TD Jakes - The Mysterious Ministry of Snakes
Such is the text before us tonight. And the Bible said that «they railed against Moses and they railed against God,» because whenever we are disappointed, we look for somebody to blame. And it is always easier to blame somebody else than to blame us. When you write the books that you read, you will always be the hero. Nobody writes a book about themselves and writes in that they were the victim. Nobody comes in and lays down on the couch and say, «I was wrong». They will always blame somebody else because we always want to push away from us the responsibility for being where we are. So they blamed Moses.
«Why didn’t you leave us in Egypt? Why did you bring us out here to die? There is no food out here. What were you thinking about to bring all these people out here? And now we have to walk by faith and not by sight, and our provisions are gone, and all we have is this invisible God who will not show his face to us. If he would show his face to me, maybe I wouldn’t feel like this». But they are frustrated. They said, «There’s no food, and there’s no water. And we loathe this bread, this manna. This stuff that falls from heaven is tasteless. It does not taste good where God has me».
I wanna talk to somebody tonight that where God has you doesn’t taste good. It’s not that God didn’t sustain you, but it doesn’t taste good. It’s not that you’re not making it, but it doesn’t taste good. It doesn’t appeal to your appetite. It is not what you had in mind. It’s not the life you would have fixed for yourself. And, yes, you are still here, but it does not taste good. «Manna,» they said, «what is it? What is this that God is giving me? It’s keeping me, but it’s not satisfying me». Oh, to be kept by Jesus. That’s what my grandmother used to say. Oh, to be kept by him. Oh, sometimes being kept doesn’t taste good. The manna wouldn’t even let their shoes wear out, but it didn’t taste good. They had on the same clothes they had when they left Egypt. Not a thread was worn on their garments, but it didn’t taste good.
We’ve got to learn how to be grateful beyond how things taste. And they murmured against God. And they murmured against Moses. And the Bible says that «the Lord sent serpents». It doesn’t say the devil sent them. It doesn’t say the witches sent them. It doesn’t say some evil enemy released them. Instead, it says that «the Lord sent serpents». We never preach about the Lord sending serpents because people don’t like to talk about serpents, and they don’t like to look at serpents, and they don’t like to realize the fact that sometimes God sends trouble. Sometimes God sends things to sting you. Sometimes God sends things to wake you up. Sometimes God sends things to chastise you. Sometimes God sends things… and it’s not just that the serpents came.
The Bible is clear the Lord sent them. How do we explain in our theology, a snake-sending God? I can do good with a manna-sending God. I can do good with water coming out of a rock. But how do I explain a God who works through the mysterious methodology of sending snakes? And I looked at it, and I was amazed. And they said to Moses, «We have sinned against God». I guess they did confess 'cause when you get bit bad enough, you’ll confess. Have you ever had to deal with a liar, and they kept a lie going, but if you got them trapped deep enough, they would come out with the truth? I’m amazed that the people that will lie to you like you’re stupid, and you have to act like you don’t know. And all the while, you know that they’re lying to you all the while. Liars, just lying all the while.
And all of a sudden, they had to come clean because when you get bit bad enough, you come in here and talking about, «Well, I wasn’t gonna tell you, but we, you know, you know, I mean, I,» somebody knows what I’m talking about, «I wasn’t gonna bring this up, but something happened the other night». The Lord knows exactly what it takes to bring you to your knees, to make you submit, to make you humble, to make you cough up the truth, to get you past your pride and your arrogance and bring you to a place of submission. And, yes, the Bible said, «The Lord sent serpents. He sent snakes and it bit them and some died. And they came to Moses under duress».
They they didn’t come to Moses out of conviction. They came to Moses, read the text, they came to Moses out of duress. If there were no snakes there, they wouldn’t have done it. The people came to Moses and said, «We have sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you,» duh. Did you know it’s a sin to speak against God and who he sent? That’s why I have peace. When you know that God sent you, you don’t have to fight for yourself because when you speak against somebody that God sent, you’re speaking against God also. It’s not that Moses was so much, but God was using him. And if God saw fit to use him, don’t speak against who God chooses to use.
So they said, «We have sinned against God, and we have sinned against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us. Pray, pray. You have a relationship with God that we don’t have. We can talk to you, but we can’t talk to him. We can talk about him, but we can’t talk to him. And so we have to come to you and ask you as a mediator to pray for us, to pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us».
So Moses prayed for the people. Wait a minute. To every leader, you have to be big enough to pray for people who hurt you. You don’t have to graduate from Yale. You don’t have to graduate from Princeton. God bless you, if you did. But you do have to be big enough to pray for people who hurts you. Job prayed for his friends. That’s how he got healed. Moses is here praying for people who a breath ago were talking about him like he had a tail. But Moses had the composite of personality that made it possible for him to be adaptable enough that he no longer had a tendency to hold grudges.
I want to ask tonight, are you a person who holds grudges? Because that might be what’s holding you up in the wilderness. You might be stuck in the wilderness because you lack the dexterity and the flexibility and the adaptability to be able to transition quick enough to get over what you heard they said and be able to function in the position you have been given in spite of the feelings you have been having. Oh, if you would eat that, if you would eat that, I’m preaching it, but that doesn’t mean you’re gonna eat it, but if you would eat that, that would save marriages.
