Through His poverty He made us rich in God

Numbers 35:1-5 (ESV)
The LORD spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, [2] "Command the people of Israel to give to the Levites some of the inheritance of their possession as cities for them to dwell in. And you shall give to the Levites pasturelands around the cities. [3] The cities shall be theirs to dwell in, and their pasturelands shall be for their cattle and for their livestock and for all their beasts. [4] The pasturelands of the cities, which you shall give to the Levites, shall reach from the wall of the city outward a thousand cubits all around. [5] And you shall measure, outside the city, on the east side two thousand cubits, and on the south side two thousand cubits, and on the west side two thousand cubits, and on the north side two thousand cubits, the city being in the middle. This shall belong to them as pastureland for their cities.

Command the people of Israel to give to the Levites some of the inheritance of their possession. God was the one who gave the inheritance to the other tribes of Israel, and now God commands that Israel give of their land to Levites. Levites were those who devote all their lives to the service of God, and God and the priesthood was to be their inheritance. Firstly, this passage clearly shows why we must support those whom God has called to full time ministry. If we don't support them, how will they do their job as our pastors or teachers with ease of heart? Christ had nothing, but faithful people provided for His ministry out of their own expenses. We ought to do likewise for the servants of Christ:
Luke 8:1-3 (ESV)
Soon afterward he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with him, [2] and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, [3] and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's household manager, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their means.

The homelessness of the Levites was a prophecy that Christ our Priest will also have no home while on earth:
Matthew 8:20 (ESV)
And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."
Christ was always staying at other people's homes, always a visitor, never having His own home to invite anyone. He had come upon the earth in the form of a beggarly man, asking for a cup of water from a Samaritan woman:
John 4:7 (ESV)
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."
Not that He could not sustain Himself if He wanted. He could turn 2 loaves of bread to feed 5000. But He subjected Himself to such poverty willingly, that through His poverty we may become rich:
2 Corinthians 8:9 (ESV)
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

Not that He made us rich in perishable things, but in eternal things. Sure, by His suffering He bought us temporal things as well, since we deserved nothing but death. But that was not the end to which He suffered:
James 2:5 (ESV)
Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?
By suffering the depths of spiritual poverty on the Cross - that is, abandonment by God - He made us rich in God. He, as He commanded the rich young man at one time, sold all He had, which was God the Father, and gave Him to us. He made us rich spiritually, clothing us with the costly robes of His righteousness, while He Himself died naked under the wrath of God. He, though He was homeless on Earth, through His death gave all who believe a place in His house in heaven:
John 14:2-3 (ESV)
In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Likewise, godly pastors suffer physical and spiritual poverty that they may give God and a piece of heaven to us by the preaching of the Gospel. If Israel so helped Levites, that the Levites could make atonement for them, we must also help pastors and leaders who labour for our souls. Let us not discourage them, lest they be wearied beyond they are able to bear, but give unto them those things God has given to us. Let us pray for them, that they would be able to endure suffering for us.

And you shall give the Levites pasturelands around the cities. Why pasturelands? Perhaps that the Levites could keep the heart of the shepherd by raising cattle. God being the Shepherd over the sheep of Israel, and the Levites being the under-shepherds, they were to spend their spare time and earn their living by tending sheep. They were to meditate and study the heart of God as Shepherd by looking after these beasts. We Christians, who are called to priests also, are to look at the world as our pasture. We know that in the midst are the lost sheep of God, chosen from the foundation of the world. Christ their Shepherd is looking for them, that He may give them true food and living waters. We, as His servants, do this work of searching with Him, that He may be glorified in them when they are found.

Also, pasturelands were given Levites to remind that they themselves were also God's sheep. It is likewise wise for us Christians to remind ourselves that, even at our best, we are Christ's sheep. We are not lords and we are not teachers. Even the best preacher that ever walked on the face of the earth was one of Jesus Christ's sheep. And we were ALL lost sheep that needed to be found, cleansed, fed, and given living water by the only true Shepherd. Let us not be proud, and let us not pretend that we are the Good Shepherd. All human shepherds are weak, and untrustworthy and they run away in the face of real danger. Let us point all men to the only faithful Shepherd, who laid down His own life to give them eternal life.

The cities of Levites were strategically scattered throughout the regions of Israel, that through them God may teach His people His word. Likewise us Christians are to be the beacons of light in the midst of the darkness of this world. We are to proclaim the truth of God's righteousness and the Gospel towards a twisted and a crooked generation. We the Church are the foundation of truth upon this world corrupted with deceitful lusts:
1 Timothy 3:14-15 (ESV)
14 I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, 15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Just as Levites were scattered to many cities for the purposes of God, yet were one, we Christians, though we are one, are scattered by God like salt around a dying world by His decree. Just as Levites had no one place in the world to call their own, we Christians have no one place to call our home, except the Kingdom of God. Seeds are designed to be spread around everywhere, that it may be planted on soil, that there may be increase. Seeds were not made to be always bundled in a basket together. Likewise Christians were made to dispersed all over the world, that the word of God may increase and multiplied, everywhere we go:
Acts 8:1-4 (ESV)
And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. [2] Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. [3] But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. [4] Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.

Let us not fear or worry during those times that God may cause us brethren to go on separate ways. As it was in Jerusalem, and as it was when there was a sharp disagreement between Barnabas and Paul that caused the Gospel to spread the more, it will by God's grace turn out all for God's glory. Joseph was separated from his brethren, but God later used this evil for good in salvation. No matter how harsh or irreconcilable the situation may have seemed at that time, it may have been that God wanted to place us in a new spot, that God's light may shine in more dark corners of the world. God's priority is the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus, sometimes even above our fellowship. Let us trust in the sovereignty of God that can work all things for good, even when there may be trouble between the brethren. Though we are separated, we know that we have running in our veins the same blood of Jesus that saved us. Despite our distance, we know we are fellow workers in the same field that to which God had sent us.

One more thing to learn from this passage is that God needed to command Israel to help the Levites. He even had to give the measurements of the lands they are to give to their brothers, lest they give less out of greed, or too much for false worship of the priests. It reminds us that God commands us, and not only suggests, to help those who serve the Church of Jesus Christ with what we have. It shows that God did not trust Israel to do this out of their own heart, for they were stiff-necked people inclined to do evil. It also shows those who forsake everything for the ministry of Gospel God will provide everything sufficiently that the job may be done, as Christ has promised in Matthew 19:29. And the passage is again the reminder of the weakness of the Levitical priesthood that they had to depend on other people to do their priestly work. Our Lord Jesus Christ, after His resurrection, ascended on high to be at the right hand of God to be our Priest forever. Our Priest needs nothing from men. He no longer sticks our His hand to people as a beggar. But it is us who must now rely and beg in His presence forever for His grace. Praise be to God, and His Christ.

Love without partiality, God's love

Numbers 34:16-29 (ESV)
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, [17] "These are the names of the men who shall divide the land to you for inheritance: Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun. [18] You shall take one chief from every tribe to divide the land for inheritance. [19] These are the names of the men: Of the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh. [20] Of the tribe of the people of Simeon, Shemuel the son of Ammihud. [21] Of the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chislon. [22] Of the tribe of the people of Dan a chief, Bukki the son of Jogli. [23] Of the people of Joseph: of the tribe of the people of Manasseh a chief, Hanniel the son of Ephod. [24] And of the tribe of the people of Ephraim a chief, Kemuel the son of Shiphtan. [25] Of the tribe of the people of Zebulun a chief, Elizaphan the son of Parnach. [26] Of the tribe of the people of Issachar a chief, Paltiel the son of Azzan. [27] And of the tribe of the people of Asher a chief, Ahihud the son of Shelomi. [28] Of the tribe of the people of Naphtali a chief, Pedahel the son of Ammihud. [29] These are the men whom the LORD commanded to divide the inheritance for the people of Israel in the land of Canaan."

