An Old Testament Look at the Gospel

This morning we're going to be looking at a text within a text. Let me read our text in John, and then I'll explain what I mean. It’s John 3.14-15. Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus. 'And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.' Jesus, here, points to something that Moses did when Israel was in the desert. He does this to illustrate the Gospel to Nicodemus. What we're going to do this morning is take a look at what happened in that OT text to see what it has to say about the Gospel. Then, we'll come back to John 3 for one final thought. So, listen as I read Numbers 21.4-9.

The situation is pretty straightforward. Israel is in the desert. They have left Egypt and are on their way to the Promised Land. And along the way out comes a complaint. There's no water, and the people are tired of what they call 'this worthless food'. They were talking about the manna that God provided every day. God hears their complaints. And he responds. He sends poisonous snakes. Some of the people are bitten, and they die. Seeing this, others of the people quickly admit their sin and appeal to Moses. 'Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.' Moses prays. But God doesn't get rid of the snakes. Instead, he tells Moses to make a metal snake and then to set it on a pole for all to see. Once he does that, Moses is to tell the people to look at the snake. If someone who is bitten looks at this snake, he will live. God's promise. And what we find is that those who did this, in fact, live. This, according to Jesus, is an illustration of the Gospel.

There are a bunch of things I want you to see from this. Let's start with this. The events recorded in the OT are intended to teach you about Jesus and his Gospel. So, when you're reading about David and Goliath, or Noah and the flood, or Daniel and those lions, the question you need to be asking yourself is this: 'How does this help me understand the Gospel better? Where is the Gospel in this text?' The OT is about the Gospel. So, working to become more familiar with your Bible means reading the OT also, reading it and then thinking about how whatever you've just read teaches the Gospel. This will not be easy. Growing in your understanding here will develop by lots of little steps. Be patient and chip away at it. Seeing the Gospel in the OT will be a great help to your walk with Jesus. So, keep at it. Get to know your Bible. And bear in mind that the goal is not to know the right answers so you can pass some test. The goal is to be able to enjoy the Gospel more and more. And as that happens, you will do a better job of fulfilling the reason God made you: to make Jesus look as good as really he is to those around you.

Let's move on. To understand the Gospel you need to understand sin. So, consider the sin here. What was it? Well, the people complained. And what did they complain about? One thing they complained about God's gift, the manna. Isn't that amazing? There was a miracle every morning, and all they could think was, 'Ugh, manna again.' On top of that they complained about the lack of water. But was that really a problem? The text says nothing about anyone dying because of this. There was enough water. That's not the problem. What's really going on is that they didn't like having to trust God to provide the water that they would need for each day. That's what they were complaining about.

So, what was the sin? It wasn't that they broke some rule about complaining. Rather, Israel was telling their God, 'We don't like your gifts, and we don't trust you to take care of us.' This text illustrates, when you get right down to it, what all sin is. In one way or another, sin is a rejection of God. It's like a husband telling his wife, 'I'd rather have somebody else.' You who are married, can you imagine your spouse saying that to you? 'I don't like you. I don't trust you. I don't want you.' How would you like to hear something like that? Do you think that it’s any more enjoyable for God to hear? This verse from Paul fits here: 'Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.'

But there is more here. Their complaining was only part of the problem and not the most significant part. Did you notice this: 'And the people became impatient on the way'? That’s when they began complaining. So, you see, the complaining is not the real problem or maybe I should say it's not the root problem. The complaining is simply a result of something deeper: impatience. The people were impatient with God. Some sins are on the level of behavior, like complaining. These are easily seen. But there is always something deeper going on, something in the soul. Here, it's impatience. So, there is the root as well as the fruit of sin. The root of impatience produced the fruit of complaining.

Why is seeing this important? Jesus came not just to deal with the obvious sins. He came to deal with all of your sin. So, it's not just the fruit but the roots also. If you are going to work with the Spirit to deal with some sin of yours, like complaining, you will also need to consider the deeper issues. You'll need to see what's going on in your soul. If you don't do that then the sins of the soul will just show up in some other way. So, a person might learn how not to complain, but his impatience will just show in some other wretched behavior. So, part of your repentance needs to include the sins of the heart. And if they are is not clear to you, then repent of what sin you can see, but also pray for the ability to see what's going on in your soul. Pray and the Spirit will show you.

Let's move on. The people of Israel see the dying among them. They ask Moses to pray that God would take away the snakes. Moses prays, but God does not remove the snakes. (We’ll see why later.) Instead, there's all this about the metal snake on the pole. What's this all about? How is the Gospel revealed in this? Let’s be clear about one thing. There is no magic power in the snake. It's just another example of a sacrament. God is using something visible to accomplish something that is invisible. He uses this metal snake to deal with the souls of his people.

So, let’s look at this metal snake. What’s going on here? First, the people need to see things clearly. It's not good enough to say, 'I was just bitten.' If that's the real problem, then what you need to do is think back to your Boy Scout training and get out that tourniquet and sharp knife. But any who may have opted for that kind of method died. The real problem wasn't the snakebites. The real problem was the insult to God. That's the problem that must be dealt with. Thinking only about surface issues will not work, and many do exactly that. But the people - at least some of them - understood what had happened. The real problem wasn't the snakes. It was their sin.  They knew that and said so. 'We have sinned.'

