Scripture: Numbers 21:4-9
Sometimes, on hospitals, doctor’s offices, ambulances, and pharmacies, you will see a symbol… Of a snake on a staff. It’s a symbol of healing. Where does this symbol come from? Today’s scripture. But you may be surprised to learn that the primary purpose of this event in scripture is say something important about Jesus Christ… and his atoning death on the cross. Well, that’s what this sermon is about. And I want to make three points in this sermon: Point Number One: the snake in the wilderness; Point Number Two: the snake in the gospels; and Point Number Three: the snake in our lives.
But Point Number One, the snake in the wilderness…
The Book of Numbers is mostly about the 39-year period between the time the Israelites left Mount Sinai—where Moses received the Ten Commandments and the rest of God’s law—and the time when they were east of the Jordan River, almost ready to enter Canaan, the Promised Land. The Book of Deuteronomy, which we’ll begin reading next week in our “Journey Through the Bible,” is mostly one long sermon that Moses preached just before he died—after which Joshua led Israel across the Jordan into Canaan.
But today’s scripture from Numbers takes place near the end of Israel’s 40-year period in the wilderness. Verse 4: “From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way.” Notice those words: to go around the land of Edom. The safest, most direct route to Canaan, from where they were at Mount Hor, was through the country called Edom. Using the threat of military resistance, Edom refuses to let Israel pass through. So Israel has to take a far longer, more circuitous path around Edom, which sends them almost all the way back to the Red Sea. Back where they started nearly 40 years earlier!
So we might sympathize with the Israelites in verse 4 who’ve lost their patience. Yet another setback on their way to the Promised Land! They’re frustrated, they’re testy, they’re irritable.
And what do they do?
Verse 5: “And the people spoke against God and against Moses.” Notice, please, that they’re not grumbling and complaining to God… in prayer… That would be okay. But no, they’re grumbling and complaining about God to one another!
God hates that. What they’re doing is the opposite of glorifying God. They’re making God look bad in the eyes of others. They’re publicly calling his character into question: They’re saying, “God doesn’t really love us; he intends to kill us here in the wilderness.” And as verse 5 says, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”
Verse 6: “Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.”
In his commentary on this scripture, David Stubbs says that the snake was likely a symbol, among other things,of ancient Egypt and its religion. 1 And since the people were longing to go back to Egypt—which is symbolized by a snake—it’s as if God were giving the Israelites what they said they wanted.
Whether that’s true or not, the Israelites say they want to go back to Egypt. Why? Why would that even be a temptation? They were in slavery in Egypt! They were miserable in Egypt. It doesn’t make sense.
Except…
The snake in today’s scripture also symbolizes someone else: someone, unfortunately, that humanity first met back in Genesis chapter 3. There, Satan himself takes the guise of a snake, in the Garden of Eden, and tempts Adam and Eve… how? By saying, in so many words, “You can be happier than you are right now. You can live a more fulfilling life than you are currently living. There’s a better way to live. All you need to do is eat the fruit of this tree. By prohibiting you from eating this fruit, God is preventing you from being as happy and satisfied and fulfilled as you should be. So go ahead… ‘Be all that you can be.’ Eat this fruit.”
Do we see what this snake is doing in Genesis 3? Making Adam and Eve—the first humans—feel dissatisfied with their lives. He’s tempting them to want more than what God is giving them…
But do I need to remind you again what God is giving them? Do I need to remind you where Adam and Eve were living at that moment? In the Garden of Eden! They were literally living in Paradise on earth in the direct presence of Almighty God!
Back in 1970, some of you will remember that hit song by Crosby, Still, Nash, and Young called “Woodstock.” It was written by Joni Mitchell. But remember the refrain? “We’ve got to get ourselves back to the Garden”? That “garden” refers to what?The Garden of Eden. The song says that we’ve lost Paradise and we have to get back to it. But the song implies that if only we could get back to that “garden,” what? Life would be perfect… everything would be perfect… we would have everything we needed… We would be perfectly happy and content and at peace… if only we got back to the garden!
And yet… history suggests otherwise, doesn’t it?
Because in the real Garden of Eden, in the real Paradise on earth, the snake of Genesis 3 convinces Adam and Eve that, “Actually, as perfect as you think this is, it could be better!” The snake in Genesis 3 makes these first humans dissatisfied even with Paradise on earth!
