Raising our Reminder

Usually I start with a life experience, and go from there to Bible Verses which guide us. Today I'm going to do this a little more like a sermon and start from a Bible Verse and talk about it. I went to a friend's church this Sunday and the pastor spoke about John 3:13-15 in which Jesus quotes a verse from Numbers 21:9. I was really intrigued by the story that he discussed a little bit as background, and decided to do a little research of my own. I was raised in the church and have what I would consider a pretty exhaustive knowledge of Bible Stories, but I had never heard this one. And while I have read a large part of the Bible, I have never quite made it through from cover to cover. So I was excited to find a story with which I was unfamiliar. 

This story in Numbers describes yet another time when the Israelites had screwed up. The Israelites were still wondering in the desert, but they were finally on their way to Edom, but as always, the Israelites didn't appreciate what they had. The Bible says "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.”

And so the Lord decided to punish His people for their lack of trust and their disobedience. So "then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died." The people of Israel, now knowing the signs of God's reprimands when they had screwed up, immediately knew they had done wrong. Then '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.'"

And Moses prayed to the Lord "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.” The Lord used the symbol of their punishment as the catalyst for their healing.

And the Bible tells us that Moses did this, he "made a [bronze/copper/brazen] serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live." Also important, Moses did have to raise the serpent up, but the people were not automatically healed, they too had to lift their eyes up and acknowledge their sin before they were healed.

So to me the most interesting part of this story is the method that God used to provide for His people's healing. As I said, when Moses prayed to God, God directed Moses to "make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live." This is really intriguing because the method of healing is the raising up of the cause of the ailment. 

While I feel the need to point out that our "puny human minds" (as my friend likes to say) cannot completely understand the mind of God, I think there are a couple reasonable explanations for this. In fact, my reasoning was backed up by my research as several Old-Testament scholars and Masoretic (Hebrew Bible) Scholars. I selected some references for each point, but there are a wealth of other thoughts on this text, if you are interested let me know. 

But here are four reasons that I think it may have been that God used the instrument of the punishment as the instrument of the healing.

1. To Show God's Power: God was able to show his absolute power by the reversal of something used for punishment to become something used for healing. Two Masoretic Scholars (Daas Zekeinim; Ramban) made this point. Daas Zekeinim said "the same snake that He gave the power to kill people with its venom, is the same one whose depiction will be the instrument of their healing."
2. Because it was a symbolic representation of the sin committed: The use of the snake might have proved a good reminder for the Israelites because in many ways the serpent represents the idea of misrepresenting, speaking deceitfully of, or slandering God (as in Genesis 3:6 where the serpent misrepresents God's commands in the garden, slandering Him and deceiving Adam and Eve). Because of this the Israelites might better understand the severity of the sin of which they had to repent. (Masoretic Scholar Sforno)
3. To be a reminder of the sin so it would not be repeated: The same snake that He gave the power to kill people with its venom, is the same one whose depiction will be the instrument of their healing. Masoretic Scholar Baal Haturim suggests that
4. To teach the Israelites to raise up their sins to God for forgiveness: This may have been a type of man raising their sins to God for forgiveness, just as they had to raise their ailment up to God for healing.(Aaron Jehoshua, an Old Testament Scholar wrote an article called Copper Serpent in his biblical encyclopedia called Insights in the Scripture) He said " In the wilderness a person who had been bitten by one of the poisonous serpents that Jehovah sent among the Israelites evidently had to gaze at the copper serpent in faith [to be healed]," just as Moses had to literally raise the serpent up to God for their healing.
5. To foreshadow Christ being raised on the cross to forgive our sins: Christ's death was a representation of our death through sin, and he was raised on the cross to heal us, true, but also as a reminder that we need healing. Because of Christ's death, the perfect Son of God, we knew the severity of our own sin that it took such a perfect sacrifice, but we were also freed from it. Reverend Spurgeon said "Allow me, then, dear friends, to describe first, the people in the wilderness—the representatives of men who are sinners. Let me describe next, the brazen serpent—the type of Jesus Christ crucified. Let me then note what was to be done with the brazen serpent—it was to be lifted up; and so was Christ to be lifted up. And then let us notice what was to be done by the people who were bitten—they were to look at the serpent; and so sinners must believe in Christ." (Jehoshua also agreed to this point as well.

This last point, the foreshadowing of Christ leads me back, finally to the verse in John. "No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. '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 3:13-15 This, of course emphasizes that God used the serpent for the fifth reason, to foreshadow Jesus.

Jehoshua said this about this topic: "Like the copper serpent that Moses placed on a pole in the wilderness, the Son of God was fastened on a stake, thus appearing to many as.. a sinner [the representation of our sin, like the snake], being in the position of one cursed. (De 21:22, 23; Ga 3:13; 1Pe 2:24) In the wilderness a person who had been bitten by one of the poisonous serpents that Jehovah sent among the Israelites evidently had to gaze at the copper serpent in faith. Similarly, to gain everlasting life through Christ, it is necessary to exercise faith in him." I don't think I could have said it any better myself, in fact I know I couldn't have.

And Reverend Spurgeon said, in more flowery language, the same thing. "And now I must tell you one or two sweet things for the encouragement of the poor sinner. Oh, you that are guilty this morning, and know that you are so, let me say to you, 'Look to Christ.' For remember the brazen serpent was lifted up, that every one in the camp who was bitten might live; and now Christ is lifted up to you, that 'whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.' Sinner, the devil says you are shut out; tell him that 'whosoever' shuts out none. Oh that precious word, 'whosoever.' I see thee clutch at it and say, 'Then, Sir, if I believe, he will not cast me away.'"