Numbers 21, Pitfalls to the Promised Land: Unexpected Opposition

Numbers chapter 21 starting verse 1 reading the entire chapter. We hear the word of the Lord When the

Canaanite the king of Arad who lived in the Negev Heard that Israel was coming by the way of a

Harim He fought against Israel and took some of them captive and Israel vowed about of the

Lord and said if you will indeed give this people into my hand then I will devote their cities to destruction and the

Lord obeyed the voice of Israel and gave over the Canaanites and they devoted them in their cities to destruction.

So the name of the place was called Hormat from Mount Hoar they set out by the way of the

Red Sea to go around the land of Edom and the people became Impatient on the way and the people spoke against God 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 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 may take away the serpents from us so Moses prayed for the people and the people said to Moses make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole and Everyone who was bitten when he sees it shall live

So Moses made a brought break 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 The people of Israel set out and camped at Oboth and they set out from Oboth and camped at ie

Abiram and in the wilderness that is opposite Moab toward the sunrise From there they set out and camped in the

Valley of Zered from there They set out and camped on the other side of the Arnon Which is in the wilderness that extends from the border of the

Amorites for the Arnon is the border of Moab between Moab and the Amorites Wherefore it is said in the in the book of the wars of the

Lord Wahib and Zufa and the valleys of Arnon and the slope of the valleys that extends to the seat of our and Leans to the border of Moab and from there they continued to beer

That is the well of which the Lord said to Moses gather the people together so that I may give them water

Then Israel sang this song Spring up a well sing to it the well that the princes dug that the nobles of the people delved with the scepter and with their staffs and From the wilderness they went up on to Matanah and from Matanah to Nahalel and from Nahalel to Barnath and from there

And from Barmoth to the valley lying in the region of Moab by the top of Pisgah that looks down on the desert

Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king and the Amorites saying let me pass through your land

We will not turn aside into field or vineyard. We will not drink the water of a well

We will go by the king's highway until we have passed through your territory But Sihon would not allow

Israel to pass through his territory he gathered all his people together and went out against Israel to the wilderness and Came to Jaha's and fought against Israel and Israel defeated them with the edge of the sword and took possession of his land from the

Arnon to the Jabbok as far as the Ammonites for the border of the Ammonites was strong and Israel took all these cities and Israel settled in all the cities of the

Amorites and Heshbon and in all its villages for Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the

Amorites who had fought against the former king of Moab and taken all His land out of his hand as far as the

Arnon therefore the ballad singers say Come to Heshbon. Let it be built

Let the city of Sihon be established for fire came out from Heshbon flame from the city of Sihon It devoured our of Moab and swallowed the heights of the

Arnon. Woe to you Oh Moab you are undone Oh people of Chumash He has made his son's fugitives and his daughter's captives to an

Amorite King Sihon So we overthrew them Heshbon as far as Dibbon Perished and we laid waste as far as Nofah fire spread as far as Mediba thus

Israel lived in the land of the Amorites and Moses sent to spy out Jazir and they captured his villages and dispossessed the

Amorites who were there Then they turned and went by the way of Tubation and all the king of Bation came out against them.

He and all his people to battle Edra at Edry But the Lord said to Moses Do not fear him for I have given him into your hand and and all his people in his land

And you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon So they defeated him and his sons and all his people until he had no survivor left and they possessed his land

May the Lord add his blessings the reading of his Holy Word Have you ever been surprised by opposition

I Don't mean surprised that there is opposition. I don't think any of us are that naive

I mean surprised that someone you thought was on your side a supporter Who cared for you?

Maybe I was supposed to be a teammate one someone who thought you thought one of the best for you

Turned out to be the opposite Have you ever been totally surprised that so -and -so?

Turned against you or maybe they were always against you and you were just surprised to finally see it.

