The story of the bronze serpent in the wilderness (Numbers 21)

 

 Wandering in the Wilderness: Reflections from the book of Numbers 3500 years to Covid-19 

To view this online as a video: https://youtu.be/J_XTbS-U3EU 

 

Lesson Eight: Victory and a Bronze Serpent

 

A.               Introduction

1.     Greetings

Shalom and happy new year to each of you here on the Zoom call and those who will watch this class lecture on YouTube later. Our usual program during these talks is to conduct an overview of the Bible section in the first 25 minutes and then let everyone on the call into a conversation about all the themes or ideas that I will bring up for the last 30 minutes or so. Further discussion happens even deeper in our D-Groups that happen over the next week or maybe some will conduct a D-Group on Shabbat. 

I’m going to recommend that you who are watching this on YouTube should read the next Bible chapter before you listen/ watch the rest of this. This is chapters 21. Also may I recommend you read Chapter 3 of the Gospel of John in the Newer Testament. We will reference that one later also. Then press play on your machine and re-join us. Thanks.  Welcome back.

2.     Overview

[For those online, see this book overview from The Bible Project (https://youtu.be/tp5MIrMZFqo)] 

Some of you are new to our Zoom call and I especially welcome you, whether here in Australia or from overseas. You are muted at the beginning, but in a short while, our host will allow the usually lively conversations and questions. We are looking at the traveling of the Jewish people in the book of Numbers, titled in Hebrew “Bamidbar” or “In the wilderness.” With Covid-19 having its way throughout our state and our country, with US political turmoil and inaugural activity, with the continuing uncertainty that almost defined the year 2020, the world is still in a wilderness and God’s answers for us are found in the pages of this book.

There are three theses that pop up often in this book of the Bible:

1)    The goal of our wandering was another place: Israel

2)    God is to be central to our marching and in our living

3)    The authority of the Lord and his anointed is often front and centre.  

B. Today’s study:  Victory and a Bronze Serpent

 Remember we are in the final section of the Wilderness Wandering of the Jewish people as we read this chapter. We have walked often away from God for 38 years and in our last episode at the end of chapter 20, Aaron, our great high priest who was 123 years old, died. The Jewish people wept for Aaron for 30 days. That’s where the tradition of the Shloshim came from. 

As chapter 21 begins we see the King of Arad, and really you want to think of him as a tribal figure or in modern days more like a mayor.  As we near the Promised Land, Atharim is just a few miles south of the Dead Sea, this king went to battle with us and we began to lose. Some were taken captive. Israel went to prayer and God it says, (verse 3) heard the voice of Israel. That’s what he did in the Exodus (after hundreds of not-listening years). We won the battle that followed and destroyed the enemies and their cities. They named the place Hormah. That comes from the same word as “harem” meaning destruction or dedicated or devoted to destruction. 

If you touch a sovereign’s harem, those women dedicated to him, you will be destroyed. Not a good move, you know.

But the people of Israel, led by the cloud and fire, are set out from Mt Hor to go around the land of Edom. And the people, who have been on foot for 38 years complain again. This seems to be our M.O. We kvetch at the drop of a kippah. Verse 4 shows our impatience because of the journey. Not just a momentary bother. The Hebrew says it’s the “nefesh ha’am” which is impatient. The soul of the people. This shows the rootedness of the problem. Deep in our kishkes. And the word for ‘impatient’ has the root of ‘short’ which may help you in contrasting this with patience, or in the King James English “long-suffering.” Verse 5 broadcasts our complaint. 
“Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness and we loathe (the word we is actually ‘our souls’) this miserable food.” Wait, that had sustained our people for almost 4 decades and was God’s provision. Not a good idea to complain about God’s provision, you know?

Kvetching is often our lot. But when it’s against the Authority of God and the one who is the Authority over us, then it’s not kosher. We fail. We think we know better. 

So what did God do?

The Bronze Serpent

Verse 6 says “God sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.” Quick and decisive punishment. Again. This seems to be the ongoing struggle of the people of God Bamidbar. We don’t get what we want. We think we deserve better or more and we complain. God hears us and sends troubles and other tsuris to make sure we are cognizant of our failures, SO THAT we respond then and also better the next time. Our immediate response should be repentance. 

Sure enough, this time, we get it. Verse 7 says, “the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you.” Fantastic response. Amen? When you sin and God sends a corrective, and you notice it and turn and acknowledge your error, what else would God desire? Usually, certainly in our days, this is the intention of the Almighty.

