Why did God use a Bronze Serpent?

this is question from and it has to do with the bronze serpent story that's given to us in after 21 and verse 6 this is the background the the children of Israel were complaining about their circumstances God sent snakes to remind them things would be a lot worse than the people repented Moses made the bronze servant and those that were bitten had to look at it to be healed the question the children of Israel came out of Egypt would have been very familiar with the different gods and idol worship it seems to me the bronze servant could have been viewed as an idol if I were bitten by a snake and you asked me to look at anything to be healed I honestly don't know if I would do so out of fear of the idol worship so let's go back a little bit to talk about why God used this particular symbol if you if you'll recall one of the signs that God gave to Moses for the children of Israel to convince them that God had sent him to them as a as a redeemer as a deliverer to them was he gave him the staff and this staff was such that he could cast it down it would become a serpent and we pick it up by the tail it would come back to being a staff again and if you recall one of the first things that Moses did with that was he came up against the magician's of Egypt they cast their staffs down and but Moses his snake ate both of theirs you know which was a demonstration of power and authority over the things of Egypt and in with the ancient Egyptians this trick of a stick snake is a very well-known magician's trick all you have to do is get this one particular kind of snake which was a long black snake and you would take it by the tail and you'd whip it like this and the blood would be forced into the head of the snake and fill it up so much the snake would go stiff and then you could hold him just like he would just he would just become rigid and stiff and you put him on the floor let him relax a little bit his blood flow straightens out and all of a sudden he becomes a live snake again and if you pick it up and you whip it around you know he becomes stiff you know and this was a known trick well they think that's what Moses has done he's doing this snake trick thing only his snake ate theirs and it was a completely different way he didn't have to flip around he just picked it up but it became the staff and they just thought he had a new way of doing the trick so to speak now it's from that symbology okay it's from that symbology of beating the gods of the Egyptians beating the magician's of Egypt that that God then later used the same staff of Moses when they actually did encounter fiery serpents now one of the lessons that we teach from that passage where in the world did these fiery serpents show up from well it came out of the ground which means they always were there these fiery serpents were always in the wilderness and up to this point they had not had a problem with them when all of a sudden because of their murmuring complaining against the Lord the Lord basically took away the protection that he had been giving them all along and he said you don't want to have my protection you don't want to have my covering well then this is the place where you're in all of a sudden the fiery serpents come up out of the ground they got him and they were biting them and they were dying there this was this was a very Grievous wound that they were incurred and that was great concern for it because the place is full of snakes now personally I hate snakes it's not a case of I like them I hate snakes when a person picks up a pet snake and they want to come over and show it they don't realize their life is in danger besides the life of the snake I will kill both of you you know do not approach me with a snake in your hands I know it's a garden snake I know it won't hurt me and all that but I will hurt you if you bring that snake toward me okay so now the idea snakes coming by the ground is like the most terrifying thing I can possibly imagine and I think that's the way the story is intended it was a terrifying experience and the people are begging Moses for relief from this situation I would have been right at the front row on that one and God then said to them I want you to make a bronzer but I want you to wrap it around your staff I want you to elevate it lift it up if the people will look they will live now this is the there's only two verses on this whole story in fact this was referred to as the smallest prophecy about the Messiah in the Torah the greatest prophecy of the Messiah is about the story of Moses going up and down for the mountain that's a prophecy about the Messiah who comes from the mountain goes back up to the mountain the smallest prophecy to Messiah is Moses as staff lifted up in the wilderness so long two verses on it but here's the understanding this is the Hebrew understanding the act of following God's leadership and Moses's leadership to simply look at it lift your eyes up look at it you'll be healed is the simplest of all tests will you follow the instruction of what God has said we you simply do what the Lord has requested of you if you're willing to do that just simply do what the Lord is ask you'll live there's a lot of people who didn't follow that instruction they rationalized away stuff why should we look up you know it's a bit and and like the question here well isn't that an idol I mean why should I want to do that you know so the real purpose of it was that we were supposed to look at the staff and we're supposed to look at this bronze servant and we were so story lies we deserve to be bitten by these snakes for disobeying the Lord we deserve it but because I'm looking up and following his instructions I now live well ladies and gentlemen brethren what do you think you're supposed to see when you look up on the cross there's me that's what should have happened to me my sins are worthy of that gruesome death it is me that should be on the cross not him I'm the one that's worthy but because I look upon him and I realize what he's done I look upon him I live because he's made the substitute for me he's my substitute he's paid the price therefore I live the it's the epitome of the whole substitution process of the Messiah being lifted up and our sins being forgiven and so it was first modeled for us by the bronze servant on Moses staff lifted up you look you live that's where first was modeled now interestingly enough this bronze serpent continued to make its way into Israel it was kept at the tabernacle for many years and I believe it's in the days of King Hezekiah they finally destroyed it and the reason why they did was because at that point it had lost its meaning it was now turning into an idol it was turning into a religious icon and the people were adhering to it rather than what the Lord had taught from it and they ultimately got rid of it so yes does it lend itself to becoming an idol yes it can if you completely miss the whole point any tradition any rote repeated observance if you lose the heart of the meaning the substance of it it can turn into some religious icon and something that actually takes you away from the faith rather than helps you with the faith and and the the bronze serpent is one example of that in the scripture but in the day that it was given it had a very powerful meaning very powerful understanding with it which set the stage as I said it's considered to be the smallest prophecy of the Messiah him being lifted up on the cross for us we look we live as a result see just

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Keywords: Monte Judah, Q&A, questions, answers, Bronze Serpent, God, Bible, Torah, scripture, tanakh, bnai shalom, lion lamb, clips, messianic, jewish, christian, hebrew, roots, hebraic, perspective, opinion, Moses, Yeshua, messiah

Id: _IXZoV-jhog

Length: 9min 22sec (562 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 13 2016