With Eleazar and Joshua overseeing the whole progress, the land of Canaan was to be divided by chief men chosen from each tribe of Israel. It must be noted here that these chiefs were hand-picked by God. Seeing as Caleb was included in this crowd, it appears that God chose faithful and godly men to do this work. These were those among their tribe who were wise enough to divide the land according to the clans in a peaceful manner, that there may not be strife or contentions. These were those who were not covetousness and were not greedy for gain, lest they accept bribes to give more land to one clan above the other. They were those who judged righteously, and soberly, not biased by their emotions or passions, lest they are partial in their distribution to the clans. They were people who would submit to the voice of God, and those who would not lean on their understanding, as lots were cast among the clans to divide land, just as the lot was cast for the tribes. They were people who were willing to divide the land exactly as God desired according to the results of the lots. These leaders were those who would not favor their own clans over others. They would not give a bigger portion to their own clan, because they are chief, but only divide according to God's commandment.

Likewise these are the kinds of leaders that are needed in this day and age: those who are impartial in judgment, those who submit to the word of God alone and not emotion, and those who despise personal gain. We need leaders who follow this verse:
2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
We need people who can discern between light and dark, good and evil, truth and lies. We need people who recognize that there can be no middle ground between these things. God's word has no grey area, and what He hates and what He loves are written in His word as clear as day. We need leaders chosen by God who know this, that truth always agrees with godliness:
Titus 1:1 (ESV)
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

We need people who are impartial because God shows no partiality in His judgments:
Romans 2:9-11 (ESV)
There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, [10] but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. [11] For God shows no partiality.
God's impartial nature was the reason why He had to send Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us. Without the cross, God could have never shown any favor on His elect. It is not that because we repented and believed that God forgave us, but because Jesus Christ died for our sins He forgave us. God never showed us compassion because we were from a Christian background or because we tried harder than other people. By no means. It was by God's grace. We were not any different from the unbelievers. We were as much evil, hard-hearted, unbelieving and proud as anyone in the world. But GOD gave us the gift of repentance and faith.

But why only to us, and not our neighbors? Because Jesus Christ died for us that we may repent and believe. And why did Christ do this for us? because we were more deserving of atonement than others? By no means. But grace has come to the utmost sinners because of God's own election. Why did God choose us? Because of anything we did for Him, or because we were great? No, but because He loved us:
Deuteronomy 7:7-8 (ESV)
It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, [8] but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

God loves us and chosen us because He loved us. It was because He is love He chose us, that He may manifest His love to us underserving wretches. We who therefore have received this impartial love from God, who loved us without conditions, we are also to show impartial love to everyone:
James 2:1-9 (ESV)
My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. [2] For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, [3] and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "You sit here in a good place," while you say to the poor man, "You stand over there," or, "Sit down at my feet," [4] have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? [5] Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? [6] But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? [7] Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? [8] If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well. [9] But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
Just as God loved us whether we were poor, rich, good or bad, and died for our sins that we may not perish, we are also to love everyone as our own selves. Just as Jesus Christ loved us as His own self, and could not endure to see us go to hell, and took the wrath that was to fall upon us, we are to love similarly. We are to love not because of what they do for us or don't do for us, based on their performance, but because of God's love. We must be partial and blind when it comes to loving our neighbours. Even though the person is our enemy we love him, not because of the enemy's performance, but because of God's love shown to us. We are not looking at that person to love him, but we love him while looking at Jesus Christ, just as God loves us looking at Christ. God loves us because of Christ, and we also love everyone because of Christ.

Partiality in judgment can come about because of emotion or relying on one's own understanding, and not listening to the Word of God. Imagine if the chiefs ignored casting of lots and distributed the land based on what they felt or thought. No matter how much they believed that God gave them divine inspirations, they would be going against the Word of God, for He has already commanded that it should be divided by lot. But this is exactly what is happening in Christianity today. Professing Christians are not willing to bow down to Scripture, which contains everything that is necessary for the Christian life. They instead rely on their own feelings or their own understandings as better teachers. They establish a truth based on experience, not based on the testimony and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They trust in voices outside the scripture and follow them, believing that God has actually would speak more important things that which He has spoken through His own Son manifest in the flesh. Thus they become partial in their judgments, as their own opinions, ideas, agendas, passions and bias become mixed in the things they speak. They do not have the sober judgment that obeys the lots that have been cast in His scriptures. They don't coldly look into the word of God and simply speak what it plainly says. They water down the truth of God's word with the words and the commandments of men, and thus become lukewarm:
Revelation 3:15-16 (ESV)
I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! [16] So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

These are those who look at the word of God and say, 'Yes, this is what the word says, but did God really mean what He said? There can be many interpretations to this verse; Whatever you take the verse to mean, it is!' These thus commit the same sins that Adam and Eve committed, questioning the words God has already spoken. It is as though the chiefs cast the lots but said 'How can we be sure that this is from God? Maybe it is just chance - let's just decide again for ourselves'. So likewise by doubting God's clear instructions in scripture, they choose to believe in their own minds instead. This is the tragic state of the modern Church.

We need leaders like Caleb, who care not for self-gain but only for fulfilling the word of God. Caleb, as chief of the tribe of Judah, and as probably the second most admired man in Israel after Joshua, could have probably chosen any piece of the land he wanted when he entered Canaan. But he insisted Joshua that he would take Hebron. Yes, Hebron was a great city, one of oldest metropolises in the region. But the problem was it was filled with the children of Anak, giants compared to whom the spies said Israelites were like grasshoppers. It would take a lot of effort to take this city. Indeed it would be impossible to take it without God's help. Caleb did not have to undertake such a difficult and bothersome task. As chief, he could have settled on the best piece of land that was easiest for him to take - and no one would have complained. But why did he insist on Hebron? Because it was the land that God promised to him in the past:
Numbers 14:24 (ESV)
But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.
And forty-five years after this promise, he was still believing in this promise. And because he believed, God gave this city over to Caleb:
Joshua 14:10-14 (ESV)
And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. [11] I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. [12] So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said." [13] Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. [14] Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel.
Caleb was not going to take the easiest or the best piece of land that he wanted, but what he wanted was what God promised to him. What God had given to him, he desired to have. For that he was willing to walk the narrow and hard way. He denounced selfish and easy gain, and endured tough battle and labour to claim that God had given to him. He let his brethren instead to take the land that was already conquered, because he knew those lands were not the lot that had fallen to him and his house.

We need leaders like Caleb who despise self-glory, but work and war for the fulfilling of God's promises. And what is the greatest promise that God has given us? It is that whosoever believes in Jesus Christ shall not be condemned but have everlasting life. We need to fight for this promise, as Caleb did for the promise given to him. We must preach this promise to everyone, no matter how difficult the work is. See how aged Caleb was, yet because he believed in his God, this old man could destroy a city of giants. Let us, like him, fix our gaze wholeheartedly upon the promise and the word of God, believing that what He has promised, He can deliver, though we are nothing. Let us pray for like hearts in all believers.

God-given borders of the Christian

Numbers 34:1-12 (ESV)
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, [2] "Command the people of Israel, and say to them, When you enter the land of Canaan (this is the land that shall fall to you for an inheritance, the land of Canaan as defined by its borders), [3] your south side shall be from the wilderness of Zin alongside Edom, and your southern border shall run from the end of the Salt Sea on the east. [4] And your border shall turn south of the ascent of Akrabbim, and cross to Zin, and its limit shall be south of Kadesh-barnea. Then it shall go on to Hazar-addar, and pass along to Azmon. [5] And the border shall turn from Azmon to the Brook of Egypt, and its limit shall be at the sea. [6] "For the western border, you shall have the Great Sea and its coast. This shall be your western border. [7] "This shall be your northern border: from the Great Sea you shall draw a line to Mount Hor. [8] From Mount Hor you shall draw a line to Lebo-hamath, and the limit of the border shall be at Zedad. [9] Then the border shall extend to Ziphron, and its limit shall be at Hazar-enan. This shall be your northern border. [10] "You shall draw a line for your eastern border from Hazar-enan to Shepham. [11] And the border shall go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain. And the border shall go down and reach to the shoulder of the Sea of Chinnereth on the east. [12] And the border shall go down to the Jordan, and its limit shall be at the Salt Sea. This shall be your land as defined by its borders all around."

