Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 21:8
And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
8. a fiery serpent ] Here it is a single substantive, the second of the two in Num 21:6.
set it upon a pole ] The rendering of the A.V. may here be retained.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Make thee a fiery serpent – i. e. a serpent resembling in appearance the reptiles which attacked the people. The resemblance was of the essence of the symbolism (compare 1Sa 6:5). As the brass serpent represented the instrument of their chastisement, so the looking unto it at Gods word denoted acknowledgment of their sin, longing for deliverance from its penalty, and faith in the means appointed by God for healing. In the serpent of brass, harmless itself, but made in the image of the creature that is accursed above others Gen 3:14, the Christian fathers rightly see a figure of Him Joh 3:14-15 who though holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners Heb 7:26, was yet made sin 2Co 5:21, and made a curse for us Gal 3:13. And the eye of faith fixed on Him beholds the manifestation at once of the deserts of sin, of its punishment imminent and deprecated, and of the method of its remission devised by God Himself.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. Make thee a fiery serpent] Literally, make thee a seraph.
And put it upon a pole] al nes, upon a standard or ensign.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A fiery serpent, i.e. the figure of a serpent in brass, which is of a fiery colour. This would require some time: God would not speedily take off the judgment, because he saw they were not thoroughly humbled.
Set it on a pole, that the people might see it from all parts of the camp; and therefore the pole must be high, and the serpent large.
This method of cure was prescribed, partly that it might appear to be Gods own work, and not the effect of nature or art; and partly that it might be an eminent type of our salvation by Christ. See Joh 3:14,15. The serpent signified Christ, who was in the likeness of sinful flesh, Rom 8:3, though without sin, as this brazen serpent had the outward shape, but not the inward poison of the other serpents: the pole resembled the cross upon which Christ was lift up for our salvation; and looking up to it designed our believing in Christ.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And the Lord said unto Moses,…. Out of the cloud; or, it may be, Moses went into the sanctuary, and there prayed, and the Lord answered him from between the cherubim:
make them a fiery serpent; not a real one, but the likeness of one, one that should very much resemble the fiery serpents Israel had been bitten with:
and set it upon a pole; a standard, banner, or ensign, as the word signifies; perhaps meaning one of the poles on which their ensigns were carried: the Targum of Jonathan renders it, on an high place, that so it might be seen by all in the camp:
and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live; which is very wonderful, that by looking to the figure of a serpent, men should be cured of the bites of real ones, and which bites were deadly; the virtue of healing could not come from the figure, but from God, who appointed it to be made, the Targum of Jonathan adds, that one bitten should live,
“if he directed his heart to the Word of the Lord,”
even to that divine Logos or Word of God, whose lifting up was figured hereby; see Joh 3:14.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
8. Make thee a fiery serpent. Nothing would, at first sight, appear more unreasonable than that a brazen serpent should be made, the sight of which should extirpate the deadly poison; but this apparent absurdity was far better suited to render the grace of God conspicuous than as if there had been anything natural in the remedy. If the serpents had been immediately removed, they would have deemed it to be an accidental occurrence, and that the evil had vanished by natural means. If, in the aid afforded, anything had been applied, bearing an affinity to fit and appropriate remedies, then also the power and goodness of God would have been thrown into the shade. In order, therefore, that they might perceive themselves to be rescued from death by the mere grace of God alone, a mode of preservation was chosen so discordant with human reason, as to be almost a subject for laughter. At the same time it had the effect of trying the obedience of the people, to prescribe a mode of seeking preservation, whichbrought all their senses into subjection and captivity. It was a foolish thing to turn the eyes to a serpent of brass, to prevent the ill effects of a poisonous bite; for what, according to man’s judgment, could a lifeless statue, lifted up on high, profit? But it is the peculiar virtue of faith, that we should willingly be fools, in order that we may learn to be wise only from the mouth of God. This afterwards more clearly appeared in the substance of this type: for, when Christ compares Himself to this serpent which Moses lifted up in the wilderness, (Joh 3:14,) it was not a mere common similitude which He employs, but He teaches us, that what had been shewn forth in this dark shadow, was completed in Himself. And, surely, unless the brazen serpent had been a symbol of spiritual grace, it would not have been laid up like a precious treasure, and diligently preserved for many ages in God’s sanctuary. The analogy, also, is very perfect; since Christ, in order to rescue us from death, put on our flesh, not, indeed, subject to sin, but representing “the likeness of sinful flesh,” as Paul says. (Rom 8:3.) hence follows, what I have above adverted to, that since “the world by wisdom knew not God,” He was manifested in the foolishness of the cross. (1Co 1:21.) If, then, we desire to obtain salvation, let us not be ashamed to seek it from the curse of Christ, which was typified in the image of the serpent.
Its lifting up is poorly and incorrectly, in my opinion, explained by some, as foreshadowing the crucifixion, (122) whereas it ought rather to be referred to the preaching of the Gospel: for Moses was commanded to set up the serpent on high, that it might be conspicuous on every side. And the word נס nes, is used both for a standard, and the mast of a ship, or any other high pole: which is in accordance with the prophecy of Isaiah, where he says that Christ should be “for an ensign” to all nations, (Isa 11:10) which we know to have been the case, by the spreading of the doctrine of the Gospel through the whole world, with which the look of faith corresponds. For, just as no healing was conveyed from the serpent to any who did not turn their eyes towards it, when set up on high, so the look of faith only causes the death of Christ to bring salvation to us. Although, therefore, God would give relief to their actual distress, it is still unquestionable that He even then admonished all believers that the venomous bites of the devil could only be cured by their directing their minds and senses by faith on Christ.
The brazen serpent is, furthermore, a proof to us how inclined to superstition the human race is, since posterity worshipped it as an idol, until it was reduced to powder by the holy king Hezekiah. (1Kg 18:4.)
(122) C. here is opposed to the great body of the commentators, although he has with him “some of reverent account in the Church,” as Attersoll calls them. Perhaps it may be admissible to include, with Lampe, both views: “ Exaltatio serpentis hujus in pertica primo quidem designat exaltationem in cruce, ita tamen ut pertica simul possit emblema gerere praeconii Evangelici, per quod Christus crucifixus mundo innotuit.”—In Johan. 3:14.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) Make thee a fiery serpent.The single Hebrew word which is here employed is saraph (a seraph), or burning one, as in Num. 21:6, where the word nehashimserpentsoccurs also. The meaning is explained in the following verse, in which it is said that Moses made a serpent of brass.
Set it upon a pole.Better, a standard. The LXX. have , the Vulgate signum. The Hebrew word (nes) is the same which occurs in Exo. 17:15, Jehovah-nissii.e., Jehovah is my standard or banner.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. Make thee a fiery serpent This was an astonishing answer to the prayer. Moses doubtless expected that the serpents would disappear, as the plagues had vanished from Egypt when he interceded in behalf of Pharaoh. But instead of this he is directed to provide an antidote for those who may be bitten now or in the future. It was to be set upon a pole or standard, that it might be seen in the extremities of the camp, probably two miles distant from the tabernacle.
