Our passage for today comes from Numbers 21:4-9:
4 Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey. 5 The people spoke against God and 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 miserable food.”
6 The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and you; intercede with the LORD, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. 8 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.” 9 And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.
May God add His blessing to the reading of this His word and teach us from it today.
Some of you may know that when I was younger my family would take many car trips. Often we would drive to conference or other vacation spots because it was cheaper than flying. However, my parents also knew that to take three kids in a car for extended periods of time would be torture. So they had this system where we could stay up as late as we wanted the night before. It was amazing. I loved it. I got to stay up late in my pajamas. Inevitably I, and probably my brother and sister, would fall asleep before midnight. Then my parents would wake us up at 3 in the morning and start the car trip. This meant two things: first it got us excited about the trip because it meant we could stay up. Second: it meant that my dad got close to 8 hours of quiet before we woke up and fought with each other. It meant that at the begging of the trip there was peace.
We find at the beginning of our passage that the Israelites too were going on a trip. Now this was nothing new to the Israelites. They had been traveling ever since they left Egypt, but it is precisely that fact that we need to keep in mind for this passage. It says in verse 4 that “the people became inpatient because of the journey.” Now I am reading from NASB and most other translations will say something like “the people became impatient on the way,” but I think the NASB has captured the intent of what was said. The Israelites were tired of traveling. Verse 4 says they had to “go around the land of Edom.” It wasn’t just the travel they were tired of it was the length. They did not want yet another detour. They were saying “God why is it taking you so long to give me this job you promised; or the spouse you promised; or the child you promised? I want my promise now!”
The beginning of verse 5 tells us “the people spoke against God and Moses.” Unlike previous times where the people complained against Moses, this time we see them actively naming and complaining against God as well. The phrase used here harkens back to Numbers 12 where Miriam and Aaron spoke against the leadership of Moses. This was not just against Moses because God had appointed Moses. Though they may not have called God out like in our passage the intent was the same. Indeed God immediately rebukes Miriam and Aaron because Moses is “My Servant” and “with him I speak mouth to mouth.” We see in the book of Numbers that God does not have patience with those who question Him.
Continuing in verse 5 we see the Israelites complaining “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?” The truth of the matter was that God had freed them from slavery and death in Egypt and was bringing them to freedom and life in the Promised Land. But the Israelites were only concerned with their immediate happiness. The rest of verse 5 tells us that they complained of not having any food. Yet the very next phrase says “and we loathe this miserable food.” The truth was they did have food and they were being cared for by God. Their complaint about dying in the desert spoke more of their mental state then their actual circumstances. They were saying “God I don’t want a house. I want a mansion. I don’t want to just be content I want to be rich. I don’t just want all the many blessings you have given me I want more.” The Israelites were whining, ungrateful children.
Remember my family car trips? Well I was a lot like the Israelites. When I woke up I was usually excited still. We were going somewhere new. But inevitably on these long car trips I would get bored and declare “Are we there yet?” I was tired of sitting in a car. I was not in control of where I was going and I wanted to be done with the trip. I wanted to be at the destination; to be in the Promised Land.
If that wasn’t enough I would often complain “I’m hungry. Can we get some food?” When we did stop, sometimes it would be at a restaurant that I didn’t like and then I would declare that I didn’t like this place and wanted to go somewhere else to eat. I was ungrateful. When I tired of traveling I would complain. When I was hungry I would complain. When I was finally given food I would complain that it was not the food I wanted. I was like Israelites.
So confronted with this whining and complaining what does God do to the Israelites? He sends “fiery serpents.” The term fiery here, probably refers to the sensation that one would have once bitten by the snake. Now one could just conclude that these snakes, these serpents, were a convenient consequence for God to send. The Israelites were in the desert. There were a lot of snakes in the desert. Some of the snakes are poisonous and can kill. So God just sent those snakes.
Indeed these snakes become part of the Israelites understanding of the trails of the desert. In Deuteronomy 8:15 Moses, addressing the Israelites before they enter the Promised Land, says “[God] led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions.” Here the snakes represent the trails of the desert. Thus, it is conceivable that the snakes were used just out of opportunity. But to leave the understanding there fails to comprehend what snakes meant to the people of Israel.
In Exodus we have the account of Moses confronting Pharaoh. The very first sign of the power of God is for Aaron to turn his staff into a snake. Pharaoh responds by having his men turn their rods into snakes. However, Aaron’s snake consumes the snakes of Pharaoh’s men. Not only has God triumphed over Pharaoh, but, as with all the plagues, God has triumphed over a god of Egypt. Thus, for the Israelites, snakes would be a reminder of the gods of Egypt and it was in verse 5 that they desired to go back to Egypt. By sending the snakes it was as if God was saying “Fine you want Egypt, here you go.”
