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Numbers 21 | In the Wilderness

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Listen to this week’s sermon, In the Wilderness preached by Rev. Benjamin Kandt from Numbers 21 and John 3.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

Hello everyone. This is Pastor Benjamin. You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, Orlando. At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer. For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.

Evan Pederson:

Please bow your heads and pray with me. Eternal God, in the reading of Scripture, may your word be heard. In the meditation of our hearts, may your word be known. And in the faithfulness of our lives may your word be displayed. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Today's scripture comes from Numbers twenty-one and John three. Please remain standing if you are able. 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 the Lord 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 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. 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. This is God's word.

Rev. Benjamin Kandt:

In an interview with NASA, Elon Musk was asked, could Mars sustain human life? Now, Elon Musk believes that becoming an interplanetary species will eventually be our most attractive hope for survival. And so what he wants to do is he wants to terraform Mars. He wants to make it more Earth-like so that it's habitable to human life. He's even been quoted as saying, I want to die on Mars, just not on impact. And when we look at our text this morning, we see that learning to walk in the wilderness is our most attractive hope for survival. That as we live the Christian life, wilderness is the rule, not the exception. And so the question I want to ask and answer is how do we walk through the wilderness? How do we walk through the wilderness? And with that, I have one single point, which is that we look and live. We look and live. If you have a Bible or a device or the worship guide, go ahead and get Numbers 21 in front of you because we're going to walk verse by verse through this passage together. Numbers 21, verse 4 says this. The wilderness is actually a main character in the book of Numbers. It's not only the setting, it's actually the condition in which everything else is happening. And so as Israel's wandering in the wilderness, some things you have to realize is that the wilderness, biblically, is the opposite of the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was a place that had well-tilled land and was plentifully watered, and there was abundance and growth and fruitfulness, but the wilderness is barren and desolate. You see, humanity was born in the garden and will one day dwell in the city, and the in between is the wilderness. And so many of our anxieties in modern life come from our tension of the times, of what it looks like to live here and now in this wilderness experience. But the wilderness is God's academy. Everybody he loves, he sends into the wilderness at some point. Whether it's Abraham or Moses or Elijah or John the Baptist or Jesus or Paul or you, you will all have stints in the wilderness. You see, the desert teaches by taking away. Now, many of us, we think we learn through addition, more books, more classes, more podcasts. That's how we learn and grow. But actually, God often teaches through subtraction. Because when you're in the desert, there's deprivation and desolation. He starves out all other voices and all other sources of identity and comfort and success and greatness. Because the wilderness is a place where we are invited to face what we would rather not face. So, because of that, it requires what Jesus calls patient endurance. Look with me again at verse 4. It says, And the people became impatient on the way. There's a book called Endure by Alex Hutcheson. I'd commend it to you. It's about endurance sports and the limits of human strength and elasticity. And he has this great definition of endurance in there. He says, Endurance is the struggle to continue against a mounting desire to stop. Endurance is the struggle to continue against a mounting desire to stop. And for the Israelites, that mounting desire got to be too much for them. And they grew impatient on the way. You see, in the Christian life, we're called to trust the slow work of God, but we are often impatient because we want to reach the end without delay. We want to get there already. That's what the Israelites were experiencing. And so my question for you this morning is how are you becoming impatient on the way? What does that actually look like for you? And it's different for many of us because your wilderness might look like unemployment or even just a miserable job. It might look like broken relationships or chronic pain, it might be loneliness, exhaustion, it might be unanswered prayer. Many of us are in wildernesses. What does it look like for you? How is it that enduring in this wilderness is actually becoming unbearable over time? What do you do with your impatience? You see, Israel's impatience actually reveals something deeper. It reveals something about what they believe about God. Look with me at verse 5. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, and here's their charge. Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? This is a charge of murder in the first degree. God, you intended to kill us in the wilderness. That's why you brought us here. Why would you do that to us? That's that's how they lash out in their impatience. And the reason why is because your view of God will shape the story that you tell yourself about what you're going through. What you believe about God will shape the way that you spin a narrative inside your own mind. And those scripts that we tell ourselves are so important. They shape our lives and our perceptions. Because in our pain, we often misinterpret God's purposes. That's what Israel's doing here. Now, the stories that we tell ourselves have profound power in our lives. This is why. There are no bare facts. What I mean by that is you're constantly taking in data and then whipping up a narrative to make sense of it. Your subjectivity always gets involved whenever you're perceiving things. Neuroscience has proven that we don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. And so, in light of that, look at the evidence that Israel marshals to charge God with the crime. Look at verse 5 again. It says this Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? Here's the purpose: for there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food. So the evidence that they give is there's no food and no water. But notice what they notice. In other words, you think some of us think if we could just see God show up and blow up, if we could just see a miraculous intervention, then we would believe. But they forgot that God fed them every day with bread from heaven and brought water to come out of a rock in the desert. And yet they claim no food, no water. You see, if you want to grow in self-awareness, you need to begin to notice what you notice. Pay attention to what you pay attention to. Because the reality is your mind takes in so many stimuli all at once that it couldn't possibly make sense of all of it, so it has to filter most of it out. Most of what you see, hear, and feel, you don't actually, you're not even actually aware of that. Now, the reason why I say that is because your attention follows what you're interested in, and where your attention goes, your awareness flows. Let me let me make that plain. I don't attend to the fact that when I'm singing, it's not great. But every now and again I wonder if my bat my pack is on, and the poor people in the overflow room are getting another vocalist up here. And in that moment, my interest in making their life less painful and my attention to my bot my battery pack expands my awareness in that moment. That happens almost every Sunday. You see, why this matters is because every day you have a hundred things to give thanks for and a hundred things to grumble over. Every day. You choose. Because joyful people don't just happen. The default is discouragement. But you choose to attend to what you attend to. You begin to notice what you notice. And as you do that, you begin to expand your awareness of God's goodness in your life. But if you choose to look at the lack in your life, you will loathe your life. Look at verse 5 again. It says, For there's no food and no water water, and we loathe this worthless food. So let me ask you, what is the story that you're telling yourself about your situation right now? Notice what you notice. Now, nothing distorts our perception like deception. Look with me at verse 6. Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. Now you gotta ask yourself when you read this, why send serpents as the form of judgment? This is how I meditate, this is how I read the scriptures, is I ask questions and then I meditate on those questions until I get some sense of an answer. And so in Numbers, God judged the people by having the earth swallow them up with fire from heaven, with quail that came out of their noses. Why serpents now? Well, remember the story of scripture. It was a serpent in the garden that first insinuated God is not good. God is withholding from you. And so in the Bible, because of that, venom becomes a metaphor for lies. Let me give you some examples. Psalm 58 says this they go astray from birth speaking lies. They have venom like the venom of a serpent. Romans 3.13, they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of vipers is under their lips. James 3.8, no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. You see, like Eve and like Israel, we buy into the same serpentine subtext of deception that ends up distorting our perception. That's what's happening in our text this morning. And so, listen, many of us are living in lies right now. You've made agreements in your life with that forked tongue whisper that chatters on and on and on inside your head. And as you've made agreement with those lies, you've begun to go wayward in those areas of your life. And just remember, it's both God's kindness and his severity that are meant to lead you to repentance. To turn back. And so if we identify with the serpent, you will feel the fiery effects. That's what this text is trying to teach us. And so what do we do? Well, actually, in this case, we do what Israel does. We confess. Look at verse 7. And the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. You see, confession is not simply saying, I'm sorry. Confession is telling the truth. I've watched enough detective docuseries and shows to know that when they get in that dark room, right, and they got the light on them, and they're like, Where were you, July 13th, right? There's a whole intense moment. What they're not looking for is for the suspect to say, I'm sorry. They want them to tell the truth. That's confession. And so right now, if you find yourself aware, heightened in your sensitivity that you've been living lies, simply acknowledge them to the Lord. Tell him the truth. God, right now, I believe lies about who you say I am. I believe lies about my the world that we live in. I believe lies about the people in my life. I believe lies, God. You're simply telling the truth. But don't just tell the Lord. Tell someone who can pray for you. Maybe that's your circle, maybe that's your spouse, maybe that's your friend. But just go to them and say, Hey, I have sinned. Will you pray for me? That's exactly what Israel does. Look at verse 7. Pray to the Lord that he take away these serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people. Something beautiful happens here. When Moses prays, the Lord makes a way immediately. Why? Well, Martin Luther said that prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but laying hold of his willingness. God wants to deliver Israel from the serpents. He wants to deliver us. He desires that. In fact, 2 Peter 3 says it like this the Lord is patient toward you, even in your own impatience. The Lord is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. You see, the Lord wants us to look and live. That's what we see in verse 8. And the Lord said to Moses, here's his provision, here's his way. Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. Why is this the way the Lord wants to cure snake bites? What is happening here? And so what God's wanting to do is He's wanting to help them to face their fears. God is trying to suck the venom out of the lies that you believe. And this text is not only theologically rich, it's also psychologically insightful. You see, because decades of psychological research show that the most effective treatment for fear-based disorders is called exposure therapy. I would go as far as to say it's the only thing that works. Nothing else will cure you from anxiety disorders, fear disorders, nothing else but exposure. Well, this is what this is. Exposure therapy is the sustained yet safe confrontation with whatever you fear. Sustained yet safe confrontation with whatever you fear. Because exposure therapies believe that at the heart of your suffering is avoidance. It's your unwillingness to look at what you're afraid of. So you see why God lifts up a serpent in front of them and says, Look and live. It's exposure therapy. So when I'm working with clients in my counseling practice, one of the things I will do is I'll come up with little experiments to do with them. Somebody comes with social anxiety, I'll say, Hey, you have an event coming up where there's going to be people. I'm encouraging you to find one person that you trust. And sometimes it's me, if if they're willing and if that makes sense, find one person that you trust that will go with you to that party. I want you to walk to the front door. I want you to check in, feel what it's like to be you in that moment. Your heart's racing, your mind's spinning. What's the story you're telling yourself in that moment? Attend to what you attend to. But you've got a person there who's with you, who's gonna encourage you, comfort you, be a source of safety for you as you step into that party. Yeah, you might say something stupid. Yeah, you might get salsa on your shirt. It's okay. You're gonna be okay. And you can leave whenever you want to, but I encourage you to stay as long as you can. That's exposure therapy. That's how it works. Now, extrapolate that to wherever your fears are. Sustained yet safe confrontation with whatever you're afraid of. That's the only cure. It's the only cure. And so, because of that, uh, my poor children have to be the children of a therapist. And so this is what happens. Uh, I read Jonathan Haidt's work on uh anxiety and this anxious generation, and he says one of the cultural factors that's actually threatening the resilience of the next generation is what he calls snowplow parenting. Now, I don't know if that preaches in Orlando like it would in Detroit, where I'm from, but just imagine for a moment, there's this white stuff, not manna, it's um it's it's snow and it comes from the ground or from the sky and it lands on the ground, right? I'm not gonna go there. But snow plow parenting is this these parents that get out in front of their kids and they plow everything that might be a source of frustration, fear, or failure out of the way in order to make their kids' lives as easy as possible. And it destroys their children. Like a baby bird, it needs to struggle to hatch from the egg or it will never fly. That's true for your kids as well. And so, knowing this, that my kids are gonna be culturally malformed if I'm not careful, I've tried to catechize them to counterform them. So it looks like this when I sense that my children are scared, I get down at their level and I talk really quietly and softly, and I say, What do we do with our fears? And they say, Daddy, we overcome our fears with faith. And I say, Do you trust me that you're gonna be okay? And then I push them into the deep end. No, I'm just kidding. That last part, that last part isn't true. Some of you are like, I'm gonna call somebody to report you on this. But I do, I do this. Uh, if my kids say I can't, I say can't is only your last name. Let's do this. Let's go. The reason why I say this is because avoidance is at the heart of your suffering and your children's suffering. Do not avoid the wilderness. Do not turn away from what you fear, turn towards it, look at it. Because when you look, it's the only way that you can live. That's the at least psychological message of Numbers 21. And so the people were dying of snake bites, but if they looked fear in the face, they would live. This is a form of divine exposure therapy because God makes us fear, God makes us face what we fear in order to free us from it, and there's no other way. The only way out is through. Look with me at verse 9. 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. In my research, I was baffled by this stat. More people die from venomous snake bites each year than ever died from Ebola. That's wild to me. And there's only one effective treatment for venomous snake bites, it's anti-venom. Um, and I know how to make anti-venom because uh I read a Scientific American article this week. And in there, there's like three steps. This is what it looks like. You start with doing something called milking the venom from the snake, which I assume is a lab intern's job. So you milk the venom from the snake. Second, you inject that venom into a horse or a sheep, and then third, you actually bleed that animal to extract the antibodies that they produce. Thus, you have anti-venom. There's so much symbolic amazingness to this, like the fact that the Bible is regularly trying to remind us that the life is in the blood. It's just a really incredible thing. But but here's one thing I don't want you to miss. Snake venom is used to create anti-venom. The source of judgment is the source of salvation. That's how Jesus, the greatest preacher to ever live, taught this text. Look with me now at John 3.14. This is Jesus talking. He says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, mind you, he's talking about numbers 21. Jesus didn't skip numbers in his Bible reading plan. 