If you would eat that, that would save homes. If you would eat that, that would save churches. If you would eat that, that would save relationships. If you would eat that, you could sleep good tonight. If you would eat that, you would have peace. But we have a tendency to hold a grudge so that we talking about, «I ain’t praying for you. You brought this on yourself. You should have shut your mouth. You got this coming. I bet you won’t say nothing else». But Moses does not use this as an opportunity to seek revenge. He goes to God and he prays, and he prays for them. And he prays for people who hurt him.
And the Lord said to Moses, «Make a snake». And that’s really got me puzzled because it is almost like God is death because, «We are talking to you, Lord, to get rid of snakes. And at a time that we want the snakes to go away, you have asked Moses to make one». Whenever God asks you to do something that doesn’t seem to make sense, that contradicts the crisis that you’re in, there is something that he wants you to learn along the way. How can Moses make a snake? He is not a creator. And, yet, the one who could make a snake has asked Moses to make a snake.
And he said, «Make a snake, and put it on a stick, and lift it up high. Lift it up so high, they’ll have to look up at it. And every person who looks up at it shall live». Oh God, have mercy. «I’m not going to take you out of the environment of snakes, but I’m gonna give you power over their bite. I’m gonna leave you in the world. I’m gonna leave you in the presence of enemy. I’m gonna leave you in the presence of darkness, but behold, I give you power. You will tread on serpents. You will walk on the thing that was trying to walk on you. I’m gonna leave you right here in the presence of it. You asked me to take away the snakes, and I told you, 'No, I’m gonna have you make a snake for a snake.'»
How to reach the masses, men of every birth, for an answer. Jesus gave the key. He said, «If I, if I be lifted up from the earth, I’ll draw all men unto me. Lift him up. Lift him up til he speaks from eternity». He said, «If I, if I be lifted up from the earth, I’ll draw all men unto me». Watch this, John 3, 14:15, just «as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so shall the Son of Man be lifted up». So Moses is in the Old Testament casting a shadow of the cross, and the cure is made from the bite. We talk a lot about Jesus being the lamb, and he is. But when we call him the lamb, we’re talking about the payment. When it said, «Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,» it’s talking about the penalty.
We talk so much about the payment, we don’t talk about the penalty. You must understand the difference between the payment, which is the Lamb of God, and the penalty, which was, he became sin, who knew no sin, that we might be the righteousness of God. If he became sin, who knew no sin, how did sin get here in the first place? Ooh, it came from the snake. Sin came from the snake. So if he was lifted up as a lamb… y’all ain’t ready for me, if he was lifted up as a lamb, it wouldn’t cure what I was bitten by. Even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so should the Son of Man be lifted up, he became sin who knew no sin. It wasn’t that he committed sin. He became sin. It wasn’t that he was an adulterer. He became adultery. It wasn’t that he was a murderer. He became murderer. He became sin who knew no sin.
Now, this Bible class, come on, let’s go. So when he’s on the cross, he says, «Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani», «my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me»? It’s because he’s become sin. So when the father looks down at the stick, he doesn’t see the sun, he sees the serpent. The images are similar and both of them had to be lifted up, and both of them had to be looked to in order to be redeemed. Do you hear what I’m saying to you? And God set up the situation that put Moses in a predicament that he would have to present the cure, which was a cross. And when he lifted it up, it is God teaching in the Old Testament what he reveals in the New Testament. It was concealed in the Old Testament. It was revealed in the New Testament.
So what you see in a shadow, which is just a type in the Old Testament, now becomes a reality in the New Testament. Somebody take three minutes and just give God glory. Come on, come on, come on, you’re gonna get there. Come on, you gonna get there. Come on, you’re gonna get there. Come on, you’re gonna get there. Come on, you’re gonna get there. Come on, you’re gonna get there.
As much stuff as you did, you cannot afford to sit there with your lips glued together and act like you don’t owe God a praise. I’m talking about your sin, your mess, your disgrace, your embarrassment, and you can’t sit there and give him a cute little praise, like you don’t know what I’m talking about, because he was lifted up for your transgression. He was bruised for your iniquities. He did it for you because there was no cure for what was wrong for you, but Jesus took your place. And that’s how it all started through the slithering, pacing, moving of a snake moving through a promise. Sin entered into the world crawling on its belly, walked up to the woman and started talking. And when he started talking to her, he disputed what God said.
Wait a minute, he disputed what God said, and they cursed what God had done. Sin has a continuity that follows all through the scriptures. It came in by a snake to stand up against God’s Word. It moved through the desert as a snake to bite God’s people. It slid it all the way up to Calvary and when it got to Calvary, God said, «I’m gonna make a snake for a snake».
And they hung him high, and they stretched him wide. And when they did so, God put an antidote in the world for whatever you’re into. «Whatever you’re into, I got a cure. Whatever bit you, I got a cure. Whatever’s got you out of sorts, I got a cure. Whatever’s got you sick, I’ve got a cure. Whatever is making you swell, I’ve got a cure. Whatever is getting on your nerves, I got a cure. Whatever’s got you on the verge of suicide, I’ve got a cure. Whatever’s got you sticking a needle in your arm, I’ve got a cure. Whatever’s got you snorting cocaine, I got a cure».
They hung him high, and they stretched him wide because he is secure to whatever is ailing you. And I dare you to look on him tonight. If you look on him, he’ll deliver you. If you look on him, he’ll set you free. If you look on him, he’ll heal your body. If you look on him, he’ll save your soul. I feel the power of the Holy Ghost in this room. The Spirit of God is in this place. If you look, you can live.