Road To Emmaus: The Bronze Serpent

Jevon Martin: God, we've got a lot going on today. And ⁓ I thank you for the opportunity that we have to be busy. ⁓ Lord, help us in our hearts to be settled. And I pray that now as we do this podcast, I pray that you help us to be clear about ⁓ the delivery of your message. Help us to be clear in a way that encourages folks to think and to put their hope and faith in you. And I pray for Javon especially as he's just been going from one thing to the next. Help him to be able to ⁓ We've a lot going on today. And ⁓ I thank you for the opportunity that we have to be busy. ⁓ Lord to help us in our hearts to be settled. And I pray that now as we do this podcast, I pray that you help us to be clear about ⁓ the delivery of your message. Help us to be clear in a way that encourages folks to think and to put their hope and faith in you. And I pray for Javon especially as he's just been going from one thing to the next. Help him to be able to to fully engage. to fully engage whatever that looks like. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. This is where we're gonna start, Javon. Probably. All right. Whatever that looks like. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. This is where we're gonna start, Juan. Probably. All right. So you get a little fuzzy thing, but I don't I feel a little bit ⁓ Yeah, there is there is we can JV there is ⁓ there is there's another one I was like no I don't want to create So you get a little fuzzy thing, but I don't. I feel a little bit ⁓ Yeah, there is there is J V. Yeah. Yep. All right. Ready Ready to go. All right. Hey, Waterway Church. Good afternoon. Today is Wednesday, June 18th. And so welcome to the podcast. My name is Jesse. This is Javon. Hey. And we are here today continuing on with this series of types and shadows, this Road to Emmaus, looking at how ⁓ the Old Testament especially kind of points us towards Jesus, gives us little hints, little indications of who this Messiah would be. ⁓ just a little bit of a program note here at the beginning. Wanted to let you know that. This Sunday, which would be, let's see, what's the date this weekend? That'd be June 21st. will not be one of the regular Road to Emmaus sermons. This week, the youth group is going to be leading our worship service. This is Youth Sunday. So ⁓ just be ready for that if you've been following along with our sermons either here in-house or online. Also, next week, which is the last week of June, we will not have a podcast here for you. You can pray for us here at church. We're welcoming our new administrative pastor, Matt Sandy. And so his first day at work will be next Wednesday, the twenty fifth. And so just with a lot of stuff going on next week, there will be no podcast, but we're hoping to pick up both the podcast and the Road to A Mayo sermon series starting again next Sunday and and a week after that. I tell you what, you blink and June's gone. June is one of those kind of months that goes quickly. Hopefully, July will just be one of those summer months that stretches on forever and ever and ever. Right. Endless vacation. Right, Javon? Yeah. Well, hey, today, as we get into our or continue into our series here, we're going to be bouncing around a little bit between the book of Exodus and the Book of Numbers, and even a little bit in the Kings. and I want to start off though in the New Testament. So today we're going to look at The revelation of Jesus and then go backwards into the Old Testament. Does that sound good? That sounds great. All right. So so how many of you know Javon? Do you know John 3.16? Yes, for God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son that should ever believe in Him shall not perish and have but have everlasting life. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. That's pretty quick. How many of you out there ⁓ have some version of John 3.16 memorized? Maybe you have a King James version memorized or an NIV. But a lot of us know John 3.16, perhaps the most popular Bible verse in the world. Javon, do you know the two verses before John 3, 16? Do you know who said them, what they're saying, or what they're about? I know Jesus is saying it. Jesus is saying it. I feel like it has something to do with John the Baptist. Am I right? Nope. No, okay, I'm way off. ⁓ and and to be fair, I couldn't come up with this either, but I thought this was really interesting. Here is what it says in John 14 and 15. Okay? Jesus is speaking to folks and he says to them. John 3.14, he says, Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. And then of course John 3.16 follows right after that. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. So right before the most famous verse of the Bible, we have this reference from Jesus. To Moses lifting up a snake in the wilderness so that the Son of Man must be lifted up. So Jesus is comparing himself to this event that happened that's recorded in Numbers. So that's how we get the idea that this snake in the wilderness being lifted up is some kind of a type of Jesus. So now that we mentioned snake in the wilderness, how many of you know that story? Do you recall? 