That’s a remarkable temptation for this snake to pull off, when you think about it! It’s as if sin itself tempts us with words like these: “You can find true happiness apart from God. God is preventing you from being truly happy. You ought to reject God so you can be truly satisfied.”
And in a way that’s what Israel is doing in today’s scripture. I mean, yes… Not being able to travel through Edom was a disappointing setback, but in the meantime, look what they had: Every morning, except Saturday morning, they would wake up and have the miraculous provision of manna—bread from heaven—to feed them. This was a daily miracle that they all witnessed, a daily reminder of God’s love and care and provision. And all they can say about it now is, “We loathe this worthless food!”
And they had other miracles, including, as recently as the previous chapter, God’s miraculous provision of water gushing from the rock. They had a supernatural abundance of quail. They had surprising military victories. They had terrifying displays of God’s supernatural power. They had a pillar of fire at night and a pillar of cloud by day… They had visible reminders of God’s daily presence among them, of God’s constant provision for them, and God’s steadfast love for them! They had it all. And many of these Israelites—especially the ones who were children or teenagers 39 years earlier—they even remembered the parting of the Red Sea, and all the miracles associated with their escape from Egypt.
But more than all of that—more than even the many miracles of which they were all eyewitnesses—the people of Israel had God.
Shouldn’t God have been enough for them? Or would they rather have Egypt?
And make no mistake: We face the same temptation today. Except “Egypt,” in our case, represents whatever we think we need to be happy, satisfied, content… other than God.
When Jesus was being tested in the wilderness for 40 days, he had even more reason to complain than these Israelites. To be without food for 40 days meant he was on the brink of starvation. So the devil comes along and says, “Turn this stone into bread. You need to eat. You will die.” And what does Jesus do? He quotes Deuteronomy to Satan: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” 2
Whatever “Egypt” represents to us, it’s a “bread alone” kind of life. That’s what Israel was tempted to go back to. They wanted to live by bread alone. But no earthly bread satisfies like the “bread” we have in God. No bread satisfies like the bread of life who is Jesus himself.
See, the devil tells Jesus, “You will die if you don’t eat,” and Jesus tells him, in so many words, “I’d rather die than disobey my Father and lose my perfect relationship with him. Because my relationship with him is worth everything to me!”
The Bible teaches this same truth in so many ways:
Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” God will give me the desires of my heart as I delight myself in him—as I find my life’s treasure in him? That’s what I want! God gives that to us!
Psalm 63:3: “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.” God’s steadfast love is better than life? Then God’s steadfast love must be amazing! That’s what I want! God gives it to us!
Psalm 73:25-26: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” This is the Bible’s way of saying, if we have God—if God is our “portion”—then there’s nothing on earth that’s better, there’s nothing on earth that we want… other than the treasure we have in Christ. In him, we have everything we need to be happy and satisfied and content.
Do we believe that? Or do we still think that we need something more? Do we still want to live by bread alone instead? Do we still want to go back to Egypt?
Israel thought they need something more… and that’s what the snake represented to them.
And that’s Point Number One: the snake symbolized their sin, their desire to want more than God to satisfy their deepest needs. And when this particular snake bites us, it becomes like spiritually deadly poison coursing through our veins. We are dying from sin—and apart from grace we will die eternally… separated from God forever.
Point Number Two: Where do we see the snake in the gospels, in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus?
Well, if I asked you to name the most popular verse in the Bible, I think you could do it. What is it? John 3:16.
John 3:16, which we all know from the King James, reads: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
That first little word in the verse is important… “for.” Bible scholar Don Carson said that his dad, a pastor, used to always say, “Whenever you see a for or a therefore, see what’s it’s there for.” That’s good advice! Why? Because that little word “for” tells the reader, “Pay attention to what the scripture has just been saying. What has just been said or written is closely connected to what is being said right now. What I’m saying right now follows, logically, from what I just said earlier. If you want to understand what I’m saying now, look back at what I’ve just said.”
And what has Jesus just been saying? Go back to verse 14 and 15: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness”—which points back to our scripture today in Numbers 21—“so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life…
“For God so loved the world…”
Is it too much of an exaggeration to say that if we want to understand the most popular verse in the Bible, we have to understand the really strange story that we read in Numbers 21, verses 4 through 9? Well… Yes, it is an exaggeration, but onlybecause, unlike Jesus’ original audience, we’ve got the rest of the New Testament to explain the meaning of John 3:16. But it’s no exaggeration to say that God intended the historical event described in today’s scripture—in Numbers 21—to illustrate the gospel of Jesus Christ—to be a living parable about our biggest problem in life—the deadly venom of sin with which we are all infected. And to show us that God’s remedy for this problem—if you will, God’s antivenin against sin—is Jesus’ death on the cross.