I Think one of the great things about sports or even business is that the opposition is clear

You know exactly who they are, right? They wear the uniforms of the other team. You don't resent them for being your opposition

You don't hate them You shouldn't at least or you don't think something must really be wrong with them for wanting to beat you and whatever you're playing

You know, it's just part of the game all part of life. The other team is trying to beat you

You know that they're open about it. It's not a surprise. It would be a surprise if it weren't the case

You don't feel betrayed if they succeed at beating you, you know and running the other runner is trying to run faster than you

They don't mean to harm you. It's just the way it is the way the race works

But my cross -country coach in college taught us that we teammates who were on the same team are not supposed to race each other

We may run with each other but not against each other. We race against the opposition

There's a way of running you do run with other people There's a way of running you to encourage them to stay with you to do better than they can by themselves and there's a way of running with someone to try to Break their will so that they

Drift they let go and kind of drift further back if you're running against opposition You want to pass them and you want to break their will so they can't stay with you

But if it's a teammate you're supposed to help them in any way you can of course, it's all psychological

But does this stay with you you help each other do to do better if you comes down to the finish line and you're neck -and -neck

Then you're supposed to you're on the same team cross the finish line side by side

Simultaneously, that's the theory. Anyway, it would be a disappointing surprise if your own teammate tried to out sprint you at the end and Business to you might be surprised by who the opposition and maybe you're not surprised actually

You know the opposition May not want to drive you into bankruptcy But they are trying to maybe they're trying to outbid you for a project or maybe they're your customer

They're trying to lower your profits, you know, they want to get what you have for cheaper than you want to give it to them

You're trying to raise your profits even at their expense and that's business it's not as they say in the

Godfather Personal don't take it personally and get angry that they're trying to keep you from Making money or they're trying to keep you the business is trying to keep you from saving money.

It's just expected It's just the way the world works, but there is unexpected opposition people you never thought

Who never thought were against you and then they turn out that way maybe the teammate who

Sabotages you so we can try to take your place of the co -worker who won't work well with you to make you look bad

I Think a lot of Christians are surprised Where their opposition their spiritual opposition comes from you can tell from how the

Lord Jesus put his warnings to us You know, I've told you this it's coming To us that the way he told us that that he knew that we're often naive

That we're often surprised by who our opposition is now sure we recognize, you know, we recognize sure there's

Isis terrorists out there There's atheists me who hate everything we believe in but we kind of you know

They're far away and they're detached from us and they don't have much to do with us But the Lord Jesus warned us that often our enemies.

He said exactly that they will be sometimes Members of our own family now, we don't really believe that do we

I don't think most Christians really believe that that's why we're often surprised when it is turns out to be one of our own family tries to undermine our commitment to the

Lord who maybe makes excuses for a cultural faith and And thinks we're just maybe we're just too radical.

We're too Taking it too far You know, they're they're at home with a

Religion that is at home with racism or with being detached from the church

They are they don't really go to church much But they talk libly of the Lord and they think you should be the kind of the same way

And so some are surprised Some Chris real Christians are surprised by that opposition and some

I think are so surprised by it that they pretend It's not really opposition at all. This is a difference of opinion.

They just have different ways of doing things They're not believe but they are and then maybe we're most surprised.

I think we're most surprised when the biggest enemies The greatest opposition

We're surprised where that comes from It comes from within One of the pitfalls on the way to the promised land is unexpected

Opposition they were expecting a lot of opposition when they got into the promised land as part of what you know

Kept them from going in there and when they first should have they were expecting some opposition There it's a great opposition there

But they run across a lot of opposition. They weren't expecting on the way there. We see that here in four parts a surprise attack

Serpents a song and Sihon and all

First Israel suffers a surprise attack now, they've just finished bearing Aaron from the end of last chapter and they're starting to turn south

So the kids they have to detour all the way around Edom They're just starting to do that when a

Canaanite King erred Attacks them basically out of nowhere. They weren't heading in his direction

They weren't threatening him, but he attacks them and he takes some Israelites captive They're probably heading south and he attacks him from the north and take some, you know in the back of the caravan

Captive 40 now 40 years before this the Israelites, you know when it remember when they were desperate not to have to when they you know, but they were first said we're not going in and then the

Lord said if you Because of that you're gonna have to wonder 40 years and they were desperate not to have to do that.

And so Not to have to wait for a whole generation to die off. And so then they launched an attack

Against what Moses told them Moses told him don't do it. The Lord is not with you that you can't win but they weren't going to listen and They were then beaten back by the

Canaanites there and they were chased all the way back It says they're on Exodus chapter 9 Exodus numbers chapter 14 to a town called

Horma in the desert Now 40 years later after that generation has died off the king from that same area from Horma Thinks he can get away with a surprise attack on Israel after all, you know, they were easy pickings a generation ago

They probably still are he thinks so he goes he take and tax them take some hostages. Now.

