9. The Rock Stricken Again - A Mistake on the Part of Moses, Num 20.

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9. The Rock Stricken Again - A Mistake on the Part of Moses, Num 20.

Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin

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The Cross Throughout the Scriptures - Part 9
10. The Book of Leviticus Is Filled with the Foreshadowings of the Cross.

Heb 10:8 “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast not desired, nor hast Thou taken pleasure in them”

Isa 1:11 “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” Says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, And the fat of fed cattle. And I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats.”

Psa 51:16 For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; Thou art not pleased with burnt offering.

The Jews needed to have before them the constant fact that sin is no insignificant matter which God could lightly pass over.

If the blow does not fall on the guilty, it must fall on one who makes himself responsible and accepts the punishment for the wrong involved.

Heb 10:17 “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

He tasted death for every man in order that the just demands of the Law might be fully fulfilled in our behalf, Heb 2:9.

a. The burnt offering - propitiation or expiation with emphasis on the work of Christ, so animal blood was used, Lev 1:3.

b. The food offering - propitiation with emphasis on the unique person of Christ, so animal blood was not used, Lev 3:11.

c. The peace offering - reconciliation based on the work of Christ on the cross, so animal blood was shed at the altar, Lev 7:11.

d. The sin offering - rebound, emphasizing the forgiveness of unknown sins in the life, Lev 4:3.

e. The trespass offering - rebound, emphasizing the forgiveness of known sins and confessed sins.

11. Moses Lifted up the Serpent. Num 21

Joh 3:14 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;”

Israel should have known by now that Jehovah-jireh, “the Lord will provide,” would not fail his people.

Sin is a fiery serpent and its sting is the sting of death -

1Co 15:6 The sting of death is sin,

Rom 5:20 where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,

Gen 3:15 - the serpent’s seed are said to be unregenerate sinners.

2Co 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

“The serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan,” is the author of sin.

Rev 12:11 “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death.”

1Jo 3:8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

It would have pictured God’s judgment on the sinner himself and misrepresented our sinless substitute, Heb 7:26.

The one who is the sinner’s Savior was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, Rom 8:3.

The serpent was a reminder and emblem of the curse.

Brass symbolizes divine judgment.

On the Brazen altar the sacrificial animals were slain.

Rev 1 - Christ is seen as judge inspecting the seven churches, His feet were like fine brass.

Brass is harder than iron, or silver, or gold; it told of Christ’s mighty strength.

a. They were not told to manufacture some ointment to heal their wounds.

b. They were not told to minister to others who were wounded and help each other out.

c. They were not told to fight the serpents.

d. They were not told to make an offering to the serpent on the pole.

e. They were told not to look at Moses.

f. They were not told to look at their wounds.

1. Moses was commanded by God to make a serpent of brass; it was something the Lord provided.

2. Moses was commanded to fix this brazen serpent upon a pole - the divine remedy was publicly exhibited so all Israel might look and be healed.

3. He was to look away from himself to the divinely appointed object of faith.

Isa 45:22 “Turn to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other.”

Heb 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross,

Phi 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly look for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;

4. The brazen serpent was lifted up so those who were too weak to crawl up to the pole simply could look and be healed.

Gen 3:6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes,

Life could only come out of death.

When our Lord died on the cross He put an end to the Adamic race and began a new one.

Our Lord referred to His sacrificial death as a lifting up because the Jews were looking for a Messiah who should be lifted up.

Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries 2002

More from THE CROSS THROUGHOUT THE SCRIPTURES

1. The Cross Appears, GEN 3:15.

Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin

The Cross Throughout the Scriptures - Part 1 - Phi 2:8 In fact, although having being discovered in outward appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of spiritual death, even death on a cross. 1Co 1:18 “For the doctrine concerning the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Josephus described crucifixion as “the most wretched of deaths” - suicide was preferable to the cruel fate of being put on the cross. It originated several centuries before the Common Era and continued into the fourth century AD when the practice was discontinued by Constantine. The brazen serpent being lifted up on a pole, Num 21:9. People would watch Him as He was suffering publicly, Psa 22:7-8. His hands and feet would be pierced, Psa 22:16. Not one of His bones would be broken, Psa 34:20. They would offer the Lord Jesus Christ gall and vinegar, Psa 69:21. The prophecy of His crucifixion, Isa 53:12. The piercing of Jesus’ side, Zec 12:10. Death by crucifixion was invented by the Persians which is now Iran. Later it was adopted by the Phoenicians (Canaanites, a perverted people) and the Carthaginians (North Africa). Only one word can describe death by crucifixion: agony. “On the cross there are only two things, pain and eternity. They tell me I was only on the cross twenty-four hours, but I was on the cross longer than the world existed. If there is no time, then every moment is forever.” Mass executions in which thousands died, such as the crucifixion of 6,000 followers of Spartacus as part of a victory celebration in 71 BC, appear in literature. Alexander the Great had 2,000 survivors from the siege of Tyre crucified on the shores of the Mediterranean. During the times of Caligula, AD 37-41, Jews were tortured and crucified in the amphitheater to entertain the inhabitants of Alexandria. Many researchers have believed death occurred as the result of a ruptured heart - Joh 19:34 - the water and blood flowing out of the wound. Other scholars have regarded asphyxiation or suffocation as being the cause of death. If the victims are hanging with their hands extended over their heads, death can occur within an hour, or in minutes if the victim’s legs are nailed. For exhaling to occur in a normal manner two sets of muscles are needed - the diaphragm and the intercostalis muscles between the ribs. As a deterrent in the ancient world, many of its victims were crucified where the criminal event took place. It was common to have a procession through the streets of Jerusalem where the criminal, along with a statement of his crime, could be publicly displayed. Mar 15:20 And after they had mocked Him, they took the purple off Him, and put His garments on Him. And they led Him out to crucify Him. Mar 15:21 And they pressed into service a passer-by coming from the country, Simon of Cyrene (the father of Alexander and Rufus), to bear His cross. He carried the patibulum - the crossbeam. Around our Lord’s neck hung the titulus on which were inscribed the charges for which He was being executed. To add further humiliation to the process the victim was stripped completely naked. Once stripped, the victim would be thrown on his back upon the patibulum, the crossbeam. The long, square-headed spikes would inevitably pass through or close to the median nerve of the hands or the wrists so the nerve was severely damaged. The crossbeam would drop into place with such force that the victim’s shoulders would often be dislocated, increasing the suffering and torture. Isa 53:6 Rom 8:31 Heb 11 Heb 12 Psa 22:14 “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.” Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries 2002