Now look what else the people cry to Moses. Verse 7 continues “intercede with the Lord that he may remove the serpents from us.” I’m guessing that most of the time in Torah, such prayer would be met with a direct divine answer. “Done” we might hear him say. 

But in this case, another activity is added. Make a bronze serpent. Put it on a pole. Hold it up. Anyone who looks up at it lives. Interesting.

Bronze is our translation of nechoshet. Some translate this as copper, a metal smelted directly from the ore). Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin and is well-attested in ancient times.

Don’t get lost in the metals. Pakula quotes Gordon Wenham who argues “for a copper snake, not bronze, because of the red colour” (Page 102) Pakula further quotes, “red is the colour of the snakes, or their bites and the colour of blood. It is a symbol of substitution. It represents the punishment for their sin.” He even goes further saying it was an “act of identification and faith, which replaced the act of putting their hand on the sacrificial animal.”

This repentance of the people seems to be different than the cries of the past. See chapters 11, 14, 16, 20. This may showcase the hope of Moses that the New Generation, the ones who would be going into the Promised Land would actually have a heart for God. 

OK, so Moses makes a bronze or copper snake and puts it on a pole. The “very creature that was causing the people to die.” (Weirsbe, page 117). Like had to beat like. 

And Moses didn’t hide the built snake in the Tabernacle or in his own tent. He had to put it high on a pole. And parents had to help their children to look up. No one could be spared from the punishment of the grumbling by grumbling further or by being religious. There was only one cure. Look up and live. End of story. But is it?

Listen, sin and death came into the world through a look (Genesis 3.6) and only through a look of faith in the risen One can we be redeemed from that original breakdown of our relationship with God. 

Yeshua and Nicodemus

Given the salvation that is found in Numbers chapter 21 and the unusual nature of the story particularly, you would think that it’s a well known little pericope. Let’s turn to John chapter 3 in the Newer Testament and see a reference to it. 

Here a rabbi approaches Yeshua at night time. He is curious about eternal life and the person of Yeshua himself. Rabbi Nick says to him, “we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” (3.2)

Yeshua tells the rabbi that he must be born again. 

The rabbi says, “How can a man be born when he is old” and stresses the natural answers to human questions. Their conversation goes on for a bit, then Yeshua chides the rabbi saying, “If I told you earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things.” (3.12)

In verse 14 Yeshua cites this serpent story of Bamidbar. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so will the Son of Man be lifted up.”  That’s not the end of the lesson, but it’s startling. 

The story of the snakes and the resolution God gave, the answer to the problem of complaining and the death which followed, the answer was a bronze or copper snake. Yeshua says that in the same way as that snake was to perform a duty, so would he, the Son of Man. What role was that? 

It was the role of salvation, the role of Saviour of the Jewish people. 

How would that be done? By being lifted up on a pole.  In the same way Yeshua was put on a Roman pole with the crossbar he carried. Salvation would come to the Jewish people again, as “Moses lifted up the serpent.” 

What was required of the people in the wilderness? Look up and live! (Numbers 21.8). If people knew it was there, that was not good enough. If they said, ‘You go look for the family” that would not have been enough. If a Jewish person disregarded the pole and the snake, and said, “I don’t believe” that one would have died. It’s all a matter of faith. Seriously. That’s the simplicity of the story. 

The good news is that Rabbi Nicodemus got it. Eventually.

Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight. (John 19.39)

One other Newer Testament reference to the snakes is found in 1 Corinthians 10, where we read in verse 9, “Let us not test the Lord as some of them did and were destroyed by the serpents, nor grumble as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.” (.9-10)

Everything is written for our sakes, for our instruction, so that we learn, and don’t do the wrong things and do the right things. 

The end of that serpent

One final word in Tenach about that copper serpent. In 2 Kings 18.4 we read of the work of good King Hezekiah. 

“He removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it; and it was called Nechushtan.”

Indulge me please as I read for you the words of one of my favourite poets, Michael Card, whose song about this incident needs to be heard

 

Lift up the suffering symbol by Michael Card

 

They grew tired of bread from heaven
And of Moses and of God.
They longed to live the life of slavery once again.
So they muttered and they grumbled
And they whimpered and they whined.
With each faithless word, sank deeper into sin.

He took the pen of pain once more
To write upon their hearts
The lesson they had been so slow to learn.
But writing in the sand,
The fiery serpents came to call
With a holy message and a bite that burned.