So, Moses tells them to look at a metal snake on a pole. How does that make any sense? 'Moses, can that work? Surely not! Tell me something that makes sense.' Anyone who said that also died. A person does not believe the Gospel because he has figured out how it works. He believes for the same reason that some of those Israelites believed. God made a promise to them. So, in effect, they were saying, 'I have no idea how this works. But I trust you, God. I believe your promise. I'll do what you tell me.' And so, they looked at that metal snake. And, as a result, they lived. For many today the motto is, 'I understand first. Then, I'll believe'. But one of the old guys of Church history got it right. 'I believe so that I can understand.'  Christian faith is always this kind of a personal response to God. 'I hear what you say. I'm not sure that I understand all the ins and outs. But I do know that you have never lied to me. So, I'll trust you and do what you've told me to do.' We trust God first, and do what he tells us. Understanding follows.

Those Israelites believed, and it worked. They lived. And did you notice that their believing worked all by itself. There was no, 'Look at the snake, do these five things, and then you'll be healed'. No, it was just, 'Look'. And those who did lived. Faith alone saves. These Israelites knew that there was no way that they could save themselves from the poison of the snakes. Someone else must save. Jesus must save. The snake on the pole is Jesus on the Cross. Only looking to Jesus as the crucified Savior can save. Adding something to the looking creates a different kind of faith. And that kind of faith will not save. You are saved by looking to Jesus. Period.

Now, let's include here something that has come up in other contexts. Was this sending of the snakes a matter of discipline or was it punishment? I've told you before that a Christian will never be punished for his sins. Jesus has suffered the punishment for all of your sins. The Father does discipline you, but it is never about punishment for sin. Discipline is about love while punishment is about justice. So, God was dealing with his Church in the desert. That means that this was discipline and not punishment, right? Well, not exactly. The people sinned. The snakes came. They cried out to God through Moses their representative. God provided a way to deal with the snakebites. Those who looked lived. Those who didn't died. And so, what we need to say was that for the first group, the group that looked, this was discipline. A situation came up where they had to choose to believe God or not. They believed. They looked. So, they lived. But the rest were in the same situation, with the same choice. But they chose not to believe God. They didn't look. So, they died. For them, this was not discipline, but punishment. When the time came for faith to show itself, it didn't. They rejected God's promise. Remember from last week: there's believing and then there's believing. Christians are not saved because they expressed faith once in the past. Christians are saved because, day by day, they express faith. Day by day, they believe their Father. Day by day, they entrust themselves to his promises. To be sure, we all stumble in this. But when the Spirit points that out, the saints do repent. And that repentance is more evidence of the right kind of believing, the kind that saves.

So, while it was punishment for some, it was discipline for the rest, and it worked. This is the last time we hear of any complaining from Israel in the desert. The people are not perfected, but they are making some progress. The discipline has achieved some important goals. And that is why he said, 'No' to their prayer. God did not remove the snakes. Those snakes were useful for God's purposes. God sometimes allows evil, even the evil of our own sins, to teach us about holiness. That’s why sometimes God says, ‘No’.

I think that you can see why Jesus pointed Nicodemus to this incident in Moses' day. There are all these lessons about the Gospel: sin as offending God, behavioral sins as an expression of the deeper sins of the soul, sacraments, discipline and punishment, God saying no to a prayer request for a good reason, the simplicity of faith as just looking. And, of course, the key lesson: the snake on the pole pictured Jesus on the Cross. The OT was teaching the Gospel.

This leaves one last lesson for this morning, something that I will only touch on. 'And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.' The result of looking at the metal snake was life. The result of looking to Jesus is also life. 'And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.' The life offered through Moses was physical life. But the life offered by Jesus is different. It is 'eternal life'. Those of us raised on the King James are used to hearing about 'everlasting life'. As a result, it's easy to think about eternal life in terms of ‘how long’. But the life Jesus promises, eternal life, is not about 'how long’. Eternal life is about ‘what kind’. This is a very different kind of life. And that provokes the obvious question: ‘What kind of life is this eternal life?’ Let me tell you what I’ve been thinking as I try to answer that question. Eternal life is the life of God. The promise of Jesus to all who look to him is that they will experience, on a creaturely level, something very similar to the life that God experiences. I’m still working on this, but it seems that this is a key to answering the question, ‘What kind of life is eternal life?’ It would be good if you prayed for me as I work on this.

What happened so long ago speaks to us because we are also the Church in the desert. We are the people of God who have been freed from the slavery of our sins, and we are on our way to the Promised Land. And as we make our way through the desert there are lessons for us to learn, lessons about how to live as Christians. For one example, we will learn to enjoy more and more the blessings of the Manna Principle. We will also be faced with some hard lessons that God will send our way to discipline us. But our coming enjoyment of the Promised Land is a certainty. Jesus promises to lead us there. And being assured of that keeps us going.