It is terribly sad to note that the false hyper grace teachers are teaching this heresy of the Lord’s Supper being a delivery system of good health. And worse of all, they added this heresy that confession of sins will be tantamount to taking the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner and in danger of being judged. (This teaching is diametrically opposite to the exhortation of our Lord Jesus in His Prayer in Matt 6:9-13 that we ought to pray for the forgiveness of our debts.)
Numbers 21:4-9
From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 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.” 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.
In Numbers 21, we read that the Israelites grumbled against God and Moses for bringing them out to die in the wilderness. They did not realize that it was their sin which brought them to wander in the wilderness. God sent poisonous snakes to judge them. Later they confessed their sin and asked Moses to pray for deliverance. God then instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole so that those who were bitten could be healed by gazing on it.
It was a lesson from God on faith. It took faith to believe that healing from the snake bite came by gazing, and the serpent was a reminder of their sin. In John 3:14-15, our Lord told us that the serpent was the foreshadow of Himself. He would be made a curse for our sins and be hanged on a tree, just like the serpent which was a symbol of sin. Gal 3:13.
God did not take away the poisonous snakes but provide an antidote for the Israelites instead. The Lord’s Supper was instituted to make us remember the Lord’s death till He comes again. God wants us to remember His abhorrence of sin and its consequence whenever we are bitten by sin, and His provision of the cure for our sin sick condition, just like how the Israelites were taught on this lesson. Whenever we sin, we should confess our sins like what the Israelites did, and know we can have His forgiveness by the curse that our Lord bore on our behalf. 1 John 1:9.