When he looketh The healing involved, 1.) A confession of inability to heal himself; 2.) The exercise of his own volitions in a manner arbitrarily prescribed by God, and for which no reasons are assigned; 3.) Simple faith in God was requisite for putting forth the action necessary to the cure. The condition was so simple that every one could perform it. Even the apparently dying could turn his languid eye toward the brazen serpent and be healed. It is evident that every one who, being bitten, perished in the camp after this great antidote was devised died as wilful a death as the suicide.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Num 21:8. Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole The author of the Book of Wisdom sets this matter in its proper light, when he calls this fiery serpent a sign of salvation to put them in remembrance of God’s laws; for he that turned himself towards it, says he, was not saved by the thing that he saw, but by thee, who art the Saviour of all. The healing virtue which accompanied the looking upon this image was derived from God alone, who was pleased in this manner to display his power, to make the Israelites sensible that these serpents were sent by him; and that this seemingly weak method of cure might convince them, that they had no reason to fear any evil whatsoever, provided they but made God their friend, whose power could procure so easy a remedy in all emergencies. To the same purpose our Saviour, in curing the man born blind, put clay upon his eyes, to shew that the cure was extraordinary and supernatural. Here all interpreters observe a remarkable similitude between the virtue of this brazen serpent erected on a pole, and that of Christ’s death, and which is taken notice of by Christ himself. Joh 3:14. For, as no one could imagine that the bare sight of a serpent, imaged in brass, would cure the serpent’s poison; to nothing is more true, however incredible it appeared at the time of the event, than that the only effectual means of propagating the Christian Religion, and of drawing all nations to the faith and obedience of the Gospel, and consequently of saving those who were sincere in that profession from the sting of death and the power of the devil, that old serpent, (Rev 12:9; Rev 20:2.) was the lifting up of Christ upon the cross, or putting him to death. This interpretation sufficiently removes all the objections of Voltaire, and such enemies of the Old Testament as pretend that Moses, by forming this brazen serpent, was himself an encourager of that idolatry which he so severely reprehends in others. There is no ground from the text to suppose that this brazen serpent was ever intended as an object of worship. The word which we render pole in this verse, signifies an ensign or banner; a sign erected with an intention that people may gather around it. Isa 5:26; Isa 49:22.
See commentary on Num 21:9
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 169
THE BRASEN SERPENT
Num 21:8-9. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, token he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole: and it came to pass, mat if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
IT is said in Scripture, that, where sin hath abounded, grace shall much more abound. This declaration, if received as a licence for sin, would be pernicious in the extreme: but, if taken as an encouragement to repent, its tendency is most consolatory and beneficial. That God has magnified his grace towards the most unworthy of men, and even taken occasion from their wickedness to display the unbounded extent of his own mercy, is certain: we need only read the history of the Israelites in the wilderness, and we shall be fully convinced of this. Their conduct was most perverse. They were truly a stiff-necked people. Notwithstanding all their experience of Gods kindness towards them, they could never confide in him, but were always murmuring, and always rebelling. By their wickedness they brought down upon themselves the divine judgments; but no sooner did they implore forgiveness, than God returned to them in mercy, and put away his judgments far from them. We have a very singular instance of this in the history before us; where we are informed, that God had, on account of their murmurings, sent fiery flying serpents to destroy them; but, on the intercession of Moses, had appointed them an easy remedy, by the use of which their wounds were healed, and their calamities removed.
We propose to consider,
I.
The appointment itself
The need of Gods interposition was exceeding urgent
[The wilderness abounded with serpents, such as the camp was now infested with [Note: Deu 8:15.]. They were of a very malignant nature, causing by their bite a fetal inflammation [Note: They are probably called fiery on this account, rather than from their colour.]. Multitudes of the people had been bitten by them: many were dying; and many were already dead. In vain did any of them seek an antidote against the venom, with which they were in hourly expectation of being infected: nor could any means be devised to abate its force. What then could the people do? To arm themselves against the danger, was impossible: they were assailable on every side: the serpents being winged, their assaults were irresistible. In this extremity, they apply themselves to Him, who alone was able to deliver. They humble themselves before their God; and they entreat Moses to intercede for them. If God have not mercy on them, they must all perish. Such was the extremity to which they were reduced.]
But the manner in which he interposed was strange and unaccountable
[God ordered a serpent to be made of brass, as like as possible to those which bit the people: and that serpent he commanded to be erected on a pole, in order that the wounded persons might look unto it and be healed. But what connexion was there between the means and the end? Of what use could a piece of brass be, or what could it signify of what shape it was? Of what service could it be to look upon it? If it were used in a way of friction; or if it were reduced to powder and swallowed; or any mixture were made with an infusion of brass in it; one might suppose it possible that such a prescription might be of some use: there might be some affinity between the remedy and the disease: but, when such an order as that in our text was given, it seemed rather as if God were only laughing at their calamity, and mocking, now that their fear was come.]
Strange however as this might appear at the time, the reason of it is clear to us, who know,
II.
The mystery contained in it
That the deepest mysteries of our holy religion were shadowed forth by it, we are well assured, because our blessed Lord has expressly referred to it as illustrative and explanatory of them. Let us, for distinctness sake, consider,
1.
The provision made
[God ordered that a brasen serpent should be made like unto the other serpents, (but without their venom;) and that it should be erected on a pole in the midst of the camp. And herein was a great mystery. What, I would ask, is the provision which God has made for the recovery of a ruined world? Has he not sent his only dear Son into the world, to he made in the likeness of sinful flesh, yea, to he made in all things like unto us, sin only excepted [Note: Rom 8:3 with Heb 2:17; Heb 4:15.]? Has he not caused that glorious Person to he suspended on a cross, and to yield up his own life a sacrifice for sin? Has he not moreover commanded that in every place, and in every age, that adorable Saviour should, by the preaching of the everlasting Gospel, be evidently set forth crucified before the eyes of men [Note: Gal 3:1.]? Here then we behold that which was prefigured by the brasen serpent. In affirming this, we speak only what our Lord himself has declared [Note: Joh 3:14.]. Indeed on several different occasions did he refer to this type, as to receive in due season its accomplishment in him [Note: Joh 8:28; Joh 12:32.]. O how are we indebted to God for the light of his blessed Gospel! Little did the Israelites know what a stupendous mercy was here exhibited to their view. Doubtless, as a mere ordinance for the healing of their bodies, they would be thankful for it; but how thankful should we be, who see in it such a wonderful provision for our souls! Let us contemplate it: Gods co-equal, co-eternal Son, Jehovahs Fellow, made incarnate! The Deity himself assuming our nature with all its sinless infirmities, and dying an accursed death upon the cross! and this too for the salvation of his own rebellious creatures! O let us never for one moment forget, that this is the means which God has appointed for our deliverance from death and hell: let us contemplate it, till our hearts are altogether absorbed in wonder, love, and praise.]
2.
