Peter Misselbrook's Blog

Mar 19 2019 - Numbers 21:1-9 – The bronze serpent

Here we go again! The Israelites are complaining against God and against Moses, this time just after the Lord had answered their prayers and given them victory over the Canaanite king of Arad. Their complaints are like a cracked record that plays the same phrase over and over again, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" (v. 5). This miserable and detestable food was the Manna, the bread which God provided them with from heaven.

In return for their moaning, God sent them a plague of snakes that bit many of the Israelites and they died. The people recognised that they had sinned and cried out to Moses to intercede for them with the Lord. The Lord told Moses to make a bronze image of a snake and set it up on a pole. Anyone bitten by a snake who looked at this image would live.

What is that all about?

Jesus speaks of this strange incident when talking with Nicodemus, a serious student of the Old Testament Scriptures. In John 3:14-15 it is recorded that Jesus said, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him." These words of the Lord Jesus are followed by one of the most famous verses in the entire Bible, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

When Jesus says that he "must be lifted up" he is speaking of his crucifixion. But how is Jesus being lifted up to die upon the cross like that brass snake on a pole made at Moses' command?

Like the Israelites, we too are rebels against God. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We too have been bitten by that ancient serpent; we are sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. And as a result we live in a wilderness world rather than Paradise, a world marked by disappointment, suffering and at last death: we are doomed to die.

But God does not delight in judgment; rather, he is full of compassion towards the world he has made. In love he sent his own beloved Son into the world so that we might find healing and eternal life through him. Just as Moses lifted up a snake on a pole – the symbol of God's judgment on his rebellious people – so Jesus was lifted up on the cross. But his lifting up is no mere symbol of God's judgment; here is God's judgment upon our sin – "the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." God's judgment fell there, not on us but on him, and he bore it to the full; "he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed."

All the venom of the snake and the judgment of God are focussed there at Calvary and are exhausted there. And as we look with the eye of faith at Jesus Christ hanging on the cross, trusting in his atoning work, we are healed and have life – we are forgiven, embraced by the love of our Father God and given eternal life. Moses' snake on a pole points us towards Christ.

God calls us, his people, to be those who point others to the cure for their deepest disease and to the source of life and hope. We are not simply to rejoice that God loves us and has given his Son for us, we are to urge others to look to Jesus and live. "There is life for a look at the crucified one."

Father God, we thank you that you have not left us to die of the serpent's bite – to die in our sin – but have provided us with life through our wonderful Saviour, Jesus Christ your beloved Son. Help us always to look to him as our hope and our help and to point others to him that they also may have life in him.

Mar 19 2020 - Acts 15:36-16:15 – Disagreement amongst friends

Having read through Paul's letter to the Galatians, we now return to the narrative of the Book of Acts.

The last few verses of Acts 15 make distressing reading. Barnabas had been a great encourager of Paul: he had introduced Paul to the apostles in Jerusalem; he had dragged him out of wounded exile in Tarsus and thrust him into multi-cultural ministry; he had accompanied Paul on his first missionary journey. But now Paul and Barnabas have such a fierce argument that they must go their separate ways. It is a great tragedy.

It would be easy to take sides in this argument. Barnabas, ever the encourager, wants to take Mark with them again so that he may regain confidence in ministry. Barnabas will not give up on people – particularly those in whom he has recognised a gifting of the Spirit. Paul is focussed on the task before him. He is concerned for the churches to whom he ministered so briefly during his first missionary journey. He knows the difficulties these young Christians will be facing and is intent upon returning to them and encouraging them to go on with Christ. He seems to have been so single-minded in his mission that he simply will not risk taking along with him someone who had put his hand to the plough and then turned back.

It is a tragedy that these two good men, who had been such close friends, fell out in this way. They both had clear visions and good motives, but they had such differing views of Mark that they simply could not work together.

But God has a way of turning such tragedies to his own advantage. There are now two missionary teams going out from Antioch rather than one; Barnabas and Mark go one way, Paul and Silas go another. What’s more, Paul is soon to take on another young trainee in Timothy who will be a key helper to him in the years to come. None of this lessens the sadness of the breach between Paul and Barnabas, but it does demonstrate that God uses even our faults and failings to prosper the work of the kingdom – though this never excuses them.

And there is one pleasing footnote to this tragedy. Later, when Paul is in prison, he speaks with affection of Mark who has proved useful to him in his ministry (2 Timothy 4:11, see also Colossians 4:10 and, in another context, 1 Peter 5:13). The heart which Barnabas had for Mark and his painstaking encouragement of him bore fruit. And perhaps also Paul’s persistence with timid Timothy was also the fruit of his time learning from Barnabas.

When Christians fall out it is the cause of great sadness, but God works even such things  to further his own purposes.

Up to this point, Paul had been ministering in the area of Asia Minor, but now, having encouraged the churches among whom he had previously ministered, he is clearly directed by the Holy Spirit to cross over into Europe. First he is kept from travelling into Bithynia in the north of Asia Minor, then he receives a message in a dream to travel across to Macedonia and minister there. The gospel is on the move from Asia into Europe.

Lord God, thank you that you use even our faults and divisions for the furtherance of your kingdom. Nevertheless, help me always to maintain the unity that the Spirit has created by labouring to live at peace with my brothers and sisters in Christ. May I always grieve over the self-inflicted wounds in your body, the church. Keep me from anything that might give the opponents of your kingdom cause to point the finger and mock the Saviour. Above all, help us, the fellowship of your people, to display the transforming power of Christ and to make him known.

Peter Misselbrook