AS MOSES LIFTED UP THE SERPENT IN THE WILDERNESS, Explained

It might seem an odd thing to write about just two days before Christmas, but the story of God plaguing the Israelites with poisonous snakes and then commanding Moses to construct a bronze serpent and attach it to a cross-beamed pole has baffled even the best minds for centuries. Some people have regarded this story as yet another reason for them to reject God and the Bible and consider both to be nonsense. An ever-so-slightly-less-cynical approach that some, who seem to really want both God and the Bible to be true, have taken is to regard the story as a fictional myth with mysterious allegorical meaning. I think this is how Dr. Jordan Peterson recently interpretted it in his discussion with Mr. John Anderson on their Youtube discussion last week. The high profile psychologist Dr. Peterson seems to have been on an interesting spiritual journey of late and he is obviously delving into the Bible and coming up with what appear to be some roadblocks to his complete acceptance of the claims of Christ largely due to these obscure passages in the Bible such as this account in Numbers 21. “No one has ever been able to explain it to me!” he told Mr. Anderson. I wish he had asked me; because if he had, this is what I would have explained to him.

THE STORY OF THE DEADLY SNAKES

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red [or Reed] 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.”
Numbers 21:4-9

Theologically liberal scholars take this account in Numbers to be fictional and to be the later work of an exiled Jewish scholar around 500 B.C. I have a couple of reasons why I do not agree with this dismissal of the story’s truthfulness. Firstly, there is biblical evidence that the bronze serpent which Moses made was preserved up until the time of King Hezekiah (2Kings 18:4). Secondly, Jesus cites this story to Nicodemus in John 3:14 and makes a case from it about His own destiny that demands that it must have been non-fictional (true).

 

SERPENTS IN THE BIBLE REPRESENT EVIL AND SIN

Based on this story, the Israelites whom God had just redeemed from their bondage in Egypt were now complaining about their arduous conditions involved in trekking from Egypt to the Promised Land. There are several parallels to the New Testament gospel in this account that also make this story very consistent with the Bible’s message about our spiritual journey through this life not being without some hardships and even some deprivation. It has often been noted that Israel’s deliverance from Egypt is a type of the world that keeps unsaved souls in bondage to sin (note John 1:10). 

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.
First Corinthians 10:9-10

It will also come as no surprise even to the novice Bible reader that serpents are emblematic of evil. When the redeemed people complain about God and Moses not caring about them, they had grossly under-estimated God’s amazing care that He had already bestowed on them. In what became a lesson that the Israelites did not fully understand at the time, it certainly became a lesson that they would never forget when God said, You think that I am not caring for you? Then I will lift my hand of protection from off of you just for a moment so that you will realise what I have been all along! The deadly truth that resulted was a truth that we still need to be reminded of today — God is caring, protecting and sustaining us even when we don’t realise it! The lifting of His hand of protection against the deadly serpents that swarmed that part of the wilderness for just a moment was catastrophic. In First Corinthians 10:9-10, the apostle Paul reveals that the fiery serpents were instruments of the devilish Destroyer!

The next time you are tempted to think that God no longer cares for you, you might need to postpone your complaint against Him and take a moment to thank Him for all of your existing blessings that you currently take for granted. A simple test to discover what these unappreciated blessings might be is to ask yourself, What if tomorrow I only had left what I was thankful to God for today? 

While the result of God momentarily lifting His protective hand off of the Hebrews was widespread death, He also had an unusual momentary solution to the serpents’ poisonous venom that was immeasurably profound.

 

GOD’S ODD SOLUTION:
A BRONZE SERPENT ON A CROSS-BEAMED POLE

Bronze can apparently withstand tremendous heat. The altar in the Tabernacle where the sacrificial animals were slain was to be a brazen (bronze-plated) altar. Bronze became a symbol, a type, of that which withstands judgment. When the Son of God appeared to the apostle John on Patmos, John describes Jesus as having feet that were like burnished bronze – that is, Christ has been judged and has withstood the judgment on behalf of all those deserved everlasting judgment!

His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace,
and His voice was like the roar of many waters.
Revelation 1:15

The Israelites who had been bitten by the fiery serpents and contracted the deadly venom were instructed to look at the bronze serpent on the pole that Moses had made and be healed. This is reminiscent of the later prophecy of Isaiah who also told people to look to the Lord and be saved.

