Numbers 21 Explained!

By Peter Salemi

www.British-Israel.ca

Have you ever wondered why Moses had to “lift up” the bronze snake in the wilderness in order for the Israelites to be healed? This is perhaps one of the most puzzling scriptures in the entire Bible. Pastors and Bible study teachers alike have been stumped as to why it is there-and it seems that traditional Christianity has no proper explanation. Is there one?

The scripture says, “And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. 

“And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. 

“Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 

“And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 

“And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.” (Numbers 21:5-9).

This entire scene begs the questions:

1) If the serpent is traditionally supposed to represent Satan in the Bible, then why would God tell Moses to lift it up and then heal all the people who looked on it?

2) Why would God tell Moses to cast the bronze serpent in the first place isn’t it idolatry since God said: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath…” (Exodus 20:4).

3) Why did Jesus Christ compare himself to the serpent on the pole? (John 3:14).

Are there answers to these questions?

Answers

The first thing people ask is “Isn’t this a form of idolatry?” Didn’t God tell the Israelites not to make idols?

When one examines the text you will see that God told Moses to tell Israel, “that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.” (Num 21:8). The Hebrew word for “look” is “râ’âh” (Strong’s #7200) and the meaning does not convey the idea of worship whatsoever but to observe, “to see, look at, inspect, perceive, consider” (Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew definitions). God did not command Moses to make an idol for the people to worship but it was a symbol to which they were to look at and be healed, “that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.” (v.9).The symbolism is obvious.

There are plenty of examples of religious art made in the Bible that were not considered idols. Howe writes, “Religious art contains images but is not thereby idolatrous. God also instructed Moses to make cherubim (angels) for the ark, but they were not idols. There is a difference between a God-appointed representation of symbol (e.g., the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper) and a man-made idol (see comments on Ex. 20:4).” (When Critics Ask Howe, pp. 91-92, emphasis added).  

Sadly, even this God-ordained symbol was made into an idol. In the reforms of King Hezekiah, he “broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan” (2 Kings 18:4). Fallen man “could take something so good and so used by God and make a destructive idol out of it.” (David Guzik Enduring Word Bible Commentary).

Now why did God pick a “bronze serpent” to look at if a serpent was the symbol of Satan? As noted above the serpent was a symbol. What does the “serpent” in this case symbolise?

A serpent does not exclusively mean Satan; in this case it means judgment on sin. The text says, “And the people spake against God, and against Moses… And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died…. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.” (Num 21:5-7). Scofield says, “The serpent is a symbol of sin judged; brass speaks of the divine judgment, as in the brazen altar (See Scofield on Exo 27:1), note (2) and self-judgment, as in the laver of brass.” (Scofield Bible Notes, emphasis added). God commanded Moses to make the serpent out of “brass.” In the Bible bronze is associated with judgment because it is made with fire. So the “bronze serpent” is a picture of evil being judged and dealt with.

Why did Jesus Compare himself to the Serpent?

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:” (John 3:14).

Ever since Satan spoke his lies as the serpent to Eve, the snake has been associated with sin. The prophets liken the wicked to those who “hatch viper’s eggs” (Isaiah 59:5), to “a serpent [who] has swallowed us . . . and then has spewed us out” (Jeremiah 51:34), and to those who “will lick dust like a snake” (Micah 7:17). The poetic books speak of evil men making “their tongues as sharp as a serpent’s; the poison of vipers is on their lips” (Psalm 140:3), of liars having “venom . . . like the venom of a snake, like that of a cobra that has stopped its ears, that will not heed the tune of the charmer, however skillful the enchanter may be” (Psalm 58:4–5); and of drunkenness eventually biting “like a snake and poison[ing] like a viper” (Proverbs 23:32). Jesus and John the Baptist both condemned the hypocrisy of the Pharisees by calling them a “brood of vipers” and “snakes” (Matthew 3:7; 12:34; 23:33).

Mankind then and now are all dying by the snake bites of sins. The world is an evil place and there are many temptations, delights and false “prophets” that lure us into their deadly dens. But to all those who look to the “brazen serpent” that has judged sin and dealt with sin “once for all” (Heb 10:10) they shall be saved. Jesus said, “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince [Devil] of this world be cast out….And I, if I be lifted up [Like the Brazen Serpent] from the earth, will draw all men unto me [to be saved].” (John 12:31-32). “The serpent signified Christ, who was in the likeness of sinful flesh [outward appearance],  Rom 8:3, though without sin [inward], as this brazen serpent had the outward shape, but not the inward poison of the other serpents: The pole resembled the cross upon which Christ was lift up for our salvation; and looking up to it designed our believing in Christ.” (Poole’s Commentary, emphasis added).

Again, “The brazen serpent is a type of Christ ‘made sin for us;’ John 3:14; John 3:15; 2Cor 5:21 in bearing our judgment. Historically, the moment is indicated in the cry: ‘My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’ Matt 27:46.” (Scofield Bible Notes, emphasis added). Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us on the cross, and our sin was judged in Jesus.

Jesus being the Yahweh of the Old Testament said in Isaiah 45:22: “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” As God told them to look to the brazen serpent to be saved, we must look to Yahweh (Jesus) his sacrifice on the cross to be saved from our sins for he has judged and dealt with sin and Satan, “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Heb 10:10).

