May 4, 2007

LOOK AND LIVE

Numbers 21:4-9

The story we have just read in the Scripture reading is an intriguing one. First of all, let’s capture the setting. The people of Israel are approaching the end of their forty years of desert wandering. The older generation has almost all died off. Once again the nation is approaching the borders of the Promised Land. The shortest route for them lay through the nation of Edom. But, Numbers 20 tells us that when the Israelites requested permission to pass through Edom, it was denied and they were threatened with armed attack if they attempted to cross. So instead of fighting, they turned aside and went the long way around.

What this meant in practical terms was that they were actually turning around and going back into the wilderness. No one likes a detour; especially if it means retracing our steps, and even more so if the conditions of travel are difficult. So the people become discouraged and impatient. A familiar scene ensues. They grumble against God and against Moses. Numbers 21:5: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food! It was the strongest complaint yet against the manna that God provided for them day after day.

In response, God sends a plague of poisonous snakes among the people. People have often puzzled over the KJV reference to “fiery serpents”. The adjective does in fact describe something that is burning or fiery, but most commentators believe that it is a reference to the burning effect of the poison when the people were bitten. In any case, many people were bitten by the snakes, and those who were bitten were dying in agony.

The people rush to Moses with a prayer of sincere repentance: We sinned when we spoke against Yahweh and against you. Pray that Yahweh will take the snakes away from us. (verse 7).

Moses does pray and God answers by giving him some rather peculiar instructions. He tells Moses to make a snake and put it on a pole. Hold it in the air, and whenever someone is bitten by one of the snakes, if he looks at the snake on the pole, he will live and not die. So Moses makes a snake out of brass or bronze, puts it on a pole and holds it up in the midst of the people. And just as God promised, whenever anyone was bitten, if he looked at the bronze snake, he would live.

It is a rather short story, taking only 6 verses in our text. It is simply told, without a lot of embellishing details. It contains some by now familiar themes. If we were to put it to music, the composition would have two movements. The people sin and God sends judgment. The people repent and God shows mercy. If these six verses were all we had, we would be likely to put this story on a shelf along with many other similar stories in Israel’s history.

But when we turn to the New Testament, we find that it is Jesus himself who takes this short story and uses it in very unexpected ways. In fact, Jesus refers to it not once, but three times.

How many of you can quote John 3:16? It’s one of the most familiar and memorized verses in the Bible isn’t it? Did you know that you can’t fully understand John 3:16 without knowing about Numbers 21 and the story of Moses and the bronze serpent? Turn with me to John 3:14-15: Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. This is the context for the verse we know so well: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

So, in the story of the bronze serpent, we have another Old Testament type. Remember in the last sermon I defined a type as an event or object or person in the Old Testament that is used as a symbol or picture to foreshadow or foretell some New Testament event or person or reality. One of the challenges in interpreting a type is to find the point or points of comparison intended by the Holy Spirit, and not allow our imaginations to run away with us. The way to do that is to stay as close as possible to the points of comparison made in the New Testament references. To do that, let’s compare what we have just read in John 3 with the other two references to this type.

John 8:28: So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. Once again, these are Jesus’ own words.

The third reference is in John 12:32-34: “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. The crowd spoke up, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ will remain forever, so how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up?’ Who is this Son of Man?”

If you were paying close attention as I read that, you might have picked up on the fact that in those second two references there is no actual mention of Moses or the bronze snake. But I have several reasons for concluding that they are in fact linked with the story in Numbers 21.

First of all there is the familiar vocabulary. The word “lifted up” occurs in all three references. The original Greek word that occurs in the text here is not a common one in John’s writings. In fact, these are the only occurrences in his Gospel.

Secondly, there is the common reference to Jesus as the Son of Man. All three passages use this title for him.

Thirdly, there is the common emphasis in all three references on faith and believing. We are very familiar with it in John 3:16: Whoever believes in him shall not perish. It is also there in John 8:30: Even as he spoke, many put their faith in him. And it is also there in the follow-up in John 12:36: Put your trust in the light while you have it. Oddly, the translators in the NIV have chosen to translate it in three different ways, but in every case it is the same Greek verb.