“Look to Me, and be saved,
All you ends of the earth!
For I am God, and there is no other.”
Isaiah 45:22 NKJV

The fact that Moses was instructed to set the brazen serpent on a pole to be lifted up for all Israel to see is also significant. In Athanasius’s De incarnatione Verbi Dei: “On the incarnation of the Word” (published in A.D. 318) he points out that Christ had to be killed publicly where anybody could look at Him. He also pointed out that His death was the defeat the “Prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2) which is why He died suspended in the air while He was nailed to the cross. When Moses was ordered to make the bronze serpent he was told to lift it up in the air on a pole. This is also how Christ was to die (Acts 2:32-33).

So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man,
then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing on My own authority,
but speak just as the Father taught Me.
John 8:28

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth,
will draw all people to Myself.”
John 12:32

Athanasius answers the question, Why couldn’t Jesus have died for the sins of the world secretly? He points out that it was Christ’s public and very visible execution that became the means—the doorway—to His glorification (Rom. 6:4) and the verification of His indisputable death. And if someone could have seen into the spiritual realm as Christ was nailed to cross and lifted up into the air they would have seen that while on that cross Adonai-Christ was grotesquely transformed into the sin of all the human race.

HE BECAME SIN FOR US

The significance of Moses being commanded by Yahweh to make a bronze serpent and lift it up on a pole was not merely, as Dr. Jordan Petersen proposes, for the snake bitten Israelites to now “confront their greatest fear”. Rather, the significance was that it was a type of what the Saviour would one day do for all poisoned people – not just from snake-bites – but from something far deadlier: sin. When Jesus was lifted up on a Roman cross he became sin. He was embodying all of the sins of all of the people of all time – past, present, and future! Just as the bronze serpent represented the Hebrews’ sin of rebellion against God (the root of all sin), Jesus-Adonai literally represented the sins of all humanity when he died on the cross and shed His life-blood for us all. The Apostle Paul describes this as a great exchange in Second Corinthians 5:21 –

For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin,
so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
Second Corinthians 5:21

Like all of the typology in the Old Testament, when the Yahweh-Christ was lifted up on the cross to face the Father’s wrath for our sin as our propitiation {one whose blood is shed to atone for the sins of others} (Rom. 3:25; Heb. 2:17; 1Jn. 2:2; 4:10) the lifting of the bronze serpent up via a pole was just another ‘shadow’ of what Jesus the Christ would one day do. Those who interpret God allowing fiery serpents to bite and even kill some Hebrews as an indication of God’s maliciousness have got it completely wrong! It is completely on the contrary. This is why John 3:16 makes little sense unless we accept what Jesus told Rabbi Nicodemus in their clandestine conversation.

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD

John 3:16 is perhaps the most memorised Bible verse among Christians. It was probably a part of the Apostle John’s commentary on the conversation he had just heard between Jesus and Nicodemus (despite most of our Bible’s printing it in red letters as if Jesus had just said it). But its full impact cannot possibly be understood unless it is read in the context of the previous verses about Moses and the bronze serpent being lifted up.

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness…” (John 3:14) was a dramatic pre-figuring of what The Christ would do and Jesus told Nicodemus that this pre-figuring of what Moses did would ultimately soon be fulfilled by His own on death on the cross. All of this would happen because of God the Father’s great love for all people. “Wilderness” in the Bible is presented as the devil’s domain – it is a place wild barrenness (‘wilderness’) which fittingly depicts the devil’s work. When Christ was crucified, He was taken outside of the city limits to a barren hill called Golgotha (Matt. 27:33) in a way that resembles Moses lifting up the bronze serpent in the wilderness. At the time of Moses, the people repented, were healed, and never faced the threat of a plague of fiery serpents again. As a result of Christ’s atoning death as the only One who could withstand the wrath and judgment of God, all those who look to Jesus as Saviour in repentance can also be healed from the poison of their sin and have their sin-stain wiped away for all eternity! So, Dr. Peterson, this is what I would have told you about the significance of Christ telling Nicodemus about lifting the bronze serpent up in the wilderness if you had asked me. Merry Christmas everyone.

Your Pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.

WHY GOD? HOW GOD? WHERE ARE YOU GOD? WHEN WILL THIS END GOD?

 Leading up to Easter, we’ve been considering the events surrounding the last week of Christ before the Cross. As we’ve seen, one of the major events that occurred during this time, just days before the Holy Weekbegan, was when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. And while we read this account with the benefit of hindsight, those involved at the time — who were caught up in the moment — weren't so fortunate. Because they didn't yet know what we now know, they had questions—both intellectual and emotional! There are many parallels with the questions raised in this account and what many of us are asking and facing now as we come to grips with the impact of COVID-19. We can well imagine what Martha and Mary of Bethany must have been experiencing especially after the tragic death of their brother, Lazarus, and the apparent indifference of Jesus to their plight. 

