Title Look at the Pole
Contents
Worship on the 21st of Lent >> ----> Friday
Title: Look at the Pole
Bible: Numbers 21:4-9
Quiet Prayer: Together
Hymn: Chapter 33
Representative prayer: holistic prayer
Journey to the Word>>
Today, through the sermon of the text, we share the sermon with the title “Look at the pole”.
After the Israelites left Egypt, they traveled through various places to reach Mount Hor.
When you look at Israel's journey from the exodus from Egypt to reaching Mount Hor, you will experience God's amazing miracles.
Looking at God's amazing experiences after the Exodus,
The miracle of the Red Sea (Ex 14:21-31), the miracle of the water being sweetened at Marah (Ex 15:22-25), the miracle of quail and manna in the wilderness of Sin (Ex 16:13-20), the water at the rock of Rephidim This rising miracle (Exodus 17:5-7) and also the defeat of Amalek at Rephidim (Exodus 17:8-16), and the appearance of God when God came down from Mount Sinai and gave Moses the Ten Commandments (Ex 19:16) -26:17), the miracle of Aaron's rod sprouting (Numbers 17:1-10), the miracle of water springing up from the rock of Kadesh (Numbers 20:10-13), the victory of the Lord in the war against the king of Arad There are amazing things such as the war of war (Numbers 21:1-3).
The life of the people of Israel in the wilderness from their exodus from Egypt to Mount Hor would have been unbearably difficult if God had not been with them.
God did not turn away from their suffering, but intervened in their suffering and did amazing things.
Because the people of Israel had God's help, they were able to endure the difficult life in the wilderness.
But when the Israelites arrived at Mount Hor, they had to follow the Red Sea road again toward Canaan.
They had to walk in the wilderness they had walked so far, which presented another problem of suffering for Israel.
In addition, Israel, who had to travel through the wilderness without food and water, lost the grace of God they had experienced and began to blame Moses and God again.
This is verse 5 of the text.
“The people grumbled against God and Moses, saying, “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in this wilderness? There is no food and no water in this place, and we hate this little food.”
As we saw earlier, the Israelites experienced many miracles and salvation from God.
Nevertheless, they began to complain against Moses and God.
What we should note here is that the Israelites were complaining not only against Moses but also against God.
This shows that their complaints have reached a climax.
The complaints of the Israelites in the wilderness were mainly for food and water.
Because they passed through the wilderness, water was always scarce, and food could not be plentiful as in Egypt.
In verse 5 of today's text, it says 'insignificant food', which means a meal without side dishes that barely relieves hunger.
They must have thought that a certain amount of suffering would be bearable because they had received the promise of a land flowing with milk and honey as a promise.
And seeing the power that God has given you through the process you have been through, you may have lost some of your pain.
But there was no more patience to be found in those who had to go down that road again.
They did not know that to enter a land flowing with milk and honey, they had to go through a long tunnel called the wilderness.
The Exodus incident was clearly a step toward a land flowing with milk and honey.
However, there is a process that you must go through to get to this kind of land.
It was a 40-year wilderness road.
This wilderness road was a training period in order to acquire the qualifications as a nation to enjoy freedom and live as God's people in the land of Canaan.
Looking at the words of Deuteronomy 8:2-3,
“Remember that the LORD your God made you walk in the wilderness these forty years, because he humbles you and tests you to see what your heart is and whether you keep his commandments or not. He humbles you and makes you hungry, and you do not know your I fed you with manna, which your ancestors did not know, so that you might know that man does not live by bread alone, but by the word of the LORD.”
This verse was talking about the meaning of why the people of Israel had to go through the wilderness.
Then, what is the purpose of the wilderness training that God wants to speak through these words?
First, he says it is to humble Israel.
According to Deuteronomy 8:2,
He said, "Remember that you were made to walk in the wilderness, for he humbled you..."
8:3 also says, "He humbled you..."
When something goes well, people want to be credited for themselves, and this leads to degeneration into pride that reveals oneself rather than revealing the glory of God.
Those who enter and live in the kingdom of God must be humble.
A person can learn to be humble when he suffers and become rich, and to be humble when he rises in status.
