Preached at a communion service in Opelika, Alabama on December 11, 2022.
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.”
—John 3:14
In John 3, Jesus Christ is interacting with Nicodemus, and he says, “Ye must be born again.” But Nicodemus, the theologian of Israel, is perplexed. He does not understand. So Jesus Christ says to him, “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” (v. 12). Nicodemus, if you do not understand concerning things that happen on earth, how will you ever understand heavenly things? Our Lord then proceeds to teach him heavenly things. He has come down from heaven to die for sinners. Jesus explains: “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” Jesus Christ is citing Numbers 21, where God punishes Israel with fiery serpents for their sin. And Jehovah will save Israel through a graven serpent lifted up. By citing Numbers 21 and using this language, Jesus is teaching us that Numbers 21 is a figure of sin and salvation. And the graven serpent itself is a type of his person and work.
So to prepare us for the Lord’s Supper, let us use John 3 to interpret Numbers 21, and see Jesus Christ as our graven serpent. We will do this under three headings: The Venom—Sin’s Poison; The Cure—Christ Lifted up; and The Healing—the Look of Life.
1. The Venom—Sin’s Poison
First of all then, the Venom—Sin’s Poison. In Numbers 21 we see there is a great sin in Israel. This root sin is the sin of murmuring.
What is murmuring? Murmuring is to speak against God by complaining and grumbling concerning your present circumstances. When things aren’t going your way, when you’re dissatisfied about something in life, you complain and grumble. This is speaking against God, and the sin of murmuring.
Why is there a sin of murmuring? The essence of this sin is unbelief. We sing in Psalm 106:24, “They despised the pleasant land, they believed not his word”—this is their unbelief. And it continues: “but murmured in their tents.” Unbelief is the root of murmuring because you do not believe God. You do not believe all things are working for good to them that love him. You do not believe the words of David, “[He] performeth all things for me” (Ps. 57:2), and therefore, in your unbelief, you murmur. Thomas Watson says, “Murmuring is the daughter of unbelief.” And this sin is also a violation of the third commandment, viz. we are not to take the name of the Lord God in vain. The name of God not only refers to his revealed names, but all his works associated with his name. So when you mumble, and grumble, and complain about your present circumstances, you’re taking the name of the Lord God in vain. This is why the Larger Catechism, Q. 113, which is, “What are the sins of the third commandment?” includes in the answer, “murmuring and quarrelling at God’s providences.”
Now, how bad do we think the sin of murmuring is? We don’t take it that seriously, do we? Because we allow ourselves to murmur, complain, and grumble. But what is God’s view of this sin? God views murmuring as evil. “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation which murmur against me?” (Num. 14:27). God says just a little complaint, just a little grumble is evil, wicked, sinful. And each and every one of us are guilty of this sin. I am guilty of this sin. You are guilty of this sin. Who among us can say, “I’m always happy. I’m always content. I’m always thankful. I have never complained. I have never grumbled. I have never mumbled in my life”? Not one of us can say that. We have all come short. We are all guilty as charged. We have all committed the sin of murmuring.
And when you study Numbers 21, you will see that Israel murmurs in three ways. First of all, they murmur against God’s mercy (v. 1-3). King Arad is fighting and warring against Israel, and is successful. He even takes many prisoners. So what does Israel do? They dedicate themselves to the Lord. They vow a vow. They seek the Lord to deliver them from this king. And the Lord is full of mercy, and he delivers them from their enemies. And in the midst of their enemies, what are they doing (v. 5)? They are speaking against God. God delivers them in his mercies, and what are they doing?—murmuring. How many have done this? God has been merciful to you. He’s delivered you from a certain circumstance, and the next day, you’re already complaining. Something’s happened in your life. You take it to God, and you pray, and the Lord answers your prayer, and in no time at all, you’re already complaining about something else. How can we murmur against his mercy?
Secondly, they murmur against God’s will (v. 4). “And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.” God in essence says, “Because you sinned against me, you’re not allowed to go directly from Egypt to the land of Canaan. You’re not allowed to go directly through the land of Edom. You’ll now have to circumnavigate; you’ll have to go around the long way, around Edom to Israel. This is my will for you.” How did they respond? They’re discouraged. In the original language it means, vexed, grieved, angry. How many of us have done the same thing? God’s will is revealed to us in the Bible. God’s will may mean it costs us. It may mean we have to deny ourselves. It may mean we have to go through hard times, but it’s for good. And rather than do God’s will with a cheerful spirit, we complain, and grumble, and murmur. How many of us have prayed, “Lord, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” and then in the next breath, we’re grumbling and complaining about doing his will.