'Cause this is y well, remember this I mean, you're here, we've talked about the podcast, but do you know that story well, Javon? Well, and I I think what what's interesting, so no, not well. I know of it. But I think the thing is, I like how you said this is why we point back, because I feel like reading that bronze serpent story, and of course you're gonna explain, I would not connect it to anything in the New Testament. Just seems kind of a strange arbitrary, weird. But so so break it down for me. Well Today, today we are talking about snakes and life, which is kind of a weird comparison because for many of us, I've heard that the fear of snakes is one of the top what two or three or four most prevalent. I mean, I I don't am I afraid of snakes? I I guess so. I I don't feel right admitting that, but I don't like snakes. If I see a snake, I'm not ⁓ I'm not gonna go near it by choice ⁓ because I don't understand snakes. I am not real good at knowing, hey, that one's poisonous, that one's not. Well, and if you were in our ⁓ VBS you would know that you just need to not be a threat, according to the bug guys. Not be a threat. Okay. Not be a threat. Well, I hope most snakes assume that I am a threat because I'd like to threaten them. But but here today we're talking about we're talking about snakes, and it's kind of interesting because honestly, where does our mind go first? Do you think of snakes as good things or bad things? ⁓ scary. Scary, yeah. And and I know I know there are some of you who love snakes. You are a herpetologist perhaps, you've gotten fascinated and you studied. Okay, that's cool. But a lot of people, I would say most of humanity has some kind of a negative feeling towards snakes and serpents. But here's where we're going today. We want to unpack why did Jesus talk about Moses lifting up the snake in the wilderness? And so if we want to understand John 3 a little better, let's go back to Exodus 3. Okay, Exodus, the second book of the Bible. Javon, you preached on Moses this week, coming out of the book of Exodus. I've not gotten a chance to listen to that sermon yet. I've been told it's amazing. One person this week told me that your sermon on Sunday was among the top 10 sermons that they've ever heard. And this was a person who's heard a lot of sermons. Okay. Well, I guess we'll see if the next time you preach it, that's still in the top 10 or not. Maybe it'll only be in the top 11. But today we're looking at the Old Testament, snakes and life. And in Exodus 3, we get a little bit of the setting. Exodus 3 is when Moses is in this middle stage of his life. He's not in the first 40 years. He's moved on from growing up in Pharaoh's household in Egypt. But he's not yet Moses, the deliverer of God's people. He's in that phase of his life where he is tending sheep for his father-in-law Jethro. Okay? So in Exodus chapter three, it says, Moses was tending the sheep of his father-in-law. God called Moses through the burning bush. You know the story of the burning bush. There's this bush that's not, it's on fire, but it's not being burned up. So Moses goes over and says, What is this strange thing? And through the burning bush experience, God spoke to Moses in Exodus 3.10 and said, Go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. So this is an assignment that God gives Moses, Exodus 3, through the burning bush. There's some more conversation about that in Exodus 3. Go read it. Good stuff. But in Exodus 4, Moses is kind of grappling with God, grappling with this assignment, because some of us can relate, right? God puts it on your heart to do something. You say, Whoa, can I do this? Moses says to God, What if the people don't believe me or listen to me? And they say the Lord did not appear to you. And so the Lord said to him, What is that in your hand? This is Exodus chapter four. And of course, what was in his hand? Moses replied, A staff. The Lord said, Throw it on the ground. Moses threw his staff on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Which is what would happen if I threw a sta that'd be a freaky kind of experience, right? But the Lord said to Moses then, reach out your hand and take it by the tail. So Moses reached out, took hold of the snake, and it turned back into a staff in his hand. So here is God showing Moses, look, I've got control over nature. I can turn a staff into a snake. I can turn a snake into a staff. By the way, little side note don't ever pick up a snake by the tail. This is this is something I got to do a little bit of research this week. Number one, if you love the snake, if this is a pet, For most species of snakes, it can like hurt their back and hurt their vertebrae. Don't pick ⁓ up by the tail. Interesting. But if it's a venomous snake, for most snakes, if you grab their tail, they're gonna turn right back around because you said don't be a threat. Right. And if you're grabbing a snake by the tail, the snake assumes you are a threat and they're gonna bite you. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah. So that's a little public safety announcement. Don't grab a snake by the tail. I'll ch I'll keep this brief. Okay. I was on luck. I was on a trip one time. And it w it was a bunch of guys. We were we were rafting. And we we made a homemade raft. We were going down the West Branch of Susquehanna. Okay. And one of the guys on the raft enjoyed catching snakes. Okay. And he had yet to catch a copperhead snake. ⁓ yes. And some of you probably heard me tell the story right. So he decided that that today was his day. Today's good idea. This day was his day. My homemade raft in the middle of Susquehanna. That's where there's plenty of resources and backup. Right. Yeah. We were we were we were like barely at our place where we needed to get off. You know, we're in the middle of the woods. ⁓ anyway, he sees his copperhead and at this point I'm like on the raft, kind of we're we're moored up on the shore. Okay. And they're down a good ways. I don't know where they're at. All I know is I'm sitting on the raft, I see one of the guys come and run to the raft, grab a hatchet, and I and run back into the woods. And it's like, what's wrong? It's like someone got hurt and I don't know I need a hatchet. Someone got us. Like what's gonna happen? Anyway, so anyway, yeah, he he tried to catch the copperhead and got bit and you know, that's venomous snake. Long story short, he had to take a chopper out of there and get to the hospital. So wait, wait, he had to take a chopper out there. You mean that he had to ride a helicopter out of there, not he had to chop himself. Just to be clear. Yeah, he that's a very and it didn't help that he was queasy with the sight of blood, so he fainted as soon as he but so it was quite the events. We started that trip with seven guys and ended with five, I think was the exact numbers. That's that's amazing. That I'm not even sure where to go from here, Javon. Well, yeah. So snakes, be careful. Don't grab a snake by the tail. Be careful if you've got a tiger by the tail. But here God says to Moses, Hey, throw down your staff. It turns into a snake. Now pick it up by the tail. It turns back to a staff. God is showing Moses here is a sign, right? Here's something that that will give you credibility. This is from Exodus chapter four. The Lord says, in fact, in Exodus 4, verse 5, this, in other words, the staff turning into a snake, snake turning into a staff, this is so that they may believe the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has appeared to you. Okay? So that's Exodus three and four. As we continue on with this snake thing, okay, we see that, because we're still not at this place yet that Jesus referred to in John 3, 14, and 15, this snake being. Raised up. We're just seeing instances of snakes in the life of Moses. In Exodus 7, just a few verses later, a few chapters later, Moses and his brother Aaron are now standing in the presence of Pharaoh. Moses, it's kind of like the famous movie line: Moses is saying, Let my people go. God saying through Moses, Let my people go. And so the Lord is bringing Moses and Aaron together. He's preparing them for what's going to happen. The Lord in Exodus 7 says to Moses and Aaron, When Pharaoh says to you, perform a miracle, then say to Aaron, Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it will become a snake. In fact, that's what happens, right? Moses and Aaron are before Pharaoh. Pharaoh's like, okay, who are you guys? What authority do you have? What power do you actually have? This is another proof that they are there in representation of the Lord. They are God's representatives on earth. Aaron throws down his staff. Interestingly, The wise men of Pharaoh's court. They are also able to turn their staffs into snakes by, it says in Exodus 7:11, by their secret arts. Each of them threw down his staff and it became a snake. Remember, God's power is ultimate, but it is not the only power in the world. Evil has a deal of power too. This is why we don't mess around with things. We take very seriously the fact that we don't live by our own power, but we live by God's power. And we know that God's power is supreme because it says in Exodus 7 that Aaron's staff swallowed up all of their staffs, right? His staff in the form of a snake swallowed up all their staffs which were in the form of snakes. Yet it says in Exodus 7, Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted. So what do we see here? We see that snakes are a pretty normal part of Moses' experience with God. Snakes are a normal part of Moses and Aaron as they're in the court of Pharaoh. Snakes are the kind of thing that apparently even Pharaoh's magicians could create out of a staff, but God's power is greater than all of it. Are we tracking? Yeah. Okay, makes sense. So side note. Side note. Growing up, I know for me, now I'm a child of the 80s, snakes were always kind of representative negatively in the media. I remember G.I. Joe always fought Cobra. I remember Daniel LaRussa fighting the Cobra Kai. You might not be old enough to remember these references. That was when I was a kid. Now, when my dad was a kid, a cobra was just a really fast car. But cobras and snakes get our attention. Cobras and snakes had the attention of the Egyptians. Snakes were cop but were common and popular in this interaction between Moses and God, between Moses and Arian God. But snakes were one of these kind of things that were also really. really revered by the Egyptians. Pharaohs on their helmets often had or on their headdresses, their crowns, often had a cobra, right? This is called the Uraeus serpent, the cobra sitting up, you picture a cobra getting ready to strike. Right. If you picture the ancient Egyptian princes, isn't that something that you often see, right? And so the reason why the Egyptians and so many other cultures revered the snake is because snakes shed their skin. There's this picture of like new life, new healing. So there's all this snake stuff going on in the old testament. I know maybe we're getting too much into this snake imagery. No. But I'm trying to figure out what is Jesus talking about, right? When he talks about this snake being lifted up, because Jesus is saying that's kind of like me. So what's going on? Well, we've got snakes that are common to Moses, common to Aaron, common to the Egyptians. We have some experiences with snakes. But now here is the big detail. Here is the clincher. Here's what Jesus is talking about. In the book of Numbers. In the book of Numbers, the Israelites have been traveling a bit. They've been traveling a while. In fact, it says that the people of Israel grew impatient on the way. They spoke against God and against Moses. Don't do that. I was saying this sounds this sounds like, while it sounds unique, it also sounds like the story of their It is they grew impatient. It is the story of their lives. And frankly, ⁓ church folks today, this can be the story of our lives too. Do you ever become impatient? Have you ever grumbled against the Lord? Well, this is what they did. In Numbers 21 in verse 5, says the people spoke against God and Moses and said, Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There's no bread, there's no water, and we detest this miserable food. In other words, God, we hate what you are doing. Moses, we hate what God is doing through you. We would have been better off being slaves, being back in Egypt. And so it says in Numbers 21, 6, another indication here of how the Lord is sovereign. He is all powerful. It says, the Lord sent venomous snakes among them. They bit the people, and many Israelites died. The fear of the Lord is one of those things that we ought to keep in mind. The Lord was so frustrated with these folks that he sent venomous snakes among them. They bit the people, and many Israelites died. The people, in Numbers 21, seven. People came to Moses and said, We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us. ⁓ see, the snakes are not just a measure of God's frustration. God is using these serpents because he has power. God is using these snakes to bring about a change in people's hearts. You saw how they were complaining against God. Now the snakes bite some people, some people die, and they repent. ⁓ Moses, we're sorry. God, we're sorry. Can you put things back? So Moses prayed for the people. And now here is where we see the reference that Jesus would cite. Numbers 21, 8. The Lord said to Moses, Make a snake and put it up on a pole. Anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. Now, let me suggest to you, Jesus. refers to this, he says the snake is lifted up and people could look at it and live. Jesus says in the same way, I will be lifted up, people can look to me and live. He's referencing, of course, himself being lifted up on a cross. People can believe and live. He's also referencing himself being lifted into heaven, being exalted. People can believe in him and live. But let me suggest to you that if you get bitten by a snake today, putting a bronze snake on a stick and looking at it is probably not how you're going to find healing. This is an absolutely absurd way to heal. God could have just as easily taken all the snakes away. He could have just as easily told them to do anything else. But what is the example here? God tells Moses, make a snake out of metal, and when people look at it, they will live. What's the point here? The point is that looking at something is not going to take poison away unless there's something amazing happening from the Lord. The point here is not that, okay, God gave them this rational thing that they could logically say, ⁓ makes sense. Thanks, God. God gave them this sign, God gave them this command that if they would look at this snake, they would live. People had to believe it to be saved. I wonder if there were any people in Israel who said, looking at a bronze snake, that's not going to help me. That's stupid. Why would I do that? Right. And if they then died. The only people who looked at the snake And lived were people who believed what God said, right? Yeah. Because why else are you gonna really look at a snake up on a pole when you get bitten by a snake? So here we have an indication that faith is essential for life, right? Just as faith in Jesus Christ is essential to eternal life, faith in God's word was essential for those Israelites who were bitten to be healed. Because only the faithful are going to look at the snake. Only the faithful are going to have access to the life that God brings. I think this is what Jesus is driving us to when he's talking in John 3 about just as people had to look to the snake in the wilderness, people are going to have to look to me now. And how many people do you know? How many people do I know who have said, looking to Jesus is really going to save me? Right. Right? Looking to some Christ as my savior is really going to save me from my sin and from death. I know a lot of people who think that that's just too irrational. Right. No matter how much we may argue. It takes faith to tap into this life that God has for us. So there are some of the similarities, some of the reasons why Jesus says, I am kind of like that snake, or rather, that snake in the wilderness was kind of like me. Through faith, looking to Jesus, you can find life and salvation. Well, and it's interesting too, in a sense, if you let's say you were