To see this, let’s look again at today’s scripture. These fiery serpents are biting the people, and verse 6 tells us that many of them are dying. This symbolizes our deadly serious problem with sin. It will kill us spiritually. The first thing that we need to do in order to be saved is to recognize that we have a deadly problem with sin. And what happens in verse 7? “And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you.”
The people recognize that their sin is their biggest problem, on account of which they deserve only judgment and wrath. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?” Psalm 130:3. “For the wages of sin is death,” Romans 6:23. And this means not only physical death at the end of our natural lives but spiritual death… eternal separation from God.
The people recognize this, and they are confessing their sins. And the mere fact that they’ve had this change of heart, and have gone to Moses for help, and have confessed their sins, is all a part of what it means to repent. Jesus says in Mark 1:15, ““The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Peter says in Acts 2:38, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins…” 3
Next, let’s look at the second part of verse 7: “‘Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people.”
The people knew that they had a problem with God because of their sins; they knew that they couldn’t solve this problem on their own. They knew they needed a mediator. And they knew that God had appointed Moses to be their mediator. And on many occasions already in Exodus and Numbers, Moses has intervened as their mediator to make atonement on their behalf.
And so we human beings need a mediator to solve our problem with sin: And we have one in Christ: 1 Timothy 2:5-6: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all…”
So these sinful Israelites go to Moses, their mediator. Moses intercedes for them. And God provides the antivenin for the deadly snake bite.
And what is God’s antivenin? Well, God has Moses create a bronze snake and put it on a pole. Verse 9: “Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.”
Very strange! But do you get the picture? After a snake bit you, after the deadly venom began coursing its way through your body, you had to perform one small act of faith: look up at the snake; look up at this symbol of the very thing that is killing you.
And only when the Israelites took this one small act of faith would they be saved from the deadly poison—saved, in other words, from the deadly consequences of their sin.
And to be sure, it is a small act of faith. When you’re dying of deadly snake venom and have no way other way of saving yourself, it doesn’t take a lot of faith to look up at the snake. You simply have nothing left to lose!
After all, let’s say that you find yourself tumbling off the side of a steep mountain. And unless something stops your fall, and fast, you will plummet over the edge, hundreds of feet to the canyon floor below and go splat… just like Wile E. Coyote, except unlike him you will die. But as start to fall, you have enough of your wits about you to notice a vine sticking out from the side of the mountain. Do you reach out and grab that vine? You don’t know for sure whether that vine is strong enough to support your weight. Maybe the vine will break or be uprooted when you grab it. But what do you have to lose? It’s your only hope.
So the act of grabbing the vine takes very little faith…
Faith in Jesus Christ is like that! This reminds us of Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Confess and believe.
This means that none of us is saved because of the strength of our faith; we’re saved because of the One in whom we place the infinitesimally small amount of faith that we possess: we’re saved because of Jesus, and what he’s done for us through his life, death, and resurrection. It simply doesn’t take much faith… just as it didn’t take much faith for these snake-bitten Israelites to be saved.
So let’s review: In these six short verses of today’s scripture, we have acknowledgement of our sin problem. We have confession and repentance. We have a mediator who intervenes to save us. And we are saved through faith. That’s starting to sound like the gospel!
And how exactly does our mediator save us? That’s what comes next. Notice that when ancient Israel looks up at the snake, they’re looking at a symbol of the very thing that’s killing them—the deadly snake!
Similarly, in John chapter 3, Jesus says that when he is lifted up, on the cross, he will become like that snake… which means he will become a symbol of the very thing that’s killing us—our sins. Second Corinthians 5:21 describes what this means: “For our sake”—that is, to save us from our sins—“he [God] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin [in other words, the Father transfers our sins onto Jesus, and Jesus endures God’s wrath for our sins], so that in [Christ] we might become the righteousness of God.”
This verse says that on the cross a glorious exchange takes place: Jesus receives our sins and pays the penalty for them; and we receive his righteousness in return. Which means we’re forgiven; which means we have eternal life; which means we’re adopted into God’s family.
