South End
Church of Christ

4001 Taylor Blvd
Louisville, KY 40215

 

Well in Grace
Aaron Erhardt

Are you afraid of snakes? If so, you’re not alone. A Gallup poll that asked adults what they were afraid of revealed that more people fear snakes than any other suggested possibility, coming in ahead of speaking in public and heights. There is even a term for the excessive fear of snakes — ophidiophia.  

Snakes are mentioned throughout Scripture. For instance, Satan commandeered a snake to tempt Eve in Genesis 3, Moses threw down his staff and it became a snake in Exodus 4, and Paul was bitten on the hand by a snake in Acts 28. One of the more notable “snake stories” is in Numbers 21:

“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. 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.’ Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 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.’ So Moses prayed for the people. 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.’ 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” (vv. 4-9).

As the Israelites were circling around Edom on their way to the promised land, they became impatient and started complaining against God and Moses. They groaned and moaned, huffed and puffed, jeered and sneered, going so far as to say that they “loathed” the “worthless” food that God provided. This ungrateful behavior greatly angered the Lord.

Their contempt for the food that God provided was a more serious issue than one might think. They were spurning His grace. After all, He had graciously supplied them with this tasty and nutritious “miracle meal” so they wouldn’t starve to death! Interestingly, that food was later called “the bread of the angels” (Psalm 78:25) and served as a type of Christ (John 6:32-35, 48-51, 58). 

“Complaining” was a recurring theme among the Israelites in the wilderness. They were always griping and grumbling. This infuriated God, frustrated Moses, and robbed them of many blessings. It is no wonder that Paul says, “Do not complain as some of them did” (1 Corinthians 10:10, NCV). We need to understand that complaining is condemned (angers God), controlling (becomes habitual), contagious (spreads to others), and counter-productive (compounds the problem). The good news is that it is also conquerable (can be overcome). Christians are not to be complainers (Philippians 2:14; James 5:9).

Fangs

Since the Israelites despised what God sent them from heaven, He sent them something from the earth — fiery serpents. “Fiery” could have reference to their color, but more likely refers to their venom. Their bite burned! The NIV says “venomous snakes” and the NRSV says “poisonous serpents.” These agents of death spread through the camp biting the people, so that many of them died.

Can you even imagine that? To have snakes coming out of crevices, curled up in corners, slithering in the sand, and hissing at your heels. To see neighbors cowering in pain or lying motionless on the ground with snakes swarming nearby. How could you sleep at night or let your kids go out and play? It would be constant pandemonium.  

We are not told what species of snake God used to punish the Israelites. However, the most probable candidate is the saw-scaled viper. It is prevalent in the area, easily aggravated, and extremely dangerous. Some have even called it “the world’s most deadly snake.” Below is an excerpt from the Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia:

“The venom of this genus is more powerful, weight for weight, than that of any other viper…Its venom is typical of the viper family in being hemolytic, i.e., it affects the blood, breaking down the capillaries, rupturing the corpuscles, and finally causing death by massive and wide-spread internal hemorrhage. This can be a slow process and death may occur after as long as four days, the progress depending on the site and severity of the bite” (Vol. 5, p. 357).  

It did not take long for the people to realize that they had made a terrible mistake. They begged Moses to intercede on their behalf, saying, “We have sinned!” They knew that the fiery serpents were recompense for complaining against God and Moses. Therefore, Moses pleaded with the Lord on their behalf.

Favor

In a remarkable display of grace, God provided a means of salvation for the people. He told Moses to erect a serpent and set it on a pole, so that those who had been bitten could look on it and live. He gave them what they desired (life) rather than what they deserved (death), which is the definition of grace in a nutshell. It is blessings bestowed when wrath is owed!

Moses acted with grace as well. Though he had been spoken against by the people, he did not say “you’re getting what you deserve” or “that’ll teach you to come at me like that.” Instead, Moses graciously went to God on their behalf. He prayed for the people! It is similar to when Moses pled for Miriam after she rose up against him and was punished with leprosy (Numbers 12:13) or to when Moses interceded for the people who were about to be destroyed during Korah’s rebellion (Numbers 16:22).  

God could have just sent the snakes away. That alone would have been an incredible demonstration of grace. But He did something even better than that. He turned a symbol of death — the fiery serpent — into a symbol of life. And so it is with the cross of Christ.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).

Both the serpent and the cross were instruments of death. They were emblems of dread, despair, and demise. Yet God made them instruments of life, physically for the Israelites and spiritually for the church. Isn’t that a wonderful thought?

When I think about this story, I can’t help but see us in it. While we did not have the poisonous venom of serpents coursing through our bodies leading to physical death, we did have the poisonous venom of sin coursing through our souls leading to eternal death. And just as they were powerless to do anything about it on their own, so were we. It took God acting freely and favorably in both cases. He did for us what we could not have done for ourselves!  

One Serpent / One Savior

It is important to note that God did not provide multiple means of salvation for the stricken Israelites. There was but one means — the bronze serpent. Jesus, the antitype, is the one means of salvation today (John 3:18). He is not a way; He is the way (John 14:6). Peter put it like this:

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

He is the only anti-venom for our sins! 

The fact that the Israelites had to “look” on the serpent did not negate grace. They were simply meeting the conditions of that grace. It is no different than Noah “building” an ark (Genesis 6), the Israelites “marching” around the walls (Joshua 6), Naaman “dipping” in the Jordan (2 Kings 5), the 10 lepers “going” to the priests (Luke 17), and the men “staying” on the ship (Acts 27). Nor is it any different than the Jews on Pentecost “repenting” and “being baptized” for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). Grace has always been appropriated conditionally.

Sadly, the serpent that Moses erected in the wilderness later became an object of worship and had to be destroyed in the days of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4). This should serve as a lesson to Christians today, most notably when it comes to replicas of the cross. We must make sure that they never become superstitious idols!   

Conclusion

The Israelites experienced a horror scene that sounds like something out of Hollywood: Slithering slayers lurking in the shadows, hiding behind rocks, climbing on the pottery, and clinging to the walls, just waiting to attack their next victim. Then grace entered the picture. God intervened. Healing happened. The symbol of death became a symbol of life. All they had to do was “look” to the right thing in obedient faith. Have you done that? It is time to be made well.      

   

 


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