Lifted Up

John 12:12–15 ESV

12 The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” 14 And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written, 15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

John 12:27–33 ESV

27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

Numbers 21:4–9 ESV

4 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. 5 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.” 6 Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 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. 8 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.

When a person’s heart is intent on rebellion and beset by discontent, even the best of gifts from the Lord can lose their savor; nothing will fully satisfy until the heart is made right.[i]

Several species of snakes have been posited as the possible identity of these fiery serpents. T. E. Lawrence described his encounters with horned vipers, puff-adders, cobras, and black snakes in eastern Jordan.419The “carpet viper” (Echis carinatusor Echis coleratus) is a highly poisonous viper known from Africa and the Middle East and thus is a likely candidate.[ii]

Targum Neofiti offers this explanation: “The divine voice came forth from the earth and its voice was heard on high: Come see, all you creatures, and come give ear, all you sons of the flesh; the serpent was cursed from the beginning and I said to it: Dust shall be your food (see Gen. 3:14).… Let the serpent which does not murmur concerning its food come and rule over the people which has murmured concerning their food.”[iii]

Why did not God simply remove the plague as He removed all the plagues of Egypt? The answer given by tradition is that He resorted to this means in order to test Israel’s obedience; only those who heeded His command to look at the snake would recover.[iv]

The verb translated “look” (rāʾâ) often carries with it the idea to see with belief or understanding, and it is to be so interpreted in this context. [v]

We notice something in these snakes that points to what is common in the miracles of the Bible; naturally occurring phenomena may come in unnatural ways, in exaggerated numbers, or in unusual timings. Manna, as we have argued above (see 11:5), seems to be an exception. Manna is not naturally occurring—it is wholly divine. And the people spurned it.

The people receive something from the desert rather than from heaven. They receive a sting instead of a blessing. They find themselves dying instead of being preserved alive by “that miserable bread.”[vi]

Moses is commanded of God to make an image of something truly detestable in their culture and to hold that high on a pole as their only means of deliverance from disease.[vii]

What’s happening in their bodies is exactly what was happening in their souls. The relatively curable and minor poison of the serpent in their bodies was an exact mirror image of the greater poison of the Serpent in their souls. It was utterly devastating them.[viii]

John 3:14–18 ESV

14 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.

[i]Cole, R. D. (2000). Numbers(Vol. 3B, p. 347). Broadman & Holman Publishers. 419 T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia), Revolt in the Desert (New York: G. H. Doran, 1927), 93. [ii]Cole, R. D. (2000). Numbers(Vol. 3B, p. 348). Broadman & Holman Publishers. [iii]Milgrom, J. (1990). Numbers(p. 174). Jewish Publication Society. [iv]Milgrom, J. (1990). Numbers(p. 174). Jewish Publication Society. [v]Cole, R. D. (2000). Numbers(Vol. 3B, p. 349). Broadman & Holman Publishers. [vi]Allen, R. B. (1990). Numbers. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers (Vol. 2, p. 876). Zondervan Publishing House. [vii]Allen, R. B. (1990). Numbers. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers (Vol. 2, p. 877). Zondervan Publishing House. [viii]Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. Redeemer Presbyterian Church.