RTBS: 07/22 The Bronze Serpent
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Tonight we will be looking at a story that you have probably never heard.
And if you have I doubt you have seen the connection we will make tonight
In the Sunday Sermon Jesus continued to reference this idea of being lifted up.
This is something he continued to say, and there is really only one place in scripture that we get a direct reference to what he is talking about.
This would be back in John 3 when he is talking to the Pharisee Nicodemus
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Understand what Jesus is saying here.
He is not saying that the story of Moses lifting up a serpent in the wilderness is similar to what will happen to him.
HE IS SAYING THAT IT DIRECTLY FORESHADOWED AND PICTURED WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO CHRIST
THIS WAS NOT JUST A COMPARISON, BUT A PROPHECY
In the Sunday Sermon we looked how Jesus referenced this same picture
31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” 33 This He said, signifying by what death He would die.
Sunday we looked at the idea of power coming in humility.
And this idea is directly personified in the picture of him being lifted up
This term has a double meaning
1. He would be lifted up on the cross - in humility
2. He would be exalted because of his sacrifice - power
So he is lifted up in humility - literally lifted up as the cross is lifted into place
And he is lifted up, or exalted in power (drawing all people to himself) because of this sacrifice
But this picture of being lifted up again is a reference to an OT prophecy that perfectly describes this idea.
CONTEXT
To understand this picture, we need to go all the way back to the time of Moses
Now we are going to use this as an opportunity once again to review the early OT structure
3 Men
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob
All in the book of Genesis
Jacob has 12 sons - became the 12 tribes of Israel = Israelites
One son Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt
Joseph is eventually put into a place of authority
His family moves there and multiples over the span of about 400 years and become slaves in Egypt
The a baby named Moses is born
He would eventually be sent by God to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt
He would lead them through the wilderness to the land that God had promised Abraham
But along the way the people do not trust in God, so God makes them wander in the wilderness for 40 years before they would be able to enter
During this time the people would continually struggle to have faith in God
God would continue to feed them with bread from heaven
He would lead them where they needed to go
Just before the 40 years is over, they are ready to go into the promised land, and this story occurs in Numbers 21
4 Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged 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 our soul loathes this worthless bread.”
So as the Israelites have done many times before they are complaining
And they say the line they have given multiple times before, “WHY DIDN’T GOD JUST LEAVE US IN EGYPT TO DIE?”
Now before the Israelites have gotten away with most of their complaining, but at this point God is tired of hearing it
So he brings a plague on them that will ensure they would think twice before complaining again
6 So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.
Now we don’t know exactly what fiery serpents are, but it is likely just a reference to the burning sensation of being bit by a snake
The area would have been home to a wide variety of poisonous snakes so this would not have been anything too out of the ordinary, except for the scale
Remember that at this point the Israelites could have numbered roughly 2 million people
To understand what this would have looked like....
Take the entire city population of Indianapolis and double it, that is roughly the scope of how many people we are looking at here
The land mass that the Israelites would have covered at this time would have equivalent to the inner city downtown Indianapolis area
Imagine if tomorrow you woke up to hear on the news that snakes have invaded Indianapolis
And many people have died as a result
If there was just 1 venomous snake roaming the streets of Indianapolis that would make the news itself
We are talking thousands, potentially tens of thousands of venomous snakes in every area within the camp
And people are dying from this
It was a punishment, as a result of their sin - (notice the picture of God using the snake as the medium of the punishment, and them being described as fiery)
And it appears at this point there is nothing they can do
They appear to be doomed to the fate of death by these serpents
And in usual fashion, the people repent, and Moses steps in to intercede
7 Therefore 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 again in usual fashion, even though the people didn’t deserve it, God provides a way out of their sin
8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
There is so much here, so we are going to break it down piece by piece
He says make a fiery serpent (which would be made out of bronze) and he would put it on a pole
Now why bronze?
Bronze consistently represented judgement
The altar that the sacrifices were made on was bronze, the bowl where the priests washed in the tabernacle was bronze
It was a metal that signified the idea of judgement
Now many other artifacts that God had the people make were made out of gold? Why not make it out of gold
Well gold represented holiness and glory
So just keep that in mind
Now what about the serpent, why a snake?
