Dec 3

Dec 3 Advent Day 3 :: Unlikely Cure

“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.” (Numbers 21:8)

Just over 14 years ago I [José] made the decision to enter into full-time ministry. It was through a series of events I faced in my junior year of college that I came to make the choice to give everything I had into serving God wherever it would be.

Shortly after making that decision, my pastor at the time, Pastor Wood, sat down with me to talk about the implications of the choice I had made. It wasn’t going to be easy, and he was right. Two things he spoke to me about has stuck with me until this very day, the first being that we are to look for Christ in everything that we do. No matter what it is, if Christ is not at the center of it, it should not take priority in my life. Sadly, I have not been the best at following that advice. It makes me even more grateful for the grace of God and the celebration of the Advent season.

The second was something very similar. It was that as I became a student of the Scriptures I was to always keep in mind that the Old Testament books look toward Christ, the New Testament books looked back at Christ, and the Gospels being in the middle gave us a in-depth look on who Christ is as not only the Son of God, but the Son of man. Christ is at the center of everything in Scripture. If we look closely enough we will see Christ in every book of the Bible that we read.

That is the journey I want to take us on this Advent season. It started with a challenge to wait. To be still. Despite the chaos around us we must make it a priority to keep Christ at the center. Yesterday, we took a look at Genesis and we saw Christ alluded to in the curse during the Fall of Creation.

Today, we take a step just a few books away to see Christ pictured again, in an unlikely way.

God gave a glimmer of hope and a taste of grace when He told the serpent that sin would not prevail. There would come a Savior who would bruise its head and death, the payment of sin, would be defeated once and for all. But what would that look like?

Adam and Eve chose to remove their affection from their relationship with God to the desires of their heart. It resulted in separation from God. It brought about pain and suffering, guilt and shame. They were banished from Eden. Fast forward a bit and we find the Israelites wandering in the desert removed from Egypt. God delivered them and instead of praise, they grumbled and complained.

That’s where Numbers 21 picks up. The people of God grumbling and complaining. “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.” (Numbers 21:6) This wasn’t the first time, and needless to say God was tired of it. His response? Fiery snakes with a bite that would kill. Seems a bit overboard, right? What we must understand is that God is holy and He must deal with sin.

But a beautiful moment was about to take place. God is love and He also responds with mercy and grace.

The people cry out. They recognize that they have sinned. They need to be rescued.

God replies to Moses and tells him to make a serpent on a pole. Anyone who has been bitten and looks upon the serpent will be cured. And that’s what Moses did. The people were rescued from their sin and the wrath of God, yet again.

In His infinite wisdom and mercy, God took the curse and uplifted it to become the cure from the poison.

Christ himself makes mention of this in John 3.

“And 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.” (John 14-15)

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians that “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (5:21) Christ took our sin upon himself and became the cure for all mankind.

Just a verse later in John 3 is a verse we all know. Many of us have it memorized. Though we are deserving of God’s wrath, in His mercy, because He loves us, He gave His Son to take our place and bring us back into a right relationship with him.

An unlikely cure. The long awaited Messiah came as God’s only Son. He was right under the noses of the Jews and they missed it. As He was placed on the cross at Calvary to die, He would rise again the third day to defeat death and cure us from the poison of sin.

What are you grumbling and complaining about right now? Let me remind you to take a moment and slow down. Things may seem a bit rough right now, but if we can hold on, wait, at the right time God will provide. He will make full the promises He has given to us. Take this time in the waiting to ask God to reveal to you any sin that you may need to deal with and seek His forgiveness knowing that your sins were taken care of by Christ on the cross.

Although we continue to live in a broken world, full of sin, pain, suffering, shame and guilt - we know that our King is coming back again.