What would Israel do? This was the same place of their earlier defeat, you know, they're thinking this is bad luck.

It's not a good place for us They don't need to go there and attack that kingdom. It's not on their way

It's it's not the land that they really want but The only thing do they leave these hostages that they leave some of the people of God in the hands of the

Canaanites No, they make a vow to the Lord in verse 2 If you

Lord will indeed give this people into my hand then I will devote their cities to destruction

Then it says the Lord Says it said actually ESB puts it. He obeyed them. He did what they wanted

They would they would attack but here what they the pledge they're making is they would attack not for the profit

That they can get from this enemy that they can loot from them But because they would end up destroying everything and anything that can be destroyed

They would give to the temple but only to rescue the people of God. There won't be any ulterior motives So in verse 3 the

Lord heeded their their vow and gave them victory over the those Canaanites They kept their vow they destroyed everything that could be destroyed gave everything else to the tabernacle and so the place was called

Destruction that's what Horma means What would you do? What will you do if you're suddenly attacked?

You're on your way To the promised land to give your cross seeking to follow the

Lord, but out of nowhere, maybe out of a place of a weakness of where you've been defeated before You're surprised by an attack

You thought you were leaving that problem Whatever it is the temper problem, maybe with the pornography behind you were beaten by it before and now it comes back

You leave it Destroy it. Maybe it's greed Materialistic idea that life really does consist in the things that you possess you

Used to be driven by that but you think you thought you were free from it You used to be working all the time to make put more and more on the bank

You thought that's what life was all about And you thought you overcame that but then you're shocked

Maybe a bill comes due and the old ideas come back. I need to chase more dollars most of all

Or maybe you're surprised by an attack of someone you thought was really for you It's for your pilgrimage to the promised land actual another person you trusted them, but now their actions show that he or she is

Really more of a cultural Christian than you had dreamed saying the right words, but breaking covenants justifying themselves while falsely accusing others

Infected with hypocrisy and trying to spread that infection to you You could pretend it's not really an attack

You can be naive if you want you can understand that on the way to the promised land there are unexpected attacks

What would you what you should do Is devote yourself to the

Lord and dedicate sin to destruction Be as ruthless with it as you would be with a hand or an eye that would send you to hell if hands or eyes

Could send you to hell But make vows that you won't succumb

To whatever it is to pornography or whatever it is Again that you'll submit to accountability to someone to tracking software if you have to that you won't serve money anymore

That you'll continue to give even when you're tempted to hoard or splurge for yourself that you'll take every thought

Captive to obey Christ that you'll speak truth to the betrayer The the empty talker, you know the one

Paul calls the false brother John says, you know, we They went out from us because they were never of us as unexpected.

We didn't expect them But there are some like that There's unexpected opposition

On the way to the promised land you will be attacked and some of those attacks will be surprises from places

You didn't see coming Next on the way to the promised land They'll be serpents when they bite

You need to know where to look The story of the serpents comes in three parts and this takes up the bulk of a message this morning about the serpents

There's the sin second the sender and third the sign

Now they've been barred from going the easy way. I remember last week. It would be much easier to cut across go back to eat

Um, there's a highway there That they can't do that. You know mights won't let them so they have to detour Wish I kind of wish

I had a map there if you have a map in the back of your Bible you look at it But if the detour all the way south, I don't know how many miles maybe hundreds

All the way south around Edom then east and then back up north again all to get around Edom It's a long way out of their way and you figure you know

They you've been wandering for 40 years now and now we have to go so much further again

Oh, what a drag, you know, I get irritated if I have to make an unnecessary trip upstairs

Only I would have remembered to do the two things When I went upstairs and I only remember one I have to go back upstairs again to do the thing

I forgot. Ah Imagine how irritating would be to have to walk so many extra miles and we're talking about maybe hundreds

Through the desert all because these people Wouldn't let us go through their territory.

