Fix Your Eyes on Yahshua (Jesus)
“The Israelites grumbling and complaining was the height of pride and irreverence, as they ungratefully said, “I despise this manna from heaven! I can’t stand this journey into the Promised Land””
We need to take a spiritual check of our appetites. Where is your appetite? Where is your thirst level? Is it hungering and thirsting after righteousness? In Numbers 21:5, the Israelites say, “We loath this miserable food.” What a slap in the face to the Almighty who had done so much for them! So, “Yahveh sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. So the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned because we have spoken against Yahveh and you…’” (Numbers 21:6-7). Look what it took to get Israel to repentance again: being bitten by venomous snakes and watching people drop dead all over the place—fearing they would be next. The Israelites grumbling and complaining was the height of pride and irreverence, as they ungratefully said, “I despise this manna from heaven! I can’t stand this journey into the Promised Land. I want to go back to slavery, at least my stomach and the lusts of my flesh were filled.” They had, like we have, short memories.
“Do we have to provoke our God and Savior to send judgments before we will repent and begin to lovingly and humbly serve and worship Him in Spirit and in truth for all He has bestowed so mercifully upon us?””
The Israelites said to Moses, “Intercede with Yahveh (the Lord), that He may remove the serpents from us” (Numbers 21:7). They had been grumbling and quarreling against Moses, and all of a sudden they are beseeching Moses, “Pray for us, we are desperate, forget the miserable food—we are about to die. I don’t care what we eat, I want to live. Take these snakes away, and don’t let us die out here for our sins.” Before they had said, “We are going to die because Yahveh is not good to us, He is not sovereign, and the Mighty One who brought us out is going to let us die.” Now, the Israelites see it is their sin causing them to die. A little change of perspective comes with the Almighty’s judgments. Do we have to provoke our God and Savior to send judgments before we will repent and begin to lovingly and humbly serve and worship Him in Spirit and in truth for all He has bestowed so mercifully upon us? Yahveh (the Lord) said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live” (Numbers 21:8). What mercy is shown here. He could have said, “Let them all drop dead, they have defamed Me, I have heard enough of their grumbling,” which is basically what Moses had said, “You rebels, enough! (when he struck the rock)” But the Almighty, in His sovereign nature, is merciful, saying, “If they look at the snake lifted on the pole they will be healed.” John 3:14-15 spells out exactly what Numbers 21:8 is foreshadowing, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.” HalleluYAH! Just believe and look upon Yahshua (Jesus).
The enemy, the serpent himself, is out to destroy us and to bite us when we open the door to sin. Our God and Savior lifted up gives the remedy. “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:32). Keep your eyes fixed on Yahshua (Jesus), the safeguard against the deadly serpent bites, against the sinful nature, and the consequence of sin, which is death. Paul, the great apostle, says, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Messiah, and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). Our Redeemer was impaled upon the stake, and His blood was poured out on our behalf. Esteem such a great salvation. Esteem it and honor the One who poured out His life and was lifted up that we might live; water from the Rock.
“How would the Israelites have lived with the unleashing of the serpents if they had ignored looking at that bronze serpent lifted up that was Yahveh’s remedy? It pointed to Yahshua (Jesus)”
“…We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty [as Paul said, pay attention for it will happen to you], how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Hebrews 2:1-3). How then shall we escape the wages of sin, the deadly serpent bite, if we don’t look at Yahshua (Jesus) lifted up? His life poured out to cleanse us of our sinful, lustful, and basically hell-bent natures, which is enmity toward Yahveh (the Lord) because of our friendship with the world. “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4). Friendship with the world has got to go, for it is hatred toward Yahveh. How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? How would the Israelites have lived with the unleashing of the serpents if they had ignored looking at that bronze serpent lifted up that was Yahveh’s remedy? It pointed to Yahshua (Jesus). There is no remedy apart from obedience to Him, so we can have the promised blessings and not the promised judgments. Our holy God and Savior is faithful.
