The Bronze Serpent.
In John chapter three Jesus used a historical illustration to teach Nicodemus about the importance of believing in His coming death. Jesus said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life" (John 3:14-15).
Nearly all of us know John 3:16. But let’s go back into the history of Israel and see what leads to this most famous of all the biblical promises. “ The first part of this verse refers to a strange moment in Israel’s history recorded in Numbers 21. There we learn that during the wilderness wanderings, the people began to murmur against God and Moses. After 40 years in the desert they were tired of the heat and the sand and the long marches from one place to another.
The people of Israel became impatient in their journey in the wilderness. In Numbers 21, the people again got discouraged, and in their unbelief they murmured against God and Moses for bringing them into the wilderness. They had already forgotten that it was their own sin that caused them to be there, and they tried to blame God and Moses for it.
Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?" they asked. ” (v. 5) "For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food." God was keeping two million people from starving to death in a wilderness and they were grumbling at Him. The "miserable food" they were eating was the manna God was providing for them daily. True, it wasn't stake and ale, but it kept them alive and healthy. The people "spoke against God and Moses." God takes our mouthing and complaining about Him seriously!
God sent poisonous snakes as a judgment because the people were grumbling against God and Moses. "The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died" (Numbers 21:6)."The soul that sins will surely die." (Ezekiel 18:20) That truth won't go away it would be added to the law.
The people seeing the seriousness of their sin urged Moses to intercede on their behalf. (v.7). "We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you." Please pray to the Lord that he would remove these poisonous snakes.” They confessed to God their evil attitude and behavior. Then Moses prayed that the LORD would remove the serpents from them.
The LORD then instructed Moses to, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he shall live" (v. 8). This "look" involved a look of faith in God to save them. "And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the pole; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived" (v. 9).
These verses refer us back to one of the most unique stories in the Old Testament. The Israelites in rebellion against God. God sent a plague of deadly serpents, that ultimately led to death. The people cried out for mercy and God instructed Moses to make a brass serpent, put it on a pole, and hold it up in the midst of the camp. Those who looked up at the serpent were healed. It was as simple as that.
Why not require the people to develop a kind of medicine? It would given them all something to do and would have satisfied every natural instinct of the heart to work on behalf of its own cure. The fact that they were not told to make a human remedy is indicative of the greater fact that there is no human remedy for sin. Nothing but death awaited them unless God provided the remedy. Salvation, spiritual healing, re-birth comes from simply looking at God, and, in that look, believing that hope comes only from trust in Him.
Jesus is the true manna (bread of life) from heaven. John 6:30-35 NKJV Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 Then they said to Him, “Lord, give us this bread always.” 35 And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
The Jews had always regarded the mana in the wilderness as the bread of God (Psalm 78:24, Exodus 16:15). There was a strong belief that when the Messiah came he would give manna from heaven. This was the supreme work of Moses. Now the Jewish leaders were demanding that Jesus produce manna from heaven as proof to his claim to be the Messiah. Jesus responds by telling them that it was not Moses who gave the manna, but God. And the manna given to Moses and the people was not the real bread from heaven, but only a symbol of the bread to come. Jesus then makes the claim which only God can make: I am the bread of life. The bread which Jesus offers is none else than the very life the word of God. This is the true bread which can truly satisfy the hunger in our hearts.
The manna in the wilderness sustained the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land. It could not produce eternal life for the Israelites. The bread which Jesus offers his disciples at the Lord’s Supper sustained them through their journey in the wilderness to the heavenly paradise, and gives them the abundant supernatural life of God which sustains us both now and for all eternity.
During the wilderness journey in the first century the Israelites also griped about the "miserable food" the true manna God provided for them. Jewish leaders strictly command the apostles not to preach in the name of Jesus (Acts 5:28) And Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. This time they beat the apostles demanding that they not preach in the name of Jesus, and let them go. (Acts 5:40) Never the less the apostles preached daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
Now in the first century journey they were being fed the true bread from heaven! The word’s of Jesus, His body and substance under the new covenant! By feeding on Him and His words of life that have become our New Testament Bibles they themselves would enter the promised rest! After Pentecost, as you may recall and remember, the Church constantly devoted themselves to the "breaking of bread and prayers” (Acts 2:42), that is, the Lord’s table, or what is commonly called communion. They were going house to house breaking bread! (Acts 2:46 all churches were then house churches!) Now through this union with one another, another union is often overlooked. It’s the union of the church with Christ being one bread! As the Apostle Paul points out, this is clearly borne out in their communion, or what became known as their “love feasts”. He states that they are one bread and one body which is the body of Christ!
1 Cor. 10:16-17 (NKJV) 16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? 17 For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.”
The church was ridiculed, persecuted, thrown into prison, and martyred in the satanic attempt to destroy their unity. Yet they persevered till the end! They did not fail in completing their exodus in faith, like the Apostle Paul stated was the case of those in the first Exodus journey earlier in that same chapte!
1 Cor. 10:1-11 (NKJV) Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea,2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. 5 But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. 7 And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”8 Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; 9 nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; 10 nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”
In the aforementioned verses we again read of the destruction of the fiery serpents! As we know Jesus like the bronze serpent needed to be lifted up to be seen by all who would seek healing! This "lifting up" of the Son of Man is a definite statement of Jesus' coming death on the cross. He was telling Nicodemus that in His death God would provide salvation. There is a divine imperative in the death of Jesus. The Son of Man "must" be lifted up. Peter preached the necessity of His death saying, "this Man, was delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. And God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death; since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power" (Acts 2:22-25). It was God's deliberate choice and purpose to crucify Jesus. It was no accident, or the martyrdom of a good religious teacher. He died as an act of God. His death was necessary for our salvation.
Why is the uplifted cross so important? Well for one we are told that it would draw all to Himself. (Jn.12:32) ὑψωθῶ is the Greek word “lifed up” it is more commonly meant or defined as lifted up in the sense of being “exhaulted”! And is rendered “exhault” or “exhaulted” 14 out of the 21 times it is used. It is also specifically linked to the healing in the Wilderness from the uplifted bronze serpent which was a beautiful picture and type or shadow of what Jesus would do for all who believe and look upon Him. Jesus was perfect and had never sinned, but God made Him to be sin for us (2 Cor.5:21) and allowed Jesus to also be placed upon a pole, and lifed high for any who had been bitten by the fiery Serpent (Which is all humanity!) known as Satan to live! Those who are bitten by that Serpent die the true death that ends in eternal separation from God! We are certainly talking type verses antitype here! What we see is a greater fulfillment is recognized in the truth of Jesus; in what has even been dubbed “The Great Exchange” His life for ours! Yet He needs to be seen and looked or gazed upon by you! But that does not mean to just be “uplifted”, but to be “exhaulted”!
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