The land of Canaan as defined by its borders. In this passage, God gives Israel instructions to draw borders south, west, north and east when they enter in the land of Canaan to conquer it. God says in verse 2, "this is the land that shall fall to you for inheritance", saying this is lot that has fallen on all of Israel to inherit. It must be noted here that God did not say to Israel 'You can draw the borders as you wish. You can conquer all nearby lands and have all the land that you want'. There was a limit to what Israel could have.

Likewise God gives the Christian a limit to the things that he can have in this world. God does not say to us 'You can have as much as you want'. But He says instead, 'This is the lot that has fallen to you'. And usually it is not a large amount that God gives the Christian in this world. The land that God was giving to Israel was not a lot. But Israel was not to be like Roman or the Babylonian empire, expanding its borders continuously until it had consumed the whole world. It was to be a holy, priesthood nation, who would teach God's wisdom and His laws to the nations of the world, until Christ comes, through whom would come the Kingdom of God would come upon the earth. And the Gospel would be preached forth from Israel throughout all the nations, expanding the borders of the spiritual Kingdom of God.

Likewise, Christians are not given a lot in a worldly sense, but it is enough for us, for we are here to expand the borders of the Kingdom of God, not our own kingdoms. The little that God gives us is enough for us to use to be influential in this world, to shine the light of God's truth, to be an anti-decaying salt to this world corrupt with lusts. Jesus Christ had only little while He walked on this earth. He was born and raised in poor town and in a poor family, did not have a great job, nor did He have a house or money. But this Man, with His disciples, turned the whole world upside down, though they had little in material riches.

We ought to be warned against covetousness. We ought to be content with the borders that God has given for us to live in. It is lust to want more than what God has given us. If God wills, we will do this or that, but if He does not will, we are not to push the borders and to desire more than He gave. It was this kind of attitude that led David to sin against the Lord by committing adultery with Bathsheba. Hear what God says to him:
2 Samuel 12:7-9 (ESV)
Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ''I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. [8] And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. [9] Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
God is saying to Him: 'I gave you all these good things, and if you asked me, I would have given you more than these'. David sinned against God by wanting more than God had given him, and desiring to get what he wanted without God's approval. See how this led to great sins. David had crossed the borders given by God.

Borders are given to us for our own benefit. It is not that God is restricting our freedom, but for preserving souls from destruction. God gives us His commandments which are like borders for us to not cross. We do well to not take these borders lightly. These borders are what separates us from the world. The commandments are what keeps us from being like the lawless Gentiles who are outside the Kingdom of God. To the wind with Christian freedom! True freedom is freedom from sin. Being slaves to righteousness is what being Christian is about. We are not saved by keeping these boundaries, by no means. But it is the fact that God has given us these boundaries that proves that we have been born again.

Read how God keeps clear bounds of what is inside and outside the Kingdom of God:
Revelation 21:25-27 (ESV)
and its gates will never be shut by day-and there will be no night there. [26] They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. [27] But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Revelation 22:14-15 (ESV)
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. [15] Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
There will be nothing unclean, detestable and false in the Kingdom of God, but only what is pure, beautiful and true. Outside will be the sexually immoral, murderers, and idolators, but inside will only be people who were faithful, who loved people and worshipped the one true God. We likewise do well to stay within the Kingdom of God while we are on this earth. We are to abide in the love of God, by keeping the commandments of God. We are to abide in Christ, by loving Him, worshipping Him and believing in Him, because Christ is the Kingdom of God. We do well to not dare venture outside the Kingdom of God, into the dark wilderness of the lusts of the world, lest the love of the Father abides not in us. And we must also guard our hearts like the Kingdom of God. We must keep the gates open, that Jesus Christ the King of Glory may come in at any time, but we must keep watch, lest anything evil enters in. We must keep sin and wickedness outside, and build the walls of our hearts around diligently as Nehemiah built the walls of Jerusalem. Let us practice to discern what is good and evil in God's eyes, and learn to cast the evil outside and to keep to good within us. When we keep our hearts like the Kingdom of God in this world, we will prove ourselves as worthy heirs of the next. Let us do as Paul commanded:
Romans 12:2 (ESV)
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

And the border shall go down and reach to the shoulder of the Sea of Chinnereth on the east. And the border shall go down to the Jordan, and its limit shall be at the Salt Sea. Sea of Chinnereth is the Sea of Galilee of the future. From Galilee the River Jordan streams all the way down to the Salt Sea, which is the Dead Sea. One can see that this eastern border is what separated the 2 tribes and a half that inherited on the other side of the Jordan from the other tribes. What can we learn from this? Firstly, that though the 2 and half tribes were separated from the 9 and half tribes by this River Jordan, it did not mean that they were not all brothers. Christians are likewise divided by the thin borders of nationality, denomination, ethnicity, but it does not mean that they are not all brethren in Christ. The same Holy Spirit, and the same blood of Jesus Christ runs through our veins, though we may be divided by such borders.

The River Jordan also signifies death. There are brethren who have crossed the Jordan River of death, and are with the Lord now. But there are also brethren that are with us on this side of Jordan. Wherever we are, whether we are on earth or in heaven, we are the Lord's. By dying on the cross, and being raised from the dead, Jesus Christ became the Lord of both the dead and the living, so that whether we are dead or alive, we may be the Lord's:

Romans 14:8-9 (ESV)
For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. [9] For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

But on the western side, Israel had the Great Sea and its coasts as border (Verse 6). This, unlike the thin border of River Jordan signifies the impassable distance that is fixed the believer and the world:
Luke 16:24-26 (ESV)
And he called out, ''Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.'' [25] But Abraham said, ''Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. [26] And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.''
As those in heaven have no fellowship at all with those burning in hell, there is a gap between the believer and the unbeliever that cannot be crossed. Just as light cannot dwell with darkness, children of God cannot really mix with the children of Satan. There is, as it were, a great chasm fixed between Christians and the people of the world. They may be friends, on the surface, but in their core, they have differences they can never reconcile. And this difference is GOD, as it is written:
2 Corinthians 6:16-18 (ESV)
What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [17] Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord,and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, [18] and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me,says the Lord Almighty."

Because God lives in the Christian, he is different from the unbeliever. And because of this they have world-views that are different as day is from night. They have completely different views of morality, on truth, on love and on the meaning of life. The things that the Christian holds dear are like foolishness to the unbeliever, and the things that the unbeliever loves are an abomination to the Christian's sight. The unbeliever's centre of the universe is himself, but the believer's centre is Jesus Christ and the glory of God. The unbeliever cannot understand the Christian, and thinks that the Christian is gullible, obsessed or mad, while the believer also cannot comprehend the depths of the hard-heartedness and the blind rebellion of the unbeliever. How then can the two be reconciled, unless the unbeliever comes to see the truth, or the believer becomes a total apostate? The distance between them is not like the distance between believers, which is only a river that may be passed with the Covenant of Christ that is same between us. But Christ has no meaning to the unbeliever, because we have no common Covenant, therefore we cannot pass to him, nor him to us, in true fellowship.

Let us not be like Lot, who, though he was righteous, and though his righteous soul was tormented by Sodom's evil sins, did not depart the cursed land because of his unbelief. He knew that Sodom was exceedingly sinful before God, but he thought that he would make some business from it. But we know how in the end his trust in the world burnt up in flames and became pillars of salt. Let us then, as the above scriptures says, go out from the midst of Sodom and Gomorrah. Let us not touch any unclean thing in this world, lest we partake in the God's wrath that is coming upon the world. Unless it is for the goal rescuing the unbelievers from the pits of hell, let us not have any compromising communion with them, lest we learn their sins and become our Father's own enemies. Let us be separate from among them and their practices, and be holy, and the love of the Father will dwell in us. Amen.

Our old self was crucified with Him

Numbers 33:55-56 (ESV)
But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell. [56] And I will do to you as I thought to do to them.

