Numbers 22-24 • The Other Donkey
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
You know, one of my favorite commercials of all time was from a tire company that was struggling for name recognition to get its market share. Do you remember the BF Goodrich tire company that struggled because more people knew another tire company's name better? Who competed with Goodrich?
Goodyear. And ultimately, the Goodrich tire company came up with this slogan. Look up in the sky. See the blimp?
Where are the other guys?
So if I ask you for the story of the Christmas donkey, what many of you will think about is of course that donkey that took Mary expecting the baby to Bethlehem.
Today we're going to talk about the other donkey.
And to see that one, you need to go to Numbers 22. Numbers chapter 22 and verse 21. I'll just introduce you to that donkey with a couple of verses.
Numbers 22 verse 21, so Balaam, that's a prophet. Not a Christian prophet, not an Israeli prophet, a pagan prophet.
So Balaam rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab.
But God's anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary.
Now he was riding on a donkey, and his two servants were with him. We've got a long journey with this donkey, so let's ask the Lord's blessing as we go.
Heavenly Father, we pray that in the accounts that are in many ways almost too familiar to us, that we would be touched afresh with the goodness and the power that is in your Son whom we still need, grant that we would see Christ our King. Even better this day we pray.
In Jesus' name, amen.
So the story that is now old to many cartoon watchers is the night the animals talked.
It's that Christmas cartoon based on a Norwegian folktale that says, "On the night that the star appeared in the heavens above the manger, the animals that were in the stable were first stirred by the shaft of light that came into the manger room.
And then having been stirred, they began to speak."
It wasn't very noble speech. It reflected more the people that handled the stable day to day. The animals were obviously concerned that their place was not big enough, and the food was not quality enough, and they talked quite a bit about that before they began talking about each other. The oxen were very sure that the sheep did not know their place, and the sheep were concerned that the oxen were taking up too much space.
Everyone was upset with the sleeping habits of the roosters, and everybody wanted the hogs to stay outside and downwind.
But then a baby was born, and the miracle of the birth and who he was so profoundly affected the animals that they began to realize they had been given voices to praise him.
And so they began to run from the stable into the surrounding neighborhood, across the town, to say, "Christ has been born only to discover that the farther they got from the Christ child, the less their voices worked."
So they returned to the stable with the recognition that those who could speak best for the Savior
were those most like Him.
Now that story has absolutely no biblical basis, except maybe this, that what that story says and the one that we are about to follow in the book of Numbers is a reminder that God could use creatures far beyond their natural capabilities if His Word is in their mouths. And that's not just a message for animals, that's a message for us. As we wonder at Christmas time as we see friend and family and coworker and wonder, are we qualified to speak of the Savior to them?
The message of the animals that spoke and of the donkey here who speaks is that you can be a mess and still bless if the Word of God is in your mouth. We question it because we recognize, of course, and we see friends and family, they know all about us, our weaknesses, our frailties, our faults, our indiscretions, our sins, our anger,
our lack of integrity.
How can we possibly speak of the Savior? And what God is saying to us through a donkey and through His Master in this account in Numbers is that if God could put His Word into the mouth of a donkey, maybe there's a place for me and you to speak of the Savior.
The message comes as we begin to see unexpected words in the mouth of a donkey. Now I'll give you a background before even that portion of the text that we read. Here's what's happening. The children of Israel are walking through the wilderness. Remember millions of them. And as this refugee caravan gets close to the border of Moab, the king of Moab says,
"There are too many of them.
They are going to lick up all the grass and resources of our territory, and we are going to be damaged by these refugees coming into our country.
We can't fight them. They've already defeated the kings of Sihon and Og." Sounds like Lord of the Rings, doesn't it?
What can we do if we can't beat them?
We can curse them. And so they hire a pagan prophet named Balaam and say, "We want you to curse the people of Israel." So Balaam gets ready to go curse the people of Israel. One little problem.
The Lord says to him, "Don't you dare.
Those are my people. You must not curse them." So Balaam goes to the prince of Moab and says, "I can't curse them. God has told me not to. I really cannot curse them. Even if you were to give me a house of silver and gold, I can't curse them."
Well, the prince of Moab gets the message. He says, "All right. You got your price. I'll give you a house full of silver and gold if you curse them."
And Balaam says, "Well, maybe I can find a way."
And so he heads out. And you've already got the word there. Verse 22, "God's anger was kindled because he went and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way of his adversary." Now he was riding a donkey. And even though Balaam, the prophet with deep iron here, does not see the angel, who sees the angel?
The donkey sees the angel. And the donkey, seeing the angel with drawn sword in hand, instead of going down the road,
swerves off into the field.
Well, Balaam wants to get his attention with the proverbial two-by-four.
And so he strikes him.
And that's strike one.
The donkey gets back on the road and goes further down the path. But as he goes further down the path, vineyards get close to the road with their walls. And the donkey at some point tries to get around the angel with the sword and in doing so crushes Balaam's foot against the wall. Do you see that? Verse 25, "When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam's foot against the wall. So he struck her again."
Now one of my favorite pastimes as a child, I must tell you, was visiting my cousin who lived on a farm. And our favorite activity was both of us to get up on her pony and chase her dad's pigs through the woods.
Now one little problem about that was I doubt if her dad knew that's what we were doing.
