"Trees" - Lesson 3
Overview
The Pole in the Wilderness: Looking to Christ and Living
Scripture continues its rich use of wood as an instrument in God's hand. After the spies returned from Canaan with a fearful report Numbers 13:25-33, the people refused to trust the Lord, and that generation was sentenced to forty years of wandering. What follows is a tragic pattern of complaint: bitter water at Marah Exodus 15:22-24, thirst at Rephidim Exodus 17:1-6, and a craving for the foods of Egypt Numbers 11:4-6. Their grumbling was rooted in forgetfulness—they remembered Egypt as if it were paradise and forgot the God who had delivered and fed them.
In Numbers 21:4-6, the Lord sent fiery serpents among the impatient, complaining people, and many died. Scripture speaks of three kinds of death: spiritual death, in which we are born Ephesians 2:1-3; physical death, which all but Enoch and Elijah taste; and the second, everlasting death in the lake of fire Revelation 20:14-15. When death came near, the survivors finally took notice and turned to God in confession Psalm 78:32-34.
Strikingly, both the affliction and the cure came from God's hand. He commanded Moses to fashion a bronze serpent and lift it on a pole, and all who looked upon it lived Numbers 21:7-9. God could have given justice—what the people deserved. Instead He gave mercy (withholding deserved judgment) and grace (giving healing they had not earned). He provided the means of healing, the invitation to believe, and the very faith to look.
This piece of wood prefigures the cross. Jesus himself draws the line: "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 3:14-16. Our only escape from sin, death, and the devil is to lift our eyes in faith to Christ crucified. The Father transforms hearts that were dead, fixes our gaze upon the Savior, and grants the life that never ends. When the bite of sin presses in and the wilderness feels long, look to the One lifted up for you—and live.
Transcript
Welcome back to our study on trees. 2s
This is session number three. 5s
Let us pray together, please. 8s
Lord God, Heavenly Father, you provided healing for your sinful people by raising up a bronze 12s
serpent upon a pole that all who looked to it might live. 20s
You sent your son, Jesus Christ, that he might be lifted up onto the cross that all who 26s
believe in him may have eternal life. 33s
Lift up the eyes of our hearts to behold in faith him who is crucified for us, that 37s
trusting in him we may have the life that never ends. 46s
Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. 51s
Amen. 56s
Well last week we studied how God revealed himself in a little tree, a bush to be exact. 57s
And the story of the burning bush in Holy Scripture is really an illustration with regard 67s
to the incarnation, the inflection of the second member of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, 74s
that which was of the earth was filled with that which is of heaven. 82s
And so the burning bush really pointed the head to the incarnation of Christ. 88s
So we talked about last week, God is certainly not a hands-off deity. 95s
Know His love for His creation is expressed in His involvement with His creation. 101s
Well today I'd like to take a look at another special tree in Holy Scripture, a special 110s
use of wood and this time it has to do with a pole, a pole. 116s
Let's go please to the book of Numbers chapter 13. 124s
Genesis Exodus, Leviticus and then Numbers. 128s
And we're going to pick up in verse 1 of chapter 13. 133s
Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. 143s
From each of their ancestral tribes you shall send a man, every one, a leader among them. 149s
So just as at the context here, remember going all the way back to Abraham and Sarah, 158s
God had promised a people and a land that would be given to them. 164s
God freed them from being slaves in Egypt, propelling them to the promised land. 170s
And now it is time to send spies into the land. 177s
But what happens? 183s
Same chapter of Numbers, let's go to verse 25. 185s
At the end of 40 days they returned from spying out the land. 191s
And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness of Perin at Kadesh. 196s
They brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. 204s
And they told him, 212s
We came to the land to which you sent us, it flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit. 214s
Yet the people who live in the land are strong and the towns are fortified and very large and besides we saw the descendants of Annach there. 223s
The Amalakites live in the land of the Negae, the Hittites, the Jebusites and the Amorites live in the hill country and the Canaanites lived by the sea and along the Jordan. 236s
The Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, 250s
Let us go up at once and occupy it for we are well able to overcome it. 254s
Then the men who had gone up with him said, we are not able to go up against this people for they are stronger than we. 259s
So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out saying. 269s
The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants and all the people that we saw in it are of great size. 277s
There we saw the Nephilim, the Annachites come from the Nephilim and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers and so we seemed to them. 288s
The people had ears for the bad report. 304s
So God swore that this generation would not enter into the promised land and for forty years they wandered in the wilderness, wandered in the desert. 309s
Let us go now to Numbers chapter 21 verse 4. 325s
From out whore they set up by the way to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom but the people became impatient on the way. 335s
The people spoke against God and against Moses. 345s
Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no food and no water and we did test this miserable food. 349s
The people, the people would respond with complaint. The people would respond with impatience and this certainly is not the first example. 361s
Let us go back to Exodus chapter 15. Genesis and then Exodus. Exodus chapter 15 verse 22. 375s
Then Moses ordered Israel to set out from the Red Sea and they went into the wilderness of sure. 387s
They went three days in the wilderness and found no water when they came to Mara. 394s
They could not drink the water of Mara because it was bitter. That is why it is called Mara. 400s
And the people complained against Moses saying, what shall we drink? 406s
Or over in Exodus the 17th chapter. 414s
From the wilderness of sin the whole congregation of the Israelites journeyed by stages as the Lord commanded. 420s
They camped at Refidim but there was no water for the people to drink. 428s
The people quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink. Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? 434s
But the people thirsted there for water and the people complained against Moses and said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst? 444s
Some Moses cried out to the Lord. What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me. 457s
