I myself am guilty of not reading the Old Testament enough. A few posts back I wrote about seeing Jesus in Noah's Ark. Now I would like to talk about seeing Jesus in the Old Testament again.. this time in the wilderness. The primary scripure text is in the Book of Numbers 21:5-9, Amplified Version.
"5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water, and we loathe this light (contemptible, unsubstantial) manna.
6 Then the Lord sent fiery (burning) serpents among the people; and they bit the people, and many Israelites died.
7 And 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 may take away the serpents from us. So Moses prayed for the people.
8 And the Lord said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent of brass and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.
9 And Moses made a serpent of brass and put it on a pole, and if a serpent had bitten any one, when they looked to the serpent of brass [attentively, expectantly, with a steady and absorbing gaze], they lived."
The Israelites were whining, sniveling ingrates. God had rescued them out of bondage and was prepared to lead them into the Promised Land. God was providing their nourishment with the Manna that fell from Heaven each day, but that wasn't good enough for them. (I guess they wanted more quail). When they spoke out against God and Moses, God decided to take action so He sent serpents among them. Let me rephrase that, God didn't send the serpents. It was their disobedience to God that brought the serpents upon them. Remember, these were God's people that He loved and whom the Lord loves, He chastens. The sending of the snakes was their chastening, but within the chastening God provided an escape.
In verse 6, when the people repented (very important) God instructed Moses to place a bronze serpent on a pole and erect it in which anyone looking upon it would live.
One important thing to notice here. When the people repented and prayed to God, God did something interesting. Instead of taking away the serpents, He provided a remedy in the form of a serpent. This parallels what happened when Adam sinned and was forgiven. Just as God did not take away the penalty of sin (which is death) when Adam sinned, God provided a remedy in Jesus Christ who died in our place to pay for our sins on the cross.
Three questions...
1)Why did God use a serpent? A serpent was a reminder of the curse. It was through the serpent that Adam and Eve were seduced and brought under the curse of sin. On the cross, Jesus was made a curse for us. (see Galatians 3:13)
2) Why Brass (or bronze in some translations)? In the Bible, Brass is a symbol of Divine judgment. In Revelation 1:15 Jesus is described as having "feet like fine brass" and again in Deuteronomy 28:23 when the Israelites were disobedient this verse says ""And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron."
3) Why a pole? The pole represents the cross. In John 12:32-33 Jesus said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me This he said, signifying what death he should die."
So look at the scenario.. God told Moses to make a fiery serpent of brass, fix it on a pole and invite the bitten Israelites to look upon it so they could live. This is Moses teaching them the Gospel of Grace. Notice what Moses did NOT instruct the Israelites to do.
1) They were NOT told to go find some herbs and make a serum. Religion (the Law) would offer the serum of good works, church membership, keeping the commandments, etc.
2) They were NOT told to go help others who were bitten so that they might be healed. Religion (the Law) would tell us to engage in works of charity with the expectation that relieving others would take away the deadly poison of sin which is in our souls. This is also known as the Mother Teresa philosophy.
3) They were NOT told to make an offering to the serpent on the pole. God does not ask us to pay anything for our salvation, it is a free gift. If anything is required to be paid, then grace is no longer grace. The common modern christian term counterfeit I hear a lot relating to this is "give your life to Christ." We give our lives to Christ to follow Him or be a disciple, but not for salvation.
4) They were NOT told to pray to the serpent on the pole. Religion would have the bitten person pleading with God for forgiveness and mercy which has already been freely given to those who believe. Remember when the Israelites prayed to God, He did not destroy the serpents. He provided a remedy.
5) They were NOT told to look at Moses. God instructed them (through Moses) to look upon the serpent on the pole (picture of Christ). Moses was the Law giver. Here we have a picture of the Law not saving anyone, but showing them the way to be saved. Galatians 3:24 "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." However, some are still looking to Moses (The Law) and trying to be religious with their own works to get them to Heaven instead of looking to Christ.
6) They were NOT told to look at their wounds after they were bit. Some think that they need to be more occupied with the work of examining their own wicked hearts in order to promote a religiousness that they deem necessary to qualify them for heaven. Religion can't save. Only Christ can save!
To look at the serpent on the pole is the same as looking to (trusting) Christ's death on the cross for salvation.
Going back to the scripture in Numbers 21, look at verse 9.
"And Moses made a serpent of brass and put it on a pole, and if a serpent had bitten any one, when they looked to the serpent of bronze [attentively, expectantly, with a steady and absorbing gaze], they lived." This is similar to the passage in James 1:23-24 "23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror;
24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was."
In this passage James is talking about people who only make a casual glance at God's Word and don't "Look Upon it". The same way with the Israelites. It wasn't just a casual glance at the serpent on the pole that would save them, it was an attentive look, a steadfast look, and absorbing gaze. Not only do we need to read the Bible, we need to meditate on it and the only way to do that is to be steadfast and absorb what it is saying in us as a sponge absorbs water. God gave us the Bible as "living water" and we need to "soak it up".
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