Yet there is another meaning the snakes would have for the Israelites. In Genesis 3 we find “the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field.” It was this serpent that tempted Adam and Eve. The judgment of God against Adam and Eve was a result of their failure to resist this temptation. Thus, the fiery serpents sent by God were a reminder that the Israelites has succumbed to the temptation of doubting God’s word.
We now see what the snakes would have meant to the Israelites. The souls of the Israelites had been poisoned so they desired to give up the freedom that God had given them for the immediate comfort of food. The people of God, who had made a covenant with God chose to break that covenant and longed for the life of Egypt – a life where they were fed, but a life of slavery and death. So God sent fiery snakes that killed them. These snakes represented the gods of Egypt. They represented the deceiver of Genesis who poisoned the people of Israel so they did not trust the promises of God. The venom of these snakes stung and showed the sin of the people. Like Adam and Eve, the people of Israel were infected with the venom of doubt about God’s word and truth and now they were heading towards “spiritual death.”
Confronted with a physical and deadly reminder of their sin the Israelites turn to Moses for help. They request in verse 7 that God remove the serpents from among them. Feeling for the people Moses prays, but the response from God is not to take away the serpents. Rather God has Moses build a bronze snake and put it on a pole and anyone who is bitten can look at the pole and live. The life giving attribute of the snake is repeated in verse 8 and 9.
So why did God not take away the snakes? It is because the removal of the snakes would not solve the problem. God loved the Israelites and desired the best for them, but he could not let them remain in their sin. True, removing the snakes would stop the people from dying, but their hearts and their attitudes would not be changed. They would yet again speak against God and turn from his ways. They would turn from the life he gave into death. However, by causing the people to look up at the symbol of their suffering God was causing the Israelites to make a choice: repent of their ways and live or remain in their sin and die. By turning and looking at the serpent the Israelites were making the choice to once again follow the ways of God.
So back to my family car trips. Well inevitably I would begin to disrespect my father. After all he was the reason I had to ride in this boring car. Now my father’s response was never “Do you want me to turn this car around?” That was an empty threat and I knew it. No my father was wiser. His response was “Do you want to get out and walk?” Now the first time I heard this I did not believe him. So I continued and my dad pulled the car over. He made me get out and walk.
Now I want you to understand my father loved me. He desired what was best for me. So he followed behind me with his flasher on making sure that I was ok, but he also made a point. I was his son and it was not alright for me to respond to him that way. I was faced with a choice. I could continue to disrespect my father and walk on the side of the road, or I could repent, change my ways, respect my father, and get back in the car. Well the choice was pretty easy. After less than 2 minutes I chose to respect my father and got back in the car. I, like the Israelites, was faced with a choice; a choice and a circumstance that I would remember.
As I already said, the story of the bronze snake stuck with the people of Israel. Moses used it to describe the hardships of the desert. Even Paul picks up on it in 1 Corinthians 10:9 “Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents.” In fact today the symbol for the American Medical Association is a rod with a serpent. Though this symbol more likely comes from Greek mythology the similarities are striking.
However, there is one retelling of this story that I want to highlight. In John 3:14 Jesus declares “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” Now this theme of lifting up the Son of Man is throughout John’s gospel, but this first occurrence is crucial. Just two verses later is the famous John 3:16 which declare that whoever believes in God will have eternal life. This is a repetition of verse 15 and in context with 14 it reads “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.”
The relation to Numbers is striking. The Israelites had a choice between life and death and Jesus here is declaring that world has that same choice. Reading on we find verse 18 says that “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already.” The correlation to the Israelites is striking. Those who did not look at the serpent would die – they were judged already, but those who looked would live.
Thus, the Cross becomes a symbol of the judgment of the sin of the world. It was our sin put Christ there. But, like the bronze serpent, the cross is also a symbol of the victory of God over that sin and calls people to faith and discipleship. By declaring our belief in Christ we are like the Israelites declaring to follow the ways of God. However, the cross is more. Unlike the bronze serpent, which suggested a way of discipleship, Jesus has become the way. He did what no other human could do. He reconciled the whole world to God – to Himself – by being blameless. Christ became the archetype for humanity. Only the unique God/man could reconcile the whole world. The bronze serpent showed the way through the desert, but Christ made the way.
Often we are exactly like the Israelites. God blesses us with many things, but we want more. God promises us blessings, but they take too long. So we complain and we whine and then we get into trials and wonder why we have to suffer. Sometimes the suffering is a reminder that we need to trust God. Jesus showed us the way. He showed us how to live, how to be grateful, how to pray. We don’t pray our will but God’s will. Sometimes the only way out of a trial is to realize what got us there in the first place: Our selfishness. When we give up ourselves – when we turn from our wants and desires – to God then re realize that God is all that matters. Sometimes God allows us to suffer because it shows us that we need God.
As we travel our own deserts. As we live our lives. As we sin. May we look to the cross as a symbol of our judgment; as a symbol of our sin. May that symbol remind us to turn back to God. May that symbol remind us of the victory of God over sin. And may that symbol lead us on the path carved for us by Jesus Christ.
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