them, and perished by the serpents. Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the end of the ages are come.” And now next, consider the sting.

THE STING OF THE SERPENT

There is a sting to sin. It was fiery serpents that bit the people. The bite of the serpent had a sting. In the Garden of Eden the serpent appeared as a benefactor who did Eve a big favor; then came the sting.  First Corinthians fifteen, verse fifty-six “The sting of death is sin.”

As in the case of Adam and Eve, the unforgiven sinner is dead. Just as dead as a person who is mortally wounded; damnation is only a question of time.

Look at Revelation twelve at the similarity of the fiery serpents; with the serpent John saw when he spoke of a great red dragon, the old serpent who is called the Devil and Satan.

Compare the term fiery serpent with what Paul said in Ephesians six when speaking of the gospel armor; he said, “lift up the shield of faith whereby ye may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.”

Now there are several comparisons in the uplifted snake and the uplifted Christ. For one thing, the sting in the bite of the fiery serpents that brought death to many was removed when in obedience they looked at the serpent on the pole. With us the sting of death is sin, and that sting is taken away when we look upon the Christ on the Cross. Paul said, “Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Another angle of that thought is the fact that the sight of the serpent on the pole reminded the people of the fiery serpent that bit them, and the sight of the Christ dying on the cross reminds us of our sin that put Him there. Christ died for our sins.

The book of Proverbs chapter twenty-three has a good statement on the bite of the serpent, “Look not on the wine when it is red…at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.” Actually all sin has a sting. Drugs have stung many communities with violence and murder. Paul’s words in Romans chapter one are graphic to all who are not spiritually blind, when he said, “God gave them up to vile passions: for their women changed the natural use unto that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one to another, men with men working unseemliness, and receiving in themselves the recompense of their error which was due.” What a sting Aids has been; the innocent as well as the guilty have suffered.

And that reminds us of the great declaration of Paul in First Corinthians fifteen, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

THE CONFESSION OF SIN

When the serpents came, the people realized that they had failed again and came to Moses and said, “We have sinned. We have been murmuring against God and you. Pray unto the Lord that the serpents be taken away.”

If any be bitten. . .There may have been some who were bitten and did not know it. That is the problem with many today; bitten by the old serpent, and don’t know it. Many have no sense of sin in their life now. Before any person can be saved, he first has to realize he is a lost sinner.

Several times we have received letters from people through the years who say they were listening to this broadcast while driving, and took the wrong road and drove several miles before they realized they were lost. That is actually what we are trying to do. We hope every person who hears this message realizes that without Jesus Christ you are lost. In Ephesians two, verse twelve; Paul speaks of those who are separate from Christ as strangers of the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in this world. And now consider the mediator.

THE MEDIATOR

When they realized they had sinned, the people came to Moses and said, “We have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” Moses was the mediator for the people unto the heavenly Father. They had repented, and they knew God would not listen to them, but He would listen to Moses.

Moses in Deuteronomy eighteen predicted that God would later raise up a prophet like unto him, and to that prophet, God would listen. Simon Peter, in his second gospel sermon in Acts three said Jesus was that prophet when he said, “Moses indeed said, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up like unto me. To Him shall ye hearken in all things whatsoever He shall speak unto you.”

Later on the Apostle Paul referred to Jesus as the only mediator for the Christian today, when he said in First Timothy chapter two, “For there is one God, and One mediator also between God and men, Himself man, Christ Jesus who gave Himself a ransom for all.”

As Christians we cannot pray through the Apostle Peter because Peter never died for our ransom. We cannot pray through the archangel Michael because he never died as our ransom. We cannot pray through any saint, living or dead, because none of them died as a ransom for us. Jesus is the only One who can ransom us by the price He paid for our sins on the cross.

Moses was their one mediator, and Jesus is the Christian’s only mediator now. God heard their cry of repentance, and answered the voice of Moses, their mediator, and gave the remedy for the situation, “Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten when he looks upon it, shall live.” And now think about that cure for the bite of the serpent.

THE CURE FOR THE BITE OF THE SERPENT

The cure for snakebite was most unusual. No one would ever have thought of the answer to the problem. If they had been like us today most would have said, “We must have a drive to collect enough money for research; science can find a problem.” Paul tells us in First Corinthians chapter one, verse twenty-one, “The world through its wisdom knew not God.” The world through its wisdom may find a way to go to Mars, but it can never find a way to go to Heaven. In fact, any plan that man can devise according to Paul is foolishness with God. But God says, “The preaching of the cross is foolishness to them that perish, but to the saved it is the power of God unto salvation.” All of us need to know we are not saved on our own terms.

However, there is a problem for us concerning the cure for the bite of the serpent, as we compare the serpent on the pole with Jesus on the cross. Those who were bitten by the fiery serpents believed, and looked upon the actual serpent on the pole, and were healed.

We cannot look upon the actual cross today. However God has provided a way for us to come to the cross. Hear these words of Paul in Romans six, verses 3 through 6, “Know ye not, that as many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” When we go down into the water in baptism, we do not go down alone, we are buried with Him and in that brief moment we stand at the foot of the cross and are covered with the blood of Christ that was shed when He was lifted up.

Now listen to those words again in John three, verse 14,  “Even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” His death is referred to again as a lifting up in John eight, verse twenty-eight, “When ye have lifted up the Son of man then shall ye know that I AM He.” Again the term lifted up is used for His death in John twelve, verse thirty-two, “And I if I be lifted up will draw all men unto Me.” How then does His lifting draw unto Him?

Acts two, verse fourteen says, “But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spake forth unto them.” The theme of his message was the telling how Jesus was lifted up on the cross, buried, lifted up from the dead, and then lifted up to sit at the right hand of God.

That declaration caused about three thousand of them to ask what they had to do, and they were told to, “Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus can still be lifted up today by the preaching of the gospel that tells how He was indeed lifted up. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.”