We have been looking at how the people of Israel responded to God sending snakes into their camp as they traveled toward their Promised Land because of their rebellion. Moses makes a brass snake and sets it up on a pole in their midst and the people were asked to look up at it for healing. Why?

God now expects a personal response to him. God enacted a national judgment on Israel because of their rebellion but is now going to reward a personal response to him. Israel was to become an ambassador to the rest of the world (Ex 19:6). Israel would be an example of how God punishes and rewards nations but more importantly, God is now showing them that a personal response to God supersedes a national response to Him. Their individual response to the raised serpent on a pole would set the example for how individuals are to respond to Jesus Christ raised up on the cross. Can you now see why Jesus used this as a example to compare himself being raised up on the cross?

Warning! The cross can also become like Hezekiah looked at Nehushtan: it is just a thing. People often revere the cross but not necessarily the one on the cross: Jesus himself. People look at this as a way of coexisting with those of other religions. I’m sure you have seen the coexist sticker before. It has the cross with the other religion symbols. You can have the cross in this sticker, but you can’t have Jesus Christ within this sticker because he is the only way to God (Ac 4:12). It makes being good equal to being righteous; that way no one is offended. Yet what makes one feel good does not make it true. There is only one truth and that is found within Jesus Christ himself (Jn 14:6). Succumbing to such a trivialization of Christianity to other religions takes away the power offered to us through our relationship with Jesus Christ (Ep 1:19-19).

We must recognize that Christ bore our sins (past, present, and future) on the cross for several reasons:

1.      He appeased the wrath of God. Isaiah 53:11c says, “and he [Messiah] will bear their iniquities.” Also, Romans 5:8-9 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!”

2.      He shed his blood to atone for our sins. 1 John 4:9-10 says, “This is how God showed his love among is: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

3.      Through him we can confess our sins and he will cleanse us because his blood has already been shed. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

4.      His act allows God to now declare us righteous—not because of us—but because of Jesus Christ. Romans 3:21-22 says, “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile.”

5.      We can now have an eternal inheritance with Christ—something we could obtain no other way.

The good news is that it doesn’t end there! Christ rose from the grave defeating Death and Sheol (Hades/Hell). 1 Corinthians 15:55 says, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” We no longer go to Sheol upon death but go directly to be with Christ for eternity (2Co 5:8). The apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8:2, “Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Also, he tells us in Romans 6:4, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

And what is our reward? Hearing our Lord and Savior say, “Well done my good and faithful servant.” He’s Waiting! Just for you. He’s calling out to you. What is your answer? I trust you say “yes” to him today.

(Note: all scripture references are from NIV Bible version)

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens

Although we read about the “wrath of God” in the Bible, a closer look shows it to be the consequence of sin. One of the most brought up scenarios of God being wrathful is his command for Israel to destroy the Amorites and to show no mercy (Dt 7:1-2). Why would God do this? The understanding of this takes us back to Abraham (Gn 15:16) where God stated to him his descendants would be slaves in Egypt for 400 years and then return because “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” This decision by God did two things: (1) it gave Israel a way to become an unfettered nation, and (2) it gave the Amorites time to respond to God. Yet, the Amorites refused to follow God. Their practices included sensuous and orgiastic fertility cult worship, including male and female shrine prostitutes. Even other nations did not go to such extremes in brutality, lust, and abandon. In addition, they practiced child sacrifice which sometimes included the child being placed in the fire while alive. These types of practices seem incomprehensible to us today.

Yet, annihilation was not the common command given by God. The main emphasis was to have the inhabitants leave the land (Ex 23:27-30). Only if they stayed did destruction follow. Yet, even then, total annihilation only applied to the cities within the land which God had given the Israelites for an inheritance (Dt 20:16-18). During any other engagement, the Israelites were to first make an offering of peace (Dt 20:10). If the people accepted the offer, everyone would become a labor force for Israel. However, if they refused, then all of the men would be killed while the women, children, and livestock would become plunder (Dt 20:11-15).

The command for annihilation was also two-fold. First, the people’s evil had become so widespread it was like a cancer spreading throughout the region to larger and larger areas and they had resisted God’s opportunities to repent, which included the following: God supplied the godly influence of Melchizedek (Gn 14:18-20); God supplied the godly influence of Abraham (Gn 12:6); and God caused the destruction of other Amorites as a wake-up call (Gn 14:1-12). These all seemed to go unheeded. Second, in order for Israel to be a light to the rest of the world, they had to eliminate all elements which were ungodly. Israel was to become the standard for the world. A standard must be flawless, or else it is not a standard. This was the reason Israel was held to a higher standard than other nations. Israel was not to exclude outsiders from their land – after all, three main trade routes connecting three continents went through this area: Way of the Sea (also called Via Maria), Ridge Route, and King’s Highway. All three of these routes would bring Gentiles through Israel so they could be taught the ways of God. However, they would be required to exclude wicked practices. Non-Israelites had to abide by the same laws of the land as did the Israelites (Ex 12:48-49, 20:10; Lv 16:29, 17:12, 15; Nu 15:14, 16). It seems God has always expected mankind to understand and follow what he knows is right (Ro 1:18-20), whether being his “chosen” people or not. Thus, this sin of ignoring one’s conscience is what led to the flood (Gn 6:5). Justice seems to always follow a failed response to the love of God’s longsuffering.

God often put the alien living in the land in the same category as the poor, orphan, and widow. They were to be taken care of in a loving way: allowed to glean the corners of fields and left-overs following olive and grape harvests (Lv 23:22; Dt 24:20-21), treated judiciously (Dt 1:16; 24:17), should not be taken advantage of (Dt 24:14), and part of the third-year tithe would be for the alien (Dt 26:12). This was because God stated He loved the alien (Dt 10:18), and the Israelites were to remember they were once slaves in Egypt (Dt 24:22).

Yet, those Gentiles living in the land had to obey the laws of the land (Ex 12:49; Lv 24:22): allowed to glean the corners of fields and left-overs following olive and grape harvests (Lv 23:22; Dt 24:20-21), had to observe the Sabbath (Ex 20:10), had to not work on the Day of Atonement (Lv 16:29), could not eat blood (Lv 17:10) but had to drain the blood from the animal before preparing and eating (Lv 17:13), had to cleanse themselves when encountering anything dead (Lv 17:15), would be put to death if they offered their children as a sacrifice to any god (Lv 20:2) or if they blasphemed the name of the Lord (Lv 24:16), had to abide by the rules of redemption and of the Jubilee (Lv 25:47-50), and had to abide by the decisions of the judges of the land (Dt 1:16). They were to be taught about God and His Law, just as were the Israelites (Dt 31:12-13). If they decided to become a proselyte, then all the Mosaic laws applied, and all males had to be circumcised before they could celebrate Passover (Ex 12:48).

All of this helps us to see that faith has always been God’s plan, even in the Old Testament (Gn 15:6; Ps 31:1; Ho 6:6; Hk 2:4). Judaism as a whole was not exclusive, but inclusive, of Gentiles. So, our God has always cared for everyone. This helps us see how and why he also cares for us. He cares for you. Don’t you want a God like that?

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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens