We cannot begin at any better place than the time-honored "golden path" that has saved the souls of many besides Nicodemus: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; That whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life." (John 3:14-15)
Then comes the second realization, which, by its comprehensiveness, gives point to the whole story, and makes it a personal assurance to each individual: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
What about that serpent in the wilderness? Why was it lifted up? The story is brief; let us read it: "And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spoke against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loathes this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against you; pray unto the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." (Numbers 21:4-9)
If you have read this, and you believe it, you understand the whole "plan of salvation" as well as any man can. It is just as simple, and just as incomprehensible, as that. By looking at the serpent of brass elevated on the pole, the stricken people were healed; even so by looking at Christ--and continuing to look--every wounded, sin-sick soul, no matter what the extent of the disease, will surely be made perfectly whole. By beholding we become changed, (2 Corinthians 3:18) and "are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end." (Hebrews 3:14)
Thus are we saved, because we absorb the nature, the life of the Saviour. When His life becomes our life, then it is certain that we must be saved from sin and death; because neither sin nor death could get any power over Him.
And herein lies the secret of the susceptibility of those Israelites in the wilderness to the poison of the fiery serpents, and of the healing of those who were saved. They dissociated themselves from God, as was indicated by their murmurings, and so their defense was lost.
Let us understand this case fully. Do not suppose for a moment that God created those serpents for the occasion, nor that He imported them for the express purpose of biting the Israelites. How do we know that this was not the case? Because we know God, and know that this is not His way of working. "[He who] is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish," (2 Peter 3:19) does not make or import snakes for the express purpose of killing people. No; be assured that the serpents were there before the Israelites were there; and if the people had only made the most High their habitation, they might have trodden upon the venomous reptiles with impunity. (See Psalm 91:1-13) It was only when they stepped out from under cover, that they were exposed to danger, and were susceptible to the poison.
Take the case of Paul as an instance in point. When he was shipwrecked on the island of Malta, and had gathered sticks and made a fire, a viper, driven forth by the heat, fastened itself on his hand, and "he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm." (Acts 27:5)
The animal was poisonous, and the natives, who knew its nature, expected to see Paul fall down dead; but no harm came to him. Why not? Not because he was a god, as they thought, but because he had the fullness of the life of God in him. As long as he was in absolutely perfect harmony with that life, he was immune.
But what good did the serpent of brass do? It did no good whatever. It was only "a piece of brass." (2 Kings 18:4; [Hezekiah] called it Nehushtan [that is, "a piece of brass"]) But by looking at it, according to God's commandment, the people showed their faith in God's sacrifice--Christ--who bore the curse of the world. They had been bitten by serpents, and that brazen serpent on a pole represented the serpents (the cause of their distress) exterminated--hanged on a tree. That was an object lesson of Christ bearing sin, the curse of the world, on the cross. "With His stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)
It was their faith that made them whole; (Matthew 9:22; Mark 5:34, 10:52; Luke 8:48, 17:19) and the same faith will heal us today from the deadliest wound that sin has made.
The faith of those wounded Jews who looked at the brazen serpent, did just what the touch of the poor woman, and multitudes of others, did for them when Christ was on earth. It brought His life into them; and that life drove out the poison from soul and body.
Before life, death must flee away. Receive the life, pure from the heart and throne of God, and you have the perfect remedy for sin and everything that comes in its train.
Dissatisfied With Good Things
It is worthwhile to give a little consideration to the specific sin of the Israelites. They tempted Christ. "Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents." (1 Corinthians 10:9)
They denied His presence among them. Murmuring, then, is heathenism, idolatry, denial of God, and lays us liable to any cause of death that may be lurking about. On the contrary, whoever offers praise provides the way for the revelation of the salvation of God. "Whoso offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me; and prepares a way that I may show him the salvation of God." (Psalm 50:23, RV, margin)
The people were discontented, dissatisfied. They were receiving fresh bread from heaven every morning, just such bread as the angels ate, yet they complained about it. They called it "vile." The word rendered "light" in our common version, is the Hebrew word meaning cursed. They said that they couldn't relish it, they loathed it; literally, they were nauseated with it; and we have no reason to suppose that they did not tell the truth. They did loathe it; it did nauseate them; but it was not "vile" bread. In this they were wrong. It was the best bread ever given to man; it was "the bread of the mighty," (Psalm 78:25, margin) even of the "angels, that excel in strength." (Psalm 103:20)
The trouble was not in the bread, but in them. If they had eaten it in faith, discerning the Lord's body in it, they would have been strong and healthy, in spite of all the serpents or pestilence in the world. In their case we can see that a murmuring, dissatisfied heart, can change a blessing into a curse.