And so it says in verse 4 the people became impatient on the way I can imagine

I Would be too but this brings on the sin the long detour makes them vulnerable to sin if you're to fight sin to devote it to destruction

You need to know what makes you vulnerable to it. And sometimes that's different from likes it makes other people vulnerable to it

But here what are these people been vulnerable to in the past? Well for us maybe though some some things on the internet or on cable

TV If you if you can't have HBO or Showtime without watching some of their pornography, then you can't have it at all

We cut it off. It's like an alcoholic can't have just a glass of wine or beer I've had times, you know with the the gym guys here as it happened in a long while now, but Some of those they were being just real disrespectful and provocative

You know, I just have to walk away because I know if I just stay there They're gonna

I'm gonna get tempted I know I'm getting to an area where I could be tempted with sin and so try to avoid it

Here the detour makes them vulnerable to the impatience This led them into temptation so many times before all the units all through exodus and numbers all these incidents where they get impatient with The Lord and they get crazy

They should know better by now. All right, you have to so many times. They've been they've sinned and they've been afflicted

They should be guarding their attitude and their words, but they don't they slip back into old habits Whining against God and Moses, you know, maybe it started with something kind of mild, you know

Maybe hey Moses had been a better negotiator He would have convinced the Edomites to let us take the easy way to go take the shortcut

But it by the time it gets really into a pitch of a fever in verse 5 They're saying stuff like in verse 5.

Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? You brought us here to die. You brought it.

You set it up to kill us Now notice the implication of the complaint Moses. They're saying

Moses you brought us out of Egypt for the purpose of Killing us here in the desert.

Why have you done it? Why are you so diabolical? It's all been part of this the scheme you concocted to destroy us you know all those plagues in Egypt all the

Passover the Going through the Red Sea parting it now 40 years of manna every morning

Provision in the desert water when we needed all of that Which you said was good gifts from the

Lord to rescue us. It was really just They think in their hysterical

Conspiracy theory nuttery all of it was just to set us up for extermination

That's just crazy right but that's sin and Then they continue For there is no food in no water

Of course, that's not true You know They just got sufficient water And just in the chapter before when they were with Moses himself sinned and struck the rock and surely they filled up their canteens and whatever

They get enough food every morning, right we know that with a manna, but they're tired of it

It's it's not what they want So it's not literally true. There's no food. It's just and they even say they whine the next thing we loathe this worthless food

They don't see that this admission that they have food Contradicts the complaint that they just made that they don't have food.

You know, we have no food. We hate this food make any sense Their sin takes three parts

Resentment regret and ingratitude they resent having to suffer in the desert you know some

Some things they hard times. They have to go through having to wander for 40 years, even though it's their fault Don't forget that having they don't resent having to eat mostly manna.

Although it's sufficient They resent the situation. They're in a lot of people today are in a situation in life

Whatever a lousy but maybe paying job Dysfunctional relationships

Guess who made them dysfunctional and it's all the result of their Decisions or maybe it's actually better than they deserve.

They would see that yet. They resent it They regret here the

Israelites here regret not their sin You know, they they don't catch themselves and their self contradictory complaint, you know

We have no food. We hate our food. Wait, that means we have food Forgive us for lying about not having food.

We've been so ungrateful We should have we should change our hearts. We should change our attitudes or forgive us.

No, they don't do that They regret being brought out of Egypt perhaps for us today if you want to say it, but sometimes

Sometimes Christians are tempted to regret Becoming a Christian imagine

Fantasize all the pleasure and the ease the things you could have had if you live for money and pleasure for sex for self this

Picture and you have more money you'd have to give it It's absurd. Of course

We don't see the slavery like they don't see the slavery here But that's what sin does to the mind and then they're ungrateful for what they have

They exaggerate their sufferings can't see their provisions that that's sin because sin comes from our self -absorbed

Hearts if we don't have the food we want that means we have no food That's what sin does to you where we think in our hearts so self -absorbed that every good thing that we get we deserve

So we'll have to be grateful for it We deserve it every discomfort

We suffer every mile that we have to march out of our way all the way around Edom It's this the greatest injustice

Imagine we have to suffer this we reason as if This is the way people think as if we were

God Because for God good is what God says it is good is what's good for him and bad is what's evil is what's against him

We reason as if we were God and good is determined by what's good for us and evil by what makes us feel bad

That's the way people think but it's sin Well, then there's the sender

The Lord sends it says fiery serpents that just means poisonous snakes

Among the people so they're biting the people many are dying of poisonous snake bites Now many people today, but like to argue.

Well, he just allowed it You know, he just left it up to their free will to get beaten by snake bites and he had nothing to do with it

Just you know, it's just nature and the people You know, there's a lot of poisonous snakes in that area.

