Numbers 21:4–9
4 Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged 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 our soul loathes this worthless bread.” 6 So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.
7 Therefore 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 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
Prayer: Lord God, heavenly Father, You provided healing for Your sinful people by raising up a bronze serpent upon a pole, that all who looked to it might live. You sent Your Son, Jesus Christ, that He might be lifted up onto the cross, that all who believe in Him may have eternal life. Lift up the eyes of our hearts to behold in faith Him who was crucified for us, that, trusting in Him, we may have the life that never ends; through the same, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
The Lord’s Unsuspecting Antidote for Death
In Christ Jesus, who was lifted up on the cross, so that whoever looks to him might be saved, dear fellow redeemed!
You know the phrase, “God works in mysterious ways.” It’s true. He often works in ways that are surprising to us. The Apostle Paul in his first letter to the church at Corinth goes even further and says that God works in ways that seem foolish to the wisdom of this world. Why? “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”
There are things that seem good and wise to this world—and things that don’t. Noah looked like a foolish man when building an ark in a place that had no lake or ocean. The Israelites looked foolish painting their door posts with the blood of a lamb on the night of the Passover. David, the lowly shepherd boy, looked horribly outmatched against the mighty Goliath. But God doesn’t limit himself to what the world thinks is good and wise. He uses weak and even despised things, to teach us that the power is in him and his word. The mighty fall; the strongest armies lose. But if God gives us his word and promise—we can be sure that it will not fail, even if it doesn’t line up with what makes sense to us.
To many of the Israelites, God’s instruction to look to the bronze serpent would have been odd—and even offensive! How could looking at a serpent help me? The serpent was associated with the fall into sin! Even worse, that is the very thing that bit them! Yet, those who looked, were saved. They were saved because God attached it to his word, that if anyone who was bitten looked at the bronze serpent, he would live. With an unsuspecting antidote, God saved the Israelites. He used the very thing that was killing them to save them.
Our lesson says, “Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way.” Our lesson takes place towards the end of the Israelites forty years in the wilderness. The Israelites had reached the boundary of the Land of Promise and could see the light at the end of the tunnel. All they had to do was pass through the land of Edom. However, when they sent a request to pass through the land of Edom they were denied. The Edomites, the descendants of Esau, threatened to come out to war if they tried. So, the Israelites were forced to turn back once more, after reaching the boundary of the Promise Land and find another way through a hot and sandy desert.
We learn of their frustration, “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 our soul loathes this worthless bread.’” The Israelites were discouraged because of the unfortunate route they had to take after Edom refused to let them pass through. Following in the footsteps of their forefathers at the beginning of their forty years in the wilderness, the Israelites complained. Israel did not learn from their fathers’ mistakes. In fact, they were worse than their parents’ generation. Instead of just blaming Moses, they also blamed God.
The Israelites had seen the wonderous works of God. They saw the Ten Plagues in Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, water flowing from a Rock, and Manna from heaven! Yet, toward the end of their forty years of journeying in the wilderness, instead of trusting in the Lord who had saved them from their enemies, slavery in Egypt, and provided food from heaven, they doubted his goodness. They complained about the food!
Despite all that God had done, the Israelites complained. He wasn’t doing what they wanted. Why are we out in the wilderness? Why aren’t we already in the promised land? Why does everything have to be so hard? The complaints of the Israelites were an outward sign of their internal condition of unbelief and doubt. By turning up their noses to the Manna from heaven, they revealed how they had turned in on themselves. They despised the gifts of God, pushing them away like moldy bread and cheese.
It can be easy for us to get frustrated with God’s plan and timing. When things aren’t going according to our human wisdom, we can get frustrated and impatient. We can so easily forget to see the blessings that are right before us, the manna from heaven, and feel like God doesn’t care about us. Our food isn’t tasty enough, our bodies are not beautiful enough, our families are not as understanding as they should be, the markets aren’t what we want them to be… but all our grumblings are a sin against God.
If God was fair, he would have sent angels to destroy these ungrateful people. However, God was not fair, but merciful. He sent serpents so that they might repent of their sin. The Psalmist writes that when God blessed the Israelites, they would not turn to him, but when he slew them, they returned to him (Psalm 78:34). Nothing helps us focus more clearly on life than death.
The Israelites recognized their sin and asked Moses to petition God on their behalf, “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.” It is wisdom to confess and acknowledge our sins to God, because the Lord will not despise a broken and contrite heart. God welcomes those who come in humble repentance.
God had mercy and provided an antidote. “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.” God used the very thing that was killing them to save them. Moses made the bronze serpent and put it on a pole. And it is recorded, “if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.” They were saved because they looked in faith to the serpent, trusting in God’s Word and promise.
One of the overriding themes of Scripture is that God wants you to look outside of yourself to him for your salvation. By nature, we look inward. We look to ourselves. But we can’t save ourselves. No matter all our efforts, we can’t overcome death or earn our salvation. If an Israelite only looked at their wounds from the venomous bite, they would perish. It’s the same with us—we can’t save ourselves from death nor the penalty our sins deserve. But God provided a solution and antidote for death. Scripture teaches us that this serpent of salvation which saved all those who trusted in God’s word and looked to it, was a type—a foreshadowing—of Christ. Scripture says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Just as the bronze serpent saved the Israelites from the venom of the serpents, so too did Jesus’ death on the cross save us from our death. The disease and death came from the serpents, and so did the healing and life. Paul writes in Romans, “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh” (8:3). Jesus took on our flesh and blood that through it he might save us all. He lived a perfect and holy life, abstaining from sin, and showing perfect love to God and his neighbor so that his sacrifice on the cross would merit forgiveness and life for all who looked to him in faith.
Jesus swallowed up death—taking the venom of our sin into his body so that he might destroy it. He conquered death. Just as the fiery serpents no longer brought death to those who looked in faith, so too do we who look to Jesus have life eternal: “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 15:55–57). Our dear Lord Jesus became Man, dying in our place, so that our death is now a portal to life in heaven with Him.
The antidote that God provided for the serpent bites was infallible—it would not fail. Moses records, “When he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.” The same is true for us, Jesus said, “whoever believes in Me should not perish but have everlasting life.” God gives us certainty of eternal life.
When God saved the Israelites through the bronze serpent, notice that it doesn’t say that those who saw the serpent were relieved of all pain and suffering from their bites, but only that they “lived.” And so, it is with us. Jesus has saved us from our sin and death, but God does not promise us no worries or troubles in this life. Take the trials and crosses you are bearing to heart, knowing that God is using them to teach us to look to Jesus.
He is your King who came to save you. Jesus went forward on the beast of burden, so that he could carry the burden of our sins to the cross. As the prophet Isaiah foretold, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
God’s methods for saving us may seem foolish and strange to the world. But in them we find certainty and life. Jesus “was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25). His victory becomes yours when you look to him for your help and salvation. So may we never be ashamed to look to this lowly King, to his cross and empty tomb, knowing that in him is life. Amen.