The direction given
[The only thing which the Israelites had to do, was, to look unto the brasen serpent. There was nothing else required of them: they were not first to heal themselves in part; or to apply any other remedy in conjunction with this: nor were they to do any thing either to merit, or to increase its efficacy: they were simply to look unto the serpent, as Gods ordinance for their recovery. Here then we behold a further mystery. Never from the foundation of the world was the way of salvation more plainly, more fully, or more intelligibly declared, than in this simple method of obtaining the desired blessing. Salvation is only and entirely by faith in Christ. The direction which Christ himself gives us by the Prophet Isaiah, is this: Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else [Note: Isa 45:22.]. And when he sent forth his disciples to preach his Gospel, he especially charged them to declare, that he who believed, should be saved; and he who believed not, should be damned [Note: Mar 16:16.]. Many other things indeed he requires of his people: he requires that they should repent, in order to evince that they truly desire mercy; and that they should obey, in order to manifest that they have obtained mercy; but both their repentance and obedience are carefully excluded from the office of justifying: justification is invariably declared to be by faith alone. It is by faith in order that it may be by grace [Note: Joh 3:15 with Rom 4:16; Rom 11:6 and Eph 2:8-9.]: and, when we have learned how much the Israelites did for the healing of their bodies, then we shall know how much our own works are to procure the healing of our souls. In this view the type before us is singularly instructive: it is so plain, that it is obvious to the meanest apprehension; so comprehensive, that nothing can be added for the elucidation of it; and so authenticated, that scepticism itself cannot doubt either its reference or its accomplishment.]
3.
The effect produced
[If any despised the remedy, they died: whereas not a single instance occurred, throughout all the camp of Israel, of any person resorting to it in vain. However desperate his state was, however distant he might be from the serpent, or however indistinctly he beheld it, the effect was still the same; every person who looked to it as Gods ordinance for the healing of his wounds, was healed by it; he was healed immediately, and he was healed perfectly. The man that can see no mystery here, is blind indeed. We may defy the ingenuity of men or angels to devise any means whereby the efficacy of faith in Christ should be more clearly ascertained. Plain indeed is that declaration of St. Paul, All that believe, are justified from all things [Note: Act 13:39.]: but, plain as it is, it does not so forcibly strike the mind, as does the typical representation in our text. All the questions that can arise respecting the nature and the efficacy of faith, are here distinctly answered. If suppositions are made which can never be verified, no wonder if difficulties occur which cannot be solved: but let us only remember, that faith is a looking to Christ for salvation, and that that faith is uniformly and universally productive of good works; and then we can no more doubt its efficacy to save the soul, than we can doubt the veracity of God. We inquire not, whether that faith be strong or weak; (though doubtless the stronger it is, the more abundant will be its fruits:) we only ask, whether it be genuine and unfeigned; and then we do not hesitate to affirm, that the possessor of it shall be saved: he shall not be ashamed or confounded world without end [Note: Act 16:31 with Isa 45:17.].]
Address,
1.
Those who are averse to this method of salvation
[Many there are to whom the doctrine of salvation by faith alone is an object of disgust. It was so in the first ages of Christianity; and it is so still to the greater part of the Christian world. But though the cross of Christ is still, as formerly, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness, yet is it at this time, as it was then, the power of God and the wisdom of God [Note: 1Co 1:23-24.]. If it be objected, that to be saved by faith alone, and by faith in One who saved not himself, appears absurd; we answer, That such an objection might with just as much reason have been urged against the healing of dying men by the sight of a brasen serpent: and that it is not for us to prescribe to God in what way he shall save a ruined world. It is not for us to dictate, but obey. Were there therefore really as little connexion between the means and the end in the gospel salvation, as there was in the typical representation of it, it would still be our duty thankfully to submit to the remedy proposed. But this is not the case: it would be easy to shew that there is a wonderful suitableness between the death of Christ as an atonement for sin, and the mercy vouchsafed to us for his sake: nor is there a less suitableness between our exercise of faith in him, and his communication of grace to us. But without entering into that discussion at present, we refer to the type as decisive of the point. Wash and be clean, was said to Naaman; Look and be healed, to Israel; Believe and be saved, to us. This is Christs message to a guilty world; and blessed is he who shall not be offended in him.]
2.
Those who have experienced its saving benefits
[The brasen serpent was carried by the Israelites throughout all the remainder of their journey: and, if they had been bitten again by the fiery serpents, they would doubtless have had recourse again to the remedy, which they had once found to be effectual. The need of repeated applications to our remedy is daily recurring; and, thanks be to God! its efficacy is undiminished. To all therefore would we repeat the direction before given, Look unto Christ and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. If those around you doubt, as certainly they will doubt, the efficacy of faith, let them read it in your whole conduct: let them see that your corruptions are mortified, and your evil dispositions are healed. Let them see that there is a difference between you and those around you, and such a difference too, as nothing but faith in Christ can produce. They will be boasting of other remedies, which, in spite of their utmost exertions, they will find ineffectual: but let them see in you the superior excellence of that, which God has revealed in his Gospel. Declare to them the way of life: exalt the Lord Jesus in their eyes: commend him to them with your lips; but most of all commend him to them in your lives. In a word, let your whole conversation be a visible comment on those words of the Apostle, God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world [Note: Gal 6:14.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
We cannot possibly err in considering this whole service, as wholly and altogether typical of the redemption by JESUS, since he himself hath so explained it. Joh 3:14-15 . But Reader, it is sweet as well as profitable to analyze, and, like the bee, gather out of this precious flower of scripture, the several precious parts of it. As first, observe, the plan of it did not originate in Moses, for it was wholly GOD’S appointment, Make thee, saith GOD, a fiery serpent, etc. Such is our redemption. GOD the FATHER, is all along in scripture represented as the founder and contriver of our salvation by his dear SON. Isa 42:6Isa 42:6 ; Joh 3:16 ; 1Jn 4:14 . Secondly, The LORD JESUS is the whole cause of our redemption. He was anointed as the most holy, to finish transgression and to bear all the iniquity of his people. Dan 9:24 ; Isa 53:6 ; Eph 1:7 . Thirdly, It is GOD the HOLY GHOST who lifteth up the LORD JESUS, both in his Gospel, and in the hearts of every true believer. Joh 12:32Joh 12:32 . And no man can say that JESUS is the LORD, but by the HOLY GHOST. 1Co 12:3 . After this view of the subject, I only detain the Reader just to observe, that as the faith of the Israelite in the camp, when bitten by the serpent, carried with it an evident proof of the work of GOD in the heart; so, in the present hour, the faith of the true Israelite of GOD in the church of JESUS, when under the raging effects of sin, in looking alone to him for salvation, carries the same evidence with it, that it is not by human might, nor by power, but by the SPIRIT of the LORD. For as naturalists tell us, that to a person labouring under the disease of the bite of a venomous reptile, the sight of anything bright or shining appears more likely to aggravate than assuage their misery: so to the eye of human reason, untaught of GOD the HOLY GHOST, how should the bare looking unto JESUS cure the soul of sin? Nothing, surely, but the power of GOD, and the wisdom of GOD, working in the mind, both to believe, and to do, of his good pleasure can be competent to such an act of faith. Reader! let you and I beg of GOD for this grace, to believe the record that GOD hath given of his dear SON. And as the lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness, would not be efficacious to any unbelieving Israelite, who refused to look unto it for healing, but had recourse to human art for a cure: so neither now, will the lifting up of the LORD JESUS on the cross, be effectual to those who, trusting in their own righteousness, despise or neglect this great salvation. LORD! give us to look unto thee, and be saved among the ends of the earth, for thou art GOD and there is none else, and beside thee, there is no Saviour. Isa 45:22 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
said. See note on Num 3:40.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Look And Live
And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a standard: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he seeth it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon the standard: and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived.Num 21:8-9.