Thirdly, they murmur against God’s provision (v. 5). “And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.” Perhaps you just can’t believe what you’re reading here. “No bread,” they say? No bread?! Have they forgotten Exodus 16, when God provided bread from heaven, and it’s continuing. Every single day, they can get up, go out, and get angel’s food. They can eat manna from heaven. And what do they say? “No bread, no water”? Have they forgotten Exodus 17, where God again provides water from a rock, and the rock followed them. To this day, they still have water. But, when they say, “No bread and no water,” they don’t mean literally there is no bread and no water. It is, “There’s no bread or water that we like, because our souls loath this bread. We abhor it. We’re sickened by it. We’re sick and tired of eating this bread from heaven. We don’t like it anymore.” So they grumble, and complain, and murmur concerning God’s provisions. Can we not do the same, as well, brother and sister? God provides something in providence, something in our lives—our home, our cars, our jobs, our finances, something else in providence. We should remember we came into the world with nothing, we leave with nothing, we deserve nothing but hell and damnation But rather than being content we look at what we have, and we complain, and we covet, and it’s not enough, because he has that, and she has that. How often do we complain?
And think about spiritual application. Remember, the bread from heaven and the water from the rock are types of Christ. God has given us the greatest provision of all in Jesus Christ. We are justified by faith, pardoned from every sin. We are sons of God. Grace, and strength, and glory is given to us. To live is Christ, but to die is gain. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. He’s coming again. He has his rewards, he has the Father’s mansions, and the beholding his glory. What do we have to complain about? And yet here are our sins, we sin the sin of murmuring. This is why we need saving, brothers and sisters. This is why we need Jesus Christ, because we’re so prone to sin, including the sin of murmuring.
How does God respond to their murmuring (v. 6)? “And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.” “Fiery” here I don’t think means they’re red like fire or they’re on fire. I agree with most commentators that it means that when these particular snakes bit you, such was the venom of the poison, it was like fire and burning, and agony, and painful, just like many snakebites. And people in Israel died due to the bite of the fiery serpents.
Now why does God punish Israel with this particular punishment? There are two reasons why: the nature of sin, and the nature of God’s wrath.
First of all, the nature of sin. God is just. He’s not an arbitrary God who has a random selection of punishments as if he spins the wheel and say, Well, I’ll punish Israel with this punishment. No, he is a just God—so it is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. As is the sin, so is the punishment.
What is the sin? It’s the sin of the tongue. It’s the sin of murmuring. And in the Bible, these kinds of sins are like poisonous snakes. Just think of the origin of sin itself. Where did sin begin? Genesis 3, where, metaphorically speaking, the serpent bit Adam and Eve and his poison of sin infects all of mankind. As is the sin, so is the punishment. But the particular sins are also likened to poisonous snakes. Psalm 58:4, concerning speaking lies, “Their poison is like the poison of a serpent.” Psalm 140:3, “They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adder’s poison is under their lips.” James 3:8, “The tongue can no man tame…full of deadly poison.” As is the sin, so is the punishment. God is just; since their tongues are like poisonous snakes, he punishes them with poisonous snakes. And this is you and me. This is our spiritual state outside of Christ. We’re not good people. We’re poisonous snakes. Just look at society. Look at your workplace. Look at family. Look at politics. Look at the media. Look at films. Look at music. Look at all these things. Men, women, and children, are poisonous, venomous snakes. That’s what we are—snakes in the grass. We aim to lie, and deceive, and harm people with our words, to speak lies, and falsehood, and bearing false witness, and calling people names, or cursing, or swearing, or manipulating people. We deserve poisonous snakes, because we are poisonous snakes.
Now consider a second reason: the nature of wrath. God’s wrath is often likened to the pain and agony and suffering of being bitten by a poisonous snake. Deuteronomy 32:24 speaks of the curses and punishments of breaking the covenant: “Devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.” Jeremiah 8:17, “Behold, I will send serpents…and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.”