2. The Foreshadowings of the Cross in Abel’s Lamb, Gen 4.

Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin

The Cross Throughout the Scriptures - Part 2 The victim was given thirteen stripes on the left shoulder, thirteen stripes on the right shoulder, and thirteen stripes across the thighs. The Roman scourging was much more severe and was known as “halfway death.” This trained man used a whip called a flagellum, with a stubby wooden handle to which was attached a bundle of leather whips. At the tip of the whips, bits of bone or chain or lead weights shaped like small dumbbells were fastened. As each whip hit, the bits of bone, chain, or the dumbbells would dig in deeply into the flesh and even into the muscle. This veil has to do with the glory of the cross of Christ throughout the Scriptures. The cross was a shock to Satan - it was God’s masterpiece in the universe. “Calvary marked the greatest hour in the entire meritorious history of Deity.” Gal 6:14 But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. At the cross, God found a way to justify the ungodly, and yet remain just, Rom 3:26. The central theme of the Bible is the cross. At the cross, God found a way justify the ungodly, and yet not compromise with sin, Rom 3:26, Hab 1:13. Rom 3:25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; Rom 3:26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Rom 5 - At the cross, God declares the wicked, righteous, without a shadow of blame or unrighteousness falling upon His righteous character. At the cross He provided a forgiveness which satisfies all the demands of the Law and has power to transform the wicked into saints. 1. The Cross Appears. Gen 3:15 The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, Rev 13:8. Act 2:23 this Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. Eph 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, 1Pe 1:20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world. Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries 2002

3. The Flood Is a Type of the Cross, Gen 6-8.

Pastor Robert R. McLaughlin

The Cross Throughout the Scriptures - Part 3 John 19:1 Pilate took Jesus, and scourged Him. The victim was severely beaten about the back, shoulders, and sides of the chest until he was raw and bleeding profusely from thousands of small gashes. After this happened to our Lord and Savior, He was punched and beaten in the face, spit upon, had a crown of thorns forced upon His head and then mocked. Mar 15:19 And they kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting at Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him. He was paraded through Jerusalem with a crossbeam tied to His back to face one of the cruelest and most humiliating forms of punishment in the ancient world, crucifixion. Only one word can describe death by crucifixion: agony. It was humiliating, tormenting, slow, and public. Psa 22:14 “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.” “Calvary marked the greatest hour in the entire meritorious history of Deity.” Gal 6:14 But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. At the cross, the meritorious attributes of God come to their most majestic expression. Rom 5 - At the cross, God declares the wicked, righteous, without a shadow of blame or unrighteousness falling upon His righteous character. It is only when the believer discovers the glory of the cross that he first comes to see the Bible in its truest light. 1. The Cross Appears. Gen 3:15 The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, Rev 13:8. Act 2:23 this Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. Eph 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, 1Pe 1:20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you. Ecc 12:7 then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. Could it be that God’s original plan in the creation of man should fail? Was Satan to be permitted to lord it over man, having deceived him and having brought him under his bondage? Was there no hope of forgiveness and liberation for Adam’s race? Could a reconciliation be effected and man be brought back to God, freed from Satanic oppression? Would God forever be dishonored, His Fatherhood denied, and His purposes unfulfilled? Was it in God’s power to undo what the wicked one, under whose power the whole world lies in, had done? 1Jo 5:19. Was God to be frustrated eternally because man was made in His image and for the satisfaction of His heart but man sinned? 2Pe 3:8 Though the immediate result was rebellion and sin, the final outcome of it all would be restoration. The Lord God turned the curse into a blessing, Deu 23:5. What Satan meant for evil, God would turn into good, Gen 50:20. Rom 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 1Jo 3:8 The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. Man could not be restored by a divine command. Man had chosen to follow the ways of Satan in the same way: to use his own free will against the will of God. Without freedom of choice, man would not be man, nor would he ever be able to satisfy the desires of God’s heart. Rev 12:9 Satan deceives the whole world; The mere exercise of divine authority and divine power could not fulfill the demands of the case. Man must learn to hate “self,” Satan’s agent within man as the governing principle of his life. He could undo the First Adam’s rebellion and sin by refusing Satan’s claims upon man, in the full and free exercise of His own free will, and shatter the alliance. The Seed of the woman, Christ our Lord, would bruise the serpent’s head. Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries 2002