The Lord said to Moses, go on ahead of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. 464s
Take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. 470s
I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horab. Strike the rock. The water will come out of it so that the people may drink. 474s
Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. 483s
Once again in patience, once again complaining. 489s
Let's go to Numbers, chapter 11. Numbers, chapter 11. We'll pick up in, verse 4. 493s
The rabble among them had a strong craving and the Israelites also wept again and said, if only we had meat to eat. 503s
We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt for nothing. The cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic. 511s
But now our strength is dried up and there's nothing at all but this manna to look at. They're complained. 518s
The complaint was rooted in forgetfulness, wasn't it? They had forgotten that God had provided for their very need. 527s
And all of a sudden they're looking back at Egypt as if those were wonderful days. They were under the hand of an incredibly oppressive Pharaoh who had turned them into slaves. 536s
They had forgotten that it was for the similar in gratitude and unfaithfulness that God had brought them to the place of wandering for 40 years. 548s
Let's go back now to Numbers, chapter 21. Numbers, chapter 21, verse 6. 561s
Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people and they bit the people so that many Israelites died. 572s
These reptiles here in Numbers, the 21st chapter, these reptiles were agents of divine wrath. 584s
So God executing his wrath sends the serpents some are bit by the serpents and they die. 596s
Now pull back the lens a little bit because we see in Holy Scripture there are three types of death. 607s
The first type of death can be termed spiritual. 615s
Turn please to Ephesians the second chapter. New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, and then Ephesians. 620s
Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1. 633s
You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 639s
All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath like everyone else. 656s
So what the Bible talks about is spiritual death. We are born spiritually dead. We want nothing to do with God. We're dead spiritually. 673s
A second type of death that's talked about in Scripture of course is physical death and it's only enoc and Elijah that we read were spared this. 684s
The third type of death is everlasting death. So you've got spiritual death, you've got physical death, the third type is everlasting death. 696s
That's Revelation the 20th chapter. Let's turn there please. Revelation chapter 20 verse 14. 707s
Then death and Haiti were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. 720s
So the first death is physical. The second death is everlasting. Back to our accountant in numbers chapter 21 for the unbelievers then that died, that they were bit by the serpents that led to everlasting death. 738s
Turn please to Psalm 78, Psalm 78. 763s
This is a poem that recalls the Exodus. And this section is talking about rebellion in the desert. So Psalm 78 picking up in verse 32. 773s
In spite of all this, they still sinned. They did not believe in his wonders. So he made their days vanish like a breath and their years in terror. When he killed them, they sought for him. They repented and sought God earnestly. 788s
When death came, the survivors took notice. 811s
Let's go back now to numbers chapter 21, numbers chapter 21. 819s
The people came to Moses and said, we have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. 833s
See with the death that was surrounding them, the people took notice and the people then moved into confession. 849s
Both the sickness and the cure came from God, verse 8. 859s
And the Lord said to Moses, make a poisonous serpent and set it on a pole and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live. 867s
So Moses made a serpent of bronze, put it upon a pole, and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live. 878s
God could have given all of them simply an expression of his justice. But what he gave was mercy and grace. 896s
Remember the distinction between those terms. Justice is getting what we deserve. Grace is getting what we don't deserve and mercy is not getting what we deserve. 907s
God provided the means of healing, the invitation to believe, and the gift of faith. 921s
With this story as the background, let's go now to John the third chapter. New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then John. 935s
John chapter 3 will pick up in verse 14. 948s
And just 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. 957s
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life. 974s
Again, look at verse 14. And just 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. 988s
The Israelites lifted up their eyes to the bronze serpent. God's word was attached as they lifted up their eyes that word of healing. They were saved from physical death. 1007s
The Lord Jesus Christ is lifted up on the wood of the cross. Our only escape from death is to look to Him in faith. 1029s
And so God takes our gaze. He transforms our hearts, our eyes are lifted up to the cross, and we gaze upon the Savior. 1045s
The story then of this piece of wood in Numbers chapter 21, this serpent then put on this piece of wood and the looking to the piece of wood and being healed that prefigures the Lord Jesus Christ and the cross. 1061s
In our study in, but these few short weeks, we have seen the diversity of the use of wood, haven't we? 1087s
We've studied the two trees in Eden. We've studied the burning bush, and now this use of wood for the pole for the serpent, the diversity in the use of trees, the diversity in the use of wood. 1098s
But a commonality, right? A commonality that we've seen for all of the trees that we have studied, all instruments in the hand of God. 1115s
Be reminded from the story of Numbers 21, the application in John 3, be reminded that we look to Christ and looking to Christ in the faith that God gives, we are cured of the bite of sin, death and the devil. 1132s
Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for this time in your word, your word is truth. 1157s
We thank you, O Lord, that you take us who are spiritually dead and you transform us into people that are spiritually alive. 1163s
We thank you, Lord, for the gift of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that you give us. 1173s
We thank you for the story of Numbers 21, the application of John 3. 1179s
And we thank you, Lord, that you lift our eyes to the wood of the cross and in particular the one on the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ, 1186s
for because of His great sacrifice, because your wrath has been placed upon Him instead of us for sin. 1201s
We are forgiven and we live. 1212s
Thank you, Lord, for the gaze that you give us, thank you for forgiveness and life through the Lord Jesus Christ. 1217s
In His holy and precious name, we pray. 1228s
Amen. We'll continue in our study next week. 1233s