Chorus:
Lift up the suffering symbol
And place it high upon a pole.
Tell the children to look up
And be made whole.

So Moses made a metal snake
And nailed it to a pole.
Sent out the saving word
So they would know
That the symbol of their suffering
Was now the focus of their faith
And with a faithful glance
The healing power would flow.

 

In time the brazen serpent
Became an idol in the land
And they left the living God to worship clay.
When they forgot their suffering
Soon true faith had disappeared
So some idolize a brazen cross today.

Lift up the suffering symbol
And place it high upon a pole
Tell the children to look up
And be made whole.

The next victory (10-20)

The Jewish people I have noted are often chided, even by me, as unthankful souls, but the next quick section which is filled with geography and the soon-to-focus on Moab, showcases another poem and song. This is the first song, sung by the Jewish people since our Exodus nearly 4 decades previously. The new Generation was getting it. They knew to be grateful. The song is found in the book we don’t have any longer, “The Book of the Wars of the Lord.”

If God spared you, you ought to sing his praise, amen? At Beersheba and in your city!

Two more victories (.21-35)

The Jewish people won two more victories and although we don’t have time to unpack these, just know that these are recorded for history’s sake, and to get us ready for the next section involving Balak, an enemy king, who wants to see the end of the Jewish people as we make our way towards his territory. 

Invitation

Dear friends, if you have never asked Yeshua to be your Saviour, today as we reboot our class in 2021, would you choose to believe the Lord of life?  He is the source of healing for the virus of sin which has captured the world since Eve and Adam sinned in the Garden. He’s the One who can overcome the plagues of evil which highlight the planet in Washington, DC, in the conflicts between governments, in conflicts between the peoples of the world… Look up to Him and be saved!

If you’d like to do that today, just now, join me as we pray.

Say something like this: “Father in Yeshua’s name, forgive me my sin, I was wrong to dismiss you and to disbelieve in you. I need your mercy. I deserve punishment but you are kind and merciful and I receive your grace. I receive Yeshua as my saviour and Lord. I look up to him who was lifted on the pole of the cross. I will live because of my faith in Messiah Yeshua. Amen.

If you prayed that, please let us know of your profession by writing straightaway, won’t you? Bob@JewsforJesus.org.au We’d love to hear from you.

 

Conclusion

We are delighted to be meeting again on Friday mornings. Please stay with us during these next 6 weeks and learn with the others how you can stay on track in 2021 and beyond. And in the D-Groups, you will work this out with others, as a community on the march. If you have not yet joined a weekly Discipleship Group, please re-consider that and join us as we dig deeper.

I hope to see you next week as we study chapters 22-24, and learn about Balaam and Balak, learn about blessings and curses on the Jewish people.  Hope to see you then, and until then, continue to stay safe, love one another, believe even if the report is the minority report, and shout Hallelujah to the Lord of life for all he has done for us all. Shabbat shalom!

 

 

The three theses:

4)    The goal of our wandering was another place: Israel

5)    God is to be central to our marching and in our living

6)    Authority of the Lord and his anointed is not to be missed

 

 

Bibliography

Budd, Philip, Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 5. Numbers. Word, Waco, 1984.

Hertz, Rabbi Dr JH, The Pentateuch and Haftorahs, Soncino, London, 1978. 

Pakula, Martin, Numbers: Homeward Bound, Aquilla Press, Sydney, 2006.

Weirsbe, Warren. Be Counted. David C. Cook Publishing, Colorado Springs,1999.

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D-Groups for this week

1)             Tuesday 11 am Sydney time. Led by James Howse

2)             Thursday 7 pm, Sydney time, led by James White

(Contact our office for zoom details)

If you’d like to host a D-Group either online or in person, please contact bob@jewsforjesus.org.au for further details. It’s time to step up. Ponder this—who will be in your D-Group?

The Scriptures read in today’s lesson: Numbers chapter 21  and John chapter 3

21 When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the [a]Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive. 2 So Israel made a vow to the Lord and said, “If You will indeed hand over this people to me, then I will [b]utterly destroy their cities.” 3 The Lord heard the voice of Israel and turned over the Canaanites; then they [c]utterly destroyed them and their cities. And the place was named [d]Hormah.

4 Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the [e]Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the [f]people became impatient because of the journey. 5 So the people spoke against God and Moses: “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no [g]food and no water, and [h]we are disgusted with [i]this miserable food.”

