Jesus as the Bronze Serpent

Introduction

So how do you guys feel about snakes? Personally I’ve always kind of liked snakes since I was a little boy running around the tiny rural community of Evandale catching them and putting them in buckets. A couple years ago I saw a snake in the garden and I tried to catch it like I used to as a kid and I don’t have the reflexes I used to apparently. That or fear of its bite has set in and I don’t grab for them as boldly as I used to. Of course in our context it’s easier for a little boy to grow up without a fear of snakes and to even enjoy them in a place like rural New Brunswick where there was nothing but garter snakes to be found.

The same is not true in the wilderness of Sinai. In the Middle East there are a few poisonous snakes that could kill a man with just one small bite. So I imagine that young Israelite boys had a more “Indiana Jones” relationship with snakes. Raise your hand if you get that reference.

That negative relationship with snakes is made even worse by the story of the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden, when Satan in the form of a snake tempts the first human couple into sinning. Then, we have an encounter with snakes in Numbers 21:4-9 that likely didn’t help matters.

Numbers 21:4–9 ESV

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.

Now at first this might strike you as a bit of a strange story. Not the part about the Israelites complaining and sinning against God and being punished for it, that’s pretty much the whole Old Testament. And not the part where Moses intercedes, He does that a lot. Not even the part where serpents are used as the means by which God punishes His people. I think this is the only time He uses snakes in particular, but God often uses the things of nature to discipline the Israelites when they do wrong. I should point out by the way that the word “fiery” probably doesn’t mean that they were on fire, but that they were poisonous, and therefore when you were bitten you were filled with a burning feeling in your veins. No, the strange part is when God gives them instructions for what they are to do in order to be saved.

Keep in mind our context, that the Israelites are surrounded by nations that worship idols. They carve images of men or animals, and sometimes strange man animal hybrids, which they then call God and worship. God detests this because He alone is worthy of worship, and commands the Israelites not to make any images even if they are meant to represent Him, in order to show that He is a living God and not a God of wood or stone and to set them apart from other nations. So when God commands Moses to make an image of the serpent and hang it on a pole, it’s not hard to imagine confusion on Moses’ part. There were nations not so far away that worshiped idols of serpents. Eventually the Israelites themselves would forget the true significance of this bronze snake and worship it as we see in 2 Kings 18:4

2 Kings 18:4 ESV

He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).

So why did God command Moses to make the image of a snake to cure the Israelites? Well you may have noticed through some of this series that God is quite fond of using symbolism to teach us about who He is and what it means to worship and serve Him. Whether it be the rich theology of the construction of the tabernacle, or the manna He provided, or the water from the rock, God likes to give the Israelites pictures of who He is, and as we have seen before, who He is sending. The bronze serpent similarly teaches us about the nature of God and serves as an image of the coming Messiah, the Son of God Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself tells us that the serpent is a type of him in John 3:9-18

John 3:9–18 ESV

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 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. 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.

So if we look carefully at the story of the Israelites and the fiery serpents with the knowledge that it serves as a foretelling of the coming of Jesus, what can it teach us about who Jesus is and what we as His disciples should be doing? I believe that there are three big lessons in the Numbers 21 passage:

Be Thankful for What God Provides

Repent and Turn to the Lord When You Mess Up

Salvation is by Faith Alone in Jesus Christ

1. Be thankful for what God provides

So how many of us in the room are parents? How many of us are parents to children who are toddlers or older? Now everyone who has their hand up knows the frustration of putting in hard work to make a delicious meal only to have your child put it in their mouth and make this face and then spit out the fruits of your labour. In fact I’ve discovered that there seems to be an inverse relationship between the amount of time you spend preparing a meal and the level of enjoyment from your toddler. The harder you try to make something really good and interesting the less likely they seem to be to want to eat it.