Those of them whom you let remain shall be barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. God gives warning here to Israel that if they do not destroy or expel the wicked inhabitants in the land, that they will become trouble. Israel were not to have pity on them, nor make them to remain in the land that they may do business with them or enter into covenants with them. They were not to make friends with them, or to intermarry with them, not to associate with them at all. They were to be destroyed by the edge of the sword.

We know that Israel did not obey the Lord in this matter, and the inhabitants were not completely driven out of the land. And the remnants of this evil seed influenced Israel to commit sins, and ultimately Israelites themselves were cast out of the land, invaded by Babylon.

Let us Christians likewise be warned that little leaven can leaven the whole lump. We are to cast out any remnants of sin that remain within us. We do wisely to be warned that it was these little thorns and barbs in Israel that became like infections that eventually destroyed them whole. Likewise it is the small besetting sins that we carry from our old lives that can destroy and make our faith a shipwreck. We are to utterly purge out the old leaven that is within us:
1 Corinthians 5:7-8 (ESV)
Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. [8] Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Paul says here we are to be as unleavened bread. Unleavened is the absence of leaven. There must therefore be a total absence of malice and evil in us. Only a LITTLE yeast is required to make the dough expand. Likewise, only little evil is required to destroy the Christian. Let us be warned against little sins. Little sins are enough to trouble us for life. Let us be sensitive to the little blemishes and spots, that we may cleanse them out with repentance and faith in Christ.

We are to cast off from us our old self from within us, just as Israel cast out the old inhabitants from the land:
Ephesians 4:21-24 (ESV)
assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, [22] to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, [23] and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, [24] and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Our old self is the identity that we had in Adam before we were born again by God and made a new creation in Christ. It was the self that loved and savoured earthly things and not the things of God. It was the self that always thought, spoke and did that which was hostile and evil in the eyes of God. This was who we were, before we were made new creatures and given new selves, which were born of the Holy Spirit, and made after the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. God had given us a new mind and new heart which loves and agrees with the law of God. God had given us a heavenly self, which is capable of thinking of heavenly things. God made us, his enemies, to be His children by the Spirit of adoption, pouring upon us the love that was upon Christ.

But like the Canaanites that lived in the land after Israel had invaded the land, like parasites that live off the host, our old selves remain in us throughout our lives. Relics of sin dwell in us, making us sometimes to walk in these evil things we used to walk. Therefore it is our continual duty to eradicate the earthly man with his deeds. We won't be able to destroy him in one day, as the Canaanites were not defeated in one day, but only little by little. Neither will we destroy all of him in our while we live, and some sins may remain within us until old age, finally to be done away with when we enter into glory. Hence it is our job to continually weaken and put him to death. Here are the list of things which belonged to our Adamic self, which we must kill:
Colossians 3:5-11 (ESV)
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you; sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. [6] On account of these the wrath of God is coming. [7] In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. [8] But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. [9] Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices [10] and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

But how do we put to death the old man? Is it by making our behavior and body to be suppressed by rules and regulations? Is it by following the different man-made "steps" or "guides", that our actions become more refined? Will that stop the old man within us from raging against the Holy Spirit? Following a bunch of rules may reprogram our outward actions, but it cannot kill the lust within us, as it is written:
Colossians 2:20-23 (ESV)
If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations- [21] "Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch" [22] (referring to things that all perish as they are used)-according to human precepts and teachings? [23] These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

Nothing outward can ever make us right in God's eyes. If inwardly we are corrupt, no matter how much we may outwardly we do acts of good, we will never fool God, for:
1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV)
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart."
This is why scripture says that no FLESH shall ever be justified in His sight, for God looks at the heart, the spirit of the man. If the spirit of the man is dead and corrupt in sin, no matter how good the outward appearance with its actions may be, the man shall never be justified in God's sight. For God sees the man's heart, and not only the outward:
Romans 3:20 (KJV)
Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no FLESH be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

The old self can never be contained by outward actions. Our old self can never be reconciled with God, nor inherit the Kingdom of God. It cannot be modified or changed at all. It will always be hostile to God, and never submit itself to God's laws. There is no hope in our natural earthly self in ever pleasing God. It must die. It must be inwardly & spiritually destroyed. And this is done by believing in Jesus Christ and His Gospel:
Romans 6:6 (ESV)
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
It is by believing that our old self in Adam died with Him on the day of Calvary. It is by believing that Christ killed him when He condemned sin in His own flesh, when He died as our representative. When we became born again, we were spiritually united with Christ in His death. The day that our new self was born, our old self was put to death on the cross with Him. Therefore bible tells us to consider ourselves as dead. This is how we kill the old man:
Romans 6:9-11 (ESV)
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. [10] For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. [11] So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

This "considering" ourselves to be dead can be compared to this verse:
Luke 22:37 (ESV)
For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: ''And he was numbered with the transgressors.'' For what is written about me has its fulfillment."
The word "numbered" is the same word used in Romans 6:11 "consider" or "reckon". Therefore, just as Jesus Christ was considered to be a sinner, though He was not, we are to consider ourselves as dead, though we live. Just as our faith in Christ was "reckoned" by God to be righteousness, we are to likewise reckon ourselves as dead. Just as righteousness was "imputed" (same Greek word) to us, though we are not righteous, we are to impute death to ourselves, though we are alive to God in Christ. See how Paul considered himself to be dead, though he was living:
Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Mortification is perplexing because in one sense, we are told that we are already dead with Christ: Paul says that we "have died and our life is hidden with Christ" (Colossians 3:3). It is like a corpse, a decomposing body of death, ready to be perished forever. It has been buried in Christ, as a seed in good soil. However, in another sense, our old man is still very much alive in us. We feel its motions. Like the remaining inhabitants of Canaan, it still dwells in us, and fights against us, plotting against us. Though it is meant to be dead, it still rebels and wages war against the Holy Spirit in us. It foams in its mouth frantically, desiring to reign over us again.

However, our perplexities are relieved when we consider the picture of crucifixion. A crucified man is in a sense already dead. There can nothing be done to deliver him from his state. The more he moves his body to save himself, the more pain and destruction will be done to his body. No one can take down an already crucified man. Death by crucifixion is not like dying by a disease, in which one may even have a chance to be healed. But the crucified man is definitely bound for death, and thus can be reckoned to be already a dead man. However, he is still alive on the cross, for hours, sometimes even for days. It is a long, drawn out dying process. The man, while on the cross, may consider himself to be alive, and being deliberately ignorant of his crucified state, may say and do things within the confines of the cross. He may yell and shout, or jerk himself violently in pain. The man may even deceive himself that he is NOT crucified, and that he is fully alive. But when he looks to his left and right palms, and down to his feet, reality will come straight back to him, to remind him that he is actually dying. This is what it means to consider ourselves as dead. This is the picture of our mortification.

Let us therefore have nothing to do with our old self, as much as the Israelites had nothing to do with the inhabitants of Canaan. We cannot be friends with it, nor make a covenant with it, nor be friends at all with it. Just as Israelites had nothing to do with touching dead things, we also must stay away from our old selves, lest it defile us. We must let it stay in the tomb where Christ lay, and roll the stone over it that it may never come out. Unless we do this, our old selves will become as barbs and thorns that will kill us. Yes, it is hard work, to constantly consider ourselves to be dead, to always deny our old self any pleasures, to always discourage it. It hurts to give our old self vinegar when it desires water for its thirst. There is suffering involved. But there is no other way for the Christian to live. This is the cross that we ought to bear, if we want to follow Christ wherever He goes.

And I will do to you, as I thought to do to them. This is solemn warning, which came true for Israel. Just as God destroyed the Canaanites by Israel, God destroyed Israel by other nations. We must thus also be warned as Christians. Not that God can destroy His own child after He has saved him. Not that God's faithfulness can fail completely. But if we do not repent, or we don't consider ourselves as dead in Christ and continue doing in the deeds of the old self, then God will chastise us for our sins. If we do continue to live to sin and not to God, then God will make us to partake in the judgment of sinners, at least in part. This is because He loves us as a Father.

