Num 21:8, Then the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he shall live." 
	In our last consideration, we spent most of our time with the fact that the people had rejected the very provision of God in His manna. They had spurned His gracious gift which was the type of the Living Bread of Life, Our Lord Jesus Christ. They had made that bread something which they said was detestable and miserable. 
Accordingly, the Lord, in response to their blasphemy against Him and His Grace and His Mercy, sent fiery serpents among them which caused great devastation in terms of pain and aguish and death. The people cried out in their misery and repented of their sinfulness and asked for forgiveness. God then instructed Moses to fashion a metal serpent, put it on a staff and raise it above the people. Anyone who looked at the metal serpent would live. 
We saw this as the Lord taking that which is vile and the epitome of evil and causing it to be the salvation of His people. This was the type of the mercy of God in the giving of His Only Begotten Son to become sin, our sin, as He was nailed to the cross and crucified for us. He became our salvation in that act of His obedience unto death, the death that we each deserved. 
    	This brings us to several passages of scripture which we need to take to heart before the Lord as we again come to Him in utter thanksgiving and gratitude and amazement for His so great love lavished upon us. We must never hesitate to give expression to our love and our praise and our honor and our thanksgiving for Who He is and what He has done. No words or thoughts will ever be sufficient to express the fullness and the magnitude of His grace and His mercy, although it would be to our betterment to expend every effort to do so. 
	The Psalmist had this heart as is proclaimed throughout the Psalms. We want to highlight just a couple as they specifically relate to this expression of God’s lovingkindness in the recounting of how He continually worked to cover the wanderings of the Chosen nation of Israel. Consider Ps 106:43-48, if you would please turn to it. 
	Ps 106:43-48, Many times He would deliver them; They, however, were rebellious in their counsel, And so sank down in their iniquity. Nevertheless He looked upon their distress, When He heard their cry; And He remembered His covenant for their sake, And relented according to the greatness of His lovingkindness. He also made them objects of compassion In the presence of all their captors. Save us, O Lord our God, And gather us from among the nations, To give thanks to Thy holy name, And glory in Thy praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, From everlasting even to everlasting. And let all the people say, "Amen." Praise the Lord! 
    	… To give thanks to Thy holy name, And glory in Thy praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, From everlasting even to everlasting. And let all the people say, "Amen." Praise the Lord! 
	This should be the course of how we respond every time the Lord takes us through those trials and tribulations which serve to show us even more of the depth of the love of God to us in Jesus Christ. Rather than dwell on the heartache and the pain and the fleeting suffering; whether physically, emotionally, financially, or spiritually, we should be broadcasting to everyone the greatness of Our God Who sustains and heals and provides and holds us close to His heart. He is ever faithful and just to always do what is required to draw us into a deeper understanding of our utter need for Him and His so great and awesome and tremendous love for even such as ourselves.
	As well, please read along in Ps 107:17-22, as the Psalmist makes it very clear plain as to why we must go through all the paths of God’s righteousness in order to understand the depths of His so great love in Jesus Christ. Ps 107:17-22, Fools, because of their rebellious way, And because of their iniquities, were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all kinds of food; And they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble; He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men! Let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, And tell of His works with joyful singing. 
    	The truth is that we can easily call those Children of Israel fools and their actions so very foolish for the manner in which they treated the gracious provision of God. However, if we do so, we lack the insight to see that it is a clear picture of who we are. We are fools and we are foolish and we are practicing utter foolishness whenever we seek to do things by our own understanding and in the weakness of our meager and fleeting power. We are those fools who were so depicted in the actions and the attitudes of the wandering tribes of Israel. They mirror exactly who we are and how we act so very often in the daily course of our walk on this earth. 
	At this point, we must heartily join the refrain of the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor 15:56+57, as he rejoices in the truth of who we now are in Jesus Christ. It is all by the very grace and mercy of God at Whom we have so often thumbed our noses. 1 Cor 15:56+57, The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
If it were not for the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, we would all be lost, dead by that venomous sting of sin. But truly, as detailed in the words of the Psalmist, just as with the Children of Israel, when we cried out to God… He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions. Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness, And for His wonders to the sons of men! Let them also offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, And tell of His works with joyful singing. Thus should be our song of praise and adoration and thanksgiving in the absolute joy and jubilation for the healing power of His Living Word, Our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.
