Numbers 21:4-9--The Bronze Serpent

Numbers 21:4-9
English Standard Version
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The Bronze Serpent
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.

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I've been telling you that I was getting excited for this passage for a few days now, and I pointed back to this passage when we were in the book of John, as Jesus references this story when He is having His discussion with Nicodemus.

The people set out from Mount Hor where they have just buried Aaron.  They are headed back to the Red Sea almost like they are starting all over again, but this time they are going to have to take a route that takes them around Edom, because Edom (their "cousins") would not let them step foot on their land and have met them with military force.

For obvious reasons, the people grow impatient with the Lord and with Moses.  If God knew this was going to happen and that we were just going to have to backtrack, then why did He even take us that way to start off with?  Then there was the added stress of them imagining themselves to be without food (we know that's not true as they are getting manna from heaven each day, they just don't want to eat that every day for forty years) and no water--which is kind of amazing because God just made water come out of a rock (we've seen this twice in the book of Numbers) and we've also seen God make brackish or "bitter" water in to clean or "sweet" water for them.  We're getting a condensed version though and surely if we were in the midst of these trying circumstances we too would probably forget all the things of the past and would identify with the song "What have you done for me lately?" because it doesn't really matter all that God has done for you in the past if He's not going to sustain you in that moment.

Once again we hear the people cry out that God must have lead them into the wilderness to see them all starve to death and die of dehydration, and the implication is that it would have been better for them to have remained slaves in Egypt, and they grumble against the manna that the Lord provided and call it "worthless."

Also not surprisingly, the Lord is angered by their grumbling, ingratitude and their rebellion.  He's already condemned all of this generation to die in the wilderness and would be within His right to let them all die of starvation and dehydration if He wanted, but He's not going to do that.  He could have instantly burnt all of them up with the holy fire of His Presence, but He only did that to a few.  He could have opened up the ground and had them go alive to their graves, but He only did that with a few of the rebellious Levites.  So then, what is He to do?  He sends a plague on them that will force them to once again call out to Him for rescue and salvation and once again see Him as their redeemer, but this one is a little different than the others as the answer is not simply to ask Moses to pray for the plague to be taken away.  This one has a new kind of answer--an answer consistent with the solution to all of us dying spiritually from the poison of the fiery serpents of sin.

The people are tormented and many people died before Moses intercedes on behalf of the people (as much as we know him as the mediator of the Old Covenant, his intercessory work is probably his most notable trait along with his meekness).  God gives Moses an answer that may seem strange to us especially since it may look like God is calling them to worship an idol if we don't know the end of the story and know what significance God is giving by this imagery.  Moses is to fashion a bronze form of the fiery serpent and put it up on a pole.  It is not clear if the pole was large enough for the whole camp to see (doubtful) if the people could come to the bronze serpent (probably also doubtful if they were dying) or if the bronze serpent needed to come to them (most likely option, and probably the most consistent with the meaning that we know is behind this passage).  All the people needed to do was look on the serpent on the pole and believe in faith and they would be made well.

This is most unusual!  What kind of salvation is this?  But that's exactly the same kind of feeling people get about the cross and the same kind of question that they ask about it.  Why couldn't God just make everyone better?  Why send Jesus to die and make Him become detestable and accursed like that ("He who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of Christ.")?  So the fiery serpents represent the sin of the people.  The bite or sting of that sin is death--not just physical death, but spiritual death.  The answer will come thousands of years later when Jesus becomes the sin of His people and their sin is nailed to the cross and crucified in His body.  That is why the image of sin is lifted up on that pole, representing Jesus being "lifted up" on the cross.  Jesus would later say that He too must be "lifted up" just like this serpent in the wilderness and that if He would be lifted up that He would draw all men unto Himself.  (John 3:14, John 8:28, John 12:27-32).  It is one of the first images Jesus draws our attention to in order to tell us about the cross and one of the last images He uses in His prayer in the Garden to pray that He would be glorified and exalted and that the Father would be glorified and exalted through His crucifixion.

Now notice the similarity of these instructions to what Jesus says is the only way of salvation that the Father has given for all men:

John 6:40
English Standard Version
​40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

It's not any different than here with the fiery serpents.  Everyone must look to Jesus, the Son of God,  on the cross in faith and believe to receive eternal life.  If we do this, then we will be raised up on the last day.  God takes those of us who were dead and makes us alive and fit for heaven by the Resurrection power of Jesus.

Now, I'm sure that most at this time did not understand that this miracle foreshadowed the cross, but it did hopefully help them understand that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, and to the glory of God alone.  (They just may not have quite gotten the "in Christ alone" part yet, but for some of them, the Holy Spirit may have allowed it to "click").  Jesus used this passage to plant the seed of the gospel in the heart of Nicodemus and we know from later passages that Nicodemus became a disciple of Jesus--he was one of only two men that helped to bury Jesus, not even the apostles did that.  There is so much of the gospel sitting here in the Old Testament for us to reveal to people if we simply ask the Holy Spirit to teach it to us, for that is exactly what Jesus did for the disciples on the road to Emmaus and what we see Peter do at Pentecost and Stephen do when he is stones, and Philip do with the Ethiopian Eunuch (and so many other examples in the New Testament).  The Old Testament is there for us to know and use to tell people that God has always been about the business of saving people by grace alone through faith alone and to the glory of God alone and we can now know through additional revelation that the answer is Christ alone.  This is just one of many passages that you can point to in the Old Testament to help you lead someone to Christ.

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