Let us remember the punishment that Christ took for the sins of our old self. It was because of our sins that Christ was beaten, whipped, spat on and accursed. It was because of our evil deeds that He was put to shame. All that wrath fell upon Him, and not upon us, because God spared us, by His own grace. Can we then continue in sin? If we continue in sin, and we abide not in Christ, will not God's wrath fall upon us? But we know that those whom Christ has chosen will not be forsaken and be left to such fate. But let us consider such harsh warnings of God as grace, and do the work of mortification by faith in Christ. God will do this work in us, by His Holy Spirit. Amen.

The lot that fell on Christ was death

Numbers 33:53-54 (ESV)
And you shall take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given the land to you to possess it. [54] You shall inherit the land by lot according to your clans. To a large tribe you shall give a large inheritance, and to a small tribe you shall give a small inheritance. Wherever the lot falls for anyone, that shall be his. According to the tribes of your fathers you shall inherit.

For I have given the land to you to possess it. God was driving out the inhabitants of the land because of their wickedness. Canaanites were not worthy tenants, not paying back God with honour and thanksgiving in return for His blessings. God was vomiting them out of the land, for they had become filthy and defiled in His sight beyond all repair.

But it was not as though that God was giving this land to Israel because they were better people. And this is what is amazing about the grace of God. God judges the Canaanites for their sins by utterly casting them out of the land like refuse, but He replaces the land with people whom He had chosen by His free and sovereign grace, though they are not more righteous nor good:
Deuteronomy 9:4-7 (ESV)
"Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ''It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,'' whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you. [5] Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. [6] "Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. [7] Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.

The scripture is clear warning against self-righteousness and pride for the Christian. A Christian is not going to inherit the earth and the Kingdom of God because he is more righteous than those who are going to be thrown out of the earth on Judgment Day. All sinners in this world are going to be thrown out and thrust into the lake of fire as a just retribution to what they have done against an Almighty God. God's wrath which they have stored for themselves in heaven shall finally fall upon them in full measure, and no man shall escape. But the Christian is going to inherit the land. Because of his righteousness? By no means: "Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going to possess this land". Our righteousness is like filthy rags before God. Our own righteousness that is stained with sin is as vile before God as the sins of the Canaanites. Because read:
Psalm 71:19 (ESV)
Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?
God's righteousness reaches the high heavens. His standard of good is as high as Himself. Let's have a look back at our lives, even after we became Christians. Though God changed our natures to love good and despise evil, we still sinned against Him. We have provoked our Father to anger many times and wearied Him with our uncleanness. We have rebelled against Him, and complained against Him as much the Israelites did - even after we believed in the grace of God in Christ.

No right-minded Christian can truly say that he is going to heaven because of his righteousness. In fact if the Christian were to be judged on his righteousness as the basis for entry to heaven, he will surely go to Hell like rest of the world. In fact if a man committed sins after he became Christian, he has committed much worse sins against God than the unbeliever, because he did it knowing the grave and truth of God. We Christians don't want to be judged based on our righteousness.

What then? How is the Christian going to inherit the Kingdom of heaven despite not being better than the people who are being thrust out? Moses says Israel were going to possess the land despite their lack of righteousness that God "may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob". Israelites were going to heaven because God had sworn to their fathers that He was going to give the land to their children, because God never breaks His promises. Therefore it depends on God's word of promise, and not on our righteousness.

The Christian likewise goes to heaven because of the promise that God made to Christ our father, not because of his righteousness. Let's read the oath that God made to Christ:
Psalm 89:19-37 (ESV)
Of old you spoke in a vision to your godly one, and said: "I have granted help to one who is mighty; I have exalted one chosen from the people. [20] I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him, [21] so that my hand shall be established with him; my arm also shall strengthen him. [22] The enemy shall not outwit him; the wicked shall not humble him. [23] I will crush his foes before him and strike down those who hate him. [24] My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted. [25] I will set his hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers. [26] He shall cry to me, ''You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation.'' [27] And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. [28] My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him. [29] I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens. [30] If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, [31] if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, [32] then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, [33] but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. [34] I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. [35] Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. [36] His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. [37] Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.

David was the type of Christ to come. And as David's name means "Beloved", we can be sure that God is speaking above of His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, the one whom God anoints with the His Spirit:
Matthew 3:16-17 (ESV)
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; [17] and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

See how God says He has sworn by His holiness, and that He will not lie to His Beloved, that His Son's offspring will endure forever. We believers are the offspring of Christ. God has sworn this as an oath, that He will not leave us for forsake us. This is why Christians get to go to heaven. But one may ask, is it unfair that Christians should be saved though they are equally sinful as those who are perishing? By no means. It is fair, because Jesus Christ has bought for us a place in heaven by the works righteousness He performed. By Christ's righteous life that He lived, and by Christ's righteous death for our sins, He bought for us a legal right to inherit the promises. Therefore we are rightful possessors of the Kingdom of Heaven. There can no accusation stand against our right to possess heaven, for Christ lived and died, and rose again for us. Hallelujah.

Therefore, if we have known that Christ has died so that He may buy us a lot in His own kingdom, we are to take it with force and vigilance. Christ said:
Matthew 11:12 (ESV)
From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.
Just as Israel went in boldly into the land of Canaan and rightfully expelled the wicked owners and possessed the land God had given them, we Christians are likewise to boldly enter in to the kingdom of God. Knowing that Christ suffered so much to grant us eternal life, we ought to forcefully grasp it, fighting the good fight of faith. We violently fight sin and unbelief, shaking off every weight of sin that hinders our way, NOT because we want to be saved by those things, but because God has promised the Kingdom to us through Christ. We zealously confess and turn away from every kind of sin, not that through that we escape God's wrath, but because God's wrath has already passed over us and fallen on Christ our substitute. God is the one who is giving us this land, not because of our righteousness, but because of Christ's righteousness. Let us believe in this with all our heart, and charge with all our might into Heaven, trusting in God's mighty grace.

You shall inherit the land by lot according to your clans. God desires that the land be distributed among the tribes by casting a lot, that there be no strife nor war among the brethren about which piece of land to take. But not as though God was leaving it up to random chance, for to God there is no such thing. Every lot cast, every dice thrown, every name taken out of a hat - all outcomes of such are not of chance but are God's decisions:
Proverbs 16:33 (ESV)
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.
But it was not that God divided the land equally between all the tribes. There were to be a divide between the large tribes and the smaller tribes, and separate distribution of land between them. In reading of the book of Joshua chapters 16-17, we see that Judah and the tribes of Joseph (Ephraim and half-tribe of Manasseh) first had their inheritance divided by lot between two main southern and northern parts of the land, as they had the pre-eminence. And in Joshua 18 we see the equal distribution of the remainder of the land between the 7 small tribes.

However the casting of lots and the dividing of the land was actually done, what is important is that God distributed the portions of land to whom He willed and the proportion that He saw fit in His own eyes. Likewise, God gives each believer of Christ different quantities of faith and gifts has He sees fit. Christ gives 5 talents to one, and to another only 1. To one He gives great faith to believe in all things, to another He by His own will gives just enough faith to cling on to Him. It is not as though the person himself is great or small, but it is God who has distributed these things to them out of His will, in the amounts of His own desire, for His own glory. Judah was chosen that through Him David and Christ Jesus would be born, but it was not that He was a righteous or a moral man, as we have seen in Genesis chapter 38. But God chose out of His own will to send His Son through this unworthy vessel to be called the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah". What mercy and grace had been shown to Judah! It is not therefore based on our performance or our will that we have more faith or gifts than others. It is all because of God, who gave by His own desire and of His own free will and choice, that He may be glorified through each of us. Let us cast off these evil thoughts that boast of our faith and gifts, as though they were not given to us by God out of His own will. Let us remember this rather that God uses the weak and pitiful things that His glory may abound.

