Returning to Jesus making reference to Moses and the serpent (John 3:14), it is in connection with this that Jesus first makes mention of believing in Him and having eternal life (3:15). Jesus, referring to Himself as the Son of Man, compares His being lifted up to that of the serpent. Because of that, it is very much worthwhile to pay a visit to that story. Not only is it worthwhile, but it seems to be highly necessary, as it would be impossible to grasp what Jesus is communicating about Himself and about the eternal life that is on offer, without an understanding of the story. Even though Jesus mentions the story of Moses and the serpent to somebody that He refers to as a “teacher of Israel” (3:10), we can be quite confident that this was another one of those stories with which the whole of the people of Israel were quite familiar, and which they told often. This should not be terribly surprising, as it is a story of which there is a general knowledge in our day, as it is quite the dramatic tale. We, of course, think of it as a story of rebellion and judgment and merciful healing. Assuredly, Israel did as well. However, because it is ensconced within the narrative of Israel’s exodus, it undoubtedly meant a great deal more. So from here we make our way back through the Scriptures, arriving in the book of Numbers.
In the twenty-first chapter, we find the story of the “fiery serpents,” and read “Then they,” meaning Israel, “traveled from Mount Hor by the road to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom, but the people became impatient along the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness, for there is no bread or water, and we detest this worthless food’.” (21:4-5) Here, we find the rebellion. It was against both God and Moses. It was in the midst of their exodus-related wanderings in the wilderness. They had promises from God and they had repeatedly seen mighty displays of His power, and yet, they are complaining. This, of course, is while they have the promise of a land of their own, which had been promised to Abraham, and their exodus out of Egypt, and the attendant movement towards the promised land, was the realization of the very sign that had been promised to Abraham. Still, they doubted.
“So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit the people; many people of Israel died” (21:6). This is the judgment, and it fell because the people were questioning the covenant faithfulness of their God. “Then,” we read, “the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord that He would take away the snakes from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people” (21:7). This should put us in mind of the famous words of 2 Chronicles 7:14. Now, these words had not yet been spoken or written, as they were connected to Solomon, but just as they are familiar to us, they would have been familiar to Israel and to the Pharisee Nicodemus at the time of Christ. The promise made to Solomon was “if My people, who belong to Me, humble themselves, pray, seek to please Me, and repudiate their sinful practices, then I will respond from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.” This is what we see from the people when they were being afflicted by the serpents, which tells us that the promise that God made to Solomon was already well-rooted in Israel’s history.
The promise to Solomon, recorded in the second book of the Chronicles, follows from God saying to him “When I close up the sky so that it doesn’t rain, or command locusts to devour the land’s vegetation, or send a plague among My people” (7:13). In such things, Solomon, and those to whom these words would be communicated, would naturally think of Egypt and the exodus. Connected to that, they would think of the Deuteronomic curses that were offered up as Israel’s fate, principally for the sin of idolatry. Because of that, ultimately, these words would be connected with the idea of exile. So when the serpents attack the people, a people in exodus becomes, briefly, a people in exile. After Moses prayed for the people, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a poisonous snake and set it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole, so that if a snake had bitten someone, when he looked at the bronze snake he lived” (21:8-9).
Now, getting back to Nicodemus and Jesus, it would not be unreasonable to think that Jesus expected Nicodemus to have all of these things in mind, and that Nicodemus did, in fact, have such things in mind. That considered, we are reminded that Jesus spoke of believing in Him and having eternal life, just as was the case with Moses and the serpent. Those that looked at the serpent did so, presumably, because they then believed God and believed Moses. Those who looked were healed. They were snatched away from their exile. Though many had died, and though, to be sure, many more were going to die if God did not mercifully intervene, those who looked at the serpent received something akin to a resurrection. Their movement from exile---regaining their exodus---was a movement from death to life.
Such an analysis helps to provide some context for Jesus’ usage of the story. With this reference, Jesus is informing Nicodemus that the people, in their own day, were in the same position as the Israel that was suffering from the bite of poisonous serpents. They were not truly trusting God. They were not believing Him. They were a people in exile, in need of another exodus---a resurrection. When we speak of Israel and the idea of resurrection, we remember that the resurrection of the righteous dead, which went hand in hand with the establishment of the kingdom of God, of which Jesus has already spoken, was a prominent hope of the people of Israel. They were not looking for an escape from this world, so as to join God in some type of far-off heavenly abode. They were looking for God to fulfill His promise, establish His kingdom, and to begin the restoration of His creation. This is what Nicodemus, as a Pharisee, would have been thinking when Jesus spoke of eternal life, especially in the context of the kingdom of God. The fact that Jesus puts an emphasis on His being lifted up, so that belief could be properly placed and that eternal life could be had, and doing this in connection with the Moses story, simply reinforces the long-treasured Jewish hope apparently shared by both Nicodemus and Jesus.
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