Think in the natural world. Children, have you read books about snakes? Have you watched documentaries about snakes? If you have, you may have read or seen how much agony venom has in mankind. When snakes bite, the venom mostly, or generally, will affect the immune system, or the cell system of your body. And as it enters, it will go to the immune system, or to the cell structure, and it will attack. And there are many snakes, such as the diamond back rattlesnake, and so forth, where the venom causes unbearable, unimaginable pain. I’ve watched documentaries where men and women, who are certainly not Christians, or they’ve never read the Bible, will describe the venom in their body like fire blazing within. It’s excruciating. And God is taking this as a picture of his wrath against sinners. It is agonizing, it is painful, it is torment, and it happens to every single sinner in hell. Revelation 14:10, “[They] shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he”—that’s the sinner—“shall be tormented with fire and brimstone [forever].” Think of fire. Think of the pain. Think of the agony. God’s wrath is like the fire of the venom in your body, but infinite. It is more because all who sin with the tongue deserve this hell. All who murmur and complain and grumble against God deserve the fiery serpent in hell forever.
2. The Cure—Christ Lifted Up
But there is good news. That’s why we’re here today. There’s good news. The Cure is Christ Lifted up. Jehovah gives good news, “Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 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” (v. 7-8). This is good news! This is good news! And remember, when God provides this brazen serpent—“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up”—this is picturing the gospel of Jesus Christ. How is it good news for us? How is this a picture of the gospel?
Well, first of all, God’s love—it’s a picture of God’s love. Why did God provide the healing? Why? He’s under no obligation. Remember, God had already revealed his character. “[He] will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation” (Exod. 34:7). He says, “I will be no means clear the guilty.” He’s under no obligation. He could have said, “No, no, no healing, no cure, no removal of the fiery serpents, no.” But he does provide a cure—why? See the previous verse, which says, “[I am] the LORD…merciful…gracious, longsuffering…abundant in goodness…keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Exod. 34:6). And because he is this, he provides the healing. And when you read John 3, “As Moses lifted up the serpent . . . so must the Son of man . . .” what is God’s motive to save us?—John 3:16. I have no problems preaching on one text, but never forget a text is in a context. John 3:16 is not a stand-alone text. It is the motive for John 3:14-15: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up . . . For”—because—“God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” So why did God give the remedy to these sinful, murmuring people? Because he’s a God of love! Why would he forgive you and me? Why would he forgive us sinners and our sin of murmuring?—“For God so loved the world.” This is why. And think of this love, and the object of his love—venomous snakes—murmuring, grumbling, complaining, men, women, and children.
Now think of Martin Luther. He is in Heidelberg, Germany, in an academic disputation. And in disputation #28, he describes God’s love and compares it to man’s love. He says, “The love of God does not find, but creates that which is pleasing to it. The love of man comes into being through that which is pleasing to it.” We love things that are pleasing to us. Husbands, why do you love your wife? It is that there’s something in them pleasing to you. Wives, why do you love your husband? Because there’s something in him that’s pleasing to you. Parents, why do you love your children? Because there’s something in them that pleases you—they are your children. Why do we love things in life? Because things, for some reason, foolishly, are pleasing to us. But God doesn’t love that which is pleasing to him, because then not a single sinner would ever be saved, but his love creates that which is pleasing to him. God looks on ugly, filthy, disgusting sinners, and loves them, and then transforms them, and makes them pleasing to him. Just like Ezekiel 16, when the church, in graphic terms, is just filthy, and disgusting, and vomiting, and releasing blood, and is on the side of the road, and no one even cares. And you walk past, and you just want to vomit, since it is so disgusting. But what does God say? “Thy time, is a time of love.” And that’s what God has done for us for all eternity. And he will provide a remedy in Jesus Christ, because he loves venomous snakes like us.
There’s a wonderful quote of Octavius Winslow, you’ve probably heard of it. It’s in his sermon on Romans 8:32. He says, “Who delivered Jesus? Not the Jews for envy; not Judas for greed; not Pilate for fear; but the Father, for love.” “For God so loved the world”—that venomous world—“he gave his only begotten Son.”
