Examples For Us

Posted on by korgrocker

“Nor should we put Christ to the test, as some of them did and then died from snakebites. And don’t grumble as some of them did, and then were destroyed by the angel of death. These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age.”
1 Corinthians 10:9-11 NLT

Paul listed some additional events that occurred during the journey through the wilderness, a journey that should have taken the Israelites no more than a few weeks at most, but ultimately lasted forty years. It was a journey full of miracles, but also one marked by punishments that God inflicted on an idolatrous, complaining, and grumbling people. Yesterday, we considered the sexual immorality and idol worship. In today’s verses, Paul highlights two more episodes, the first of which can be found in Numbers 21. “Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient with the long journey, and they began to speak against God and Moses. “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they complained. “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this horrible manna!” So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died” (Numbers 21:4-6). This time, the sin of the people was one of ingratitude, rebellion, and grumbling. The Lord’s punishment was a plague of poisonous snakes and “many were bitten and died”. Well, it indeed focused their minds, and we read what happened next in the following verses, “Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” So Moses made a bronze snake and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!” 

The snake episode was a “type” of what was to come, with Jesus being raised up on the cross at Calvary, and anyone who looked upon Him with a believing heart would be saved, but from a different kind of death. Jesus Himself referred to the Numbers 21 event when He said to Nicodemus, “And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). 

The second reference from 1 Corinthians 10:10 pertained to another instance when the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron. A man called Korah had initiated a rebellion against Moses. He was a Levite, but it appeared that he possibly desired to be a priest, and we can read the account in Numbers 16. The Lord dealt with rebellion with a terminal solution. The earth opened up, and the three rebellious families and all their belongings disappeared into a big hole, which closed over them after they had gone. But the rest of the Israelites were very upset by this. Numbers 16:41, “But the very next morning the whole community of Israel began muttering again against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You have killed the Lord’s people!”” The Lord was going to destroy them all, and he sent a plague that Moses only narrowly averted. Paul believed that the Lord sent an angel of death amongst the people, but the outcome was the same. 

Both these examples quoted by Paul in our headline verses today were “written down to warn” all who were grumblers in the Corinthian church, and, by implication, they apply to believers today. We don’t know for sure how the Corinthians reacted to Paul’s message, but we do know how we pilgrims should respond. When we wake up in the morning, do we grumble about anything? We could list many things, but none of them are worthy of a child of God. I once said to a man whom I met early one sunny summer morning, “Nice morning today”, to which he replied, “They’re all nice if you wake up”. Instead of grumbling about the injustices of life, we would do better to thank God for the new day granted to us and get up with a sense of anticipation about what God has in store for the day ahead.

Dear Heavenly Father. None of us knows the day or hour when we will leave this life, but while we are here and alive, we will thank You and praise You for all You have done for us. Please lead us in all that You want us to do today, we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen

The Bronze Snake

Posted on by korgrocker

“No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”
John 3:13-15 NLT

Jesus made a statement that people who have gone to Heaven have never returned. But why would they want to? To the thief on the adjacent cross, Jesus called it paradise, inferring that Heaven is a wonderful place. There are those who claim that they died and went into Heaven but returned to their bodies when resuscitated, though Jesus’ statement to Nicodemus puts doubts on their conclusion, albeit briefly, of a visit to Heaven.  Of course there are those who are convinced that they have seen ghosts. But we should remember that after death our spirits end up in one of two places – Heaven for the believers and Hades for the non-believers. If they exist at all, ghosts are the product of Hades. Jesus gave us an illustration about the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) that sets out the difference between the two places. From this story, it is not surprising that the spirits incarcerated in Hades would want to escape.

But there was one exception – Jesus is the only Person who has lived in Heaven and who came to earth. He came down to this world, implying that Heaven is a place that is above, higher, than where we are. But that introduces even more wonder into His incarnation – Jesus left a place of comfort, He called it paradise, to join mankind to live as one of God’s created beings. And Jesus came to Planet Earth for one reason – to provide eternal life to all those who believe in Him. 

We can read about the episode with the bronze snake in Numbers 21. The impatient and ungrateful Israelite slaves were speaking out, grumbling, against God and Moses, because of the long journey and the sameness of the food, manna. “So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died” (Numbers 21:6). This act brought them to their senses, and we read in the next verse, “Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people“. And God gave Moses a remedy, “Then the Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!”” (Numbers 21:8). What a great picture of Jesus being lifted up on the Cross at Calvary. Just as the Israelites believed that by looking at the bronze snake on a pole they would be healed, Jesus said that all those who believed in Him, dying on that Cross at Calvary for their sins, would live for ever. The bronze snake prolonged the Israelites’ natural lives, but the Calvary Cross enabled people to live forever.

The Cross is central to our Christian faith. Without it there is no redemption from sin. No salvation and no eternal life. In John 14:6 we read, “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me”. There is no short cut into Heaven. The squeamish won’t find a sanitised route to eternal life. It is only through the blood of Jesus that we are saved. If anyone tries to tell us anything different, don’t believe them.

Father God. Once again, we thank You for Jesus and His willingness to come to this world to save mankind. I pray today for all those I know who have failed to embrace God’s Son and who are heading for a lost eternity. Amen.