When you get a minor illness, where do you seek healing?
While I was unemployed several years ago, I got ill with an upper respiratory infection. It was the first time in my adult life that I recovered the quickest from this type of infection.
Then, months later, after I had resumed working full time and enrolled at seminary with a nine-hour credit load, I contracted another upper respiratory infection that lasted for months, even with multiple rounds of antibiotics.
During this time, my blood pressure also skyrocketed, prompting my primary doctor to ask me if he needed to write me a prescription to take a vacation because he felt I was under too much pressure to get well. He literally stated, “This isn’t you.”
I thanked him, but told him I’d drop one of my classes to see if that made a difference. This did ultimately help me kick the respiratory infection and reduce, but not eliminate, the blood pressure medication.
Minor illnesses are one thing, but where do we turn when something life threatening takes hold of us?
The Bronze Serpent – Numbers 21:4-9
4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 5 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 food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.”[1]
Describe the attitude of the people towards God and Moses. What reasons do they give for their attitude?
6 Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 And 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 take away the serpents from us.”[2]
How did the Lord respond to the people’s attitude? Why?
What is the attitude of the people as a result?
So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. [3]
Describe the solution the Lord gave to Moses.
Consider one of the ten commandments given to the Israelites before the fiery serpents were threatening the Israelites’ lives.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. [4]
Now consider these comments from Timothy R. Ashley about the use of the serpent.
In both the command (v. 8) and its fulfillment (v. 9), healing must be accompanied by an act of obedience to Yahweh: looking at the image of the snake. In the two verses two different words for “to see” are used, perhaps for literary variety, but also to stress that it was necessary to do more than simply “see” or “catch a glimpse of” the copper serpent; one actually had to “fix one’s gaze” or “pay attention to” this figure—a definite act of the will—if one wanted to be healed.[5]
Keeping Timothy R. Ashley’s comments in mind, describe the difference between God’s instruction to Moses to make a fiery serpent and mount it on a pole with his earlier commandment in Exodus 20.
The Bronze Serpent–2 Kings 18:1-4
In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done. 4 He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).[6]
Why did Hezekiah destroy the bronze serpent?
The Bronze Serpent–John 3:14
A Pharisee named Nicodemus visited Jesus at night, stating he believed Jesus was a teacher from God based on the miracles that Jesus had done.
Jesus responded with,
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.[7]
This confused Nicodemus because he thought Jesus was speaking about a physical rebirth. (See John 3:4)
Jesus clarified He was speaking about being born of the Spirit, not flesh. (See John 3:5-8)
Nicodemus was still confused.
As Jesus continued to explain his point to Nicodemus, he references the bronze serpent.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. [8]
According to Christ, what is our greatest need that only He can heal?
Finding Healing Through the Bronze Serpent–An Incorrect Statement
Can you see what the Israelites and Nicodemus struggled to see?
No matter how tempted we are to think so, it is not the bronze serpent that brings healing.
It is always the Lord who brings healing.
The rapidness of my healing during my time of unemployment stemmed from being able to rest both my mind and body. I also remember looking to God for healing during that time so that I could return to my search for employment.
My upper respiratory infection that lasted months, however was because I didn’t rest physically or mentally initially. I pushed myself too quickly because I had taken on so much responsibility. I also don’t recall looking to God for healing during that time. At least not at first.
Isn’t it ironic that while I was so busy working and pursuing a seminary degree, I failed to seek God first for my physical healing needs?
Minor and even major physical illnesses will come and go. Yes, the Lord has provided us with the tools of modern medicines and healthy lifestyle practices to help us stay healthy or recover from many illnesses.
But, according to both God in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament, the most important healing we all need is in the spiritual realm.
The Israelites in Numbers 21 grumbled against God’s provisions as not being good enough and suffered the consequences of their ingratitude. Once they realized their error and sought God’s forgiveness, the Lord provided a means of healing that He intended as a reminder for them to continue honoring Him as their provider for all needs. Christ upheld this original intention of the Lord by connecting the bronze serpent with his own death on the cross and subsequent resurrection to save us to eternal life.
How can this study help you remember to turn God first for minor and major illnesses?
More importantly, how has this study helped you remember your need for a God who has the power to grant you eternal life?
If this post encouraged you today, how will you share that with someone else you know?
Warmly,
Barbara Lynn
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Nu 21:4–5.
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Nu 21:6–7.
[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Nu 21:7–9.
[4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ex 20:4–6.
[5] Timothy R. Ashley, The Book of Numbers, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1993), 405–406.
[6] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 2 Ki 18:1–4.
[7] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 3:3.
[8] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jn 3:14–15.
Two quick thoughts;
1 – “Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
Psalms 20:7
one of my bedrock verses!
2- I was a US Navy corpsman for 22 years. The serpent on the pole was our logo/symbol. It represents our career, our responsibility. We called it a cadeuse.
This is a fascinating follow up to our reading of the copper serpent in the book of Numbers last week.
Thanks for taking this thought through the NT completion as we keep our eyes upon Jesus.