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. Notice, you maybe didn't track with this, but the next verse is 16. For God so loved the world. The most famous verse in all scriptures, right after this, this is the context. You see, Jesus was a Bible guy. He read the Bible, he taught the Bible, he interpreted his life in light of the Bible, and he saw that the deepest point of contact between the bronze snake and himself was this act of being lifted up. That's the thing that he wants to draw the comparison to. The Greek word for lifted up only occurs four times in the Gospel of John, and every single time it refers to Jesus physically being hoisted up on a cross to be crucified. The Son of Man is lifted up on a cross. You see, Moses looked lifted up the snake on a pole so that all who were bitten might look and live. In the same way, Jesus, the Son of Man, must be lifted up on the cross so that we might look and live. You see, we all have snake bites. We have the venom of lies injected into our lives, and we live in light of it. We've lived into those lies in various ways. And so not only are we wounded, we have battered bodies and shattered souls, but we are also wayward because we've made agreement with those lies. And we've lived apart from God because of our deception, distorted perception. And we accuse God of things, and we get impatient on the way, and all of those things are true of us, just like it was true of them. But God's anti-venom for us is to look and live. He wants us to, just as the bronze serpent kind of looked like the fiery serpents, but they but it couldn't wound, in the same way, Jesus took on our flesh in every way, yet without sin. You see, in both the wilderness and Golgotha, God confronts us with what terrifies us the most most and then turns that into our instrument of healing. What do we see when we look at the cross of Christ? We see everything that we most fear. In the cross of Christ, we fear rejection and we see Jesus was abandoned on the cross, dying completely alone. We fear unjust suffering. Jesus was crucified by a false trial and trumped-up charges. Look and live. You see, we fear humiliation and shame. Jesus was spat on and mocked and nailed naked to a tree. Look and live. We fear death, but Jesus defanged death by putting it to death on the cross. Look and live. You see, the means of your judgment will be the source of your salvation. Fasten your eyes if you want to be set free from lies. That's the invitation. But the look is a look of faith. You see, it means seeing Jesus with the eyes of faith. Look again at John 3 15. Jesus said, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That here's the line whoever believes in him may have eternal life. You see, when I say look and live, you might go, what does that even mean? That feels abstract, that's not concrete. Give me a to-do list or a coaching plan. Might be able to get after that. I'll do some of that exposure therapy stuff you're talking about. What does this mean to look and live? Well, it means to direct your attention. It means that some of you, Jesus has been trying to catch your eye for a little while, but you've allowed him to maintain space in your peripheral vision. And he's saying, if you want to believe, don't look at your faith, look at me and live. Reorient your entire life in my direction. Turn towards me so that you can see. There's some researchers who paid 13 volunteers to pedal on a stationary bike at the same pace for as long as they could to measure the psychological component of physical limitations. Okay, this is what it looked like. The cyclists were split into two groups, and the second group, on average, actually rode 13% longer than the first and reported that it was easier. What was the difference between the two groups? That's what a good scientist would ask, right? The difference was they had images that were flashed so quickly in front of them, it was imperceptible. But one group had images that were sorrowful and confusing and threatening, and the other had images that were happy and exciting and positive. 13% more effective, longer lasting, more endurance. What does that matter? Well, listen, to look and live, we have to bring the truths of the gospel in front of our eyes so that we can see them, so that we can have patient endurance. This is what this looks like in suffering. Jesus died, so that means that I know this suffering, this wilderness I'm I'm walking through right now, couldn't possibly be punishment. Because Jesus already took it for me. It looks like thinking Jesus is alive and well, bringing that in front of your eyes. Resurrection is true, therefore Jesus must be with me even in this wilderness. Maybe I can patiently endure a little longer. 13% longer? It means recognizing that Jesus did not suffer so that you would not suffer. Jesus suffered so that when you suffer, you might become like him through it. You see, when we look and live, we recognize that if Jesus is victorious, it means that if I don't quit, I win. Patient endurance. And so we want to stare until we can say, see him there hanging on the tree. He bled and then he died and then he rose again for me. And when you can say that from the heart, what happens is Jesus said, I must be lifted up on the cross. Why? To give you eternal life, offering it freely to everybody right here, right now, who will simply look and live. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we come before you now. We see you with the eyes of our heart. Would you enlighten the eyes of our heart, Holy Spirit? We wish to see Jesus not only hanging on the cross for us, but risen in victory for us, seated at the right hand of God the Father. God, we praise you that you know our frame, and you know that we need sensible signs in the sacraments. Thank you that as we come to this table, we get to see Jesus in the bread and the wine. We get to behold and look upon him by faith. We pray this in his name. Amen.