[And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life.Joh 3:14-15.]
1. While the children of Israel were roaming homeless through the wilderness, their heart, we read, failed them because of the way, and, as was their wont, they vented their vexation in angry thoughts and rebellious words against God. On this occasion God sent among them judgment in the form of fiery serpents. The bite of these serpents was deadly, so that when a man was once bitten by their venomous fangs his life was forfeited, and, although he did not drop down dead on the instant, in one sense he was a dead man already. What a moment of agony and terror it must have been as all around unfortunate victims were being attacked by these messengers of death! In this terrible emergency the people cried to God, and in doing so confessed, We have sinned; and in answer to their prayer Moses was instructed to make a fiery serpent of brass and set it on a pole, and it should come to pass that, if any were bitten by a fiery serpent, on looking at this they would live.
They did well, when they came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee. So far as I know, it is the only real expression of true sorrow and willing confession which we find in the wilderness story. We have sinned. And if so, it is well worth while for us to notice, that this was the occasion for Gods giving to them the great sign of mercy to which Jesus Christ pointed as a sign of Himself. So it is that God gives grace to the humble, encourages the contrite, is found of those who seek.1 [Note: E. S. Talbot.]
2. Recalling this incident of Israel, Jesus found in it a type and prophecy of Himself. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
It is very instructive to notice the New Testament use of the Old Testament record of Moses. His history and its incidents are constantly referred to as illustrations and types of Christ. St. Paul again and again finds his illustrations in the life of Moses, and much more than illustrations. Not with any curious fancy is it that his sturdy logic finds the materials for two compact arguments in these chapters. The manna, the rock, the veil on the face of Moses, are all immediately connected with Jesus Christ. St. John, too, in the Book of Revelation, constantly finds here the imagery by which he sets forth the things which are to come. And the Church in all ages has found in Egypt and the wilderness journey to the goodly land a very Pilgrims Progress. No type is more familiar, no illustration more constant. The arrangements of Jewish worship are full of predictions of Christliving pictures of our salvation. The Lord Jesus is the sacrifice for our sinsthe Lamb of God which beareth away the sins of the world. He is the Mercy-seat, as the word propitiation is rendered in the marginal reference. He is the High Priest who ever liveth to make intercession for us, and who is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him.2 [Note: M. G. Pearse.]
The old is always becoming the new. As Moses so the Son of man; as the old, so the new; as the historical so the prophetical. All the pattern of the spiritual temple has been shown in the mountain, and has been frayed out in shapely and significant clouds which themselves were parables. That the Scripture might be fulfilled. History always has something more to do than it seems to have; it does not only record the event of the day, it redeems old subjects, old vows and oaths; it takes up what seems to be the exhausted past and turns it into the present and energetic action of the moment. As Moses, as Jonah, as Solomon, as the bold Esaias; it is always a going-back upon the sacred past and eating up the food that was there provided. Do not live too much in what we call the present; do not live upon the bubble of the hour; have some city of the mind, some far-away strong temple-sanctuary made noble by associations and memories of the tenderest kind. You could easily be dislodged from some sophism of yesterday. If you are living in the little programmes that were published but last night you have but a poor lodgment, and to-morrow you will be found naked, destitute, and hungry. Always go back to the As Moses, as David, as Daniel, as Jeremiah, and see in every culminating event a confirmation of this holy wordthat the Scripture might be fulfilled. The plan was drawn before the building was commenced; the specification was all written out before the builder handled his hammer and his trowel; we do but work out old specificationsold, but not decayed; old with the venerableness of truth. See that you stand upon a broad rock, and do not try to launch your lifeship upon a bubble.1 [Note: Joseph Parker.]
We have here
I. A Pressing Danger.
i. Death from the bite of a SerpentThe Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died (Num 21:6).
ii. Perishing in Sinmight not perish (Joh 3:15 A.V.; should not perish, Num 3:16).
II. A Way of Escape.
i. A Brazen Serpent lifted up on a poleMake thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a standard (Num 21:8).
ii. A Sin-bearer lifted up on the CrossAs Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up (Joh 3:14).
III. How to use the Way of Escape.
i. Looking to the SerpentIf a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived (Num 21:9).
ii. Believing in the Sin-bearerthat whosoever believeth in him, R.V. that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life (Joh 3:15).
IV. The Good Effect.
i. LifeWhen he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived (Num 21:9).
ii. Eternal Lifethat whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life (Joh 3:15).
I
A Pressing Danger
The danger is(i.) Death from the bite of a serpent (Num 21:6); (ii.) perishing in sin (Joh 3:16).
i. The Serpent and Death
1. The district through which the Israelites were passing is infested at the present day with venomous reptiles of various kinds, and this seems to have been its character in the time of Moses. It is impossible clearly to identify these fiery serpents with any of the several species now known, or to say why they received the appellation fiery. The name may have been given them on account of their colour, or their ferocity, or, inasmuch as the word is rendered deadly in the Septuagint, and burning in some other versions, it may indicate the burning sensation produced by their bite, and its venomous and fatal character.
2. The bite was fatal. Much people died. It was no light affliction which was but for a moment, a passing inconvenience that wore away with time; no sickness was it from which prudence and care could recover them. Not as when Paul shook off his venomous beast into the crackling flames, and it perished there. He who was bitten died: old and young, strong man and frail woman. Ah, said some of those who are always ready to make light of any illness unless it is their own, he will get over it; he is young, and he has youth on his side. See, said another, what a splendid constitution he has; he will mend. Come, said another, we must hope for the best. But much people died.
In October, 1852, Gurling, one of the keepers of the reptiles in the Zoological Gardens, was about to part with a friend who was going to Australia, and according to custom he must needs drink with him. He drank considerable quantities of gin, and although he would probably have been in a great passion if any one had called him drunk, yet reason and common sense had evidently been overpowered. He went back to his post at the gardens in an excited state. He had some months before seen an exhibition of snake-charming, and this was on his poor muddled brain. He must emulate the Egyptians, and play with serpents. First he took out of its cage a Morocco venom-snake, put it round his neck, twisted it about, and whirled it round about him. Happily for him it did not rouse itself so as to bite. The assistant-keeper cried out, For Gods sake, put back the snake, but the foolish man replied, I am inspired. Putting back the venom-snake, he exclaimed, Now for the cobra! This deadly serpent was somewhat torpid with the cold of the previous night, and therefore the rash man placed it in his bosom till it revived, and glided downward till its head appeared below the back of his waistcoat. He took it by the body, about a foot from the head, and then seized it lower down by the other hand, intending to hold it by the tail and swing it round his head. He held it for an instant opposite to his face, and like a flash of lightning the serpent struck him between the eyes. The blood streamed down his face, and he called for help, but his companion fled in horror; and, as he told the jury, he did not know how long he was gone, for he was in a maze. When assistance arrived, Gurling was sitting on a chair, having restored the cobra to its place. He said, I am a dead man. They put him in a cab, and took him to the hospital. First his speech went, he could only point to his poor throat and moan; then his vision failed him, and lastly his hearing. His pulse gradually sank, and in one hour from the time at which he had been struck he was a corpse. There was only a little mark upon the bridge of his nose, but the poison spread over the body, and he was a dead Man 1:1 [Note: C. H. Spurgeon.]
