Sssaved By A Sssnake!

Sssaved By A Sssnake!


The Land of Bondage was now behind us but our desert trial was ahead.
We could not help but complain bitterly about our hardship, our leadership and even about this invisible God who had taken us away from the �leeks and onions� of Egypt only to wander daily in the hot Sinai sun. Then, as our families slept in their tents one night, fiery serpents slithered in. Everyone is bitten!

Everyone grows sick and weak! By morning�s light, we can see many thousands of our friends and relatives all similarly afflicted. Some begin to die and the terrible truth begins to come clear�all who have been stung by the serpent�s poison will eventually die; the young as well as the old; the good as well as the wicked; the zealous for God as well as those without faith!
There is a great lament in the camp as deep despair lays hold of every heart.

Then, suddenly, a trumpet blows. It is the great shofar horn of Moses himself! Aaron is calling all of Israel to assemble at the tent of meeting where the Shechinah presence of YAHWEH dwells in the tabernacle!
Could there be some hope of salvation after all?!

When we arrive at the tabernacle, there is a holy hush over all those assembled. Moses is inside the holy place interceding with God on behalf of
the Jewish nation. Someone close to the entrance of the tabernacle calls out, �Moses, our leader comes out from behind the veil. Let us hear his words!�
Others cry out against Moses, but God�s judgment of Korah�s rebellion is still fresh in the people�s minds and they give respect to their leader�s voice�

�I have inquired of the Lord for you and He has spoken to me.
Tomorrow morning there will be a tall copper pole standing here at the door of the tent of meeting. At the top of this standard you will see a copper serpent, fashioned in the likeness of the serpents God sent through our camp last night.
All who will come and steadfastly behold this image will be healed by the power of the Lord! Those who choose not to believe or not to obey this word shall die a death for which they themselves will be responsible.
This is the word of the Lord, the great �I AM�. Heed it and you shall live!�

All that night, the debate in the camp rages on. Some say, �Moses has forgotten God�s own words! Hath not the Lord said:

�Do not make for yourself any idol, nor any image of what is in the heavens above, nor of what is in the earth below...� Exodus, ch.20, v3


Others remembered the deliverance that God had sent through Moses just a few days earlier at the bitter waters of Meribah�

�Did not the Lord honor the prayer and the staff of Moses when he struck the rock and water came forth by the power of God. This water saved us and our children�s lives also!�

Still others argued,

�It cannot be the word of the Lord for us to give homage to a serpent!
It was the serpent�s lies that drove our father Adam out of the Garden of Eden! All who trust in this creature for their deliverance surely deserve to die!�

In the end, each man and woman of Israel have to decide for themselves what the Lord would have them to do. In the morning, all of those who believe Moses� words come to the tabernacle. Those afflicted and dying look up to gaze steadfastly at the copper snake mounted on the pole. As they do they can feel the venom leave them! Their pain ceased! Their trembling limbs grow firm again! Shouts of joy ring out throughout the camp as news of the healings is sounded by the shofar�s happy call!

Even those who had doubts hear the blessed report and come to the strange standard. All who stare intently at the serpent, with faith in their heart, trusting in Moses� promise of salvation are healed - even those who had scorned the serpent�s power the night before! In this way, God works a great deliverance for His people Israel!

My friend, is this not a wonderful account of the mercy and the wisdom of the Lord? But I would ask you one question�Why a serpent? Why would the Lord use a creature, which He himself has cursed to lift a curse from off of His people? Is there more to this story than just what Moses knew to tell us?
The answer is yes!

As it is in so many places in God�s word, this story and these images are not only historic but also symbolic. They are meant to point us to a future time and a future person. This person symbolized by the serpent�s form is none other than Yeshua, the Messiah.

He was given to us to save us from the deadly sting of sin. He himself was pure from sin�s poison. That is why it is Yeshua alone who is qualified to rescue us from sin�s penalty. You may ask:

�But did Yeshua see himself in this way? Did he believe that he was given for the healing of the entire Jewish Nation?� Let his own words testify�


�And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man
be lifted up; that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life.� - John ch 3, v. 14,15

For 2,000 years, our people have debated among themselves�
�How can one who was cursed by God to die on a cross be the savior of the world? Even as Yeshua hung there dying, some of our people mocked him:

�He saved others," they scoffed, "but he can't save himself! So he is the king of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross, and we will believe in him! � Matthew 27: 42

But if we choose to believe the words of our greatest prophet, Isaiah,
we can clear away all our confusion:

�We considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God, but He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement needful to obtain peace and well being for us was upon Him and with the stripes that wounded Him we are healed and made whole. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has made to light upon Him the guilt and iniquity of us all.� Is. 53:4-6

When God �visited upon him the guilt of all of us,� it transformed the sinless savior � the Lamb of God � into a hideous serpent in God�s eyes and God was forced to look away from His own beloved son for those few moments in time. Feeling for the first time the separation that sin makes between God and men, Jesus cried out in his Hebrew tongue:

�Eli, Eli, lama sabacth ani���My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?! Matthew 27:46

And he died there, lifted up �on a pole� for our healing and our deliverance! All who know themselves to be afflicted and dying of sin may now come and gaze intently at him on that cross, and they shall be healed! Even those of us who have doubts or who have slandered the �serpent� before are invited to come
and experience the faithfulness of God! As we perceive and believe Yeshua�s
healing purpose in a personal way, we will receive back not only our life in this world, but eternal life in �Gan Eden�, the world to come.

Those who have already fixed their eyes upon the sin-bearer tell us over and again that they can feel the venom of the �Yatzer Ha-Ra� (�the evil inclination�) leaving them. The pain of their soul ceases. Their limbs become firm again.
The camp of those redeemed from the serpent�s sting is filled with the happy shouts of the �gospel�, the �good news� of God�s salvation, which He provided for us in the person of Messiah Yeshua.

It was in this way that God worked a great deliverance for His people, Israel. Years later those children who placed their faith in the image of a serpent on a pole entered the promised land of Canaan, singing songs of the mercy and the power of their God and of His strange instrument of deliverance!

My friend, this Yeshua is the serpent on a pole but He is given to us by our God to be our remedy and our redemption! When we first see Him, He may look to us like the very emblem of wickedness � like a serpent - but we must not turn away. Do not fear his image. Our very lives depend on our taking a closer look! Isaiah said�

��He had no form or beauty, that we should look at him; No charm that we should find him pleasing. He was despised, shunned by men, a man of suffering, familiar with disease�He was despised and we held him of no account.� `Isaiah ch. 53: v 2, 3, JPS ; pg. 732

But it is also true that as Isaiah fixed his prophetic gaze upon this unattractive, suffering man, the image of the �serpent of God� shed its outward appearance and became the �servant� of God whom he truly was!

�My righteous servant makes the many righteous, it is their punishment that he bears; assuredly, I will give him the many as his portion, He shall receive the multitude as his spoil. For he exposed himself to death and was numbered among the sinners, where as he bore the quilt of many and make intercession for sinners.�
Isaiah ch,. 53 v.11�12 JPS ; pgs. 733, 734


My friend, �look and live,� for those who will �become as little children� and place their faith in the image of a serpent on a pole will one day enter the promised land of paradise, singing songs of the mercy and the power of their God and of His anointed one Yeshua.


May God confirm His Truth to you with His Shalom�
I am His scribe and your friend,

Asher