That's true And that God is just allowing them to stumble on the snakes that nature has

And he's feel sorry about it. But you know, they freely chose To be in a bunch of snakes that is through nature that the snakes come well, that's kind of true

But here the Bible cuts out the middleman Nature and says bluntly here.

The pastor says the Lord is the center and of course that's because He is in control of nature

Here's the surprise of all the unexpected opposition that we encounter on the way to the promised land if we fall into sin

You want to know what opposition you may be very unexpected may come upon you The Lord may be your opposition

The Lord will be against you at least against our sin He will send whatever it takes into our lives to separate us from our sin even poisonous snakes

Our bad relationships when we make an idol out of relationships or bankruptcy or high interest rates on credit card debt because we just We we spent like by having to have that stuff was

God If we're going to walk in sin, he will be against us, of course

When the Lord's against us his people He is doing it Really to be for us to bring us to repentance

That's What happened to happen to these people here for the first time that I know of and all the

Exodus to numbers all the stories They really repent

Numbers chapter 1440 you can say hey, wait, wait back there, you know that whole story about when they

Were first told they can't go to the promised land now because they didn't want to go in promise They said then in numbers 14 we have sinned they said it in that repentance just saying it

Waits people say now you just say the words you're say. I'm sorry. You say they're lynch sinners prayer.

You're converted This is that but they said we have sinned Surely then

You know, is that that all there is to it just saying it now sure they said they we have sinned

But that was only because they had just been told they're gonna have to suffer for their sin that they really weren't repentant

Is obvious because they wouldn't obey Remember they were told not to attack the promised land.

They were told it wouldn't work But they wouldn't listen So they try it anyway, and they're beaten back.

They have the Word of God At first I the Word of God go into the promised land. They say no They won't listen to that they don't have faith then they're told not to attack and they say no to that They won't believe that either.

They don't believe the word which shows that they're not really repentant and they're defeated

They're driven all the way back to Horma now here 40 years later is the first time

They sincerely confess We have sinned here finally

And all these kind of almost gets to be where it's dreary so much defeat and so many it's bad news here finally is a sign

That something is different Something's better about this generation

Repentance is a sign of grace a Lot of people today, you know think of repentance as something we do.

It's what we do repent to get grace Grace is out there and I have to repent in order to get it, you know, just like you buy milk at the store

But in that case, it's not really grace anymore. Is it? You know it since it's earned since it depends on something we have to do

But the Bible repeatedly talks about God giving grace as a gift giving repentance as As a gift the grace comes and he and it expresses up in repentance

He gives us repentance in Acts chapter 5 give you three examples real quick in Acts chapter 5 verse 31

God says God exalted Jesus as Savior so that he could quote grant repentance in Acts chapter 11 verse 18 the church there celebrates that God has quote

Granted repentance to the Gentiles in 2nd

Timothy chapter 2 verse 25, it says Paul's telling Timothy Be be gentle respectful so that God may grant

Repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth to opponents Here that finally

Israel repents when afflicted is Because God has softened their hearts he's granted them grace that leads to repentance

Repentance is a sign of grace So to show that repentance is a sign of grace the

Lord gives them the sign The people asked that the Lord take away the poisonous snakes That's the request take the snakes away and Moses again intercedes for the people at the end of verse 7

But instead of taking The poisonous snakes away the Lord tells Moses in verse 8 to make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole make an image in other words of Just the kind of snakes that are now killing the people out of bronze or it could be copper and put it on high on a pole so that everyone can see it plainly visible all over their campground and then

He says God says Everyone who is bitten when when he sees bitten and then when he sees it

He shall live The snake bite victims notice that they don't have to do anything

Other than look at this sculpture of a snake on a pole They don't have to say any magic words

They don't have to do any rituals to perform that they don't have to give a seed faith offering You know prove you really believe send your check to my ministry here

No, just look So Moses did it and it says in verse 9 if a serpent bit anyone so the snakes are not taken away

They're still there still biting people but when they're bitten says he would look at the bronze serpent and live

Notice God didn't take away the snakes right away like they asked he gave them instead something to look to For salvation for physical salvation for healing

For us now God has not taken away our sin Sometimes maybe we were surprised at that.