So it is my conclusion that all three of these references are linked and are linked back through John 3:14 with the events in Numbers 21. In fact, I have difficulty making any sense at all of the second two references without this link.

So with that in mind, as we compare these three references in Jesus’ own words, how does it help us to interpret the type? As we compare the three, I find that there are two common elements in all three references. First there is the use of the word “lifted up” which is taken from the story of the bronze snake and then used as a means of portraying and foretelling Christ’s death. And not just the fact of his death, but the kind of death he would die.

When the snake was lifted up on the pole, it was a picture of Christ being lifted up on the cross. “When I am lifted up from the earth…” Jesus said this, “to show the kind of death he was going to die.” And Jesus made it clear in his words to Nicodemus, that this death, this kind of death, was necessary. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. There is a Greek verb of necessity and requirement in that sentence. It is required. Just as there would have been no salvation from the snakes’ venom unless the snake was “lifted up” so there could be no salvation from the venom of sin until the Son of Man was lifted up from the earth. The Savior had to be lifted up. The Savior had to die. The Savior had to die on a cross, suspended above the earth.

The second point of connection in the type is captured in the Old Testament story in the words “look and live.” The Israelite who lay dying from the poison of the snake had to lift his eyes and look at the bronze snake held up on a pole. When he did, the healing power of God was extended to him, and the poison’s effects were neutralized. He was healed. He lived.

When we come into the New Testament fulfillment, looking has been interpreted as faith. It is looking with spiritual eyes rather than physical eyes. This is the clear application in all three of the references in John in their emphasis on believing, having faith, trusting in the One who hung on the cross.

Let’s focus on the passage in John 3:14-18: Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

Then down to verse 36: Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.

These verses take on new vividness and meaning when you think of an Israelite, lying in the hot desert sun, bitten by one of the snakes, the burning poison spreading rapidly through his body. “Look and live!” Moses cried. “Whoever looks shall not perish but live.”

Now Jesus speaks. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake, so I must be lifted up. Everyone who looks at me there on the cross and believes in me shall not perish but live forever. Whoever rejects me and refuses to look at me with eyes of faith shall not live. The poison of sin and the wrath of God’s judgment shall run to their inevitable conclusion.”

Look! Trust! Believe! Have faith! They are all different ways of communicating the same spiritual truth.

These, then, are the two spiritual truths of our salvation which were foreshadowed in the desert so many years ago:

The Savior had to be lifted up. Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man had to go to the cross.

The sinner must look in order to live. There is no other remedy for the serpent’s poison than this. Look and live!

Let’s go back to the idea of the text of Numbers 21 as a piece of music. It is still a piece in two movements. The people sin and God sends judgment. The people repent and God extends his mercy. There is a beautiful melody, full of the holiness of God. There are the thundering bass notes of judgment, the haunting lament of the dying people, the powerful notes of God’s sure mercy. It is truly a magnificent composition in its own right. But when we add the New Testament notes from John, it is as though the Composer has taken us to a whole new level of beauty. A lovely descant is added that floats over and above the original composition, heart breaking on one level, yet piercing in the sweetness of this new melody. And as we listen and watch with our spiritual eyes, the pole on which the serpent was raised is transformed into a wooden cross. The figure upon it becomes a man, the Son of God, sent to die for our sin. But the message of the music remains the same. Look and live!

I wonder if you have ever made that step of faith? Many who hear the Gospel message and the message of faith object and say, “It’s too simple! There has got to be more required of me than that!” I can’t help but wonder if there were some among the Israelites that day who had the same thought. “It’s too simple!” And so, when Moses’ cry rang out over the people, “Look and live!” they turned their eyes away and refused to look. “After all, what good could it possibly do?” they thought. And so they died in their suffering and in their pain. I wouldn’t want that to happen to anyone here this morning. If you have never put your faith in the One on the Cross, wouldn’t this be a great day to “Look and live!”