John 3:14 ~ “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up…” PLEASE forgive my tardiness in rendering these posts. Weve been doing pastoral stuff, which is necessary for pastors to do. Do you remember the story Jesus was referring to in the verse up above? It comes from Numbers chapter 21 where we find the children of Israel speaking against God and Moses because of God’s provisions for them (21:5). The Lord sent poisonous (fiery) snakes to bite the people, and many of them died (21:6). The people realized what they had done, and asked Moses to talk to God on their behalf about removing the snakes (21:7). That’s when the Lord told Moses to make a serpent out of bronze (brass), put it on a pole and lift it up. God told Moses that whoever looked up at the serpent on the pole, would live (21:8-9). Some of you by now are saying, “You shared this with us not that long ago pastor”. Yes, but the reason for this post is different. We know the verse up top was about Jesus Himself. Therefore the snake on the pole was a “good” snake! Here’s my point. Dr. Haddon Robinson pointed out that of the more than 2,500 different types of snakes, there are more “good” snakes than bad ones! Snakes eat rodents. Snakes are the reason we are NOT overrun with mice and rats! We can consider that snake on the pole a “good” snake, because it represented our Lord Jesus who became SIN for us on the cross. Dr. Robinson posed a dilemma with the “snake on the pole” in a sermon he titled, “A Good Snake Gone Bad!” Yes, I know! I had the same reaction. How could something that represented Jesus, become a BAD thing? I’m glad you asked. It was because of what was done with the snake on the pole. Did you ever wonder as I did, what happen to that snake on the pole that Moses made, and Jesus spoke of up top? As it turns out, when Hezekiah became king of Judah at the age of 25, he undid the evil his father Ahaz had done, by tearing down the trees and idols his father had set up. You’ll find that in 2 Kings 18:4. The last part of verse 4 tells us what happened to that snake Moses made in Numbers 21, and Jesus spoke about in John 3. Here it is, “…and (Hezekiah) broke in pieces the serpent that Moses had made: because in those days the children of Israel burned incense to (worshiped) it!!! So he (Hezekiah) called it Nehushtan (a piece of bronze). Now you know that a GOOD thing can become BAD, when we forget the reason for which the thing was intended, and worship the “created“, rather than the CREATOR!!! :D
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 08:24:19 +0000
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