ii. Sin and Perishing
1. The bite of these serpents was mortal. The Israelites could have no question about that, because in their own presence much people of Israel died. They saw their own friends die of the snake-bite, and they helped to bury them. They knew why they died, and were sure that it was because the venom of the fiery serpents was in their veins. They were left almost without an excuse for imagining that they could be bitten and yet live. Now, we know that many have perished as the result of sin. We are not in doubt as to what sin will do, for we are told by the infallible Word, that the wages of sin is death, and, yet again, sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
Sin can have but one endingdeathdeathdeath. The soul that sinneth it shall die, so rings the warning of God. How foolishly we talk of it! When it is the child, we say, He is young, and will grow better. When it is the youth, we say, Let him sow his wild oats, and he will settle down. Ah, what cruel folly! What a man soweth, that shall he also reap. When it is middle age, we say, Yes, it is very sad, but he has a great many good points, you know. And when he is an old man and dies, we say, Well, we must hope for the best. And in upon this Babel there comes the terrible note of doom: The wages of sin is death.1 [Note: M. G. Pearse.]
2. Is it always immediate? Not always. May we not play with the serpent? We may not. Are there not moments when the cruel beast is not cruel? Not one. The sandwasp paralyses the beetle with his sting that he may, and that his progeny may profit, by the paralysis. The sandwasp does not kill the insect, but thrusts a sting into him, not fatally; the insect can still lay eggs for the advantage of the progeny of the sandwasp. It is so with many serpentine tricks; we are paralysed to be used, not to-day, but to be eaten in six months. We are so paralysed that we will do this or do that and have joy in it and have a banquet over it, ay, a foaming tankard of wine that froths out its own mocking laugh. It is the sting of the sandwasp; it has thrust in that venomous sting and hung us up for the next meeting, for the next occasion, just before the bankruptcy comes, and the devouring of our very soul by those whom we have wronged.
The worst consequences of sin are sin itself, more sin. Drink and lust mean stronger passion, more ungovernable desire. Anger and temper mean as their consequence a heart more bitter, more ready for more wrath. Selfish ways mean less power even to see when we are selfish or what selfishness is. Yes, and not only is there deepening of the same sin, but other sins are bred from it; cruelty, even murderous, out of lust and drink; cruelty, too, out of selfishness; lying and slander out of the hot heart and ungoverned life of anger. So it goes: sin breeding sin, sin deepening into more sin.2 [Note: E. S. Talbot.]
It is necessary to be ever vigilant, and, always looking on a trifling sin as one of magnitude, to flee far from it; because if the virtuous deeds exceed the sinful acts by even the point of one of the hairs of the eyelashes, the spirit goes to Paradise; but should the contrary be the case, it descends to hell.1 [Note: The Dabistan in Fields Book of Eastern Wisdom, 121.]
3. What was the sin the Israelites were guilty of?
(1) The fiery serpents came among the people because they had despised Gods way. The soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. It was Gods way; He had chosen it for them, and He had chosen it in wisdom and mercy, but they murmured at it. As an old divine says, It was lonesome and longsome; but still it was Gods way, and therefore it ought not to have been loathsome. His pillar of fire and cloud went before them, and His servants Moses and Aaron led them like a flock, and they ought to have followed cheerfully. Every step of their previous journey had been rightly ordered, and they ought to have been quite sure that this compassing of the land of Edom was rightly ordered too. But, no; they quarrelled with Gods way, and wanted to have their own way. This is one of the great standing follies of men; they cannot be content to wait on the Lord and keep His way, but prefer a will and a way of their own.
(2) The people also quarrelled with Gods food. He gave them the best of the best, for men did eat angels food; but they called the manna by an opprobrious title, which in the Hebrew has a sound of ridicule about it, and even in our translation conveys the idea of contempt. They said, Our soul loatheth this light bread, as if they thought it unsubstantial, and only fitted to puff them out, because it was easy of digestion, and did not breed in them that heat of blood and tendency to disease which a heavier diet would have brought with it. Being discontented with their God they quarrelled with the bread which He set upon their table. This is another of mans follies; his heart refuses to feed upon Gods Word or believe Gods truth. He craves the flesh-meat of carnal reason, the leeks and the garlic of superstitious tradition, and the cucumbers of speculation; he cannot bring his mind down to believe the Word of God, or to accept truth so simple, so fitted to the capacity of a child.
II
A Way of Escape
The way is(i.) a brazen serpent lifted up on a pole; (ii.) a Sin-bearer lifted up on the cross.
i. The Brazen Serpent
1. The command to make a brazen or copper serpent, and set it on some conspicuous place, that to look on it might stay the effect of the poison, is remarkable, not only as sanctioning the forming of an image, but as associating healing power with a material object. Two questions must be considered separatelyWhat did the method of cure say to the men who turned their bloodshot, languid eyes to it? and What does it mean for us, who see it by the light of our Lords great words about it? As to the former question, we have not to take into account the Old Testament symbolism which makes the serpent the emblem of Satan or of sin. Serpents had bitten the wounded. Here was one like them, but without poison, hanging harmless on the pole. Surely that would declare that God had rendered innocuous the else fatal creatures.
That to which they were to look was to be a serpent, but it was to be a serpent triumphed over, as it were, not triumphing, and held up to view and exhibited as a trophy. Around on every side the serpents are victorious, and the people are dying. Here the serpent is represented as conquered and, we may say, made a spectacle of, and the people who see it live. Strong were the serpents in their power of death, but stronger was God in His omnipotence of life, and the life triumphed.
The sight of the brazen serpent was as though Gods spear had pierced the plague, and held it aloft before their eyes, a vanquished, broken thing. It was not one of the serpents; it was an image of all and any of them; it was the whole serpent curse and plague in effigy.1 [Note: E. S. Talbot.]
2. How could a cure be wrought through merely looking at twisted brass? It seemed, indeed, to be almost a mockery to bid men look at the very thing which had caused their misery. Shall the bite of a serpent be cured by looking at a serpent? Shall that which brings death also bring life? But herein lay the excellency of the remedy, that it was of divine origin; for when God ordains a cure He is by that very fact bound to put potency into it. He will not devise a failure or prescribe a mockery. It should always be enough for us to know that God ordains a way of blessing us, for if He ordains, it must accomplish the promised result. We need not know how it will work, it is quite sufficient for us that Gods mighty grace is pledged to make it bring forth good to our souls.
ii. The Sin-bearer
1. It is strange that the same which hurt should also heal; that from a serpent should come the poison, and from a serpent the antidote of the poison; the same inflicting the wound, and being in Gods ordinance appointed for the healing of the wound. The history would sound a strange one, and would suggest some underlying mystery, even if it stood alone, with no after-word of Scripture claiming a special significance for it. But it is stranger and more mysterious still when we come to the Lords appropriation of it to Himself. The Son of Man, healer and helper of the lost race whose nature He took, compared to a serpent! Of what is the serpent the figure everywhere else in Scripture? Not of Christ, but of Christs chiefest enemy; of the author of death, not of the Prince of life. Disguised in a serpents form, he won his first success, and poisoned at the fountain-head the life of all our race. His name is the Old Serpent; while the wicked are a serpent seed, a generation of vipers, as being in a manner born of him. Strange therefore and most perplexing it is to find the whole symbolism of Scripture on this one occasion reversed, and Christ, not Satan, likened to the serpent.
