A couple of years ago I was at work and I started talking to a guy who raised
and handled venomous snakes. He made a living extracting and selling the snake
venom so that anti-venom could be produced. This would be used to be help
people who had been bitten by snakes. He was very passionate about his chosen
occupation and he told me that even God
mentions it in the Bible. He said God told Moses “to look to the snake”.
Well, needless to say, having studied God’s Word for quite a while, this perked
up my spiritual ears. I knew I needed to study this a bit more.
My search first led me to John chapter 3 where Jesus is speaking to Nicodemas.
In verse 14 Jesus says,
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,” (John 3:14)Now to many new Christians (and perhaps some older ones), this statement must seem very odd. What does he mean by “Moses lifting up the snake”? And what does “lifting up the son of man” mean? To find the answers, let us first look back in the pages of the Old Testament and read about what happened to the children of Israel on the way to the promised-land. In Numbers 21 we read that the people of Israel were tired and discouraged of wandering around in the wilderness so, as their habit was, whenever things became difficult, they started to grumble and complain about God and Moses.
“They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" (Numbers 21:4 and 5 NIV)
This is not a good idea. Whenever we face a problem, we have learned to go to
God for help, not complain about Him and His plan. This showed God that
they no longer believed they He could supply their needs and guide them safely
into the promised-land. This unbelief allowed chaos to enter into their little trip. Poisonous
snakes came out and started to bite them and many died. The people soon
discovered that this was their own fault; that this was happening because they
had sinned.
“The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people.” (Verse 7) Moses prayed to the Lord to take away the snakes, but God instead instructs Moses to do something quite unusual.
“The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live”. So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. " (Verses 8 and 9)
Wow, what a strange thing
to do. If you were bitten by a poisonous snake, all you had to do was to look
upon this bronze snake that was lifted up, and you would be saved from death.
The key is that you had to believe that this would work. What
if you were bitten and you thought “this is a silly idea, to look on a snake to
live. I refuse”. Well, my friend, you would
die. God provided the way to survive; all you had to believe.
Now
we will examine the second part of Jesus’ statement. “Just as Moses lifted
up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up…”
Here he is referring to his death by crucifixion in little less than a
year. The victims of crucifixion would be lifted up on stakes so that all could
see them. This would be a warning to others of the penalty of defying the Roman
Empire. But how would this refer to Moses and the poisonous snakes?
“…the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him."
Just as Israel was required to look upon the bronze serpent and believe God’s plan to escape physical death, we have to look to the cross and believe God’s plan for salvation to escape eternal death. The next verse pulls it all together, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life”.
God
does not want anyone to perish but that all receive everlasting life.
God has provided us the way. It is Jesus Christ, who is the way,
and the truth, and the life. Without him, we would all perish.
But to some, the preaching about salvation through the cross of Christ is pure
foolishness. These people will perish. But to us who are saved, the cross is
the power of God.
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.“ (I Corinthians 1:18)What God instructed Moses to do in making a bronze snake must have seemed like foolishness to some; but these died. But as we see, God had a much bigger plan in mind. This record would be set as an example for what we would experience as we look upon Jesus for eternal life.
Love Always, Ray
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