"The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived." Num 21:8-9
I have to admit, this scripture has always puzzled me. Some quick background. Moses is leading the Israelites across the desert after having delivered them from Egypt. When the Israelites start to get hungry and thirsty, rather than ask the Lord for their needs, they decide instead to grumble against Moses, and his status quickly diminishes from hero to weirdo. "Why have you brought us to the desert, Moses? To die of starvation and thirst? Did you have an "exit plan" in mind?" So God, hearing their sinful grumbling, sends snakes among them. People are bitten and some even die. The people come to Moses again, with a different attitude, of course. "We sinned, please do something." So, being the man of God that he is, Moses goes to God with the problem and God offers an interesting solution, one of the most unique in all of scripture:
"The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." v.8.
A snake? Isn't Satan the snake? He's described as such in Genesis and Revelation. Even aside from that, scripture does not describe snakes in the best light:
They will lick dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. Micah 7:17
"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Luke 11:11
Yet in John 3, Jesus actually compares himself to the bronze snake:
"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," vv. 14-15 (Jesus speaking).
Why would both Jesus and the devil be equated with a snake? This perplexed me. So I ran the events over in my head again. The people grumble...God sends snakes...snakes bite...then God says, "Make a snake." So the same thing that hurt them is the same thing that they look to for healing? I didn't get it, it took some meditation but suddenly it hit me. The one who bites is the same one who heals. Bites, heals. Here's what I think it means.
Jesus is our judge and our savior, the one who was lifted up on the cross for our sins and the one who will judge us on the last day. He is also the one who convicts us of our sins. Consider these two scriptures:
"...he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man." John 5:26-27.
"Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?" Heb 12:7.
Along with this one:
"No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." Heb 12:11
The snakes were sent to convict the Israelites of their sin. Jesus, who is both the righteous judge and the healer, "bites" us, to show us those areas that need to be healed. It's not pleasant, but it's a love-bite. The one who convicts (bites) us, is the same one to whom we look for healing, and that's why he bites in the first place. When we are bitten, we need to remember why. It's always for our good. He bites those parts of us that need to be amputated.
Better to enter eternity with a snake bite than be thrown into Hell.
What do you think?
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