So, when He heard that Lazarus was ill, He stayed two days longer in the place where He was.
John 11:6

¶ Now when Jesus came, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.
John 11:17

 Their questions may well have included some that many are asking today- “Why did God let this happen?” “Why didn't Jesus prevent this?” “Why didn't God answer my prayers?” “Doesn't God love us anymore?” “Why is Jesus taking so long to respond to our cries for help?”

Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met Him, but Mary remained seated in the house.
John 11:18-20

When Lazarus was unwell and it soon became obvious that he was dying, Martha and Mary of Bethany sent word to Jesus asking Him to come quickly. When word reached Jesus, He didn't respond. In fact, He intentionally delayed going to them, and to make matters worse in the eyes of those trying to understand Christ's apparent carelessness, He told His disciples that He was waiting for Lazarus to die before He went to Martha and Mary of Bethany!

Then after this He said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?” After saying these things, He said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” The disciples said to Him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He meant taking rest in sleep.
John 11:7-13

CONFUSING TIMES

The questions that Martha and Mary of Bethany asked during their grief over the loss of their brother are questions that many of the psalmists asked as well, especially when God also seemed to them to be indifferent to their predicament and silent during their time of distress.

¶ To you, O LORD, I call;
my rock, be not deaf to me,
lest, if you be silent to me,
I become like those who go down to the pit.
Psalm 28:1

Why, O LORD, do you stand far away?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
Psalm 10:1

Interestingly though, as we study the history of the Church, we notice that the Christians of the earliest times weren’t as inclined to ask these tough questions of God as the psalmists did or Christians of later times have (and do). Professor Glenn Sunshine (Professor of History of Central Connecticut State University) makes the point that in the 2nd century AD the Roman Empire had a plague sweep through which was killing people by the thousands. The chief medical officer of the Roman Empire, Galen, left Rome for his country estate in the hope of avoiding the deadly epidemic. He noted that most of Rome's physicians did the same. Professor Sunshine, referring to the records of Galen, notes that not everyone fled Rome at this time though. He writes- 

There was one exception to this.

Christians—an unpopular and sporadically persecuted religious minority—ran to the plague-stricken areas instead of away from them to care for and comfort the sick and dying. Galen, who found Jews and Christians interesting, though gullible, notes that Christians acted this way because they had no fear of death, believing that if they died, they would pass into a better life.

A century after Galen's Plague, Professor Sunshine continues, there was another even deadlier epidemic sweeping across the Empire.

A century after Galen’s plague, another horrific disease spread across the Empire, known to historians as the Plague of Cyprian. It was named after a bishop who described it in detail. He explained that when people became ill, their families would take them out and throw them into the streets to die, as if by hiding their deaths the families could avoid death itself.

Once again, the exception was the Christians, who went out and ministered to those dying in the streets, once again at great risk to their own lives, once again in confidence that if they died, they would go to Heaven. One Christian noted that death was inevitable and martyrdom common, and it made little difference to him if he were martyred by the sword or by disease.

The pandemic of the mid-1300s was actually a deadly stew of three related diseases—bubonic plague, septicaemic plague and pneumonic plague, which infected the lungs, according to historian Norman Davies. “The result,” writes Davies in Europe, A History, “was mass mortality.” At the height of the plague, 800 people died each day in Paris, 500 in Pisa and 600 in Vienna. Half of Siena died within a single year, as did 50,000 of Florence’s 100,000 citizens. Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, a classic of western literature, contains 100 stories told by 10 people sheltering from the plague. “One man shunned another,” Boccaccio explained, and father and mothers “were found to abandon their own children to their fate, untended, unvisited as if they had been strangers.” SOURCE: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/11/you-think-ebolas-bad-try-the-black-death-112985

 Sociologist, Professor Rodney Stark, notes that nursing traces its roots back to the times when Christians ministered to the sick and dying during Europe's bubonic plague of the 4th century. Even the very basic nursing care provided by these caring Christians was sufficient to save many lives even when it led to these Christians laying down their own lives. Professor Sunshine notes that this Christian tradition continued through to the 14th century when Europe's deadliest plague wiped out 48% of it population. This plague became known as The Black Death. But the highest rate of mortality occurred among Christian pastors who selflessly tended to the sick and dying.

When the Black Death arrived in Europe in 1347-51, it killed about 48% of the population based on the best current research. Plague was no respecter of persons: people died without regard for social class or standing. The only group that stands out is the clergy: they died at a greater percentage than the general population because they went to comfort the sick and dying and thus exposed themselves to the disease knowing that they could contract it themselves.