If that’s you, than you have a small taste of what it’s like to be God. Constantly throughout Scripture the Israelites testified to the lack of their gratefulness to God for what He had done for them and their trust that He would continue to be on their side in the future. Just last week we talked about three times the Israelites complained that God had brought them out into the desert to die, the times when God provided manna to eat and water to drink miraculously for His ungrateful people. Well this narrative takes place after those things. In fact one commentary pointed out that this is the seventh time since being brought out of Egypt that the people of Israel complained against Moses and/or God. Perhaps this is why God reacts so strongly to their complaints. These are the people who saw the ten plagues, who passed through the red sea and who had seen miracle after miracle in the wilderness. Yet they complain. Numbers 21:4

Numbers 21:4–5 ESV

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.”

Not only do they complain, but they call the manna that the Lord provided “worthless”!

But before you tell the Israelites to get the speck out of their eye, maybe we should take a look in the mirror and see whether their perhaps is a log in our own eye. How often do we complain? How often do we give thanks to God for all that He’s done for us? According to scripture the answer to the first question should be never and the second should be constantly. Speaking of the Israelites in the wilderness Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:9-11

1 Corinthians 10:9–11 ESV

We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

And in his letter to the Ephesians Paul tells them in his final instructions in Ephesians 5:20 that they should be

Ephesians 5:20 ESV

giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

So in this do not follow the example of the Israelites, but instead turn to God in thankfulness at all times. Everything good has come from Him, and everything bad is another opportunity to grow in discipleship and turn to Him for help in trust based on what we know He’s done for us already.

2. Repent and turn to the Lord when you mess up

Now for the last point we talked about our kids, let’s talk about our parents. I won’t ask for a show of hands this time because some of you have parents in this room, but how many of us have heard a parent, usually our Moms, ask us to tell them what happened and assure us that if we tell the truth they won’t be mad. Often, as it turns out, they may not have completely meant what they said. Maybe it depends on just how bad that truth was. When it comes to God though, we know we have a perfect Father who has assured us that if we come and confess to Him He will forgive us, and we can know that He always means it. We have evidence of that right before us in this passage, where the Israelites after just serving as an example of what not to do show us that they can also sometimes be examples of what we should do.

Let’s look at Numbers 21:6

Numbers 21:6–7 ESV

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.

This was exactly the right thing to do. They had messed up and were facing the consequences of their actions. Much to their credit they came in repentance and asked for Moses to intercede to God for their sakes. They could have reacted like the Pharaoh did when God punished Egypt for their treatment of His people. They could have hardened their hearts and been left on their own against the fiery serpents.

The same is true for us as it is for all of mankind. When we face the consequences of our own sin and our own failures we can react in two ways; we can either grow calloused to God and continue growing in sin and disobedience, or we can come to God in a spirit of repentence to be saved and made righteous in His sight. We have reassurance from the Bible that God will not turn us away but receive us gladly if we repent. 1 John 1:9

1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The big difference is that we don’t go to Moses to intercede, or in other words pray on our behalf, we go to Jesus to intercede for us. As John says later in that same letter in 1 John 2:1

1 John 2:1 ESV

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

That’s a good summary of our first two points. Don’t complain and sin against God, but if you do turn to Jesus as your advocate in repentance.

3. Salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ

Of course, the only reason we even can come to repentance is because of point number three, that salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ. I’ve saved the best for last here, because while the other two points that I shared are true, and good lessons to learn from our passage, this last point is THE point. The point not just of this verse but of all Scripture.

What God asks Moses to do here makes no sense. The people are being bitten by poisonous serpents and dying. They come to Moses to pray to God for salvation and He doesn’t give them a treatment plan. He doesn’t ask them to sacrifice x number of animals and pray twenty hail marys or anything like that. Instead we read in Numbers 21:8-9

Numbers 21:8–9 ESV

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.