Here is a lesson for us. God provides food for us now. In the Lord's supper we see that the Lord's body is the true food. That is pure, incorruptible. Thus we learn that the food that we receive from heaven is very simple and pure. It is not composed of a mixture of a great number of ingredients; the best food requires but little preparation,--no addition of spices or condiments of any kind "to taste," as all the recipes have it.
"But," someone says, "our food must be palatable, or else it will not digest."
Of course it must, and that was just what the Israelites in the desert thought and they were right too. They couldn't, digest the manna; it made them sick. What then? Oh, they must have a change. Yes; a change was just what they needed; but the food did not need to be changed, it was the people that needed to be changed. And that is just what people need in these days. They need to be changed, so that they will be satisfied with good things.
When a person says of the simple food that God gives us so richly, and in such abundant variety, that it "isn't good without the addition of something else," he is doing just what the children of Israel did. They said that the manna was not good. They did not relish it. But it was good. Moses ate it every day for forty years, and found no fault with it; and there was not a healthier man in the whole camp. The angels also eat it every day for centuries and ages.
Can you not see what those murmuring Israelites ought to have done? They should have disciplined their taste. They should have learned to eat what God gave them, knowing that it was good because He gave it to them. Everything that is good has a delicious taste to the well-ordered palate. Men can teach themselves to like even the most disgusting nauseating things, as tobacco; how much easier it should be to learn to like that which is wholesome and good.
This is not a trifling subject. Whoever can discipline and control his appetite can do anything. The discipline acquired from training the appetite to obey divinely instructed reason, is of invaluable aid in enabling one to control the entire being and keep it under; and he who can do that is sure of not being a castaway.
There is a measure of truth in the saying that "What is one man's meat is another man's poison," but not in the sense in which it is generally understood. God made man, and He is never mistaken in His dealing with mankind; and the time that He provided one kind of food, and only one, for a whole nation, and that day after day for forty years, without variableness proves that when men have a perfect food, they need no variation from it. The nearer we come to the divine plan, the less need is there for continual change. The simpler one's food, the less liable is one to become tired of it.
But the point we wish to emphasize is that a man may bring himself into a condition where that which is life to others may be death to him. If our language cannot express all that is indicated by the vowel form of the Hebrew words, this would not be apparent to everybody in the simple reading of the narrative of Numbers. Let us see if a few words would not make it plain.
Without troubling the reader with forms which he may not understand, we will say that the Hebrew word for "brass" is the word meaning serpent, and this noun is identical with the verb meaning "to be burnt." It was fitting therefore that the serpent should be of brass; for brass represented the serpent, and especially this particular kind of serpent. On the connection of brass with burning, see Revelation 1:15.
Still another: the word "fiery," which describes the serpents, is from the Hebrew aleph--"burning." The reader will no doubt at once connect this with the plural form, which is found in English in Isaiah 6:6, "seraphim." Now this very word is used in Numbers 21:6; and in verse 8, where we read that: "The Lord said unto Moses, Make a fiery serpent." (Numbers 21:8)
The two words "fiery serpent" are from the single Hebrew word "seraph." Thus it was seraphim snakes that bit the people, and the Lord told Moses to make a seraph, and put it on a pole, that the people might look at it and be healed.
The seraphim are the creatures of fire that cover God's throne; yet doubt can convert them into demons. Discontent turned one of those preservers into Satan, the destroyer; and it was discontent that made the children of Israel susceptible to the fiery darts.
God will purge the guilt of Jerusalem "by the spirit of burning." (Isaiah 4:4)
The effect that this will have upon the people will depend entirely upon themselves. If it finds them in a grumbling mood, stubborn and rebellious, it will consume them; but if it finds them lovingly loyal to God, it will preserve them, by burning away every corruptible thing, leaving them so that they can "dwell with the devouring fire, [and] with everlasting burnings." (Isaiah 33:14) "Our God is a consuming fire," (Hebrews 12:29) yet He is the Saviour. If we are satisfied with Him, and want nothing on earth besides Him, He will be our portion and our life to all eternity. (Psalm 73:26)--Present Truth, August 14, 1902--Numbers 21:1-9
E.J. Waggoner