There is only one explanation which really meets the difficulties of the case. In the words of St. Paul, to the effect that God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, we have the key to the whole mystery.
2. The sign of salvation, as it is called in the Book of Wisdom, which Moses was commanded of God to make, was at once most like the serpents which hurt the people, and also most unlike them; most like in appearance, most unlike in reality. In outward appearance it was most like, and doubtless was fashioned of copper or shining brass that it might resemble their fiery aspect the more closely; but in reality it was most unlike them, being, in the very necessities of its nature, harmless and without venom; while they were most harmful, filled with deadliest poison. And thus it came to pass that the thing which most resembled the serpents that had hurt them, the thing therefore which they, the Israelites, must have been disposed to look at with the most shuddering abhorrence, was yet appointed of God as the salve, remedy, medicine, and antidote of all their hurts: and approved itself as such; for it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. Unlikely remedy, and yet most effectual! And exactly thus it befell in that great apparent paradox, that foolishness of God, the plan of our salvation. As a serpent hurt and a serpent healed, so in like manner, as by man came death, by man should come also the resurrection from the dead; as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one should many be made righteous; as in Adam all die, even so in Christ, the second Adam, shall all be made alive.
3. That serpent, so like in many points to those which hurt the people, so like in colour, in form, in outward show, was yet unlike in one, and that the most essential point of allin this, namely, that it was not poisonous, as they were; that there was no harm or hurt in it, as there was in them. Exactly so the resemblance of Christ to His fellow-men, most real in many things, for He was found in fashion as a man, hungered, thirsted, was weary, was tempted, suffered, died like other men, was yet in one point, and that the most essential, only apparent. He only seemed to have that poison which they really had. Wearing the sinners likeness, for He came in the likeness of sinful flesh, bearing the sinners doom, His face was more marred than any mans, He was yet holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners; altogether clear from every spot, taint, and infection of our fallen nature. What was, and indeed could only be, negative in a dead thing, such as that brazen serpent, the poor type and weak figure of the true, namely, the absence of the venom, this was positive in Him, as the presence of the antidote. And thus out of this Mans curse came every mans blessing, out of this Mans death came every other mans life.
My predecessor, Dr. Gill, edited the works of Tobias Crisp, but Tobias Crisp went further than Dr. Gill or any of us can approve; for in one place Crisp calls Christ a sinner, though he does not mean that He ever sinned Himself. He actually calls Christ a transgressor, and justifies himself by that passage, He was numbered with the transgressors. Martin Luther is reputed to have broadly said that, although Jesus Christ was sinless, yet He was the greatest sinner that ever lived, because all the sins of His people lay upon Him. Now, such expressions I think to be unguarded, if not profane. Certainly Christian men should take care that they use not language which, by the ignorant and uninstructed, may be translated to mean what they never intended to teach.1 [Note: C. H. Spurgeon.]
There is a text (2Co 5:21) which tells us that He knew no sin. That is very beautiful and significantwho knew no sin. It does not merely say did none, but knew none. Sin was no acquaintance of His; He was acquainted with grief, but no acquaintance of sin. He had to walk in the midst of its most frequented haunts, but did not know it; not that He was ignorant of its nature, or did not know its penalty, but He did not know it; he was a stranger to it, He never gave it the wink or nod of familiar recognition. Of course He knew what sin was, for He was very God, but with sin He had no communion, no fellowship, no brotherhood. He was a perfect stranger in the presence of sin; He was a foreigner; He was not an inhabitant of that land where sin is acknowledged. He passed through the wilderness of suffering, but into the wilderness of sin He could never go. He knew no sin; mark that expression and treasure it up, and when you are thinking of your substitute, and see Him hang bleeding upon the Cross, think that you see written in those lines of blood traced along His blessed body, He knew no sin. Mingled with the redness of His blood (that Rose of Sharon), behold the purity of His nature (the Lily of the Valley)He knew no sin.2 [Note: Ibid.]
4. The Serpent and the Sin-bearer were lifted up. The elevation of the serpent was simply intended to make it visible from afar; but it could not have been set so high as to be seen from all parts of the camp, and we must suppose that the wounded were in many cases carried from the distant parts of the wide-spreading encampment to places whence they could catch a glimpse of it glittering in the sunshine.
Of the meaning of this there cannot well be any mistake. It denotes the lifting up of our Lord on the Cross; as St. John, in another place, tells us, that when He said to the Pharisees, I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me, He spoke, signifying by what death he should die. He did not mean merely that His Name should be preached in all the world, and made thoroughly known as the only way of salvation; He meant that He should be really and bodily lifted up. He meant His nailing to the Cross, and then the setting of the Cross upright in the earth. By this He became, more especially, the scorn of men, and the outcast of the people.1 [Note: John Keble.]
It is the lifting up that is the chief point in the comparison The word is mentioned twiceAs Moses lifted up the serpent, even so must the Son of man be lifted up. To Jesus, and to John as taught by Him, the lifting up was doubly significant. It meant death upon the Cross, but it also suggested the beginning of His exaltation. As the serpent was lifted up so that it might be seen, we are compelled to adopt the same reason for the lifting up of the Son of Man. It is a marvellous thought, an amazing foresight. The death which was intended to consign Him and His teaching to oblivion was the means by which attention was directed to them. That which was to make Him accursed became the means by which He entered into His glory. His name was not obscured, but was exalted above all other names by the shame which men put upon it. The crucifixion was the first step of exaltation, the beginning of a higher stage of Revelation 2 [Note: John Reid.]
I feel a need divine
That meeteth need of mine;
No rigid fate I meet, no law austere.
I see my God, who turns
And oer His creature yearns:
Upon the cross God gives and claims the tear.3 [Note: Dora Greenwell, Carmina Crucis.]
III
The Acceptance of the Offer of Escape
The offer of escape is accepted(i.) by looking to the brazen serpent; (ii.) by believing in the Sin-bearer.
i. Looking to the Serpent
1. We are not told that trust in God was an essential part of the look, but that is taken for granted. Why else should a half-dead man lift his eyelids to look? Such a one knew that God had commanded the image to be made, and had promised healing for a look. His gaze was fixed on it, in obedience to the command involved in the promise, and was, in some measure, a manifestation of faith. No doubt the faith was very imperfect, and the desire was only for physical healing; but none the less it had in it the essence of faith. It would have been too hard a requirement for men through whose veins the swift poison was burning its way, and who, at the best, were so little capable of rising above sense, to have asked from them, as the condition of their cure, a trust which had no external symbol to help it. The singularity of the method adopted witnesses to the graciousness of God, who gave their feebleness a thing to look at, in order to aid them in grasping the unseen power which really effected the cure. He that hath turned himself to it, says the Book of Wisdom, was not saved by the thing which he saw, but by thee, that art the Saviour of all.