Like with many other things God uses the foolish things to shame the wise. In other words He tells the Israelites to do things that WILL NOT WORK in order to prove that HE is the one doing the work. He asked Moses and Aaron to go to Pharoah and demand freedom for the Hebrew slaves because Pharoah would never free the Hebrew slaves, so if it worked than it would only be because the Hand of God was at work. He asked the Israelites to spread the blood of a lamb on their doorposts in the passover because if it worked, it would only be because the Hand of God was at work. The pillar of smoke led the Israelites to the edge of the Red Sea because if they got to the other side, it would be because the Hand of God was at work. He chose the nation of Israel because they were small and weak, so if they successfully conquered the promised land and grew into a prosperous nation is would be because the Hand of God was at work.

So in the same way God tells Moses to hang a serpent on a pole and have the Israelites look at it. If Moses had done this on his own it would have accomplished nothing. i don’t know if you know this, but looking at a bronze snake doesn’t cure snake poison. That’s not how it works. This only works because God Himself makes it work. So to obey God and put a serpent up on a pole is to act in faith and do something foolish because you trust God and know that He’ll be with you.

And to lift up your eyes and look at that serpent is to show that you trust what God is doing for you. You didn’t heal yourself of the poison, you trusted God to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.

See this moment with Israel in the desert is a perfect picture of the larger story of the salvation of mankind that unfolds in Scripture. Like Adam and Eve the Israelites had been given everything that they need from God, yet were unsatisfied. Like Adam and Eve they sinned against God and showed their lack of trust in Him. Adam and Eve didn’t trust God’s word that they would die if they ate the fruit, and the Israelites didn’t trust God to continue to provide for them in the way He already had numerous times.

Like mankind after the fall the Israelites are met with danger and death, and it’s a consequence of their own failure and sin. They are paying the price for their own wrongdoing, just like every person in all of history who suffers. We live in a world of trouble and death because it is the world we made.

So we cry out for rescue just like the Israelites do, and like this moment in the desert God provides, but not in the way you might expect. They asked for the serpents to be taken away. We have no indication from the text that this happens, in fact their seems to be an implication that even after the bronze serpent was made people were still bitten by snakes. Instead God hangs the serpent on a tree. He takes the consequences of the Israelites’ actions and hangs it on a piece of wood for all to see.

We pray for sin and death to be taken away and God instead crucifies Jesus, making Him an image of our sin and death and killing Sin and Death in Him.

Now our reaction should be the same one of the Israelites. We need to look at Jesus on that cross in faith, and God will heal us, despite our failures, despite the fact that WE are responsible for nailing His son to the cross. We can be forgiven.

Conclusion

You may remember if you were here last week that I talked about how any type of Christ is less than Christ. In other words any time something in the Bible foreshadows what Jesus will do for us, it does so in a lesser way. We talked about the bread and the water and how Jesus is better than both. The same is true for our passage today. Everything that the bronze serpent did for the Israelites Jesus does so much better for all of us. Let’s read our passage again Numbers 21:4-9

Numbers 21:4–9 ESV

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.

The thing you need to know is that all the Israelites who looked at the bronze serpent and lived eventually went on to die. Even the few Israelites like Joshua and Caleb who made it to the promised land eventually died. The bronze serpent was a temporary solution to a particular problem. Jesus on the other hand is the eternal solution to an eternal problem. If you look to Him in faith, you won’t just live right now, you’ll live forever. In fact that’s the whole point Jesus makes in His conversation with Nicodemus in John 3:9-18

John 3:9–18 ESV

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 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. 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.

So we are not saved because we do the right things, because we’re good enough, because we go to church enough. We’re saved because we’ve looked to Jesus and believed in Him. We’re saved because the Hand of God is at work.

So if you still haven’t looked to Jesus in faith I would encourage you today to do so. And if you’ve lost the joy of your salvation, and you’re starting to feel like you’re going through the motions; attending church because it’s the thing you’re supposed to do and not because it’s where we praise Jesus together. Obeying Jesus’ commands because you want to be a good person and not because you’re thankful for His grace and want everyone else to see His glory, than look back at the cross and see Him crucified. Have faith in Him and come back to Him to be renewed in faith to continue in your discipleship journey so that anyone who sees the good works you do sees the Hand of God.