One problem, the pony was blind in one eye, which meant that if a pig took a sharp left in the woods, that pony was going to take you right into a tree. You were going to lose a kneecap on that blind side. And so the only thing that you could do was to smack that pony. Now it wasn't cruelty, it was just self-protection.
But it's precisely what Balaam does, and that's strike two.
Next, the donkey goes further down the road.
Now gets to a bottleneck, a place that's so narrow that there's no getting around the angel with the drawn sword. So what does the donkey do now? Verse 27, "When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam.
When Balaam's anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff," and that is strike three. And now the poor donkey who's had enough speaks.
Verse 28, "Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times?" Now one of the curious things about this account is that Balaam the prophet who's never seen an episode of Mr. Ed, who's never watched an old movie about Francis, The Talking Mule,
who's not seen a single Shrek movie with the voice of Eddie Murphy coming out of Dunkey,
doesn't seem to be particularly surprised at the voice coming out of the donkey. Verse 29, "Balaam said to the donkey, Because you've made me a fool of me, I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you."
And the donkey speaks again, verse 30, "Said to Balaam, Am I not your donkey, on which you've ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?" Which is just a translated way of the Hebrew saying, "Wake up, donkey brain!
Don't you think there's something wrong that you ought to pay attention to if I've been loyal to you all this time? Am not going ahead."
And at that point, verse 31, "The Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand, and he bowed down and fell on his face." By verse 34, you will see that he says to the angel, "I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in the road against me. Thou therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back."
And surely the donkey is thinking, "Well, now you turn back." No.
What is the message for us?
Apart from all the joking that surely would have occurred even among the Hebrews and agrarian people who years later would have heard this account over and over again, who must have heard it with peals of laughter and deep guffaws of what was going on in this pagan prophet and his talking donkey, what would God be making clear to us?
God can bring his Word out of those least capable and do amazing things.
As long as it is his Word, it is not the qualification of the messenger, but the quality of the message that will make a difference in God's plan and purpose. And as much as that may be simple, we need to hear it over and over again. We are the ones who will see friend and family and co-workers who will cut ourselves out of the process of sharing the gospel because we will say, "How many times have I joined in the lunchroom crudity or the lack of integrity of my co-workers?
How is it possible that my children who have heard my profanity, my anger, my cruelty, perhaps the abuse before I was a Christian of their childhood, why would they listen to me?"
Perhaps it's the person who's been divorced with decisions they wish they had never made in their youth, who now have adult children and want to advise their children to go down a different path and think, "Why would they listen to me?" And we cut ourselves out of the process because we say, "I don't have any credibility." And what God is saying to us, to all His people, all their time, "If I can use a donkey,
maybe there's a place for me as long as I say what God's Word says."
That's all that God was insisting upon with Balaam. Just say what I say.
If you can be saved by a donkey, people can still be saved by my Word. Say what I say. We see it happen over and over again in our own hearts and lives with a number of you this year. I went to the Peoria Rescue Mission banquet, and we listened to the testimony of a couple, each of whom had been in terrible addictions, multiple marriages in terrible backgrounds. When they were talking about had God had rescued them out of those addictions, out of the bad relationships, put them together and now made them a ministry to others, and there's a part of you who would say, "Why should I listen to them? Their lives are a mess."
But then we remember the words of Scripture that God says His greatest glory comes when He pours His Word out of jars of clay, that we are the cracked, earthy, indistinguished means by which the glory of God becomes even more apparent to those who need to hear not what we're saying, but the unadorned glory of God in His Word if we would but say what it says. It's what's meant to help us, not just because the couple has now been straightened up, but because we recognize God was bringing word to them when they weren't straightened up. And I will assure you that there are still difficulties and struggles in their lives now, but we have seen the Word of God work. And so we listen. And for the mom who is saying, "How do I speak to my children when they know all of my weakness and all of my mistakes?" When we need to speak to a co-worker and say, "Why would they listen to me when they know my daily habits?"
Because the Word of God is greater than you.
And for that reason, we speak.
I think of the evidence in my own life. I am so thankful that so many of you pray for my incarcerated special needs brother, who I first introduced to you at my candidating service for this church as I thought, "I'm going to just tell you up front, because if it's a problem, you need to know now."
And since he has been in prison in the years that even I have been here, I will just tell you his health has only gotten worse and worse.
Multiple strokes, a hip that no longer works, he's confined to a wheelchair, but through it all, a faith that has stayed strong.
How did he receive the Lord Jesus Christ in his life and work? Do you remember? He was actually in a jail cell, awaiting a hearing, terrified at what would come. And it was another man in the cell with him who had no qualifications, no justification for presenting the Word of God. And yet he shared with my brother the undying, unconditional grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, when my brother became a Christian, and though he continues to struggle with ill health and difficulty and hardship that I have trouble imagining, his faith is strong. He writes now just a few scribbles, or I can write, and those of you in this church who write my brother, I am so thankful to you. But when he writes you brack, basically all he can do these days is just put a short Bible verse on paper.
He puts a short Bible verse on paper. He writes the scriptures even still. He is not qualified. How could he possibly be one who would believe, "I have a witness and a testimony that can be powerful for nephew and niece and people that I have come across him because he believes."
The Word of God is powerful.
And it's not the qualification of the messenger that counts, it's the quality of the message.
And so we speak. We speak even when it's not desired to be heard. And that's part of what's happening in this strange account as well.
