As we continue our series The King is Coming, the Exodus era shows us God’s grace to provide for His people and give them all that they need. However, Israel’s discontentment robs them of the joy of God’s faithful provision for them. As we look at the story of God sending snakes to discipline Israel, we see that we too are like Israel— a people in need of salvation, a people who can too quickly become discontent with God’s provision, and a people that must cling to the promise of our future home.

Jason’s Main Points

• We are a people in need of salvation.

• We lack contentment in God’s provision for us.

• We have not yet reached our final destination.
  

Key Takeaways

• During the Exodus era, Israel was the recipient of God’s gracious provision. He delivered them from oppression in Egypt, provided manna and water in the wilderness, gave them the Law, established the priesthood and sacrificial system, and dwelled with them through the tabernacle.

• Israel responded to God’s provision with grumbling and discontentment, which resulted in God sending snakes to afflict them. As the bronze snake saved Israel from physical death, Jesus saves us from spiritual death and judgment.

• Salvation has always been by faith, “look and live” is the message of the Scriptures.

• We are a people not just in need of a moment of salvation, but salvation all the days of our life.

• Jason defines contentment as being satisfied with God and what He has given you.

• Too often we look to earthly things to bring us a satisfaction that only God can. To our own destruction, we believe that lie that Christ is not enough to satisfy us. We want Jesus + _________.

• As Paul writes in 1 Timothy 6:6, godliness + contentment = great gain.

• Just like Israel, we are prone to long for the life we had before Christ and apart from Christ.

• If you crave the world, destruction is sure to follow.

• As we navigate life in this broken world, we must cling to the hope that the King is coming.

Discussion Questions/Application

Personal application:

• How will you remind yourself of your salvation and the provision of the Gospel this week?

• Are your choices and lifestyle communicating a contentment in Christ or discontentment? What attitudes and actions are in need of confession and repentance in this area?

Discuss with your community group:

• What are you prone to think will satisfy you that cannot? What are the sources feeding your discontentment?

• What does it practically look like to find satisfaction in Christ alone? Encourage one another and pray for one another’s contentment in Christ.

Additional Passages Referenced 

Numbers 21:4-9; Exodus 1:8; John 3:14-18;  2 Corinthians 5:21; Isaiah 52:13-53:6; Romans 5:8; Titus 3:3-7; 1 Timothy 6:6-10; Ecclesiastes 5:10; Matthew 6:19-20; Colossians 3:2; Luke 16:13; Philippians 4:12-13; Ephesians 1; 1 Peter 2:2; John 14:1-3; Genesis 3:15; Genesis 12:3; Hebrews 3:3.

Worship Set List

Great Things, The Lord is My Salvation, No Other King, At the Cross (Love Ran Red), My Worth is Not In What I Own