Michael continues his message by asking: Is repentance a gift or an obligation for us to
act? The answer is found in Numbers 21 which provides an extended
metaphor for repentance. After waking up and conquering the Promised Land,
God commanded Israel
not to allow the enemy to inhabit the land. If Israel did not drive out the
Canaanites, their influence would contaminate God's chosen people. God
commanded Israel
to repent by obeying and turning their hearts away from the world's influences
and toward God. God had led Israel
out of the land
of Egypt and had sustained
them with manna in the wilderness. However, this generation of the
children of Israel hardened
their hearts against God and against Moses saying, "Why have you brought
us out of Egypt
to die in the wilderness?" Israel
believed the devil's lies that the comforts of Egypt were better than the comfort
of God's provision. Because they confessed the unthankfulness of their
hearts by grumbling and complaining, they walked outside of God's protection
and allowed the venomous snakes to attack. When the children of Israel were
bitten by the snakes, they cried to Moses for God to deliver them. Moses acted
according to God's plan to deliver the children of Israel . He lifted up a bronze snake
and set it up on a pole so they could look unto it and live. That bronze serpent
on a pole, the Nehushtan (or Nohestan) is
the international symbol for the medical and healthcare profession today.
The
people's unbelief brought the venomous snakes into the land. Although God had
given them miraculous provisions, they were ungrateful and complained. Their
unthankful hearts drove them away from God's hand of protection and many died
when they were bitten. When the people acknowledged that they had sinned,
this was the starting point of their repentance. They had to have the desire to
turn from their sin to receive God's deliverance. Their act of
repentance was to turn from looking affectionately for the things of this world
and instead, looking affectionately unto God and the power of God's deliverance
represented by the bronze snake. Their repentance allowed God to deliver them
from the deadly serpents. The purpose of the bronze snake was to make God's
deliverance a public spectacle. God does not work in darkness and
obscurity. God always works openly and in the light of his manifest glory. In John
3:14, Jesus spoke to Nicodemus about the unseen things hidden in darkness
that affect us. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so
must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth upon him should not
perish. God always provides a way of repentance for redemption of his
people.
Colossians 2:14 “By canceling the record
of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside,
nailing it to the cross.”
Let’s
complete Michael’s study on “repentance” tomorrow.
In Christ,
Brian
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