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Read 2 Kings 18:1-12 and John 3:1-21
Numbers 21 describes how those stubborn Israelites, impatient in their desert wanderings, were complaining again. “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” So God sends fiery serpents among them and they start biting people and lots of people die until finally they cry out for mercy. As usual, Moses intercedes prayerfully on their behalf. And as usual, God answers his prayer by providing a rather unusual solution. “Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”
By the time Hezekiah took the throne in Judah, the people had quite forgotten God’s merciful provision and were worshipping the bronze serpent itself. But Hezekiah trusted in and held fast to the Lord and did what was right, which in this case meant the bronze icon into pieces never to be spoken of again in Scripture until the Gospel of John where along comes a man named Nicodemus asking questions of the Christ.
“How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” O Nicodemus, Jesus answers, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” He’s still confused. This teacher of of Israel, just doesn’t get it. So Jesus says, “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” O Nicodemus, believe this, “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.”
Immediately following that reference we find the most quoted verse in all of Scripture,
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn he world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
If you too are wondering, how you can escape the deadly bite of sin and be born again, the answer really is just that shockingly simple. Jesus has come into the world to save sinners. You need only to look to Him and believe.
(After singing The Power of The Cross/When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, listen to Handel’s Messiah selections “Thy rebuke hath broken…” “Behold and see if there be…” “He was cut off… But thou didst not leave…”)
Click on the What’s In Those Jars? link at the top of the page to find out how we use tiny objects like the one above to help remember each of the 25 people in the genealogy of Christ we will be reading about during the Advent season
Come, Lord Jesus 