A second picture of the gospel is in the humiliation involved. What is the serpent made of? It is made of brass; in the Hebrew, copper. That’s interesting. If you read the Pentateuch—that’s the first five books of Moses—when God commands Israel to create things for reconciliation, it’s always in glorious material. Consider the tabernacle, the gold and silver and fine fabrics. Not common, ordinary, unattractive copper. Then why would God ask them to make a copper serpent? Surely to signify the humiliation of Christ. He who was “in the form of God,” he was God—the glory and the beauty and the adoration of the angels—“[he] thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Phil. 2:6). He humbled himself, and he became a slave. And he became a slave, was this not his condition? “There is no beauty in him that we should desire him” (Isa. 53:2) That is, in his humanity, in the state of humiliation, he didn’t walk around with a glow. He looked ordinary, and not only ordinary, he looked very low. He wasn’t born into a family of regality, but a poor family. He wasn’t born in a palace for all to come to him, he was a babe in the manger. His job was not the high jobs of society, but an ordinary, humble carpenter. And when he came to his own people, how did they treat him? Blasphemer! Drunkard! Beelzebub!
“Foxes have holes, the birds of the air have their nests, but the Son of man hath nowhere to lay his head.” His clothing, and his food were dependent upon the charity of others, like Mary Magdelene, or Mary of Bethany, or Lazarus, or Peter’s mother-in-law. Where did he die? On the shameful instrument of a Roman cross. And when he died, was he buried in his own family tomb? No, no—charity again, in the tomb of another, Joseph of Arimathea. He who is worthy of all the adoration, and glory, and worthiness of the whole universe was humbled. And he had to be, because he had to be made of a woman, made under the law. He had to be a servant who would fulfill all righteousness. He had to keep every single individual commandment of God, and he did so in perfect humility. This is your Lord. This is your Savior.
Now, a third reason we see the gospel here, in the serpent. Jesus Christ is our serpent. Now why, why did God heal his people with a serpent? Remember, God is a God of justice, never arbitrary. Remember he is not wondering, what can heal my people? Throw dice to decide? We’ll do that? No! Instead it is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Man in their sin is a poisonous serpent. A just punishment for a poisonous serpent. How then will man be healed? By a serpent taking the poison. And the key here is, Jesus Christ is “like” the poisonous serpent. He is “not” a poisonous serpent, he is “like” a poisonous serpent. That’s the language of substitution.
If we’re going to be saved, he must be made like unto “us” poisonous serpents. “God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3). He must come in the likeness of sinful flesh. He did not come in sinful flesh, he did not come in the likeness of flesh. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh. This means, he assumed a human nature that was without sin, but was of the condition of post-fall. He did not have the human nature of Adam in the garden, he did not have the human nature of man in heaven to come. He had the post-fall human nature, but without sin. This means, he had all the sinless weak infirmities of human nature. He could be tired, and wearing, and thirsty, and hungry, and sad, and in anguish, and sorrowful, and he can feel pain, and bleed, and bruise, and he can cry in pain, and he can weep, and he can die. He became like the poisonous serpents we are.
He must also become sin. We can’t be saved from sin, unless someone is like sin—“[God the Father] made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Substitution—the sin of all the murmuring, and complaining, and grumbling of us poisonous snakes imputed to his account on the cross. But he must be like the serpent. What was the punishment for the serpent in the origin of sin?—the curse. “The LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou are cursed above all cattle” (Gen. 3:14). So Jesus Christ must become like a serpent and bear the curse. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13).
So who is Jesus Christ?—he’s like a serpent on the cross. As that serpent is lifted upon the pole, he is the serpent lifted up on Calvary, and Jesus Christ felt the scorn of it. “I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people” (Ps. 22:6). He felt the shamefulness of being the curse, as he was treated by the other people.
Fourthly, how is this a gospel picture?—he must be like a serpent, lifted up. It says, the brazen serpent must be on a pole lifted up. And Jesus says, “as Moses lifted up the serpent…so must the Son of man be lifted up.” This means he must be crucified. “If I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die” (John 12:32). And once he’s lifted up on that cross, what must he experience?—venom. Venom! He must experience the venom of God’s wrath. Job speaks in type, Christ speaks in fulfillment. “The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me” (Job 6:4). God’s wrath is the poison against me, and that’s what Christ must suffer on the cross. It pleases the Lord to bruise him. He must be the propitiation, the wrath-bearer for our sins, and Christ felt that on the cross. Because he experiences three hours of darkness. And God’s wrath, like poison, is fiery in the soul of Christ. He’s overwhelmed. He’s in anguish. He says, “Now is my soul troubled” (John 12:27). “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matt. 26:38). “He began to be sore amazed and very heavy” (Mark 14:33). He was in an agony, as God’s almighty power, and justice, and holiness against sin is firing into his soul, like flames, like venom, like poison. And what does he not pray? “My Father, my Father”? No, Son, you’re a curse, you’re a curse! “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:45; Ps. 22:1)—to save my people who are poisonous serpents. You must be lifted up like a serpent and receive the venom of my wrath. What does this venom do to the people who died? The wages of sin is death. And under the venom of the wrath of God, he dies, to atone for our sins.