Well the snake represented the judgement, and the effects of the judgement
If you remember in Genesis, it was the snake that Satan used to deceive Adam and Eve to sin against God
And from that point on the snaked is cursed, and is a forever picture of the curse
And in this instance, the snake is the curse itself, the punishment of the curse, but then it becomes the means of healing
The thing that was the source of death, became the source of healing
Then he puts the bronze snake on a pole, and lifts the pole up for all to see
Hopefully you are starting to get the picture here
And the Bible says that when the people would look at the bronze snake on the pole, they would be healed
NOW NOTICE A FEW THINGS
Did the bronze serpent cause all the snakes to leave the camp, once it was lifted up? NO
When they people looked at the bronze serpent, did it cause them to no longer be bitten by the snakes? NO
The bronze serpent did not remove the present effects of the people’s sin, they still had to face the effects of their sin
WHAT IT DID WAS REMOVE THE THREAT OF DEATH
THEY STILL GOT BIT, BUT THEY WOULDN’T DIE
If you are making the connections here you can see just how incredible these pictures are
Remember what Jesus told Nicodemus
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Jesus says that what he will do, will be a fulfillment of what was foreshadowed in the bronze serpent.
Just as the the snake would be the source of the curse and the healing.
So would the sin and mankind be the curse, and Jesus being made sin on the cross, it would become the healing.
Just as the snake was lifted up on a pole.
So would Jesus be lifted up on a cross
Just as the the material of the snake, bronze, represented judgement.
So would the sacrifice of Christ represent judgement on sin.
Just as the people would look to the bronze serpent for healing.
So would mankind to look to Jesus, the one who bore our sin, for healing.
Just as the bronze serpent didn’t remove the effects of the curse, but saved them from death.
So would the salvation of Christ not remove the effects of sin from our life entirely, but it would save us from death.
Just as the the people were saved from death by looking at the embodiment of the very curse they were facing, lifted up in front of them.
So would mankind be saved from death by looking at the embodiment of the very curse they were facing, being lifted up in front of them.
Its such a clear picture and prophecy of not just the event of the crucifixion but the entire gospel.
And when Jesus said this that we looked at Sunday in John 12:31-33, he was referencing this same idea.
31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” 33 This He said, signifying by what death He would die.
But this wasn’t the end of the story of the bronze serpent
It would be brought up again, nearly 700 years later in the book of 2 Kings.
For the next 700 years, the Israelites would carry this bronze serpent....
through the wilderness
into the promised land
It would be preserved and held through the times of...
The judges
The Saul
David
David’s son Solomon
And then it shows up again, in a very disheartening way, 700 years later in 2 Kings 18
At this time the King of Judah was a man named Hezekiah
2 Kings 18:5-6 tells us what kind of a man he was
5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.
He was one of the greatest kings of the Israelite people to ever live, and that is exemplified in what he does with the bronze serpent
1 Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done.
4 He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan.
The Israelites had a major problem with idol worship.
The other nations around them worshiped idols, they were one of the only nations that didn’t
And through intermarrying and alliances and just generally incorporating themselves with the other nations, idol worship was a major sin for them
And we see that over the past 700 years, the people have decided to start worshiping this bronze serpent.
So Hezekiah breaks it into pieces, along with all of the other idols they were worshiping.
The Bible says that Hezekiah calls the bronze serpent now by the name Nehushtan (Neh-hoo-shtun)
And what this word means is just - bronze
So this bronze serpent over time had been viewed almost like a God
Hezekiah smashes it and says all this is, is bronze
It would be the equivalent of looking at at wooden idol with a name, and saying, its just a piece of wood
And that was the end of the bronze serpent
But it was not the end of the core issue that we still face today
The bronze serpent was meant to remind people of their sin, and point them to God, and eventually the gospel of christ
It was clear that there was no power in the object itself, but that the object was only designed as a symbol of their true source of power
And what the people did instead, in their pride, was determine that they didn't want to rely on God for their power.
Because relying on God alone for power in this life required humility
And idol worship didn’t require humility in the same way, because the people could worship on their terms
I think that is why idol worship was such an issue for the people, because obedience to God requires humility, but idols don’t require anything
There may be some worship practice or some recognition of a blessing that mankind had made up about each idol, but there wasn’t a change of heart and full submission required
You see one of the tempting aspects of the idols, was that the idea of idol worship was not exclusive
You could worship whatever idol you wanted, or multiple if needed
But God requires exclusive worship, which means that you submit yourself fully to him
And the Israelites people struggled at the core, not just with idol worship, but with pride
And when they were in desperate need, they would be willing to submit to God to receive the power needed
But eventually they would fall back into their pride and reject him again, chasing their own means of power
And as we looked at Sunday
We can look at the cross of Jesus, in humility, humbling ourselves, fully submitted to him, and through his power we can sanctified
Or we can look at the cross of Christ in pride, as simply a means to power
And this again was much of the issues of the Israelites, instead of submitting to God and relying on his power they looked at the serpent as a means to obtain more power
And if we do the same we will find the same result
We have no power within us
And if we try to find power in religion, or practices, or even the things of the world, we will find out just how little power we have
But when we submit ourselves fully to Jesus, look at him and his work on the cross for salvation, we will be saved from death. Just like the people were saved from death by the bronze serpent.