Ancient Israel looked up at this snake on a pole, and it meant that the snake had been defeated; it could no longer destroy them.
Similarly, we Christians “look up” at Jesus on the cross—even in our imaginations—and it means that Christ suffered and died for sins in our place. Therefore we know that our sin can no longer destroy us.
The cross is a symbol our sins, the very thing that’s destroying us; yet through the cross, our sins are destroyed.
That’s Point Number Two: That’s how, through his death on the cross, Jesus is like this snake in Numbers 21.
And Point Number Three: Let’s talk about the “snake” or “snakes” that we encounter in our lives.
God used venomous snakes to bring Israel to repentance and faith and healing. On the other side of this difficult trial, the Israelites—at least those who truly repented of their sins and came to deeper faith in God—could say, “I didn’t like that I went through that terrible experience, but I’m thankful for it. Because look how God used it for my good; look what I learned from it; look how much stronger my faith is; look how deeper my love for God is… on the other side of that difficult trial.”
If we’re Christians, God sends us “snakes,” too. Probably not literal snakes, of course. God probably won’t send us “fiery serpents,” as in verse 6… I hope! But listen to what the apostle Peter says: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” 1 Peter 4:12.
So maybe not “fiery serpents” but “fiery trials.” Same difference. Our “fiery serpents” may take the form of unfavorable circumstances, disappointing setbacks, crushing defeats, embarrassing failures, immovable obstacles, implacable enemies, incurable illnesses… suffering of all kinds.
While we can be sure that the “fiery serpents” God sends us won’t cause us lasting harm, they will often hurt us. But they will be for our good.
Let me describe some “fiery serpents” in my life… This is the “preaching to myself” part of the sermon. But maybe my words will help you, too.
In my life, I am often disappointed that things don’t work out the way I plan; or the way I want them to; or the way I would work them out if I were in charge of running the universe. I suffer failures and setbacks and defeats. Even my pastoral ministry often feels like one step forward, two steps back. And I get angry. I feel resentment. Worst of all I feel sorry for myself.
In my own way, I’m like these Israelites in the wilderness: “Why have you done this to me? Why have you brought me here.” “There is no food and no water, and I loathe this worthless food.” “You’re not giving me what I need, God, and I feel like I’m dying!” “If you really had my back, Lord, if you really wanted to show me your favor, if you really were taking care of me, wouldn’t you do X, Y, and Z for me?”
And yet here’s what I know for sure. I’m happier than I’ve ever been. By that I mean, I’m happy in a way that doesn’t simply depend on circumstances—which is another way of saying, I know more joy in my life. Maybe after 39 years of being a Christian I should be a lot more joyful. But I’m better than I used to be. If you think I’m bad now, whew… You should have seen me ten years ago!
But I’m happier than I’ve ever been for one reason only: I have learned to treasure Christ more than I used to. But I don’t learn to treasure Christ more when things are going well for me. I wish I did! I only learn to treasure Christ more through the “fiery serpents” of God’s testing and God’s discipline of me… I learn it through the trials that God puts me through.
But I get disappointed because I still often want worldly treasure to go along with the treasure I have in Christ. There’s still a part of me that really wants God… and Egypt too.
But here’s the problem with that: If the Bible is telling the truth about the way God often tests us, about the way God disciplines his children, about the “fiery serpents” that God often sends our way… If the Bible is telling the truth about all that, maybe I can’t have both; that is, maybe I can’t have worldly treasure and heavenly treasure. Maybe it’s one or the other. Maybe the treasure that I have in Christ only comes at the expense of treasure that I too often seek elsewhere…?
If so, God help me, I know which treasure I choose: Give me Jesus… Give me Jesus… Give me more of Jesus… He’s better than anything. He’s all I need. He’s the strength of my life. He’s my portion forever.
As George Beverley Shea used to sing,
I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold
I’d rather be His than have riches untold
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or land
I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand
Than to be the king of a vast domain
Or be held in sin’s dread sway
I’d rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today
This is my Word. I have been encouraged. I have been in full time ministry since 2001, and I always complain about my “Fiery Serpents” of life I’m passing through. Now I understand that, it’s God who is sending it to me, so that I can trust much on JESUS not on the worldly materials.
Jesus be EXALTED in my life.
Romidy Samu.
Amen