Once the Lord has stopped Balaam from issuing the curse, he still would like to be paid by the Prince of Moab. And so God says, "You can go with the Prince of Moab, but you only say what I have told you to say."
And so Balaam the prophet goes with the Prince of Moab and go to a high lookout.
Erect seven altars make sacrifices to whatever gods the Prince of Moab honors, and then
Balaam issues the first curse against Israel. You want to read it?
Chapter 23. You have to go forward just one chapter. Chapter 23 of Numbers and verse 8. Here comes the curse. Are you ready?
How can I curse whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced? Verse 10.
Who can count the dust of Jacob? Or number the fourth part that is even a fraction of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright. Let my end be like his. Hey, there's so many of them, and they just seem to be prospering rather than curse them. I want to be like them.
Well, as you might guess, the Prince of Moab is not exactly pleased with this curse.
This is strike one for Balaam the prophet.
In verse 11 of chapter 23, the Prince of Moab named Balak says, "What have you done to me?
I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you've done nothing but bless them."
Try it again.
So they go to another lookout, build another seven altars, offer another set of sacrifices, and then comes curse number two. You ready? Chapter 23, verse 23, here's the curse.
There is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel.
Now it will be said of Jacob and Israel, what has God wrought?
Familiar to anyone? The very first long-distance telegram in the United States by Samuel Morris of Morse code fame? Here's the message, what has God wrought? What are the wonderful things that God has done and enabled us to do? This doesn't sound like much of a curse, and even less so if you get to verse 24 of chapter 23. "Behold, a people, as a lioness it rises up, as a lion it does not lie down until it has devoured the prey and drunk the blood of the slain."
Oh no!
It's going to have victory over its enemies. Israel will reign and rule. As you might guess, the prince of Moab is not happy with this curse at all. And so verse 25 of chapter 23, he says, "Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all."
Which is just translated to mean, if you can't say something bad, don't say anything at all.
But I give you one more chance. If that's strike two, we'll go to one more place. And they go up to the high hill, build another seven altars, offer another set of sacrifices,
and then here comes curse number three.
Chapter 24, chapter 24 and verse 5.
"How lovely are your tents, O Jacob." Uh-oh, this isn't sounding much like a curse.
"How lovely your encampments, O Israel."
Verse 7, "Water shall flow from his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters." Which is to say, this Israel is gonna flourish and spread.
And the end of the verse 7, "His kingdom shall be exalted."
And verse 10, the prince of Moab claps his hands and says, "How dare you? I was gonna give you some money, but for these curses where you've only blessed the people, no money for you." And thinks perhaps he has won something.
But we're actually being taught.
"For we recognize that as the prophet has said only what God has told him to say, there is a cost."
He's not gonna get it as house of silver and gold. He has obeyed God, and it seems as though there is no prophet in it whatsoever.
Maybe it's the time of year we need to hear that again. There may not be silver and gold in obedience to God, which may put a crimp in the style of those prosperity preachers who teach over and over again that if you're faithful enough, if you just say the Word of God enough, if you just speak the Word, health and wealth are yours.
I've been in parts of the world where you just grieve to see people who are starving or whose children have no future and are seduced by the message that says, "If you just give this ministry a little of your meager money, then you're gonna get rich." And it's almost irresistible.
But in recent months, some of you may have been reading the words of the nephew of one of the world's most famous prosperity preachers, and having gotten tired enough of the lavish lifestyle and the deception and the hurt caused people. The nephew of Benny Hinn has written, "The prosperity gospel insults Christ because it encourages people to smear His heavenly name to build their own earthly empire."
This time of year we should add, God never said the manger would be lined with money.
I know they got gold frankincense and myrrh, but it was on a path to a cross where the Son of Man would have no place to lay His head except in suffering for you and for me. He said to us, "You must bear your cross daily."
And it was that message of His ultimate promises of the work of redemption that were far too better than the promise of material blessing in this world, which were to be the magnet of the heart that would draw all nations to Himself. Not the seductive promises of health and wealth, but the ultimate promises of God's pardon and forgiveness and a life forever with Him. Wrote the nephew again, "Jesus did not come to inaugurate a get-rich-quick scheme for humanity. He came to fulfill a redemptive plan."
What did that plan look like? What kingdom was He inaugurating?
Believe it or not, the person in the Old Testament who tells us as clearly as any other what that future kingdom would look like is the prophet of a pagan kingdom who's riding this donkey.
What does He ultimately say was going to be the nature of that kingdom to come? Go to chapter 24, verse 16.
Here's the last word of Balaam the prophet.
He wrote, verse 16 of chapter 24, the oracle, that is the vision of Him who hears the words of God and knows the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty falling down with His eyes uncovered. The God Almighty language that's right here is, some of you will know the words, El Shaddai.
When Amy Grant in the 1980s took those words of Michael Card, aged to age the same by the power of His name, El Shaddai, we have to recognize this God Almighty is being written down by Moses who actually knows where the words have come from. For the same author of Numbers, Moses, wrote in Genesis of the God who appeared to Abraham and said to that incapable old man, "I will make you a father of many nations, for I am El Shaddai, God Almighty." From age to age the same by the power of His name. And this is not the last time we will see that El Shaddai. For in the book of Revelation, even as it begins, we read Jesus saying, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the Lord God Almighty." El Shaddai. This is the one by the power of His name is age to age the same. But what is that sameness, what is that message that is coming? Verse 16 again, "The vision of the old mighty El Shaddai falling down with His eyes uncovered." It's not just falling down. The Hebrew says He's making Himself fall down. He's throwing Himself down. He is El Shaddai. The name actually stands for His power upon the Mount of Sinai. But He is humbling Himself. He's throwing Himself down, but He keeps His eyes open. Why? Because the eyes were the mechanism of power. Remember how it would be explained in 2 Chronicles? The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are set upon Him. Here is God saying, "I will come in humility, throw myself down, but it will be actually the means of my power being expressed in all the world." When will this happen? Verse 17, "Balaam says, I see Him, but not now.
