davidbowerkingwood

I have long been fascinated by the vast insights provided in John 3; our Lord, while speaking to Nicodemus, reminds him of the story of the bronze serpent as described in Numbers 21:4-9. While the Old Testament is a picture of the person and works of the Lord Jesus Christ; I find it of great interest that our Lord selects this particular story.

The Bronze Serpent

⁴ Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. ⁵ And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.” ⁶ So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.

⁷ Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

⁸ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” ⁹ So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

The Lord explains the typology in the following verses 14-17:

¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

While the Lord did not remove the serpents, as asked by the people of Israel, he did provide a cure when anyone who had been bitten, simply looked at the bronze serpent, he lived!

The Fiery Serpents of Sin Among Us Today

Christians today are surrounded and under attack by a wide variety of fiery serpents of sin too numerous to mention! We should be ever mindful that anything and everything that is not of faith is sin! While there is no hope this situation will improve any time soon, there is every hope God’s answer will serve each of us as a cure to this ongoing attack.

“¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Today, every unbeliever who looks to the cross in faith in Jesus Christ as Savior will live eternally as part of God’s family. Every believer who looks to the cross in faith can continue to rejoice in the salvation they have been given!

God’s Ultimate Solution

Both the cross and the grave are empty, our Lord Jesus Christ is home with the Father!

The people of Israel came to Moses, asking the Lord to remove the serpents, “pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” While God did not remove the serpents, he neutralized the poison but left the serpents in place.

Today, once again, the Lord is not removing the serpents but has provided a cure, the walk of faith; faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and the joy of the faith centered life!

The Lord has a take-away planned but it is not the serpents he will take away, it is his children who will be taken away and the serpents left behind. The time is coming, and may be soon, that all of God’s children will be taken away out of this wilderness of sin and called home to heaven! In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 we are promised:

“¹³ But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

¹⁵ For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

Even so, come Lord Jesus!