The Bronze Serpent

6 Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and against you; intercede with the Lord, that He will remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. 8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “[j]Make a fiery serpent, and put it on a flag pole; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, and looks at it, will live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on the flag pole; and it came about, that if a serpent bit someone, and he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

10 Now the sons of Israel moved out and camped in Oboth. 11 Then they journeyed from Oboth and camped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness which is opposite Moab, to the [k]east. 12 From there they set out and camped in [l]Wadi Zered. 13 From there they journeyed and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that comes out of the border of the Amorites; for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. 14 For that reason it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord,

“Waheb in Suphah,
And the [m]wadis of the Arnon,
15 And the slope of the wadis
That extends to the site of Ar,
And leans to the border of Moab.”

16 From there they continued to [n]Beer, that is the well where the Lord said to Moses, “Assemble the people, that I may give them water.”

17 Then Israel sang this song:

“Spring up, O well! Sing to it!
18 The well, which the leaders dug,
Which the nobles of the people hollowed out,
With the scepter and with their staffs.”

And from the wilderness they continued to Mattanah, 19 and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth, 20 and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the land of Moab, at the top of Pisgah, which overlooks the [o]desert.

Two Victories

21 Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, saying,22 “Let me pass through your land. We will not turn off into field or vineyard; we will not drink water from wells. We will go by the king’s road until we have passed through your border.” 23 But Sihon would not permit Israel to pass through his border. Instead, Sihon gathered all his people and went out against Israel in the wilderness, and came to Jahaz and fought against Israel. 24 Then Israel struck him with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the sons of Ammon; for the border of the sons of Ammon was [p]Jazer. 25 Israel took all these cities, and Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and in all her [q]villages. 26 For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all his land out of his hand, as far as the Arnon. 27 For that reason those who use proverbs say,

“Come to Heshbon! Let it be built!
So let the city of Sihon be established.
28 For a fire spread from Heshbon,
A flame from the town of Sihon;
It devoured Ar of Moab,
The [r]dominant [s]heights of the Arnon.
29 Woe to you, Moab!
You are destroyed, people of Chemosh!
He has given his sons as fugitives,
And his daughters into captivity,
To an Amorite king, Sihon.
30 But we have shot them down with arrows,
Heshbon is destroyed as far as Dibon,
Then we have laid waste as far as Nophah,
Which reaches to Medeba.”

31 So Israel lived in the land of the Amorites. 32 Now Moses sent men to spy out Jazer, and they captured its villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there.

33 Then they turned and went up by the way of Bashan, and Og the king of Bashan went out against them [t]with all his people, for battle at Edrei.34 But the Lord said to Moses, “Do not fear him, for I have handed him over to you, and all his people and his land; and you shall do to him as you did to Sihon, king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.” 35 So they [u]killed him and his sons and all his people, until there was no survivor left; and they took possession of his land.

John 3:

3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2 this man came to [a]Jesus at night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these [b]signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus responded and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born [c]again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4 Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a person be born when he is old? He cannot enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born, can he?”5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born [d]again.’8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”

9 Nicodemus responded and said to Him, “How can these things be?”10 Jesus answered and said to him, “You are the teacher of Israel, and yetyou do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you people do not accept our testimony. 12 If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven, except He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who [e]believes will have eternal life in Him.

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. 18 The one who believes in Him is not judged; the one who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed. 21 But the one who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds will be revealed [f]as having been performed in God.”

John the Baptist’s Last Testimony

22 After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea; and there He was spending time with them and baptizing. 23 Now John also was baptizing in Aenon, near Salim, because there was an abundance of water there; and people were coming and being baptized— 24 for John had not yet been thrown into prison.

25 Then a matter of dispute developed on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about [g]purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified—behold, He is baptizing and all the people are coming to Him.” 27 John replied, “A person can receive not even one thing unless it has been given to him from heaven. 28 You yourselves [h]are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the [i]Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ 29 He who has the bride is the groom; but the friend of the groom, who stands and listens to him, rejoices greatly because of the groom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. 30 He must [j]increase, but I must [k]decrease.

31 “He who comes from above is above all; the one who is only from the earth is of the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 What He has seen and heard, of this He testifies; and no one accepts His testimony. 33 The one who has accepted His testimony has certified that God is true. 34 For He whom God sent speaks the words of God; for He does not give the Spirit [l]sparingly. 35 The Father loves the Son and has entrusted all things to His hand. 36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life; but the one who does not [m]obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”