I behold Him, but not near.
He's to come." What period of time are we in right now in the church season? This is Advent, the time in which Jesus was predicting that He would come. And here is now Balaam saying, "He's coming. He's not here yet. I behold Him, but not near." How will we know Him? Verse 17, the second clause, "A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel." A star shall come out of Jacob. The prophets would now pick up on this and remind us even as those wise men came to Jerusalem looking for the King whose star had announced Him. Where is the bright and morning star? Where is the King of which we've been told? We have seen His star. And here is Balaam telling us of that star, the King who would come, and His scepter shall rise out of Israel. It's the language of a staff, of a King's rule. And you may remember the same Moses who has written down this account is the one who told us way back in Genesis that the scepter should not depart from Judah, that the great, great, great, great granddaddy of Jesus would be Judah, and through Him the rule of God would come upon all nations. When would He come? When the star appears? What would He do? He will rule the nations. Even as that rule is being described, its extent is now described for us. The end of verse 17, "That scepter shall rise out of Judah, it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Shep." Now I have to keep saying to you, this is Moses writing these words. Where is he previously described? One who will come who will crush evil. Do you remember after Satan had tempted Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis, Moses who had written down that account said, "God spoke to Satan and said, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed." What's going to happen? You're going to strike his heel. But what is that Messiah to come going to do? He is going to crush your head. And now we are being told that that crushing is just beginning upon Moab. That's the kingdom that's been trying to stop Israel on its path. And God says Moab instead will be crushed. But not just Moab, all the sons of Shep.
You really need your Bible dictionary almost at this point.
Seth was the great-great-granddaddy of Noah.
It's not just going to be the crushing of the evil in Moab. But ultimately it will be the crushing of the evil in all humanity that has come since Noah. Here is a scepter that has ruled to bring God's plan not just so the path of Israel is clear to the promised land, but ultimately so that all humanity comes under the rule and the reign of the Messiah to come the one who is announced by the star. How will it happen? Verse 18, "Edom shall be dispossessed. Seer also his enemies shall be dispossessed." It's hard for you to see it without a map. Here is the path to the promised land. And God is saying how does this crushing occur? Those nations that are going to resist Israel going to the promised land, they shall be overcome. And not just the nations along the path. Verse 20, "Then he looked on Amalek and took up his discourse and said, Amalek was the first among the nations, but its end is utter destruction." That's the primary nation occupying the promised land. As God is saying through Balaam who has ridden the donkey and struck it numerous times, struck out in terms of following God's plan, God says, "I will provide a path for my people and I will provide a land for my people." And even that is not the end. Verse 24, "But ships shall come from Kitim," that's the Philistines, "and shall affect Asher," that's Assyria, "and Eber, and he too shall come to utter destruction." Here are the succeeding kingdoms that opposed Israel, even those kingdoms that came from across the ocean as God through Balaam is saying, "I will have dominion through my son upon the path to the promised land, the promised land, and ultimately my rule will be upon the nations." It's hard for us to see, but this is the Old Testament version of Acts 1.8. Remember, after Jesus had risen from the dead and he's ascending to heaven, he speaks to his apostles and he says what? "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria, even until the," what? "The uttermost parts of the earth." And here is Balaam saying it centuries before, "There is one who will throw himself down, but he will be the king and his power will rule and he will extend that power over path and promised land and ultimately over the nations of humanity." It is God saying to us, "You think you got no part in my plan. You're disqualified by your past or your present or your sin or your futility or your inability to articulate things well." God is saying to his people, "Say my word and let my word work for Jesus Christ shall reign and his word shall rule. He who came to humility to a manger is the one who even while he was there was fulfilling the eternal plan of God to spread his word to the nations." Why do we need to know that?
Because we may face the crises in which we ourselves need to remember that Jesus Christ is Lord.
If you are following the news at all this past week, then what is not so much on the domestic agenda but is very much getting attention of the church worldwide is the new persecution in China upon the Christian church.
On Monday of this past week, one of the sister churches of this church who our mission organizations support, the early reign covenant church pastored by Pastor Wang Yi.
The Chinese forces intervene, take the pastor and his wife, the elders, and a hundred people into custody.
It is the persecution that is happening in our world right now in China. Those who know say it is the greatest persecution that has happened since Mao Tsitong and the cultural revolution. It is happening right now. It is happening this week.
Pastor Wang Yi, who recognized that the arrest might be coming, wrote a letter to his congregation saying if I am arrested, read this letter. Here's what his letter said. If God decides to use the persecution of the communist regime against the church to help the Chinese people despair of their future and lead them through a wilderness of spiritual disillusionment in order to know Jesus, then I am joyfully willing to submit to God's plan. For God's plans are always good.