According to the tribe of your fathers you shall inherit. We Christians are inheriting the Kingdom of God because of Jesus Christ, because He is from the tribe of Judah. We did not belong to this olive tree of salvation before, but we have now been grafted into Israel through Jesus Christ alone. Apart from Christ the King of Israel, we Gentiles accordng to the flesh would have no part from God's Kingdom whatsoever:
Ephesians 2:11-13 (ESV)
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands- [12] remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. [13] But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

In Christ we have God, whom we didn't have before. This is the main thing that the above scripture is talking about. This is the "blessing" that was promised to Abraham and to Christ His offspring. We would have never had fellowship with God apart from Christ. We would have never known God. We would have never had God as our Father. We would have never known God's love outside Christ. To have the LORD as our God is the inheritance that we have received and the covenant that was confirmed in Christ:
Genesis 17:7 (ESV)
And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

Let us remember the lot that fell upon Jesus Christ for our sins, that the inheritance of God and eternal life be ours. The cup that was offered to Christ was God's wrath, curse, hatred, rejection and sorrow. There was no other lot that God gave for Christ to choose from. God gave Him no other option but death, that we may have also no other option but life. God never left us to chance to be blessed, but because Christ was damned for our sins, we only had 100 percent chance of being blessed in Him. It is as though God put only blessings in the urn, and ask us to pick our lots from it. We are always blessed in Christ, wherever we are, whatever state we are in, because Christ has picked out all the curses from the urn for us. Christ drank down all curses for us on the cross. Blessed be God, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessings. Let us thank Him for this unspeakable grace.

Jesus Christ our tree that bears good fruits

Numbers 33:50-52 (ESV)
And the LORD spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, [51] "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, [52] then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you and destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places.

Then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you. Israel's first job when they go into the land of Canaan is to drive out the inhabitants that are living there. This is the most important job that they are to do. Were they stealing this land? No. There are several reasons why this was not stealing. Firstly, the land was the LORD's, not the Canaanites'. Though Canaanites lived there, they were not the owners of the land. What an abomination to God when men say things like 'This is our land, and our ancestor's land'. The land is GOD's. He is the rightful Owner of planet Earth because He created it. It is His possession. All things are His, and all things have God's Holy Name of ownership written on it:
Psalm 24:1-2 (ESV)
The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, [2] for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

Read what the above scripture says: "The earth is the Lord's". Why? "For He has founded it". He is the Maker of the earth and everything in it, and therefore He is also the rightful owner of all. Canaanites were only the tenants of the land, God having lent the land to them, expecting good fruits. But remember how they wasted the land they borrowed with their idolatry and vile sins:

Leviticus 18:24-25 (ESV)
"Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, [25] and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
These inhabitants of Canaan had borrowed the land from the Lord, but they did not give glory nor thanksgiving to Him in return. They used the land that they were graciously given for indulging in their lawlessness. For all the good things and blessings they received, they repaid Him with wicked deeds such as incest, adultery, homosexuality and bestiality. They even offered their little children as burnt offering to appease their gods. With such sins and works of darkness they wearied God and burdened Him. If these sins make us, sinful human beings, to vomit and cringe in disgust, how much would they have been an abomination to God's holy and pure eyes? It was no wonder that God thrust them out, and put new tenants in to His land who will bear good fruits.

Likewise when Christ returns God will cast all evildoers out of this world and cast them into a garbage dump called Hell. The bible often compares human beings on earth as trees that have been planted in God's orchard. But if we have not produced good fruits for Him, God will see us as a waste of a space, and a waste of His resources of blessings and grace. Such trees are no good for anything but to be chopped down and thrown into the fire:
Luke 13:7 (ESV)
And he said to the vinedresser, ''Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?''
Matthew 3:10 (ESV)
Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

When a person hears and accepts the above truth, the automatic response for him would be to frantically try to bear the good fruits on his own. But the bad news is that there is no goodness inside a sinner at all. Man since Adam's fall is full of sin, and there is only sin in him, and nothing but sin. Sinful man is a diseased tree, a bad tree, producing only bad fruits. There is nothing in the man that can enable him to make good produce:

Matthew 7:17-19 (ESV)
So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. [18] A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. [19] Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

The fact that man does evil things shows that he is evil. Fallen man is not a good tree that sometimes bears bad fruits, because if he was good, he would produce only that which is good For read what Jesus says: "A healthy tree CANNOT bear bad fruit". But here some may ask, 'But surely sometimes healthy trees produce bad fruits?' But GOD requires perfection. To God's eyes, a man is either good or bad, either sinful or righteous. There is no middle ground. If a person says, 'I am good', yet he does evil things, the man shows that he is NOT good. Even though he may have done a million good things, because of one evil deed he is considered by God a sinner. What is the proof for this? Adam was good in God's eyes in Eden until he sinned one sin, and all of mankind became damned and naturally sinful, all because of that ONE act of sin. Because of that ONE act of lawbreaking, sin entered like a cancerous disease upon all mankind, damning all man, and making all man naturally evil from the moment they are born. We became Sinners, just as those with leprosy were called Lepers. The disease defines who we are.

Now a sinner may do that which appears good, but even the very best good work a sinner does is poisoned and corrupted with sin. It is like fruit that appears fine on the outside but the inside are worms, is diseased, bruised and dry, unable to be eaten. Similarly, there is NOTHING good that can be done by man that can be acceptable to a perfect God.

Romans 7:18 (ESV)
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

There is nothing good dwelling in our flesh because it was handed down from fallen Adam. We are all trees from the corrupted root of Adam. How can thousands of years of decay produce good fruits acceptable to God? Our works are hardly acceptable to our neighbours, let alone a good God. We are evil, born evil, and do evil, and thus are deserving of nothing but death.

How then can sinful man be saved from the eternal fire? How can a man produce good deeds for God to enjoy, when he has nothing in him that which is good? It is by believing in Jesus Christ. It is by breaking away from the corrupt root of Adam, and attaching oneself to the another Root. Jesus Christ is the only Good Tree that produced the good fruits pleasing to God. Jesus Christ's perfect sinless life and His obedience to take up the cross was pleasing to God. See how much God was pleased with His Son, His life and His obedience on the cross in these scriptures:
Matthew 3:17 (ESV)
and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."
John 8:29 (ESV)
And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him."
John 10:17 (ESV)
For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
John 3:35 (ESV)
The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.
John 15:10 (ESV)
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
Ephesians 5:2 (ESV)
And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Philippians 2:8-9 (ESV)
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name

God is pleased with Jesus Christ and loves Him, both because He is God's only begotten Son, and because the Son always does the things that are pleasing to God. Jesus Christ is the Good Tree that bears good fruits. What are we to do then? We must trust in this Good Tree. We have no other hope, but that the good fruits that He produces to God be counted to be ours. And if we abide in Jesus by faith, His fruits will not only be counted to be ours, but by His own Spirit and His own strength, He will produce those things in us that are pleasing to God:
John 15:4 (ESV)
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
Philippians 2:13 (ESV)
for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Therefore see the fruits that are acceptable to God are called the fruits of the Holy Spirit, and not our fruits:
Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
So we trust in the Spirit of Christ to bear in us these good things. We have no other hope otherwise. We can't trust in our own dead hearts. Let us trust in Him forever that He will produce through us these wonderful fruits.

Destroy all their figured stones and destroy all their metal images and demolish all their high places. It was the desire of God that He destroy in Israel all imaginations of what He was like. Because that is what idolatry is - imaginations of what God is like. When man makes an idol in the likeness of a bird for example, the man is effectively saying, 'In my imagination God is like this bird'. Thus, by declaring that the Creator is like one of His own creation, the man blasphemes against God - for God is nothing like His creatures. The man has committed a sin worthy of death, for he has condescendingly brought down God to his own level, and even lower if he has likened Him to an animal. It is truly an abomination in God's sight:
Romans 1:22-23 (ESV)
Claiming to be wise, they became fools, [23] and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

And idolatry still abounds today, perhaps not as much in practice, but very much in people's minds. Everyone in the world these days is fond of saying things like, 'You can believe in what you want, that's okay, that's not what I believe', or even in churches, 'You believe that God is like that, but that's not what I think what God is like'. Everyone in the world has their own imaginations of what Truth is and what God is. And everyone says that's okay, because they say, 'Everyone is entitled to their opinion.' All these sayings and all such thoughts are nothing but idolatry. Call it post-modernism or freedom of speech or whatever you like, but God calls it making and worshipping of idols.