They would try all their own remedies before they turned to the Lord. I can think that none would be so busy as the charmers. Amongst them would be some who knew the secrets of the Egyptian snake-charmers. In the mixed multitude may have been the professional charmer, boasting a descent which could not fail in its authority. And they come bringing assured remedies. There is the music that can charm the serpent, and destroy the poison. There is the mystic sign set around the place that made it sacred. There are mysterious magic amulets to be worn for safety; this on the neck, and this about the wrist. There is a ceremony that shall hold the serpent spellbound and powerless. But come hither. Lift up this curtain. See here one lies on the ground. He sleeps. Nay, indeed, he will never wake again. Why, it is the charmer. Here are the spells and the charms and the mystic signs all around him. And lo! there glides the serpent; the charmer himself is dead.1 [Note: M. G. Pearse.]
2. We can imagine that when that brazen serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, there were some bitten by those fiery serpents who refused to look at this exalted sign of salvation, and so perished after all.
We may imagine, for instance, a wounded Israelite saying, I do not believe this hurt of mine to be deadly. If some have died of the same, yet this is no reason why all should die. Surely there are natural remedies, herbs, or salves which the desert itself will supply, by whose aid I can restore health to myself.
We can imagine another Israelite running into an opposite extreme, not slighting his hurt, but saying on the contrary, My wound is too deadly for any remedy to avail for its cure. Thousands who have been bitten have already died, their carcases strew the wilderness. I too must die. Some, indeed, may have been healed by looking at that serpent lifted up, but none who were so deeply hurt as I am, none into whose frame that poison had penetrated so far, had circulated so long; and so he may have turned away his face, and despaired, and died; and as the other perished by thinking lightly of the hurt, this will have perished by thinking lightly of the remedy, as fatal, if not as frequent, an error.
Can we not imagine one of the Israelites demanding, in a moodier and more sullen discontent, Why were these serpents sent at all? Why was I exposed to injury by them? Now, indeed, after I am hurt, a remedy is proposed; why was not the hurt itself hindered? Translate these murmurings into the language of the modern world, and you will recognize in others, perhaps at times in yourself, the same displeasure against Gods plan of salvation. Why should this redemption have been needful at all? Why was I framed so obvious to temptation, so liable to sin? I will not fall in with His plan for counterworking the evil which He has wrought. Let Him, who is its true author, answer for it. We all know more or less of this temptation, this anger, not against ourselves, but against God, that we should be the sinners which we are, this discontent with the scheme of restoration which He has provided. But what is this after all but an angry putting of that question, older than this world of ours, Why is there any evil, and whence?a mystery none have searched out or can search out here. This only is sure, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all; and of the evil in the world, that it is against His will; of the evil in us, that He is on our side in all our struggles to subdue and cast it out.
ii. Believing in the Sin-bearer
1. The brazen serpent was to be looked upon. The wounded persons were to turn their eyes towards it, and so to be healed. So Christ, lifted up on the Cross, is to be believed on, to be looked upon with the eyes of our heart. The Son of man is lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The Law could not save us, in that it was weak through the flesh; through the corruption of our fallen nature, for which it provided no cure. It could but point to Him who is our cure, as Moses did to the brazen serpent. It could not justify us, it could only bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Justification by faith is that which was betokened by the healing of the Israelites when they looked up to the serpent. It justifies, because it brings us to Him, with whom to be united is to be justified; that is, to be forgiven and saved from this evil world, to be clothed with heavenly righteousness.
2. Trust is no arbitrary condition. The Israelite was told to turn to the brazen serpent. There was no connexion between his look and his healing, except in so far as the symbol was a help to, and looking at it was a test of, his faith in the healing power of God. But it is no arbitrary appointment, as many people often think it is, which connects inseparably together the look of faith and the eternal life that Christ gives. For seeing that salvation is no mere external gift of shutting up some outward Hell and opening the door to some outward Heaven, but is a state of heart and mind, of relation to God, the only way by which that salvation can come into a mans heart is that he, knowing his need of it, shall trust Christ, and through Him the new life will flow into his heart. Faith is trust, and trust is the stretching out of the hand to take the precious gift, the opening of the heart for the influx of the grace, the eating of the bread, the drinking of the water, of life.
Looking at Jesuswhat does it mean practically? It means hearing about Him first, then actually appealing to Him, accepting His word as personal to ones self, putting Him to the test in life, trusting His death to square up ones sin score, trusting His power to clean the heart and sweeten the spirit and stiffen the will. It means holding the whole life up to His ideals. Ay, it means more yet; something on His side, an answering look from Him. There comes a consciousness within of His love and winsomeness. That answering look of His holds us for ever after His willing slaves, loves slaves. Paul speaks of the eyes of the heart. It is with these eyes we look to Him, and receive His answering look.1 [Note: S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Service, 16.]
Faith is the keynote of the Gospel by John. The very purpose for which this Gospel was written was that men might believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that believing they might have life through His name (Joh 20:31). This purpose is everywhere its predominant feature. From the announcement that John the Baptist was sent that all men through him might believe (Joh 1:7), to the confident assurance with which the beloved disciple makes the declaration that he knows his testimony is true (Joh 21:24), the Gospel of John is one long argument, conceived with the evident intention of inducing men to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Saviour of all who trust in Him. The word believe occurs in this Gospel no fewer than ninety-eight times, and either that or some cognate word is to be found in every chapter.2 [Note: H. Thorne.]
A woman who was always looking within herself, and could not reach assurance and peace, was told she must look out and up. Yet light did not come. One night she dreamed that she was in a pit which was deep, dark, and dirty. There was no way of escapeno door, no ladder, no steps, no rope. Looking right overhead she saw a little bit of blue sky, and in it one star. While gazing at the star she began to rise inch by inch in the pit. Then she cried out, Who is lifting me? and she looked down to see. But the moment she looked down she was back again at the bottom of the pit. Again she looked up, saw the star, and began to rise. Again she looked down to see who or what was lifting her, and again she found herself at the bottom. Resolving not to look down again, she for the third time gazed at the star. Little by little she rose; tempted to look down, she resisted the desire; higher and higher she ascended, with her eyes on the star, till at last she was out of the pit altogether. Then she awoke, and said, I see it all now. I am not to look down or within, but out and up to the Bright and Morning Star, the Lord Jesus Christ.3 [Note: J. J. Mackay.]