Even though I am often weak, I firmly believe this is the promise of the gospel. Jesus shall reign.
That promise happens to be the very reason the communist regime is so filled with fear
toward a church that no longer fears it.
Why does the church not fear?
Because Jesus Christ shall reign. He doesn't ride a donkey. The book of Revelation tells us where this story is going. He shall come riding a white horse and the sword of the word of God is in his mouth and on his thigh are the words, "King of kings and Lord of lords and he shall reign forever." And for that reason, we who trust him believe he will work beyond us as we are faithful to his word. There were college students among those hundred parishioners who were arrested. And because I know the school and the people, I spoke Friday on the phone to some of the administrators. Here's what I was told, that once the students recognized their incarceration might be lengthy, they went on a hunger strike almost immediately, demanding that in the detention center they could have their Bibles.
And then said the administrator, "They are using their Bibles to read the Scriptures to their guards."
It's not the place we desire, it's not the thing we desire to do, but we believe Jesus Christ shall reign and His Word shall accomplish all that He desires. "We do not fear," they said, "the very last elder to be arrested. For his arrest wrote to the people, "We do not know where pastors, elders, and over a hundred brothers and sisters have been taken. We know for certain that the Lord's loving face is shining upon them. Thank you, Lord, for being with us in this trial. May the Lord give us great joy and true hope and make us strong in reliance upon Him." Christ is Lord, grace is King, bear the cross, keep the faith. These are words not just for people across the nations, these are words for us at the Christmas dinner table with the neighbor, with the co-worker, "Lord, I'm not worthy, I'm not able," all true. But Jesus Christ is Lord, He's Lord of Lord, then King of kings, grace is King, bear the cross, keep the faith. And He who is Lord of lords, who comes to this place with His sword in His hand, which is not of violence but is of the Word of God, promises, "I will be with you, never leave you, never forsake you." Why? Because I am King of kings, Lord of lords, and my kingdom shall reign forever and ever. Amen. Amen. Father, would You bless we, Your people, enabling us not to escape all the trials of this world, but to recognize they are the very things that shape our hearts and shape other hearts to receive the message of one who is eternal, whose kingdom does not know the boundaries of this world, does not know the boundaries of our sin, but has worked beyond by the Messiah who is long predicted and is still to come, that Messiah we turn to and believe in so that You who came in a manger would remind us You were still the King and You are now our King. Father, we pray for those in need, we pray for our own hearts. Help us to realize that if You could use those least worthy to proclaim Your Word so long ago, we who have seen the risen Lord, who know He is King of kings and Lord of lords, put Your Word in our mouths that Jesus Christ would reign. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
The children of Israel that we've been following on their 40-year journey from slavery to the promised land are not getting sweeter, they're just getting Grinchier. And this is one of the Grinchier moments as they complain again about their lot and their travel, but God uses the account to tell them and us about how He saves people who look to Him. Let's stand and honor God's Word, Numbers 21, verses 4 through 9.
From Mount Hor, they set out by the way to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom,
and the people became impatient on the way.
And the people spoke against God and against Moses.
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.
Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many of the people of Israel died.
And the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live."
So 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.
Let's pray together.
Father, we would look to You, the one who sent Your Son for us.
We would recognize impatience can grow in our own hearts and gratitude for Your ways, but You sent one to teach us of a forgiveness that was not of our hands, of a grace greater than our gaining.
You told us Jesus, even by this account. Teach us again. We look to Him in Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated.
In the running for worst present ever, a gift given by a pastor, not me, to his wife, a pastor of a church in Scottsboro, Alabama, his name, Glenn Summerford, pastor of a family church, who by a terrible misreading of the gospel of Mark, believed that churches were to demonstrate the power and the glory of God by handling poisonous snakes.
Have you begun to get an inkling of what the present might have been?
The wife had an inkling too, and so when her husband presented her with that box, she did not want to open it, but he was drunk and had a gun and insisted.
She was bitten twice, and she was delivered, not by angels, but by the doctors at the hospital.
That pastor is still in jail and will be for a lot of years, and maybe you think that's where this pastor ought to be, who picks a passage like this for Christmas.
I mean, after all, we're supposed to be talking about angels and ornaments, and instead we are talking about snakes lifted up on a pole.
Well, my reason, hopefully my explanation, not my excuse, is that Jesus Himself used this account to explain who He was and what He would do. After all, the people of God, as we are, were in a period known as Advent, the time in which they were waiting for the coming of Jesus. We just have Advent for four weeks. These people of God have been waiting 40 years already to get to the Promised Land from which the Messiah will come.
And they've grown impatient, and they're upset about it all, and we understand when their punishment comes, the consequences for their sin, they understand too. They backpedal real fast. "Oh, we're sorry. We said those bad things."
Then we understand how that works. You make your bed, and you lie in it. Actions have consequences. You mess up, and Santa's going to put a lump of coal in your stocking, and you mess up with God, and you'll have the devil to pay.
We understand.
But it was not the understanding the Lord wanted His people to have, and taught them something about the gospel that Jesus Himself would bring to mind again during His earthly ministry.
What's the simple message? That the poison you ought to be most concerned about is not the poison that goes into you, but the poison that comes out of you.
And the antidote is not in your backpedaling.
The antidote is in God's provision.
We get that message by understanding what that serpent is all about. I mean, what does the serpent, that image of brass that Moses lifted up on the pole, what's that supposed to represent?