You become a Christian you're zealous and you realize you still have a sin He's not taking away our sin.

He's given us someone though to look to for salvation After we've been bitten by sin

Now Why make a model that seems weird, isn't it? Make a model of the very creature that is killing the people.

Why do that? Why not some kind of soothing? Pleasant image like a teddy bear put a teddy bear on a pole something like that Well for the same reason that we look to the cross

Which is an instrument. It's not a decoration piece of jewelry The cross is an instrument of execution to crude

Symbol of death the cross was in Roman times It was the cross was considered in Roman times something so repugnant that well -mannered people didn't even use the word

It was it was a profane where you didn't you didn't talk about it. You don't mention it in polite conversation and Into that culture came the

Christians then always talking about the cross Preaching nothing. But Paul says

I decided to preach nothing but Christ crucified But talking always about a

Savior who for the joy set before him endured cross The snake here was killing them

Sin now is killing us But on the cross

Jesus became sin for us he became

The very thing that kills and condemns us He bore on the cross that which brings us death.

And so we look at that crude instrument of the worst kind of death

To bring us life The Lord Jesus said in John chapter 3 verses 14 and 15 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

And if you believe in him You look to him Now you don't that doesn't mean you superstitiously look to a literal image of a cross like we have here the front

Means you your gaze of your mind of your heart your attention. Your hopes are cast on Christ on the cross people make it

So complicated people wonder what they have to do all you have to do is

Look a young man about 16 years old in London, England about 150 years ago was desperate to know

How to be saved So one Sunday morning He couldn't make it to the church.

He was intending to go because there was a big snowstorm So he ducked into a small

Methodist Church on the way only about a dozen people there It's all they could make it out and the snow and the minister couldn't even make it

So from the congregation a tailor or a cobbler got up to preach in his place as best he could

He took a verse from Isaiah chapter 45 verse 22 Look up to me and be saved all ye ends of the earth

The man was so badly educated. He couldn't even pronounce the words correctly, but that didn't matter to the to the desperate young man

So the substitute preacher began This is a very simple text indeed It says look now look and don't take a deal of pain

It ain't lifting your foot or your finger. It's just look Well a man needn't go to college to learn to look

You may be the biggest fool and yet you can look a man needn't be worth a thousand a year to look

Anyone could look even a child can look but then the text says

Look at to me. I Many of ye are looking to yourselves, but it's no use looking there

You'll never find any comfort in yourselves. Look to Christ Look at to me.

I'm hanging on the cross Look into me. I am dead and buried Look at to me.

I rise again. Look at to me. I ascend to heaven. Look at to me

I'm sitting at the father's right hand. Oh poor sinner. Look at to me.

Look at to me then the lay preacher saw them the visiting 16 year old sitting in the back and Then lifting up his hands spoke directly to him young man

Look to Jesus Christ Look look Look, you have nothing to do but look and live the young man said

I Saw it once the way of salvation There and then the cloud was gone

The darkness had rolled away and at that moment I saw the

Sun and I could have risen that instant and sung with the most enthusiastic of them of the precious blood of Christ and the simple faith which looks alone to him

Now I can say ever since by faith. I saw the stream by flowing wound supply

Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die that young man was

Charles Spurgeon Perhaps the greatest evangelical preacher of the 19th century one of the greatest of all times the sign

Here was the serpent It was the sign at God's command at his word the command now

His word is to look to Christ to believe in him as Martin Luther said the serpent

Which Moses raised up in the desert did not make alive through its inherent character But the word which was added to that brazen serpent was life giving always believed that word

Because God commanded the serpent to be set up and added the word whoever looks at it will be healed

This word you do not have if you form a serpent from bronze today or some other kind of image

To look to the reason for healing lay in the command from God and in the promise of deliverance

Now the command is to look to Christ Look into him

There was one very unexpected opponent on the way to the promised land the Lord himself

But he was only the opponent of the sins of his people not of the people themselves

So in due time he provided a sign lifted up for all to see

Christ on the cross and for a time there as Jesus asked why father why

He made him to be sin he forsook him and Unexpectedly least to us

He opposed him So he wouldn't have to oppose us Quickly, we have two more steps to go first is the song now they're traveling north now in the desert just east of Edom and Moab Looping around to get to the promised land from the east

They're finally now making progress after 40 years of wandering now. They have

Destination every stop now is a stepping stone. You wonder why with these names these towns we stopped here.