in that situation. And you're deciding not to look at the snake. You're putting your belief in something else, but it's not God. And I think that's one of the things that too, sometimes as we interact with our culture, it's like, well, you have you have faith and I don't. And it's like it's not just any old faith, it's faith that's directed at looking at that circle. It's faith in God. It's in Jesus. Right. And I think sometimes some people vote, Well, I'm rational. No, you have faith too. You just put your faith in science or whatever else or your mind or your ability. Which by the way, I'm not saying that science is is against God as it were. Sure. ⁓ it's just that when your faith is in science alone and rather than in God alone, and science backs us up, right? That faith, there's things that we put our faith and then obviously the people getting healed would have backed up that faith, right? There would have been evidence that this faith is legit and it's the same thing in our in our walk. So I just I like how you brought that out. Well good. Well good and and you know one just one last little piece here. ⁓ I really wish I really wish that this ⁓ that this bronze snake still existed because it'd be handy to have that up on a pole and be able to just look at it, you know, so that your buddy wouldn't have to bring out the helicopter to the to the to the Sesquahan it would solve all the debates of just free healthcare. Just look at the look at the bronze snake. But the bronze snake exists no more. And church, do you know why? Because in the book of Second Kings, and this is sometime later. This is some centuries later. In the book of Second Kings, chapter 18, it says that Hezekiah, he's the new king in the land. Hezekiah removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones, and cut down the ashera poles. Hezekiah, the king, is coming in and kind of cleaning house because the Israelites have turned against God and turned towards all kind idolatry. It says in Second Kings eighteen, Verse 5, that he broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made. For up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. The Israelites had made God's provision into an idol. So there's a warning there as well that anytime God gives us something to set our eyes on that is not Jesus, that when we get beyond God's purposes for it and start to worship that thing, whether it be a church building, whether it be a person. That God has used, whether it be an organization that God has been working through. Anytime we begin to worship those things, they are trouble. And so the bronze snake was actually destroyed by Hezekiah because it had turned from something that had brought life to something that was now distracting from interesting and bringing death. So church, don't do that. Yeah. Keep following the Lord, keep following Jesus Christ, but put your faith in him, not even in the symbols that lead us to him. I I I just read the other day. something from from a book where he's talking about the Holy Spirit. And he was talking about how often we look to the Holy Spirit to give us certain provisions. We'll pray for the Holy Spirit to do X or to do Y. And he's like the Bible just tells tells us pray for the Holy Spirit. Like just just pray and ask the Holy Spirit to move in your life. Mm-hmm. And let him w do his work. But often we get discouraged because the Holy Spirit isn't Isn't moving, but what we really mean is I asked him to do something specific, but he's not doing it the way I wanted him to. And and what Jesus is saying in John 3 is that God is the one who has the power for all this. What we see in Exodus 3 and 4 and 7 and Numbers 21 is that God is the one whose power is sovereign over all things, and sometimes the ways that God works may seem a little odd. Right. What we're trusting in is God's. Power. Right. Not just our ability to anticipate what we're going to need or to rationalize what has been provided. Let's trust in God. And so let's be careful that we're asking God for what is truly good and not just for what we think would be good. Because sometimes God delivers us in ways that don't clearly make sense to us. All right, there's other stuff we could talk about. We could wonder why. So many folks in the field of healthcare put up a symbol that is a staff with a snake wrapped around it. We could wonder why there are so many hospitals that have two snakes wrapped up together with wings on. Have you seen that symbol? We could talk about all that stuff and why snakes are connected to healing, but that would be a long, long bunny trail. Let's just remember that snakes are often thought of as devices of healing. Sometimes that's used by people in cultic sorcery kind of ways. Sometimes that's in reference to Numbers 21 and what we see in the Bible. Don't get too fascinated or too afraid of snakes. Just recognize that our God is powerful overall. Sound good? Amen. Any further words for today, Javon? Sounds good. All right. Well, I'm honored that you checked in. I hope that this has been helpful for you today. Put your faith in Jesus Christ. Look to him for life. This is where you're going to find your salvation. Even the old testament. Pointed towards our Messiah. Look up to him. All right. We'll see you later. Yep. Okay. Great. I gotta rock. Yeah, man, get out here.

Exodus 4:5 Exodus 7:11 2 Kings 18 · chapter mention