	Turn now to Ps 145:5-18, so we can read together the anthem that should be the core of our every time of coming together into the presence of God in our corporate time of worship and praise. This should be the eternal chorus to which we join our hearts and minds and souls as we dwell on the marvelous work of His hand in our lives as His people.
	Ps 145:5-18, On the glorious splendor of Thy majesty, And on Thy wonderful works, I will meditate. And men shall speak of the power of Thine awesome acts; And I will tell of Thy greatness. They shall eagerly utter the memory of Thine abundant goodness, And shall shout joyfully of Thy righteousness. The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. The Lord is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works. All Thy works shall give thanks to Thee, O Lord, And Thy godly ones shall bless Thee. They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom, And talk of Thy power; To make known to the sons of men Thy mighty acts, And the glory of the majesty of Thy kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Thy dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord sustains all who fall, And raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to Thee, And Thou dost give them their food in due time. Thou dost open Thy hand, And dost satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, And kind in all His deeds. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. 
       What a wondrous description of Who the Lord is in His never ending faithfulness and glorious deeds which show the Divine Character of His Omniscience, His Omnipresence, and His Omnipotence. We see Him as He shows us daily the majesty of His Providence in the rising of the sun and its setting, the crashing of the waves upon the shore, the splendor of mountain grandeurs, and the abundance of the soil’s bountiful harvests. Each breath that we take and each beat of our heart is a gift of His creative brilliance in action. For all that He does in sustaining the life of His creation; He deserves all adoration and eternal praise.
	The Prophet Isaiah picks up this chorus as we can read in Isa 45:18-25, if you would please now turn to it. Isa 45:18-25, For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, But formed it to be inhabited), "I am the Lord, and there is none else. "I have not spoken in secret, In some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, 'Seek Me in a waste place'; I, the Lord, speak righteousness Declaring things that are upright. "Gather yourselves and come; Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations; They have no knowledge, Who carry about their wooden idol, And pray to a god who cannot save. "Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me. "Turn to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. "I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. "They will say of Me, 'Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.' Men will come to Him, And all who were angry at Him shall be put to shame. "In the Lord all the offspring of Israel Will be justified, and will glory." 
 	In this passage is the reality that mankind will seek any other way to fill that void for the fellowship with God that He created within us. We will turn to all types of other idols instead of honoring our Maker, the Lord God Almighty. Yet, in spite of this human capacity to fool ourselves with such ridiculous means as worshipping the gods made by our own hands, The Lord calls and He makes Himself known to us in righteousness and in the giving of His salvation to us. There is no other way to find forgiveness, redemption, and healing from the sting of death. 
	Speaking of that vileness of humanity, in 2 Kings 18:1-6, the Lord details how man corrupted even that image of the serpent created by Moses under the expressed instruction of the Lord. Here we have the kingship of Hezekiah and how he dealt with the idol that man had made it. They had taken that symbol of healing, that type of the Christ to come, and worshiped it instead of worshipping the One by Whom those so bitten had been healed, the Lord God Jehovah.
	2 Kings 18:1-6, Now it came about in the third year of Hoshea, the son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah became king. He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. And he did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nehushtan. He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor among those who were before him. For he clung to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses. 
	Continuing forward then, when Jesus came to earth, He went forth as the means of bringing healing to those so desperately in need. We have this recorded for us in Luke 6:17-19. 
Luke 6:17-19, And He descended with them, and stood on a level place; and there was a great multitude of His disciples, and a great throng of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear Him, and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being cured. And all the multitude were trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all. 
	However, we know that the key reason that God sent forth His Son was not only to heal those with immediate needs, but to heal all who are so urgently and frantically in need of eternal redemption. He came to bring eternal life to those who would but believe on Him, those who would look to Him and receive that spiritual healing that only He can give. This He declared to us as recorded in Luke 24:44-48.
	Luke 24:44-48, Now He said to them, "These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. "You are witnesses of these things. 
	As we look to Jesus and believe upon Him, we will receive everlasting life. He is the Bread of Life from Whom we receive eternal nourishment and growth and health and joy and peace and redemption. He is the source of everything that God has always intended in His creation of mankind to be in fellowship with Our Lord God Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth. So be it!
	Then the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he shall live." Amen.

											
This morning’s benediction is Ps 34:1-3. I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear it and rejoice. O magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together. Amen.