My church is currently studying the book of John. Last week we read through a large portion of John, chapter three. But one thing that stood out to me was this phrase in verses fourteen and fifteen,
"...as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."
Because it wasn't critical to the points in my pastor's sermon, he didn't elaborate on this particular verse. But my curiosity caused me to look a little deeper. I wasn't understanding the correlation between Jesus, and Moses' snake. Thankfully, I have a shelf full of books where I was able to meet with a world class Bible scholar who could explain this reference to me.
Jesus is referring here to the book of Numbers, chapter twenty-one, when Israel became impatient and began to complain. Their lack of faith and ingratitude for all that the Lord had provided caused them to speak out against God and Moses. As a result of their rebellion, the Lord sent poisonous serpents to strike the people of Israel, and many died because of it. Acknowledging their sin, the people pleaded with Moses to pray for God to take away the snakes. As Moses prayed, God told Moses to make a "fiery serpent" of bronze and set it on a pole, where all who were bitten would look upon the bronze serpent and live.
Jesus was saying "Just like that serpent was lifted up to bring life, so must I be lifted up to bring eternal life".
I find it ironic that the object of salvation for Israel was formed to look like the very object of death for Israel. There was a serpent of death and a serpent of life. It was as if Moses could say, "Look at the bronze snake, and be saved from the poison of the real snake".
There's a connection here to Jesus, as well. Though Jesus himself never sinned, he came to save us from our sins.
2 Corinthians 5:21 says:
"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
As he walked on this earth, Jesus was the spotless Lamb of God, the image of perfection. But as he was lifted up to die on a cross, God looked down and saw his perfect son now resembling the sins of the world. Every wicked thought and perverse desire, every fit of anger, and all of our corrupt speech was now resting on the sinless Savior. All, yes, ALL of our sin was placed on Jesus in such a way that he bore the image of iniquity, and was detestable in the sight of God. Once beautiful, now covered in our filth. Jesus delivered us from our sin by taking it upon himself.
Just as God appointed the bronze serpent to give life to those who had been struck by the sting of death, so God has appointed Christ to bring us eternal life in exchange for our fatal sin. What a compassionate God!