Plain answer, it's supposed to represent our sin.
Now, that's a little far-fetched, I know, because it's more easy to see not our sin, but the people's sin in the passage. Verse 4, after all, what happens toward the end, and the people became impatient on the way, like the kid in the backseat on the 40-minute drive to Grandma's house who's saying, "Are we there yet?
It's been 40 years, and they are impatient. Are we there yet?"
And we can tease about the sin of needing more patience. We need to pray. "Lord, give me more patience right now."
But as much as we may want it right now, we recognize we actually do want to praise God,
to see His hand, His glory, His working in our lives. And we struggle with patience when the job has not come through.
When the child has not turned around from a distant path from God.
When a spouse has not seen the light of the gospel, despite perhaps years, even decades of prayer. When we're still waiting for the doctors to figure out whatever it is.
And we wonder, why is God taking so long?
We can rejoice in the wonder of a song like Kyle sang during Grace Family Christmas. "Lord, if You're still working, I'm still waiting, but it is really hard to wait."
And for that reason, God here teaches us about a people who became impatient to the point of sin in their waiting. The impatience begins to bleed into other things. It bleeds into end gratitude. Verse 5, "The people spoke against God and against Moses. Why have You brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there's no food and no water." And we love this worthless food.
Yeah, the journey's gotten long. And we're not just impatient now. We're getting more and more upset with You and with God. It's like the kids in the car, you know, "Aren't we there yet?
Jehoshaphat won't stop staring at me.
I don't want to go to McDonald's again."
Of course, what the people are saying is, "I don't want manna anymore.
Now I get that, and you ought to get it too. Here's the provision of God for the people." And they are complaining about nourishment in the desert, but it's because the manna has come every morning for 40 years. And after a little bit of time, you might be tired of it too. Anybody still eating turkey?
You know, we love it when it first is put on the table at the Thanksgiving meal. And we might even enjoy the turkey sandwich a day or two later. But by the time you get to turkey pot pie, turkey salad, turkey spaghetti, turkey loaf, turkey alamode, we had enough of that loathsome food.
I don't know how many recipes there are for manna, but at the end of 40 years, they have tried them all, and they are just tired of it and no longer even thankful for it. So they complain about God's provision, the way we would complain about having to go to another Christmas service and sing another Christmas carol and wonder if God is going to do anything different.
And so emblematic of the poison that is coming out of their lips in complaint and in gratitude, God sends poisonous snakes among them. Verse 6, "The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many of the people died." And as a consequence, the people try to fix the problem. They backpedal.
Verse 7, "And the people came to Moses and said, "We've sinned, for we've spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people, and there was even an answer that came.
God says to Moses, verse 8, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten when he sees it shall live."
Now the question again, what does that serpent represent?
You understand it represents the people's sin.
Ultimately, we recognize their ingratitude has become infectious as not recognizing the goodness of God to them begins to spread to family and to clan and to tribe. And now the nation itself is upset not just with Moses, but with God Himself. If this idea of the people of God complaining sounds familiar, it's because this is the seventh time that the people of God had rebelled by complaining against God. But it's even more intense this time. Every time before they have complained about Moses or they've complained about Moses and God, but this time they reversed the order. They complained against God and Moses. They go directly to the source.
We are just tired of this God. We are tired of you, God. And their ingratitude comes out in an impatience with God's plan of we just can't wait for Him anymore. We can't deal with this anymore.
And as much as we might understand what God is teaching us is not just about waiting,
but the aching of waiting.
Lord, how much longer do we have to go?
How much longer, pray, until when will we see Your hand?
And recognize that if even we cannot wait for the Lord, then those who are looking to us, for example, and guidance and faith, whether it be a child or a spouse or a coworker, begins to have the infection of the poison spread to them too, they begin to doubt that God can and will do as He's promised and as we want.
And so over and over again, the Bible talks about the importance of waiting in trust and in confidence about the Lord. The book of Habakkuk, God's salvation awaits an appointed time.
Though it linger, wait for it.
It will surely come.
Right now my family is waiting, as we have waited before for an agency to find a child for our children to adopt.
And we have waited before, and the waiting is so hard, and the preparation is so difficult, and we wait.
I think those of you who are waiting for a spouse to acknowledge faith in Jesus Christ, you're waiting for a child who's been in a distant place from God to actually recognize the faith in which that child was brought in, and even you begin to doubt and wonder. And there are people who are watching me right now on TV who are simply wondering why God is waiting to take them to heaven because loved ones are gone and their bodies are beaten and they just want to go home.
And they wonder why God is waiting.
God says, "I understand that waiting is aching." Psalm 130, "I wait for the Lord. My soul waits for the Lord. More than sentries wait for the morning. More than watchmen wait for the morning. My soul waits for the Lord.
I ache in this waiting. I've not been a soldier sentry to know what it means to wait for the morning when in that dawning light you know there is safety again.
I have been a pastor who sits by a bedside, who knows by the biology of our bodies if somebody can just make it through the night.
That in the dawning of the day there is new hope for sustained life and to pray for the dawn.
Lord, my soul waits for the morning. I wait to see your hand. I wait to see you work in my family, in my life, in my children, in my spouse, in my church. I'm waiting, God."
