Chapter 7
A Strange Way to Be Healed
The Reading: Numbers 21:4-9, John 3:14-18
The Problem:
I hate snakes. There’s only one good type of snake in my world — a dead one! If I see a snake crawling on the ground, it immediately makes my skin crawl. But in this short passage in Numbers, snakes became a foreshadowing of the fulfillment of the ultimate covenant God would make with creation.
The nation of Israel was coming to the end of its 40-year journey, and it had not been a smooth trip. The journey had been filled with multiple rebellions and corresponding consequences. But the people were finally closing in on the place that God planned for them to call home, the Promised Land.
However, on the verge of receiving a major season of blessing, instead of being thankful, all the Israelites could do was complain. In verse 5, they complained about the water. They complained about the manna. They even complained about Moses. They showed contempt for God by questioning, and even opposing, what God was doing in their lives. And finally they said that they just wanted to go back to Egypt. This was a big problem. They were beginning to act with the same unbelief as those who had already died in the desert for their sinfulness, unbelief, and idolatry.
So, in verse 6, the Lord responded to their complaints by sending fiery serpents among the people. Commentators vary in their opinions about why the serpents were referred to as being fiery. Some think they were a red color, like the color of fire. Others believe their bite caused an intense burning sensation, so they were called fiery serpents.
Most of the victims who died were of the older generation of unbelief, and this was God's final way of fulfilling His promise that they would perish in the wilderness, and never enter into the Promised Land.
The Turning Point:
However, unlike the previous generation, this group had softer hearts and was quicker to repent. They asked Moses to pray for them, because they knew they could only be saved from the snakes by a saving act of God. Thankfully, they were not trusting in luck or medical expertise, but only in God.
The Miracle That Followed:
God answered and saved the Israelites, but not in a way we would ever expect. He told Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole, and anyone who looked at the bronze snake would live. That doesn’t sound like something God would do. Actually, it sounds a lot like idolatry, and in time, that snake on a pole would become an idol to the people, so much so that a king by the name of Hezekiah would have it destroyed (2 Kings 18:1-4).
So why did God tell Moses to put a snake on a pole? Perhaps God used the snake because snakes are a symbol of evil in the Bible. Remember, it was a snake in the Garden of Eden that tempted Adam and Eve to sin. Some commentators have suggested that putting a snake on a pole forced the people to face their own sinfulness.
But I think it was more. Believing what God told them to do and obeying Him, even if it seemed ridiculous, would be a profound turnaround from their previous way of thinking. If they would obediently look up at the bronze snake Moses had put up on the pole, they would be demonstrating their trust in God and His promise to heal them.
The Bottom Line:
To treat snakebites, doctors use a cure that is called “antivenin.” To create antivenin, the venom is milked from snakes and injected in very small quantities into a horse or some other animal. The injected animal will have an immune response to the venom, producing antibodies against the venom's active molecule, which can then be used to treat people bitten by snakes.
Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is the antivenin for our fallen condition. In the same way the bronze snake was lifted up, Jesus was lifted up on the cross (John 3:14-15). And, just like seeing the bronze snake didn’t cure the Israelites, knowing about Jesus on the cross doesn’t cure us either.
The cure of the Israelites from having been bitten by the fiery snakes was dependent on their obedience in looking at the brass serpent set on a pole by Moses and believing in God’s promise. In the same manner, no one can receive the miracle of salvation except obedience to God's command to look on the Cross and believe in the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
