Snake Bites

                                        
                                       

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Galatians 3:13

My all time favorite movie line comes from, of all things, a Veggie Tales movie – The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything.  Sedgwick, one of the pirates, finding himself in a seemingly hopeless situation, lies down and begins to review his life as he prepares to die.  “It was a good life,” he says, “at least that one day…from about 2:00 to 2:30.” I laugh every time I think about it! 

I was reading John chapter 3 and came across verses 14 and 15:  “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”  The story about Moses and the snake is found in the book of Numbers, so I decided to see what the connection was between that incident and what Jesus was saying in John.

As I leafed through Numbers, I saw that, from the moment the Israelites left Mt. Sinai, a pattern emerged.  God watched over them and provided for them, but the Israelites felt his provisions were not up to their standards; they then bitterly complained about the miserable life they had; God severely reprimanded them for their lack of gratitude and respect; and then they repented.  That same story, with varying details, repeats throughout the entire book.

The life the Israelites were living may not have been one of riches and pleasure, but God made sure their basic needs were met.  He miraculously provided water in the desert when there was none.  He sent them their daily food in the form of manna when there was no other food to be found. Deuteronomy 8:4 and 29:5 says their clothes and sandals did not wear out and their feet did not swell during their forty years in the wilderness.  It was a no frills life, but as Deuteronomy 8 explains, it was the life God intended them to have, to mold them and teach them the lessons he wanted them to learn. But the Israelites were not satisfied with what God gave them; they felt entitled to frills!

In Numbers 21 they were traveling from one place to another and on the way they became impatient and once again began to complain about the life God had given them: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” (Verse 5)  They called the manna, which God hand delivered to them each morning, detestable!

This time God’s severe reprimand was delivered to them in the form of what I think of as a living parable; he sent them poisonous snakes which bit them, and many of them died.  The snakes were both the deserved curse for their disobedience and disrespect, and a tangible representation of the venom of sin that constantly poisoned the Israelites’ minds toward everything in their lives, including God. 

In this and the other similar stories, my tendency is always to shake my head at the hard-headed, dim-witted Israelites, until God reminds me that we are all alike.  We have often been dissatisfied with the lives we have been given. As a matter of fact, some of us, like Sedgwick, can only think of about half an hour on “that one day” when we were satisfied!

Instead of understanding and accepting that the life circumstances God has given us are part of his plan to mold and teach us, we have all wished for more – more money, better cars, bigger houses, better jobs, kinder spouses, grateful children, truer friends, better health, fewer problems, and have often allowed those desires to be the driving force in our lives, sometimes even to the point of anger at God when we don’t get what we want.  And, we have all feared what we might have to deal with in the future, despite the many evidences God has given us of his presence and blessings in our past.  Our minds, too, have been poisoned by the venom of sin.  That is why what happens next in the story is so important.

The Israelites ran to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you.  Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” 

But, instead of taking the snakes away, God tells Moses to do something very strange, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; and anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”

If I were writing this story, I would have written it a little differently.  First of all, in answer to Moses’ prayer for the people, I would have had God take away the snakes, so that his words would be in the past tense “and anyone who was [had already been] bitten can look at it and live” Then, I would have had Moses make something more pleasant to put on the pole; something like a dove or maybe a rainbow, to turn their minds toward God’s promises when they looked at it. 

But that is not how the story went, and this is the link between this story and Jesus in John chapter 3.  God had Moses make a replica of the poisonous snake, the very thing God had sent them as a punishment or curse for their disobedience; the snake which also represented sin itself, the ultimate curse; and He told Moses to put it on a pole so that “anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” Why would God want them to look at the snake?

In John 3, Jesus compares himself to that snake on a pole because he knew that when he was lifted up on the cross he, in essence, would become the snake.  He became the curse; and, not only that, 2 Corinthians 5:21 says he actually became sin for us! 

On the cross he took the entire curse of sin, which we deserved, upon himself, so that anyone who is bitten- and we all have been and will continue to be on this earth – can look at him and, seeing what he did for us, believe in him and have eternal life! (John 3:15)  

Because of Jesus, the fatal effect of sin’s poison has been overcome forever!