IV
The Good Effect
The effect is(i.) life: when he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived; (ii.) eternal life: that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life.
i. Life
It does not seem possible that so great a thing as life should depend upon so small a thing as a look. But life often depends on a look. A traveller was once walking over a mountain-road; it grew quite dark, and he lost his way. Then a thunderstorm came on, and he made all the haste he could to try to find some shelter. A flash of lightning showed just for a moment where he was going. He was on the very edge of a precipice. The one look that the lightning enabled him to take saved his life. A few weeks ago I was in a train after it was dark. The signal was put all right, and the train started. We had gone a few hundred yards, when I heard the whistle sound very sharply, and soon the train stopped. Some one had shown the engine-driver a red light, and warned him of danger. It turned out that one of the chains by which the carriages were coupled together had broken. If the man who saw the broken chain had not looked, and if the engine-driver had not looked and so seen the red light, most likely many lives would have been lost. Here, again, life depended upon a look.
The wounded Israelite was in one sense dead already, his life was forfeit as soon as he was bitten; it follows that the new life infused by a look at the brazen serpent was miraculous in its character. What have we here but a striking figure of death and resurrection? Not by any natural process of improvement or gradual restoration was the death-stricken Israelite rescued from his fate, but by the direct and supernatural intervention of Him who was even then, as He is still, the resurrection and the life, in whom whosoever believes lives though he were dead.1 [Note: W. H. M. H. Aitken.]
ii. Eternal Life
1. Our Lord said, Ye must be born again, and Nicodemus answered, How can a man be born again when he is old? Our Lord replied by telling him something more. A man needs to be born not only outwardly of water, but inwardly of the Spirit, and when he is so born he will be as free as the windfrom legal bondagefrom the tyranny of sin. And to this Nicodemus replied by asking yet more impatiently, How can these things be? The answer that he receives is given through the speaking figure of death and resurrection, and if we desire a striking commentary on the figure, and a definite statement of the truth, we have only to turn to St. Pauls Epistles. You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in his cross. Surely nothing can be more striking than the parallelism between the words of this passage and the symbolism of the scene that we are contemplating.
Eternal life is the blessing of the Kingdom of God viewed as a personal possession. The description is peculiar to Johns Gospel, but it agrees with the life which is spoken of with such emphasis in the other Gospels. According to them, to enter into the Kingdom is to enter into life (Mat 18:3; Mat 18:8-9). It is not so much duration that is expressed by the word eternal as the peculiar quality of the life that arises out of the new relations with God which are brought about by Jesus Christ. It is deathless life, although the believer has still to die, and go unterrified into the gulf of Death. It may be described as a life which seeks to obey an eternal rule, the will of God; which is inspired by an eternal motive, the love of God; which lives for and is lightened by an eternal glory, the glory of God; and abides in an eternal blessedness, communion with God. It is both present and future. Here and now for the believer there are a new heaven and a new earth, and the glory of God doth lighten them, and the Lamb is the light thereof. No change which time or death can bring has power to affect the essential character of his life, though its glory as terrestrial is one, and its glory as celestial is another. Wherever after death the man may be who has believed in Jesus, the life that he lives will be the same in its inner spirit and relation. To him all one, if on the earth or in the sun, Gods will must be his law, Gods glory his light, Gods presence his blessedness, Gods love his inspiration and joy.1 [Note: John Reid.]
I distinguish between Life, which is our Being in God, and Eternal Life, which is the Light of the Life, that is, fellowship with the Author, Substance, and Former of our Being, the Alpha and Omega. It is the heart that needs re-creation; it is the heart that is desperately wicked, not the Being of man. I think a distinction is carefully maintained in Holy Scripture between the life in the heart and the Life of the Being: Lighten thou my eyes that I sleep not in death. It is the Light of Life we want, to purify or re-create or regenerate our hearts so that we may be the Children of Light.2 [Note: R. W. Corbet, Letters from a Mystic of the Present Day, 63.]
2. In the Revised Version there is a little change made here, partly by the exclusion of a clause and partly by changing the order of the words. The alteration is not only nearer the original text, but brings out a striking thought. It reads that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life. May in him have eternal lifeunion with Christ by faith, that profound incorporation into Him, which the New Testament sets forth in all sorts of aspects as the very foundation of the blessings of Christianity; that union is the condition of eternal life.
A soldier lay dying on the battlefield; the chaplain speaking to him read St. John 3. When he came to Num 21:14-15, he was asked to read them again; when they were read, the soldier, having repeated them, added, That is enough for me; that is all I want.3 [Note: L. N. Caley.]
There is a most impressive little story which tells how Sternberg, the great German artist, was led to paint his Messiah, which is his masterpiece. One day the artist met a little gypsy girl on the street, and was so struck by her peculiar beauty that he requested her to accompany him to his studio in order that he might paint her. This she consented to do, and while sitting for the great artist she noticed a half-finished painting of Christ on the cross. The gypsy girl, who was ignorant and uneducated, asked Sternberg what it was, and wondered if Christ must not have been an awfully bad man to be nailed to a cross. Sternberg replied that Christ was the best man that ever lived, and that He died on the cross that others might live. Did He die for you? asked the gypsy. This question so preyed upon the mind of Sternberg, who was not a Christian, that he was greatly disturbed by it. The more he pondered it, the more impressed he became that, though Christ had died for him, he had not accepted the sacrifice. It was this that led him at last to paint the Messiah, which became famous throughout the world. It is said that John Wesley got one of his greatest inspirations from this picture.
Literature
Aitken (W. H. M. H.), Gods Everlasting Yea, 117.
Banks (L. A.), On the Trail of Moses, 201.
Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year, Holy Week, 114, 480.
Mackay (J. J.), Recent Letters of Christ, 156.
Maclaren (A.), Christs Musts, 1.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions: Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, 362; St. John i.viii., 162, 171.
Macpherson (W. M.), The Path of Life, 105.
Parker (J.), The City Temple Pulpit, iv. 12.
Pearse (M. G.), Moses, 253.
Price (A. C.), Fifty Sermons, ix. 169.
Reid (J.), Jesus and Nicodemus, 185.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxv. No. 1500.
Talbot (E. S.), Sermons in Leeds Parish Church. 147.
Thorne (H.), Foreshadowings of the Gospel, 57.
Thorne (H.), Notable Sayings of the Great Teacher, 25.
Trench (R. C), Sermons in Ireland, 228.
Christian World Pulpit, xx. 237 (Walters).
Churchmans Pulpit (Second Sunday after Easter), viii. 15 (Caley).
Preachers Magazine, iv. (1893) 469.
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
Psa 106:43-45, Psa 145:8
Reciprocal: 2Ki 18:4 – the brazen serpent Psa 107:20 – healed Isa 45:22 – Look Luk 6:19 – sought Luk 24:44 – in the law Joh 5:46 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Num 21:8-9. A fiery serpent That is, the figure of a serpent in brass, which is of a fiery colour. This would require some time: God would not speedily take off the judgment, because he saw they were not thoroughly humbled. Upon a pole That the people might see it from all parts of the camp, and therefore the pole must be high, and the serpent large. When he looketh This method of cure was prescribed, that it might appear to be Gods own work, and not the effect of nature or art: and that it might be an eminent type of our salvation by Christ. The serpent signified Christ, who was in the likeness of sinful flesh, though without sin, as this brazen serpent had the outward shape, but not the inward poison of the other serpents: the pole resembled the cross upon which Christ was lifted up for our salvation: and looking up to it designed our believing in Christ. He lived He was delivered from death, and cured of his disease.