CONFUSING THEOLOGICAL QUESTIONS

Before Jesus arrived at the home of Martha and Mary of Bethany, He was met by Martha who had what might be understood as angry questions for Christ. These questions sounded like — “Where have You been!?” (Hurting and grieving people nearly always experience an anger that is often directed at God.)

And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met Him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.
John 11:19-21

Professor John Lennox, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, has been one of the first Christian apologists to respond to how Christians should think about COVID-19 in his book WHERE IS GOD IN A CORONAVIRUS WORLD? He refers to this episode in John 11 with Jesus meeting Martha as He approached their home in Bethany. Martha, Professor Lennox argues, seems to switch her line of questioning to a very intellectual level (as if she was almost embarrassed that she had shown any emotion to Christ). Sometimes people who raise intellectual objections about God are simply putting up a smoke-screen to hide their emotional ache.

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
John 11:23-27

But when Mary of Bethany comes to Jesus, she is distraught and wearing her emotions on her sleeve.

Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw Him, she fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled.
John 11:32-33

Christ’s response to Mary of Bethany was quite different to His theological response to her sister, but no less appropriate, Professor Lennox points out. Mary came weeping, and Christ's response to her was tender.

And He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept.
John 11:34-35

But some of them said, “Could not He who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” ¶ Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odour, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard Me. I knew that you always hear Me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent Me.” When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” ¶ Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what He did, believed in Him.
John 11:37-45 

Jesus ministered to Martha's intellectual questions with profound theology. In a reflective moment, it's worth considering the enormous implications of what Jesus said to her about the eternal state and destiny of all who put their trust in Christ as their Redeemer. No matter what intellectual questions or objections people might proffer against God's goodness, there is always an intellectually and theologically satisfying response to be found in God's Word. And Jesus ministered to Mary’s emotional questions (notice how similar sounding hers was to her sister’s) in a way that shows some questions don't need answers—they need a hug and someone to weep with them. But Jesus did more than answer Martha and weep with Mary of Bethany. He did something.


TRAGEDIES COME TO PASS BUT ETERNITY IS HERE TO STAY

What Jesus did for Martha and Mary of Bethany (and for Lazarus) was a foreshadow of what He will do for all who put their trust in Him as their Saviour. F.W. Boreham writes that Jesus wept outside of the tomb of Lazarus—not just because He was deeply moved by Mary’s tears, but because of what He was about to do to Lazarus! (Jesus knew where Lazarus really was while everyone else thought he was a corpse in a tomb.) This reveals a profoundly different perspective on suffering and even death. For those who turn from their own self-reliance to trusting in the only offer available to enter into eternal life, what was said of Lazarus to Martha is also true for them- “Your brother will rise again.”  (John 11:23)  

As this coronavirus kills thousands everyday around the world, we may well be asking God -"Why?" or, "How did You let this happen?" or, "What have we done to deserve this?" or, "Where are You God?" or, "When will this end?" But perhaps a better question is "What would you have me do to help others in this trying time Lord?"

This pandemic is not the first one the world had endured, and it probably won't be the last one either. It's natural though that we and those around us ask these why/how/when/where questions of God during such times. But as we draw strength and insight from God's Word we are reminded that the things of this life are just "momentary light afflictions" and our ultimate destiny is to receive a body that will never perish or wear-out which will be perfectly fit for a dimension where time will always be today.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:4

About two weeks after Christ raised Lazarus from the dead, He, after He had suffered a horrible and humiliating treatment by the authorities which led to His execution, was also raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom 1:4). But, unlike Lazarus, Christ's resurrection was a lasting one and the "firstfruits" of all who trust in Him (Col. 1:18). Therefore, as the Apostle Paul told the Thessalonians about the resurrection that awaits all believers, "Comfort one another with these words" (First Thessalonians 4:18). This is why those who are called to heal — doctors, nurses, specialists, therapists — are ministering the grace of God in a long line and tradition of how those who have been inspired by Christ. As with previous pandemics, this current pandemic is yet another example of how Christ calls His followers to minister to the hurting, confused, suffering, and dying. (The next time you see a nurse, a doctor, a surgeon, or a specialist, thank God for them!) 

Throughout all this, Christians were following the example of Jesus: He was a healer, so we too should tend the sick. Bodily health is important because this body is important, and so everywhere the Gospel has gone it has brought hospitals. But our bodily life in this world is not of ultimate importance, and so in love we are called to lay down our lives for our neighbors in need.
Professor Glenn Sunshine

-Pastor Andrew Corbett