Sermon Cloud

I. The people complain

A. They were uncomfortable with their freedom

1. most people prefer the comforts of slavery over the responsibility of freedom.

2. their slavery left them in a position of not having to make any choices.

B. Slaves tend to complain because they are unable to take action.

II. God sends judgment

A. Poisonous snakes bite the people.

1. the snake represented the power of Egypt, their former captors.

2. the snake also represented pain and death to the Israelites (Satan).

B. Many people died.

III. The people repent

A. They ask Moses to pray for them for forgiveness.

B. God forgives the people

1. God tells Moses to fashion a bronze serpent and the people are to gaze upon it.

2. all who do this will live

3. this was not a plan of strategy but rather a plan of trust

IV. Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be lifted "just as the serpent in the wilderness"

A. Jesus embodies and becomes sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21).

B. our only hope is to gaze upon and trust Jesus.