The fact that it is so hard may be why the passages about waiting are so important to us. Isaiah 40, "Those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not go tired." It's that wonderful expression. We know if there can just be strength for and in the waiting, we can go again. We'll have strength again. We can do as we are called to do. And it is out of that aching to see God work that we begin to understand the meaning of that serpent. Yes, it clearly represents the sin of God's people, the poison of their complaint and their ingratitude, but at the same moment, it's the antidote.
It's the means by which God is saying, "If you will look to me, there is new life, there is new hope, but you have to look to me."
And I know that seems odd that at once in the same moment there could be this symbol, this image that represents horrible sin and wondrous salvation at the very same moment.
But that's exactly what is going on, that an image of darkness is an image of light at exactly the same moment. If you come to our house at Christmas time, you will see a Christmas tree topper that a friend gave us years ago, an angel with blond hair playing a flute.
Can you imagine the person who gave us that years ago, what she might have been thinking of? It's what we think of.
We think of the wife and mother in our home, the blond hair flute playing angel.
I did that pretty well, didn't I?
I do remember, but we put this on our tree not just to remember the sentiment, but the someone who gave it.
She is not here anymore because on a night in which she was coming home from a party, like a number of us have already attended this season, a drunk driver across the center line hit her head on and the Lord took her home.
You know, I cannot listen to the news reports of the bus accident home 74 this past week without having rushed back into my mind and consciousness that dark night when accompanied by a police officer, I went to her parents' home and said, "Joni is with the Lord."
But as much as I remember the darkness by the Christmas tree topper, I remember the wonder of her parents seeing the very young man whose drunkenness resulted in the death of their daughter, saying to him, "If you will look to Jesus Christ, you can be forgiven.
We forgive you and you can live with your sin, put away, and salvation with your Lord forever." You can know that glory. And I remember the glory of her friends at the funeral who heard the gospel and received and turned from their ways, the glory of the gospel reaching into their hearts and lives, changing reality forever.
And as much as I look at that Christmas angel and remember the darkness, I remember the light even more. The glory and the goodness of God's work in behalf of His people. And it's the very thing that Moses is doing when he puts the serpent up on the pole. He is saying to God's people, "I know your sin.
That's the evidence of your sin.
And it's also the evidence of your salvation. The God who would provide for you, even show you a way to have life again." Is that even possible that ultimately the serpent is not just representing the people's sin, but in a distant way God's own Son being represented and provided for these people?
It's not so far-fetched.
It's what Jesus Himself would explain. Do you remember?
There would be another night in the New Testament in the book of John when a Jewish holy man would go to meet Jesus under cover of darkness and in the light of candle lamps would ask Jesus, "Are you the one that we have waited for for so many centuries? Are you the one of whom the prophets spoke?" And Jesus said to him, "Unless you're born again, you can't really know. You can't really understand the things of the kingdom of God." And the man says, "How do you get born again? Enter into your mother's womb again? That's not possible." And Jesus explained to him this way, John 3, verse 14, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever looks to Him will live."
Now, the reason Nicodemus had trouble hearing that is the same reason that we have trouble hearing that message, that something lifted up on a pole that symbolizes terrible sin and could at the same time be some measure of salvation.
Nicodemus, much as we, could not imagine that God's salvation would be represented in a serpent.
Haddon Robinson, the great preacher-teacher, explained it this way, "The reason we don't like this story is that we are prejudiced.
We are prejudiced against snakes.
If a brood of vipers were to move into your neighborhood, you'd be upset.
If your daughter were to bring home a snake for dinner, you would be upset."
I can remember some years ago when on my jogging path I picked up a snake and put it in my pocket and took it home to show the kids. And after I got inside and took off my jacket, I discovered the snake was no longer in my pocket.
The trouble was I wasn't exactly sure when it had gotten out.
See, you're prejudiced against snakes.
Now why is that? I mean, there are thousands of species of snakes, and snakes are good things. I mean, if there weren't snakes, we'd be up to our kneecaps and mice and rats.
You let just a few rattlesnakes and copperheads ruin the reputation of the whole species.
We're prejudiced against snakes.
We all are.
And what Jesus is doing is He speaks to Nicodemus in John 3, is telling him that it is true that the snake does represent sin. After all, how could Moses have written this account back in Numbers of the snakes being the representation of the people's sin without himself, the very one who penned Genesis, not remembering the serpent that tipped it all of mankind, that the sin of the world is being represented in the serpentine image that is there, that here is the awfulness that is being represented even by Moses. And now Jesus is saying, "That serpent is me."
Oh, I would not tell you that Jesus is a snake.
He did.
He said, "Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up." In doing so, He is telling us God's antidote to the poison of sin represented by that snake but actually in us. Our impatience, our ingratitude, our unwillingness to keep looking to God, you have to say, "What is actually going on when Moses lifted up a snake?" And He said to the people, "Look at that and you'll live." Why in the world would they look at that?
I mean, it doesn't look like anything that could rescue them.
The snake doesn't look like Moses.
Doesn't look like God.
It looks like their sin, which explains why they did not want to look at it. Ever since I was just a child in Sunday school and I've heard this account, you think, "Why can anybody do that?"
Just look and you'll live. You don't have to swim oceans. You don't have to climb mountains. You don't have to walk on coals. Just look and you'll live.
Why not?
Because if I look at that serpent, I have to face my sin.
I have to face the reality of the poison that has come out of me that makes that thing represent me.
It's the poison of my own heart and my own soul, my ingratitude that actually God is calling me to face. And that reality we all hate looking at, we all hate having to face, even Nicodemus, this very Jewish ruler who had come from the ruling party of the Jews to ask Jesus that he was the Messiah. It's not the last time we will hear from or see Nicodemus. He sits on what is known as the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the Jews who another night would be approached by a crowd with a beaten Jesus in their midst and they would accept and accuse Jesus of crimes that the Sanhedrin knew he was not guilty of, but because they were tired of his claim on being a rescuer for the people.
They sent him to Pilate knowing it would be a death sentence and a crucifixion.
Nicodemus was on the Sanhedrin that sent Jesus to die.
It's not the last time we will hear of Nicodemus.
Someone has to take Jesus down from the cross.
Someone has to rescue the body of the butchered rabbi from the cross.
We know who goes, Joseph of Arimathea, whose tomb Jesus will rest in for a while, but there is one other man identified in the Scripture who goes to take Jesus from the cross. Who is that?
Nicodemus.
Now you have to picture it.
The very one who has sat on the council that has put Jesus on that cross, that very one with his pristine white robes and his long white beard and his white turban representing the wisdom and the purity of the Jewish rulers, that one has to go to the cross. What does he have? I don't fully be able, not fully able, even to picture it, that he has to pull the nails that have been in the hands and the feet, or lift the thorns from the brow that is bloodied,
or actually hoist the body of one whose back has been flayed and whose side has been pierced and the blood all around to come down now, not just on hands, but robe, and to say to him, "This is because of your sin. You did not prevent this."
But in that reality, if Nicodemus could actually look at Jesus and believe it is his sin that is represented there, it's Nicodemus' sin that is on Jesus and he actually faces it, do you recognize the consequence? If he looks at Jesus and sees his sin on him, then Nicodemus will live.
It is the old, old story that if we will face our sin and believe it is on him, not made right by my backpedaling, not made right by my accomplishments, not made right by my wisdom, but by what Christ alone has done, he paid the penalty for my sin upon the cross. My sin rested upon him and God made him who knew no sin to be sin for me, so that in him
we might live.
Maybe the worst Christmas sermon ever was preached in London in 1840. It was a white Christmas, a snowstorm that made it dangerous and difficult for a man named Charles to get to his church that Sunday.
And so as he left out and recognized how difficult was the snow and the storm, he pulled off into a smaller church, a little chapel just to get warm and out of the storm.
Only ten or fifteen people were inside, and by the time of the service, no preacher.
And so as the people sat there, at last he wrote a very thin looking man, a shoemaker or tailor or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach.
His text was, "Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth," from the book of Isaiah.
Charles wrote he did not even pronounce the text correctly.
But then he began, "My dear friends," this is a very simple text indeed. He says, "Look, now look and don't take a deal of pain.
It ain't lifting your foot or your finger.
It's just look.
Well a man needn't go to college to look.
You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look.
A man needn't be worth a thousand pounds of silver to look. Anyone can look.
And a child can look.
But then the text says, "Look unto me."
Many of you are looking to yourselves, but it's no use looking there.
You'll never find any comfort in yourselves. Jesus Christ said, "Look unto me.
Look unto me. I'm a sweating and great drops of blood. Look unto me. I'm a hanging on the cross. Look unto me. I'm dead and buried. Look unto me. I rise again. Look unto me. I ascend to heaven. Look unto me. I'm a sittin' at the Father's right hand. Oh, poor sinner, look unto me."
And when he'd gone on about that length, he managed to spend out a few minutes or so of commentary on the text. He came to the end of his tether.
He looked at me, and I dare say, said, "Charles, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger."
Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew my heart, he said. Young man, you look very miserable.
Well I did, but I'd not been accustomed to the preacher pointing it out.
But it was a good blow and struck right home.
He continued, "And you will always be miserable."
Miserable in life, miserable in death. If you don't obey my text, you must obey now, this very moment. Look to Jesus, so that you shall be saved. Young man, look.
Look.
Look.
You have nothing to do but look and live.
Wrote Charles, "I saw it once the way of salvation. I do not know what else he said. I did not take much notice of it. I was so possessed with that one thought, like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and they were healed. So it was with me. I had been waiting to do fifty things to make myself right with God.
But instead I heard the instruction, look.
There and then the cloud was gone.
The darkness rolled away.
That moment I looked and saw the sun."
The Charles was Charles Haddon Spurgeon, perhaps the greatest preacher of his or any age.
But the gospel came to him in the same package it comes to you and to me.
Not a single one of us claiming that the solution to our poison is in us, but is in God's provision
in Jesus Christ.
And so we say at Christmas time, what was the whole message about from beginning to end? Look, look, look to him and live.
Not what's in you. Not what you can do.
But look to him. Believe your sin is on him.
He paid the price.
Look and live.
Holy Father, the gospel is old as time and needed as our own time.
Grant that we would understand again that the answer to the poisons in us are not our own antidotes, but the provision of your son who took our sin upon him. And if we would look at him in such a way that we would truly believe our sin is on him, then we see the sun and have life eternal for which we give you praise.
Father, do it right now.
If there is any here who wonders how they will be made right with you because of things past, because of things even this day that are outside their control, let the words come through.
Let your heart come through.
Oh sinner, child of God so miserable in heart or soul, even in this moment.
Look, look, see your sin on him. He will take it and you will live.
Do this work of the gospel, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.