Rev. David Holwick ZG Make It Count, #14
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
October 9, 2011
Numbers 21:4-9, John 3:14-16
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I. They make everyone queasy.
A. Hollywood's High Concept version.
Hollywood calls a movie with an easily-grasped concept
a "high concept" movie.
Most summer blockbusters fall into this category.
Perhaps the most high-concept movie of all time was 2006's
"Snakes On A Plane."
Everything you needed to know about the movie was right
there in the title.
Just in case you didn't see it:
A federal witness is being taken to a Mafia trial on a
747.
The gangster has smuggled a crate of poisonous snakes into
the cargo hold.
Just to be safe, he made sure the passenger's flower leis
have been sprayed with pheromones that will make the
snakes more aggressive.
The plane takes off. The snakes are released.
Two people being naughty in the bathroom are the first to
die.
The plane's captain checks out a short circuit and then
is fatally bitten by the snake that caused it.
Oxygen masks are released and snakes drop into the cabin
with them.
People are bitten and die all over the plane.
All the pilots are killed so a passenger with videogame
experience takes over the controls.
Then Samuel Jackson shoots out a window and most of the
snakes are sucked out of the plane.
And everyone lives happily ever after.
Some interesting sidenotes: at a showing in Phoenix,
Arizona, a rattlesnake crawled into the theater.
And during the filming in Hollywood, star Samuel Jackson
had a contract clause that prevented snakes from being
within 25 feet of him. [1]
B. The Bible's version is notably tamer.
1) It leaves the gory details to your imagination.
2) Yet its ending is even more exciting than Hollywood's.
II. The final rebellion.
A. The Jews insult the manna. 21:5
1) In the first manna dispute, their fathers had complained
it was monotonous. Now their kids say it is gross.
2) Previously, God had been gracious when they complained
about thirst & hunger - he provided for them miraculously.
B. This final time he sends judgment in the form of snakes. 21:6
1) In the Hebrew, "venomous" is literally "fiery" which either
alludes to their red color, or the fiery pain and
inflammation that the bites caused.
2) Lots of people get bitten and die.
3) It is interesting that Jesus says human fathers don't
tend to give their kid a snake when they ask for food.
a) Then again, the Jews aren't asking for food -
they're just complaining about it.
b) As is so often true, the complaints have ratcheted
up a notch until they became self-destructive.
C. The snakes work as intended.
1) The people abruptly stop complaining and confess their sin.
a) It is rebellion against both God and Moses.
2) They request intercession for the snakes to be removed.
a) Moses prays for them, but this does not make the snakes
disappear.
b) Instead, he is asked to do something unusual: make a
fake snake.
III. The remedy to snakes is a snake.
A. Snakes have a sinister reputation in the Bible.
1) They are categorized as unclean animals.
2) In Genesis 3, Satan comes as a serpent.
a) He is not called Satan there, but the identification
is made in Revelation 12:9.
3) Jesus alludes to them as cunning creatures, the opposite
of innocent, and he calls his enemies snakes.
B. Moses is told to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole.
1) We are all familiar with the symbol - hospitals use it.
a) A single snake wrapped around a pole is the symbol of
the Greek god of healing, Asclepius.
b) The Army medical corps uses two snakes on a pole with
wings at the top.
1> This is a mistake made 75 years ago.
2> It is the symbol of Hermes, the god of thieves, so
it is not appropriate for doctors...
2) It is a symbol that has generated some controversy.
a) Is it associated with magic and superstition, like in
pagan religions?
b) Jews aren't supposed to make graven images of animals
because someone might worship it.
1> As a matter of fact, this snake latter became an
idol named Nehustan that they burned incense to.
2> In 2 Kings 18:4, King Hezekiah destroys this snake
during a religious reform to clean up the country.
C. The episode seems so bizarre that some think it is a myth.
1) But in the 1960s, archaeologists working in this area found
an Egyptian temple to Hathor.
It was destroyed in antiquity and adapted by the Midianites
as a tent shrine, much like the Jewish tabernacle.
(Recall that Moses was married to a Midianite.)
Inside the shrine area, the archaeologists found a five-inch
copper snake.
This is the same region that is mentioned in 21:4, and their
snake dates to around 100 years after Moses.
2) This has convinced many scholars that Moses' bronze snake
is not a made-up story.
IV. The inversion effect.
A. Most sacrifices deal with the principle of opposites.
1) Contact with blood makes you unclean, but the blood of a
sacrifice does the opposite so you can approach God.
2) Here, those inflamed by snake bites can be healed by looking
at a reddish-colored snake.
a) The snake itself didn't heal anyone -- God did it.
3) There is a parallel with modern antidotes.
There are not many people in the world who know more about
snakes and snake venom than Bill Haast.
Haast is the director of the Miami Serpentarium and has
been bitten by venomous snakes more than 160 times.
Those bites occurred over the course of more than three
million handlings of snakes.
At the Serpentarium, Haast "milks" his snakes by forcing
the reptiles to release their venom into a beaker.
Then he sells the poisonous liquid to pharmaceutical
companies that inject horses and sheep with non-fatal
doses of venom.
Over time, the animals naturally build up antibodies
specifically designed to neutralize the injected venom.
Eventually, samples of the animal's blood are collected,
and the antibodies within are extracted and processed
into commercial formulations of antivenin.
Ironically, the poison is the cure!
Sermon #25317
B. Sacrifices require action by the worshipper.
1) If an animal is to be killed, the worshipper first lays his
hand on its head.
2) Here, those who are afflicted must look up at the snake.
3) Both of these principles -- inversion and action -- were
picked up by Jesus.
V. The surprising mention in the New Testament. John 3:14-16
A. The context is Jesus discussing salvation with Nicodemus.
1) Nicodemus is rich and influential -- but spiritual blind.
2) After telling him he needs to be born again, Jesus points
to this episode in Numbers 21.
B. Jesus has something in common with the bronze snake.
1) It is somewhat cryptic.
a) Instead of saying "me" he says "the Son of Man."
b) This was his favorite designation of himself.
2) The point of comparison is the lifting up.
a) Just as the bronze snake was lifted up on a pole, so
Jesus will be lifted up on a cross.
b) Notice the inversion -- humans who are dying in sin
are saved by a dead body suspended on a cross.
c) He could also be alluding to the resurrection, which
is the ultimate "lifting up."
C. Look and live.
1) The Jews were told twice to look up at the snake.
a) This was their way to appropriate the healing.
2) Jesus tells us to look at him and believe.
a) He doesn't want us to perish.
b) He wants us to live.
3) What will you decide?
a) In John 12:32, Jesus says when he is lifted up, he
will draw all men to himself.
b) Have you been drawn to him?
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SOURCE FOR ILLUSTRATION USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] "Snakes On A Plane,” Wikipedia.org.
#25317 (Sermon) “Hair of the Dog,” Rev. Jeff Olive, Marvin United
Methodist Church; Tyler, Texas, < http://www.marvinumc.com>
This and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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