In everything that is written in the Old Testament, as well as in the New, there is a lesson of comfort and encouragement for us; "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." (Romans 15:4)
Moses wrote of Christ, and therefore whoever believes the writings of Moses, must believe in Christ; and whoever does not believe what Moses wrote cannot believe Christ. "For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words?" (John 5:46-47)
One of the most striking lessons in the writings of Moses is in connection with the erection of a brass image of a serpent; it has instruction and comfort far greater than are usually drawn from it. Everybody who has read the Bible at all is familiar with these words: "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)
But not all find in them what the record of the incident is designed to convey to us. Let us study it for a time together. The story is found in Numbers 21:4-9, and should be read as a whole. The children of Israel in their march through the desert, "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 bad bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." (Numbers 21:4-9)
No Arbitrary Punishment
One of the first things to learn, and one which should be continually remembered, is that God does nothing arbitrarily. "His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be held with the cords of his sins." (Proverbs 5:22)
The wicked "treasure up" unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath. (Romans 2:5) They shall "eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." (Proverbs 1:31-32)
Every punishment has a natural connection with some sin. "The wages of sin is death," (Romans 6:23) but, "The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law." (1 Corinthians 15:56) "Sin came into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Romans 5:12) "When lust has conceived, it brings forth sin; and sin, when it is finished [full grown], brings forth death." (James 1:15)
These statements are universally true. The plagues which God is said to send upon men, are but the outward manifestation of the plague of sin in their own hearts. So we must know that it was sin in the hearts and lives of the Israelites, that gave the fiery serpents power over them. Just as in our daily life the disease germs that are everywhere present have no power over us if we are in normal condition, but are swallowed up, so that they find no opportunity to work destruction except in bodies that are already vitiated. So in the spiritual world. Jesus said, "The prince of this world comes, and has nothing in me." (John 14:30)
Satan, the originator of sin, could find no response in Christ, no congenial soil, and therefore he could not kill Him. Christ voluntarily laid down His life, and in death conquered. "him that had the power of death." (Hebrews 2:14)
He swallows up death in eternal life. That this is strictly applicable to the case of the Israelites, and that, if they had not sinned, the fiery serpents could not have bitten them to death, may be seen first from the case of Paul on the island of Malta. He had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, "and there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand." (Acts 28:3)
The people of the island, knowing the venomous nature of the serpent, looked to see Paul fall down dead suddenly, but: "He shook the beast off into the fire, and felt no harm." " (Acts 28:5)
He was acknowledging and serving God, and the poison of the serpent found no chance of working. The same thing is seen in the account of the fiery serpents in the wilderness. After the people had fulfilled the word of the Lord, they were safe, although the serpents were still all around them; so we may know that if they had been abiding in God from the beginning the serpents in that region would have been harmless to them.
Losing the Power of Resistance
What was the condition that made it possible for the serpents to destroy the Israelites? The answer is given in: "Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents." (1 Corinthians 10:9)
Now the record in Numbers does not tell us that they tempted Christ, so that from that account alone we may not know what constitutes tempting Christ; but in Exodus 17 we read that: "They tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?" (Exodus 17:7)
Their actions, as well as their words, showed that they did not recognize God's presence, and this was tempting Him. Even so it was in the case before us. The people asked Moses why he had brought them up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness. But Moses had not brought them up, for it was the Lord himself who went in the way before them, to search out a place for them to camp in, and who led them by a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. "Yet in this thing you did not believe the Lord your God, Who went in the way before you, to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night, to show you by what way you should go, and in a cloud by day." (Deuteronomy 1:32-33)
Moreover, He had not brought them out to allow them to die, but to give them life, for He was their life: "That you may love the Lord your God, and that you may obey His voice, and that you may cleave unto Him: for He is your life, and the length of your days: that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." (Deuteronomy 30:20)
And they had bread, even bread from heaven, the very body of Christ. (John 6:32-48) When the Israelites said that they had no bread and no water, they really said that God was not among them. And their unbelief in the presence of God was really a rejection of Him, so that the effect on them was the same as though He were not present. By believing, we receive Christ, and with Him power; by unbelief we reject Him, and lose the power of His presence.
Where the Healing Virtue Lay
What virtue was there in the brazen serpent, to cure the bites of the living ones? None at all. When Moses lifted it up it was exactly what it was years afterward when the Jews superstitiously worshiped it, and Hezekiah destroyed it, calling it "a piece of brass." (2 Kings 18:4)
It was never more than a piece of brass, with no power to do anything, or to produce any effect; and that very fact demonstrated the presence of the Lord to heal those who believed in His presence. God told Moses to lift up the serpent, and told what would follow if the stricken ones looked upon it; and the healing that followed, which could not possibly be attributed to the piece of brass on the pole, was evidence of God's saving presence.
In the text in John, it is not meant that Christ is of no more virtue than the brazen serpent, but that just as surely as those who looked upon the serpent of brass, according to God's word, received life, so will those who look to Christ receive perfect healing.
All Have Been Bitten by the Serpent
Every one of us has been bitten by a fiery serpent, and the poison has got into our blood. In the 12th chapter of Revelation, we read of a fiery red dragon, which is "that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan." (Revelation 12:9)
Sin is of the devil, and "all have sinned." (Romans 3:23)
It is the poison that causes death. But a remedy has been provided in Christ, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith. The faith that is by Him is a shield, "wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." (Ephesians 6:16)
Even though the poison has contaminated our whole lives, and every fiber of our beings, a look at Christ, not for a moment only, but continuously, will take all the burning sting from the wound, and give us "perfect soundness." (Acts 3:16) "Thanks be to God, which gives us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:57)
Healing for All
This provision has been made for all. Salvation is unlimited. If a serpent had bitten any man, no matter who, when he beheld, he lived. No matter what the condition of the sinner, though sin has made him almost a body of death, if He recognizes Christ, he shall receive new life; yea more, for Christ says, "He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." (John 11:25) "He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake." (Psalm 23:3) "[He] redeems [our] life from destruction, ... so that [our] youth is renewed like the eagle's." (Psalm 103:4-5)
Righteousness is a defense; "[God's] truth [is a] shield and buckler." (Psalm 91:4)
The life of Christ, if allowed free course in us, to fill us to overflowing, is calculated to render us impervious to sin and all its results,--to every poisonous thing that is the result of the curse of sin. So since righteousness comes by faith, for: "With the heart man believes unto righteousness," (Romans 10:10) we have the promise: "These signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they east out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." (Mark 16:17-18)
And this: "You shall tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon shall you trample under foot. Because he has set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high, because he has known my name. He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honor him." (Psalm 91:13-16)
We read that in the new earth, when sin is removed, and there is no more curse, "The sucking child shall play on the hole of an asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Isaiah 11:8-9)
But, "If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation," (2 Corinthians 5:17, RV) and he is redeemed from the curse, (Galatians 3:13) so that, although surrounded by the curse, he lives as free from its effects as though he were living in the new earth; and the life of Christ, the perfect Man, is proof of the possibility of this. This freedom from sin and its accompanying curse, is the unspeakable gift (2 Corinthians 9:15) of God in Christ. "According to your faith be it unto you." (Matthew 9:29)--Present Truth, November 1, 1900--Numbers 21:4-9
E.J. Waggoner