We stopped here They mean seem to mean nothing to you, but their steps along the way for them to a goal.

They're going somewhere now they're achieving something they finished their long detour and then

They come across a familiar problem when they've encountered before water

There's no water They come to a place called beer in verse 16, which doesn't have the drink that the word means in English It means in Hebrew means well

But doesn't have that either But instead of complaining and whining and being resentful and regretting that they ever came out here instead of being regret ungrateful

Like they did so many times before They show they make true progress spiritual progress

They don't get hysterical like they used to Now they get busy the

Lord calls them together Doesn't have to be rebuked. They don't have to be disciplined. There's no snakes. There's no ground opening up.

There's no fire coming out No, they're called together and they dig a well and while they dig they sing

Spring up a well Sing to it Having a good time. The song is a sign that they're leaving their sin behind Then there's another kingdom and in their way

This is Edom had been before and just as before they send a message politely

Diplomatically asking for permission to pass through vowing not to take anything. That's not there.

It's not even a drink of water now this time Though Sihon king of the

Amorites. He doesn't just threaten Israel like Edom had He actually attacks them but Israel went wins though the battle and Sihon and Sihon in his kingdom are destroyed and Israel then occupies all their land just north of Moab, which is east of the

Jordan River And so now they have another song in verses 27 to 30 That song quoted there, but this song is borrowed from Sihon in the

Amorites. It was originally their song This was there. This is their song Sihon song the song that they wrote the

Amorites wrote to celebrate their victory Their earlier victory over Moab.

You see got they got all this land from Moab boasting of their fire of their their swallowing their devouring their

Overthrowing their spreading, you know, it's kind of macho bold war song

Now it's Israel's the Amorites had conquered this land from Moab and Now Israel is taking their song as well as their land

So there's you know the geography here there's Edom in the south they had to loop all the way around They detoured around that just above them north of them is

Moab Which is being squeezed by Sihon the king of the Amorites from the north that Israel has now just wiped out

Think how nervous that makes the Moabites by the way, I mean Israel just beat the people that beat them and then just north of of Sihon and his

Amorites is King Og and his Kingdom abation you have four kingdoms there right in a row

Like like Sihon Og attacks Israel Israel was expecting a lot of opposition in the promised land, but they didn't want any before coming to it

But now they have unexpected opposition But the Lord says to Moses in verse 34 do not fear him

Og For I have given him into your hand notice that from God's point of view

It's past tense as good as done because he's promised it I've given him into your hand and all his people and his land and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the

Amorites and So it was they wiped him out and they get all their land and And now a totally unexpected thing has happened

You know, they've been surprised by unexpected opposition. They've they've been granted unexpected grace and so shown unexpected repentance

So God gives them an unexpected sign of salvation They go from people at the beginning of this chapter who are whining and complaining and just fabricating

Hysterical conspiracy theories about how they've just been set up to be killed in the desert to people at the end of the chapter

Who come to a place called well? With no, well, and they sing joyfully there.

They conquer unexpected opponents and now Now Unexpectedly they find themselves in the promised land

You know, they had thought that getting the promised land was still not yet But now the land that they possess

They possess it notice that word there is in the chapter. They possess this new land from Sihon and Og Landed first that you know, they only wanted to pass through to get to the promised land, but now already

It becomes part of the promised land Some of Israel is the story later tells us.

Yeah thought that this land was so good. They wanted it as theirs which is just as good as the Promised land flowing with milk and honey and God accepts that and blesses it and so they are now

Already the end of chapter 21 Not just on the way to the promised land But there the

Lord's exceedingly great and precious promises Forgiveness and life and joy and healing a new heaven and a new earth a

River of life and peace and love living and the shining presence of God That is the promised land that's where we're going and We'll have some unexpected opposition on our way there the journey will sometimes seem too long and too hard and tempt us with impatience and resentment

Maybe we'll be tempted to think Maybe this has all been one big setup just to deprive us of pleasure

We think for now often though, it's it's all Not yet but if we have the gift of repentance if we have the grace that enables us to admit

I have sinned If we look to Christ on the cross To cure us of the poison of our sin

We sing thankfully now because of the river of life springing up in us unexpectedly

We wake up and we find ourselves now already least in part in The promised land.