By commanding Israel to destroy all the figures and the images, God was effectively commanding to Israel to destroy within themselves ANY personal imaginations of what God is like. We likewise ought not to imagine what God is like at all. We ought to destroy in ourselves ALL imaginations of what we love to think God is like. God has clearly shown who He is in the scriptures. In the Old Testament God has shown that He is a righteous and a holy God that can't abide with sinful human beings. The way He judged Egypt with terrible judgments, and the way He broke out with wrath against Israel when they sinned, and how He judged Israel so severely when they continued in sin, showed how much God hates and is angry against sin. By His judgments we see that God is a God who cannot endure lawbreakers, and strikes down with death those who sin against Him. In the New Testament God revealed to us His grace and truth through Jesus Christ His Son. Not that He was a different God before, but He has more clearly revealed His graciousness and forgiveness and through His Son. And God showed Himself most perfectly on the Cross, by both punishing sin severely upon His Son to show His righteousness, and also by the same cross He showed His amazing love and grace to us, by making a way for us sinners to be forgiven and be reconciled to Him. The gospel showed who God is.

What other revelation of God can we have but what He has already shown of Himself on the Calvary for us? Any other imaginations are false and idolatrous representations of Him. It is therefore our job every day to destroy any images of God that we have in or minds, that which does not agree with Jesus Christ crucified. This is also what the Christians are to do in and for the world we live in:
2 Corinthians 10:4-6 (ESV)
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. [5] We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, [6] being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

We don't have to physically destroy idols and burn down temples like Israel did in Canaan. Our weapons are not according to the flesh, but spiritual. Burn down a temple or break down an idol, but if the idolatry inside a man is not destroyed, temples will be rebuilt an idols remade. Our only weapon is the preaching of the Gospel, spiritually breaking down every argument and opinion that those not agree with the true view of God. We must make people to obey Christ, by preaching HIM. Then when Christ by His Spirit destroys the idolatry inside the man, then shall the idols will be naturally destroyed by the idolator's own hands:
Acts 19:18-19 (ESV)
Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. [19] And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.

Let us preach Jesus Christ, who alone is the true Image of God, and the true Temple of God in whom alone God dwells. When we preach Him, those who could never find Him in the high places will come to Christ and find God in Him, and worship God in Him. Let us pray that God will grant us the power and the truth that we may faithfully do this work for Him always. Let us call every man to repent from their idolatry, and let us establish in their hearts Jesus Christ where their idols used to stand.

We are strangers and sojourners with Christ

Numbers 33:43-48 (ESV)
And they set out from Punon and camped at Oboth. [44] And they set out from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the territory of Moab. [45] And they set out from Iyim and camped at Dibon-gad. [46] And they set out from Dibon-gad and camped at Almon-diblathaim. [47] And they set out from Almon-diblathaim and camped in the mountains of Abarim, before Nebo. [48] And they set out from the mountains of Abarim and camped in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho;

Camped at Iye-abarim, in the territory of Moab. Israel were walking in enemy territory. The view of Israel in this passage is that they are homeless, sojourners and trespassers in other people's lands. They were a people heading for their true home, but meanwhile, were mere nomads and vagabonds. Not only that, see the dangerous and narrow way they were walking, squeezed between two hostile nations, the Amorites and the Moabites:
Numbers 21:10-12-13 (ESV)
And the people of Israel set out and camped in Oboth. [11] And they set out from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness that is opposite Moab, toward the sunrise. [12] From there they set out and camped in the Valley of Zered. [13] From there they set out and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that extends from the border of the Amorites, for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.

Israel's life in the wilderness was uncomfortable. They didn't have a place they could call home. They were rejected wherever they went and they were considered a threat to the peace of the inhabitants of those lands. They were even rejected by Edom, their own kinsman according to their ancestors. Israel were wanderers, the gypsies of Palestine. They went from station to station, and when they settled in a place that seemed okay, they were intruding another nation's territory. There was no spot where they could sit down and make themselves comfortable, for they had to always be on the move. Most of the time in the wilderness was spent walking, rarely resting. Their only home was the land that was promised to their fathers by God hundreds of years ago. And many times, that hope of one day having their own home seemed so impossible and far away. And many died in the desert, not even having seen their home that God promised to them. This was the life of Israel's pilgrimage in the desert for forty years.

Israel's sojourning is a picture of the Christian in this world. Likewise there is no place for a Christian to call home in this world. We used to call this world our home, when we lived in it, and when we were slaves to its lusts. But God saved us out from the world, just as God saved Israel from Egypt. And from that moment, we were not of this world anymore. We were still in the world, but we were not at home with this world. Through the Gospel, we had been given the promise of a new home in the Kingdom of God, where there will be no sin, no pain and no death. And when we received this hope, the world that we used to love to be in became such a foreign place to us. All this has happened as Jesus had prayed for us:
John 17:15-19 (ESV)
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. [16] They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. [17] Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. [18] As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. [19] And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
When we were saved, God sanctified us with the Truth. And as God sanctified us with His truth, we began to realize that this world we are living in is completely hostile to the God whom we love. We began to see that the messages that it proclaims and the deeds that are encouraged to be done in it are in complete opposition to God. We see that in order to be at home in the world, it would mean we would need to be at home with sin. We realize that we are living in enemy territory. The devil, our old spiritual father, still rules as the prince of this world, and he is out to devour us at any time we are not careful. Everywhere we go in this world, things that can stumble us to sin are there, as if to follow us, like landmines we must avoid to step on. Not only that, sinful men are all over the world, who oppose us, and reject us when we share the Gospel of the Kingdom. As the apostles said, we Christians are treated like "the scum of the world, the refuse of all things" (1 Corinthians 4:13). We are like sheep that are sent to wolves, with no guarantee that we won't be devoured when we go to them.

Christians, like Israel was, can never fit comfortably into this world. We are considered by the world as fanatics and as a dangerous sect posing threat to the peace of society. We are like those who have been exiled and seeking to return to their homeland. Here we look forward to our home, the better country, the New Jersusalem that will descend from Heaven for us:
Hebrews 11:13-16 (ESV)
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. [14] For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. [15] If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. [16] But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

But how much more was our Lord Jesus a stranger and a sojourner, in the very world He created, when He came here? He came down to this world, which He made with His own hands, yet the world did not know who He was. He was treated as a foreigner to the very world He owned. He went to Israel, to His own people whom He had a covenant with. But they also rejected Him, treated Him as a stranger, and even killed Him:
John 1:10-11 (ESV)
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. [11] He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
This Man who was among us was God, the Creator of the whole world, in human flesh. Yet we did not know who He was. We treated Him as an alien, a stranger, and we didn't recognize Him. He was the one who had made us in our mother's womb, and the one who had provided everything for us. But we had ignored him, and paid no attention to Him. Jesus never was a welcome guest to this world. We rejected Him, though He was the one who gave us life:
Isaiah 53:3 (ESV)
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
And our Lord was not only rejected but hated. People wanted to get rid of Him, and erase Him from the face of the earth. Though He created us, and though He gave us nothing but good things, the wages He received for His good works from us was death. He died, like a sinner, like someone who had done to us nothing but evil. But this was ordained by God, so that He could make atonement for our sins, that those who believe in Him may not be condemned:
Isaiah 53:5 (ESV)
But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

If Christ was so was rejected by my men as a stranger and a foreigner, how should we Christians live? Peter tells us how:
1 Peter 2:11-12 (ESV)
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. [12] Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
We must not live as though this world was our home, as Christ said His Kingdom was not of this world. We must live among unbelievers honorably, not according to the passions of our flesh, to be a good testimony to them for God. Our conversation is in heaven. We are temporary residents here, and we have no lasting part with this place. The Kingdom of God is coming upon the earth, which we shall inherit. We are strangers and sojourners with God in this world:
Leviticus 25:23 (ESV)
For you are strangers and sojourners with me.
If God Himself finds no place to call home on this world, but is waiting for the Kingdom of God where He will make His dwelling place with us, how much more must we wait for it, and reject this place as our homes, since it shall be burnt up by fire when Christ comes?