3. The Healing—The Look of Life
There’s thirdly, the Healing—the Look of Life. Because the serpent was lifted up, “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” (Num. 21:8). The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Because what were those beautiful words? One word in the Greek, three in the English: “It is finished.” The venom of wrath against God’s people, the guilt, the liability, not on them anymore. It’s been taken to Christ. He’s been given the cup of poison. He didn’t drink some of it. He didn’t drink most of it. He drank every single drop, every dreg, every single hint of liquid. “It is finished.”
And therefore there’s life, because he did not remain dead. Praise be to God, he is risen! He was delivered for our offenses, but raised for our justification, which means now there is life. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up.” “For whosoever believeth in him should not perish but shalt have everlasting life” (John 3:15). Life with God in the soul of man. Life being justified in his sight. Life of love and fellowship and grace. Life of forgiveness of every sin. Life of the pardon of every sin of murmuring, and complaining, and grumbling. Life of Sonship of the Father in heaven. Life that endures not for temporary times, not for a thousand years, not for a million years, not for a billion years, not for a trillion years—eternal life.
And how do we receive this life? What does Jehovah say? Look! If anyone is bitten, who have sinned, look! Look to the brazen serpent lifted up, and you shall live. And this is what the Bible is saying to us, Look! He that believes on me, look! We make things so complicated at times. Do I have enough faith? Do have great faith or strong faith? Do I believe enough? Look! If you have faith, look! It doesn’t matter if you need glasses or contact lenses. It doesn’t matter if you have great vision or not so great vision, but if you open up the eyes of your soul and you look, you shall be saved.
Or we can conflate things and confuse things. We can start looking at the means and not looking at the reality. What happened to the brazen serpent? In time, they did not look to the Jehovah who hears through the means, they looked to the means itself. “He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it” (2 Kings 18:4). They started to worship the thing itself. Now, that’s not to be applied to Christ, as if you need to believe in God through Christ, and Christ is only a means. No, he is the reality. He is the reality!
But what points to Christ? Faith points to Christ, and we can start foolishly looking to our faith—do we believe enough? Repentance brings us from sin to Christ—have I repented enough? Do I have enough remorse for sin? Do have enough grievance over sin? Do I sorrow enough for sin? And rather than looking to Christ, we’re looking at the means, we’re looking at the faith, we’re looking at the repentance, and it’s so wrong. And Christians doubt and fear and never receive comfort. Faith has an object. You don’t look to your faith. You look by faith to Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins. Repentance has an object. You don’t look to yourself. You come away from self towards the Lord lifted up on a cross.
Charles Spurgeon had to know this. He was a young man, and he was convicted of his sins, and could never find assurance of faith. He always looked to himself—is my faith enough? is my repentance enough? And one day, he was seeking to go to a church, but there was a snowstorm, and he went to the first church he could find—a primitive Methodist church. And he sat down, and hardly anyone was there. And the regular preacher was snowed in, so a poor man who had never preached often or before, a very uneducated man began to preach, “Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth.” And Charles Spurgeon recalls the sermon: “The man said, ‘The text says, Look unto me. Many of you are looking to yourselves, but it’s no use looking there. You will never find comfort in yourselves. Look to God the Father? No, look to him by and by. Jesus Christ says, Look unto me. Some of you say, We must wait for the Spirit’s work. Look unto the Spirit? No, you have no business with that just now. Look to Christ. Look unto me, and be ye saved.’ When we have faith and we look unto Jesus Christ, he heals us. He’s the physician of our souls. He’s the balm of Gilead we need. All our sins are forgiven. Look unto Jesus Christ.”
And as we sit at the Lord’s Supper, let me teach how you will not be blessed—you look only to the bread and wine as a means. Look to Jesus Christ through the bread and through the wine. So as you receive that bread, “My body broken for you,” with your faith looking to Christ, you partake. As you take that cup, “This is the blood of the New Testament for the remission of sins,” partake by faith, looking to Jesus Christ. And if we all look to Christ, we’ll all be healed—healed from the poison.
