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NEHUSHTAN

"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up" (John 3:14).

A few months ago we were looking at Nicodemus and his interaction with Jesus. We read the statement by Jesus comparing Himself to Moses lifting up the snake in the wilderness. Some questions were raised about the meaning of the incident in the wilderness. Shortly after that I came across an article about this that might help us better understand what was going on in each account (1).

In Numbers 20, the people were complaining about the lack of water. God told Moses to speak to a rock and water would come out of it. But the constant complaining had gotten to Moses. He was angry, calling the people a pack of rebels. Then he struck the rock with his staff, as he had done earlier in the wilderness. Water came out but God was angry at Moses disobedience which would cause the people to react against God, not seeing Him as holy. Israel continued toward Canaan.

The context of the bronze snake is found in Numbers 21:4-9. Like most of the wilderness journey, Israel was impatient and rebellious. They constantly complained about being in the wilderness and kept looking back to Egypt, forgetting their slavery. Their complaint this time was about not having any bread and water, and "we detest this miserable food" (verse 5). God was angry with them and sent poison snakes among them. Now we must keep in mind that they are being punished for their refusal to trust God when the spies went to the land of Canaan, and ten of them convinced the people that they could not take the land because the people were too strong. They had forgotten the plagues in Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea as well as the pillars of cloud and fire. Many of the people died being bitten by the poison snakes. They again cry out to God stating that they have sinned and asked Moses to pray for them. Moses prayed and then he was told to make a bronze snake and put it on a pole. "Anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." Moses does it, people looked at it, and they lived.

There are several things that we need to keep in mind in this event. It would take time for Moses to fashion the snake and put it up. It just didn’t happen in an hour. The people had turned from God and would experience the horror of this abandonment, face their weakness, and realize that it is God who sustains them. They were impatient and would learn patience. Their words were poisonous and so they would face something really poisonous.

You might remember the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones is running from Indians and gets in a plane. He looks down and sees a pet snake of the pilot and says "I hate snakes." Later in the movie, he looks into a deep hole and realizes it is snakes and says something like "it had to be snakes?" Most of us do not like snakes. They are considered a source of evil in the minds of many. This comes from Genesis 3 where the Accusers comes to Adam and Eve as a snake. Then there is Moses’ staff which turned into a snake twice, the second time in Egypt. The Egyptian magicians did the same and Moses’ snake ate the magicians snakes (2).

Some might ask is this not a form of idolatry? These people had already rejected the idea of not making idols. Remember the golden calf incident. They had left the law of God before and now again they have rejected God and His laws. What is interesting is that God did not remove the snakes even after the bronze snake was up. They would have to live with and among the snakes, and if bitten would have to seek out the bronze snake and look at it. God neither removes nor prevents the snakes from biting. It is not the bronze snake that saves; rather it is the obedience, the looking at the snake and realizing that it is God who heals.

Israel moves on, conquers Canaan, and eventually the nation is established. Kings come and go, some faithful to God and others rejecting God. King Hezekiah comes on the scene and begins a series of reforms. He removed the idolatrous poles and stones. "He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)" (2 Kings 18:4). The word "Nehushtan" means bronze snake. The Israelites missed the purpose of the bronze snake and took it and made it into an idol. They returned to idolatry instead of rejecting it.

With this background, we come to the words of Jesus to Nicodemus. Why use this illustration. There are several things we need to consider when reading the Gospel of John. One, John uses the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, in illustrating the life of Jesus. When reading John we must keep the Torah in mind. Jesus Himself appeals to the Torah many times to make His points. Another aspect in John is Jesus’ use of the phrase, "lifted up." Three times Jesus refers to being lifted up. Obviously this is a reference to His crucifixion. In John 8:28, in a lengthy discussion of who Jesus is, He states that "When you have lifted up the Son of Man…" While they might have missed it, it would be the religious leaders doing just that. In the same context Jesus also accuses them of having the devil as their father. In John 12, some Greeks wanted to see Jesus. Jesus stated that "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself" (verse 32). Back in John 3:15, the purpose of being lifted up is to cause belief that leads to eternal life.

But why illustrated this with the bronze snake? The comparison isn’t with the snake itself, but with the One who would be on the cross, that is, the crucified Jesus. We are to look at Jesus as our Savior. It is our trust in Jesus that saves. Maybe this is where the Israelites missed it. If they thought it was the bronze snake that saved them, then they missed the point (and obviously later they had). They asked Moses to pray to God to be rescued from the snakes. We have sinned and need a Savior. While we speak of the cross of Christ, in reality it is the crucified and resurrected Savior that we need to focus on and trust. He saves.

Another aspect is that we must seek out the Savior. People were bitten in the camp of the Israelites had to find their way to the bronze snake. Today we are drawn to, or seek out, the Savior. We look at the gospel message, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ as the means of our salvation. Jesus was saying that as the people looked at the bronze snake, so to come to Him would bring healing. The appeal to the bronze snake is to realize that God has a greater salvation in view and Jesus brings this to light.

George B. Mearns

(1) Patrick Mead, Nehushtan and Jesus -- question 128, 1/27/2009, http://patrickmead.net/tentpegs/?p=424

(2) Keep in mind that snakes are rodent hunters and are a part of the balance of nature in the food chain.