That is why God trained Israel through suffering in the wilderness so that they could live humbly in the land of Canaan.
Remembering the path of suffering in Lent now and building the altar of dawn is not to gain what we have achieved, but to humble ourselves by experiencing the sufferings of Christ.
Second, it is to test the Israelites to find out whether they truly love God and keep God's commandments or not.
Deuteronomy 8:2 second half
There is a saying, "He humbles you and tests you, to know whether you keep his commandments or not."
When people are at peace, they thank God and praise God.
However, when we are poor, hungry, or faced with hardship, we often blame God and forsake God.
God allowed Israel to go through the wilderness for 40 years to test whether Israel truly loved God.
And even when we are hungry, poor, and suffer, God made us go through the wilderness to know whether we trust and love God and live in obedience to God's Word.
We need to trust and trust God.
It was by no means that God made Israel starve and walk in the wilderness because of lack of power. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
God made the people of Israel to be so humble and to walk the path of suffering in order to test whether they truly loved God.
However, the foolish people of Israel did not know this deep will of God and complained against Moses and God.
In today's text, God sent fiery serpents to bite the people of Israel who complained so much.
If you do not trust God and do not obey His Word, it means judgment.
God's judgment through the fiery serpent on Israel caused many people to be bitten to death.
Many people were bitten by fiery serpents, and only then did Israel ask Moses to intercede.
Moses went to God and instead prayed a prayer of forgiveness and intercession.
Then God heard Moses' prayer, and he made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. He promised that all who looked at the bronze serpent would be healed and live. (Nu 21:8)
Moses made a bronze serpent according to God's promise and set it high on a pole.
All those who were bitten by the snake and looked at the bronze snake were healed and lived.
We need to reconsider the meaning of the cross through the words of today's text.
We should be able to think why this text is being read and meditated and proclaimed as the Word in Lent.
There are many hardships and difficulties for those of us who live by Christ today.
At that time, just as God sent fiery serpents to Israel, He also gives us trials through suffering.
However, people do not realize that God loves us and continue to live in sin.
In order to avoid the judgment of the fiery serpent, God made a brass serpent in the middle of the wilderness and made it stand tall on a pole. Now, in our place of death in our sins, God put his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, on a high cross.
Even now, God speaks to us who have no choice but to die because of our sins.
“Look at the pole”
He tells you to look to Jesus Christ, who shed His blood for you on the cross.
John said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him has eternal life."
And when John saw Jesus Christ like this, he called him the 'Lamb that takes away the sin of the world'.
Jesus Christ was crucified like a brass serpent to save mankind.
He hung high on the cross to save humans who were bitten by fiery serpents in the sins of this world.
He was sacrificed on the cross as the atoning lamb who took away the sins of the world to atone for the sins of us humans.
This is God's act of love for mankind, and this is the grace given to us humans as we go on the path of salvation.
This is also the grace of God who said, "Make a fiery serpent and put it on a pole, and whoever is bitten will see it and live."
Now all that's left is for us people to do it. It's looking up on a pole.
Because there is salvation.
Also, looking at the cross is a confession of faith that we will think of God's will and providence, think of God's grace that has been bestowed upon us, and live a godly life by obeying God's Word.
To look at the cross decisively is to look to Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for us.
As we now spend Lent, we must once again look to the cross on which the Lord was crucified.
And I pray in the name of the Lord that you and all of our members will be able to experience the power of God through trust and faith in Him.
United Prayer>>
We give praise and worship to God the Father, who created heaven and earth with the word, guides everything in our lives, and is with us by grace.
He did not leave us in a world tainted with sin, but put us in the class of salvation through the merits of the cross. Thank you for that grace as well.
Thinking of today's Word, help us to live a life full of confession of thanks in God's grace, and grant us the grace to distance ourselves from the world and sin.
We are afraid that our folly will hide the glory of God. Grant us the fullness of the Holy Spirit so that we can clearly understand the will of God the Father.
Let Lent be a time for our faith to grow even more, and grant us the grace of letting go of giving up everything for you.
May God alone be glorified through our lives that are lacking today.
We pray in the name of Jesus, who is the true life of our lives. Amen