What kind of snakes they were, the Bible does not say. They are just called “fiery serpents.” The adjective “fiery” may refer to the snakes’ color, perhaps a reddish hue often found in the desert. If so, the color may have provided natural camouflage making them hard for the Israelites to see. That might explain why so many people were bitten when they could have avoided the snakes under normal circumstances.
The adjective may have nothing at all to do with the snakes’ appearance. It may refer to the pain of the snakes’ bite. The only analogy the people could make was to compare a serpent’s bite to getting burned by fire. The pain of both was hot, unending and deadly. Numbers 21:6 says many Israelites died from serpents’ bites.
Amid their punishment for “speaking against God,” the people repented. They asked Moses to intercede with God on their behalf to save them from the deadly snakes. Moses did.
God told Moses to build an image of the serpent and place it on a pole in the camp. If one were bitten by a fiery serpent, all the victim had to do was look at the replica of the snake to be healed.
Moses obeyed. A bronze serpent’s image was cast and placed on the Israelite standard. Evidently people continued to suffer the hot, fiery pangs of the fiery serpents. There is nothing to indicate the snakes disappeared. But now there was a cure. The biblical writer declares that “when he (the one bitten) looked on the bronze serpent, he lived.”
Nowhere is there indication the Israelites debated the healing power of the material qualities of the bronze serpent. There is no indication the people debated how long one had to look at the replica to be healed. There is no indication of concern about what time of day one had to look at the serpent.
Instead, the Israelites accepted Moses’ words and believed God would do what He said. Their faith was in the promise of God, not in their own understandings. They did not have to explain all the aspects of the experience in order to be cured. They had only to accept, to believe and to act in order to live.
Near the beginning of the ministry of our Lord, Jesus declared that “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14).
Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, a Pharisee. Already Jesus had used the images of being born again and the wind, but all Nicodemus could say was “how can these things be.”
The image of the serpent in the wilderness was to help Nicodemus understand that “whoever believes in Him (Jesus) will have eternal life.”
Like the Israelites of old, those of Jesus’ day were dying. Their deaths were worse than a physical death from a snakebite. They were dying spiritually. They were dying eternally. Sin separated them from God. Even those who sought God, sought Him through laws and commandments. Jesus came to show Nicodemus and all mankind the loving heart of God.
God is the original source of love. The object of His love is “the world.” The expression of His love is the act of giving. The gift of His love is “His only begotten Son.” The recipients of His love are “whosoever.” The result of His love is “everlasting life.”
In the last public address of Jesus, He again returned to the image of the wilderness experience. In John 12:32, Jesus declared, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” The words also described the kind of death He would die, hung from a cross between heaven and earth as if neither wanted Him.
He who knew no sin became sin for us. He bridged the chasm between God and man which sin had created. In fact, through His death, Jesus said the ruler of this world (Satan) shall be cast clean out (v. 31). Now the sins of all who will believe in Jesus can be forgiven. Death can be defeated. As surely as the ancient Israelites looked to the bronze serpent and lived, so can mankind look to Jesus and live.
Yet some insist on trying to analyze the experience of the cross. Some try to understand the cross according to moral, ethical, philosophical or judicial reasoning. Explanations are offered, even debated. Some even refuse God’s gift unless they understand the process in human terms.
It is as foolish as the ancients refusing to look on the bronze serpent because they did not understand how a replica of the snake could cure the poison in their bodies.
Like the Israelites of old, our faith is in the promise of God, not in our understanding of the process. We take God at His word. We trust His promises. We believe God will do what He says He will do.
Jesus said, “Whosoever believes in Me should not perish but have everlasting life.” That is enough. We accept. We believe. We look to Jesus in order to live now and forever.
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