Just as Israel walked the narrow path on the border between enemy nations, such is the narrow and difficult life that God ordained for us to walk in, in this world:
Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)
"Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. [14] For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Let us therefore walk in this way. Jesus Christ is this Way that leads to God and eternal life. Let us forsake ways that are easy, the way that compromises with the world that we are in. Let us, by faith, live the difficult lives of holiness and obedience to God. God has given us no other way to salvation, but through this suffering:
Acts 14:22 (ESV)
Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

Christ the sinless one, made into the image of sinners

Numbers 33:41-42 (ESV)
And they set out from Mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah. [42] And they set out from Zalmonah and camped at Punon.

It was during this part of the journey that Israel sinned against God again, and God sent among them fiery serpents to destroy them. But when the people repented and asked Moses to pray that the serpents may be taken away, God gave them a strange method indeed for them to be healed:
Numbers 21:8-9 (ESV)
And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live." [9] So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

We know that idolatry is forbidden by God, and that God forbid that Israel make an image of the likeness of anything, as it is clearly written in the second of the ten commandments:
Exodus 20:4 (ESV)
"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

But why is it that God commands Moses to "Make a fiery serpent"? The answer is clearly given in the New Testament. It was the sign and a prophesy that God's Son would likewise make Himself in the likeness of a sinful human being that He may be slain by God as a substitute offering:
Philippians 2:6-8 (ESV)
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant,being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus Christ was in the form of God. He was like the material bronze. Now, bronze is nothing like a serpent. The two are of different forms. They have nothing in common. Bronze is a metal, a material used to make armor and utensils and such. A serpent is an animal, a reptile, a vile, violent and cunning creature. Such is the vastness of the difference between the Son of God and sinful man. This is why the Son of God is holy, so different to us, separated from sinners. Jesus Christ is in His nature GOD, perfectly pure and righteous. But we are by nature sinful creatures, a brood of vipers, who speak lies as serpents spit poison:
Matthew 23:33 (ESV)
You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
Psalm 58:3-4 (ESV)
The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies. [4] They have venom like the venom of a serpent, like the deaf adder that stops its ear,

But the only way that the bronze could have anything in common with serpents is if it is moulded and made into the image of the serpent. This is what Jesus Christ did in becoming a man. He took upon Himself the nature of man, made Himself as nothing, and made Himself a man. He became a likeness of sinful man. He was like the Bronze Serpent. He never stopped being Bronze, that is, He never stopped being God. Yet He was also fully Man. Just as the Bronze Serpent had no poison inside it, Jesus Christ, though He was made into the likeness of a sinner, never had sin in Him. He was like us, in that He was a man, but He was also not like us in that He had no sin, and that He was God. That is why Jesus preferred to call Himself a Son of Man, though He was the Son of God. Read this passage:
John 3:13-18 (ESV)
No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, [15] that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. [16] "For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. [18] Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Above passage clearly shows why the Son of God became a man. He came to be set on a pole like the Bronze Serpent was. He came to be nailed on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. He came to take our place in being cursed on the tree instead of us. We were the brood of serpents who were hating and biting one another. We are the ones who had sinned against God, and therefore the condemnation had come upon us all. But Christ was the one who was nailed on the cross, the one whose form is God, the one in whom was no poison of sin. But God moulded Him as the shape of sinful man, and crushed Him as a satisfaction for His wrath against our sins. God was pleased to crush His own Son, that He may make a way for us to be forgiven. This is the Gospel.

Everyone who has sinned has been bitten by the father of serpents: Satan. We have sinned against God through him. We are all born children of the devil, and we all inherit the lies and the sin from him. We all have been cursed by this disease called sin from the moment Adam chose to believe in the Father of Lies. But God graciously gives us time before we die forever from this bite from the devil. God makes us to be in pain momentarily, that we may seek after a way of salvation from this sting of death which is sin. We are bitten, and God gives a chance for us in this temporary life to be saved before the poison invades our entire soul and we perish forever. This life that we live now is that time we who are bitten have a chance to be healed, and live forever. We are all born condemned, and hell-bound, not only that we have sinned, but that we also inherit the guilt of Adam that passed on from generation to generation. We are all like inmates in a prison awaiting the death sentence to be carried out. We are all doomed with the fire of hell that awaits us.

But the Good News is that God has made a way for us to be saved: "Whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned". Just as whoever looked at the Bronze Serpent lived, whoever gazes at the Jesus Christ crucified by faith shall be saved. If anyone hears the Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified for sins, and believes in that message of the cross, that person shall be saved and have eternal life. The sin of that person shall be reckoned as crucified upon Jesus Christ, and the righteousness of Jesus Christ shall be applied to that person.

By this faith we become a new creation, and we are made again into Christ's image. We are no longer children of the serpent, but the children of God. We are made again into the likeness of Him. Since our Saviour was so kind to make Himself into our evil image for our sake, it is fitting that, we, who were originally made to be His image, give ourselves to Him, that He may mould us into His beautiful image. Because Christ is the Image of the invisible God, to be moulded into Christ's image, is to be moulded into God's image. Let us offer ourselves to Him as the clay to the Potter.

It is interesting to note here that in Numbers 21 it did not say that God took away the serpents from Israel's midst. But rather it could be that God left the serpents in their midst. But if anyone was bitten at anytime, they could simply look to the Bronze Serpent and be healed and not die. Likewise it is with the Christian. Sin is still there. And its desire is to have us and to bite us and kill us. But we have the Jesus Christ crucified following us every time. His Cross was our everlasting offering toward God. Though we try hard not to be bitten, and no matter how careful we are, we may still be bitten by sin again. But we have the Gospel of Jesus with us. When we believe on Christ, repenting of our sins, we are healed and restored again. We shall never be destroyed from the bite of the devil, for Christ has been crucified for us. We however ought to forever believe that the Gospel will work for us. The Cross of Jesus will work every time. Every time we are bitten, every time we look at Christ dying by faith we will not die. But if we say to ourselves 'It worked last time, but will it work this time?' and we don't look at the Cross in unbelief, we will surely die in our guilt. But when we confess our sins and gaze at Jesus nailed on the tree, we will be forgiven and cleansed, every time.

But not that we can take God's grace for granted. If we indulge in sin, and try to charm these adders called sin which cannot be charmed, and we are bitten, we may die before we can see the Bronze Serpent. Let us not put Him to test:
1 Corinthians 10:9 (ESV)
We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents,
This should be clear warning for us "some were destroyed by the serpents". Some have actually died before even being able to look at the bronze serpent. Let us remember how some have died and gone to hell and never had the grace to believe in Jesus. How then can we misuse God's grace and continue in sin? We cannot crucify the Lord afresh. It is interesting that this bronze serpent actually became an idol that was worshipped in later history:
2 Kings 18:4 (ESV)
He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).
We can also make the cross itself an idol if we use it in the sense that it gives us license to sin. But see how the bronze serpent was destroyed when it was used as an idol. God will not give salvation to those who love sin more than His Son. Before such a man can look at the cross, God will take the cross away from his sight that he may never be saved, if that man presumes on God's grace. We must also realize if we are bitten by too many snakes of sin, we may be in so much pain that we may never bee able to open our eyes at all because of our pain:
Matthew 13:15 (ESV)
For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.''
When we look at the cross, let's appreciate what God has done, and let us stop sinning in light of what He has done. If we have gazed once at Jesus, let us never stop gazing at Him for all of eternity, lest we be distracted by other things, lest we be bitten again by sin, our enemy.