Pagan Traditions of Snakes

There are many ancient traditions that show a serpent being wrapped around the pole. This concept is the source for the ancient figure of healing and medicine – a serpent wrapped around a pole.

“A snake coiled around a staff is a widely recognized symbol of healing. The staff belongs to Asklepios, the mythical Greek god of medicine. In ancient Greece the sick would go to be healed at shrines called ‘asklepieia’ where priests often used sacred serpents in their ceremonies.” (Article: The Symbol for Healing, by Joe Schwarcz PhD, emphasis added).

Other cultures as well, “When twined around a staff, the serpent stands as a clearer symbol of the healing art. Staffs represent sacred trees. In Near Eastern cultures, these trees were viewed as a type of the cosmic axis connecting this world with the underworld and the heavens. The image of Trees of Life, central to ancient creation accounts, permeates modern culture. Spires and steeples are cultural remnants of this archetype. Mystical powers as well as practical applications were attributed to such staffs.” (Article: Serpents, Staffs, and the Emblems of Medicine by Nathan W. Williams).

In India there is the tradition of the “Kundalini Spirit” for healing. “Kundalini can be considered the oldest known science. Knowledge about Kundalini comes mainly from India, where it was preserved as a part of the philosophy of yoga…. We can also find information about it in ancient Egypt, Sumeria, and China, going as far as 4000 BC. In 1919 British Indian scholar John Woodroff wrote a book about Kundalini called ‘The Power of Serpent.’’’ (Article: What is Kundalini, by Healing Art Awareness).

Stories like the snake-pole don’t begin in a vacuum: They highlight a center occasion that truly occurred. We see this with occasions like creation, the “Flood” and the “Tower of Babel,” among others, which are all kept exhaustively in the Bible. Different societies and religions all around the world have parallel records of these events. Many times as with the brazen serpent, the image or story follows back to a one source event — originally kept in the Bible. Norman Geisler writes: “In the ancient Near East, the rule is that simple accounts or traditions may give rise (by accretion and embellishment) to elaborated legends, BUT NOT VICE VERSA. In the ancient Orient, legends WERE NOT SIMPLIFIED or turned into pseudo-history (historicized) as have been assumed for early Genesis...The recent discoveries of Creation accounts at Elba confirm this. The library of more than 17, 000 clay tablets pre-dates the Babylonian account by about 600 years. The creation tablet is STRIKINGLY CLOSE TO GENESIS...This shows that the BIBLE CONTAINS THE ANCIENT, LESS EMBELLISHED VERSION OF THE STORY and transmits the facts without the corruption of the mythological rendering” (When Skeptics Ask, p.182, emphasis mine). As the stories get OLDER, they more and more RESEMBLE THE BOOK OF GENESIS, so the book of Genesis had to be the original account, and as Geisler says it was NEVER THE OTHER WAY AROUND!

Morris says the same thing, “A number of the tablets excavated in the Middle East do, indeed, contain inscriptions dealing with the creation and the world before the Flood. Although there are significant differences in these as compared with the straightforward biblical narrative of this period, they do bear many striking similarities to the Genesis records. Since these tablets in many instances have been dated prior to Moses’ time, critics tend to claim that Moses himself got the stories from them, and that, therefore, the Genesis narratives are also mere legends.

“However, even a superficial comparison of the majestic accounts in the Bible with the garbled mythologies of these other stories is sufficient to show that the Bible is incomparably superior to them. It is natural to expect that some recollection of the great events of creation, the Fall, the antediluvian patriarchs, the Flood, and the tower of Babel would be handed down by word of mouth to the descendants of Adam and Noah, and it is significant that these ancient tales do show enough resemblance to the Bible accounts to indicate a common ancestral source. That original source, however, was the true account in the Bible, not the distorted accounts of the ancient legends. Much sound evidence indicates that the ancient patriarchs (Adam, Noah, Shem, and so on) all wrote down-as eyewitnesses-the events of their own times. These primeval tablets were handed down through the patriarchal line until they finally came to Moses, who then compiled and edited them into our present book of Genesis.” (Science and the Bible, p.92, emphasis added). We have the true version of what happened by the people who actually WITNESSED IT! Then even though these historical accounts were written down, man, moving away from the center of knowledge recalled these stories and of course they got corrupted in the telling, and so we get the mythological stories of creation, the flood, serpents etc.…

These Biblical stories also made their way into the pagan societies by other means. People tend to think that the Israelites were a society that isolated themselves from the rest of the world-nothing could be further from the truth. Israel interacted with other nations especially in the days of Solomon.

Solomon had a worldwide Empire called by others the Phoenician Empire. At that time, the whole world came to listen to Solomon’s wisdom (1 Kings 10:24-25, 34). Governments sent delegates (Queen of Sheba went herself to see) to learn and implement his wisdom into their kingdoms. His wisdom was so vast that, it “excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country,” (1 Kings 4:29, 30). And “his fame was in all nations round about.” (v.31). The “east country” includes “India.” Solomon sent ships there (1 Kings 9:25-28).

The people of India called the Phoenicians “The Panch [Phoenicians] leaders of the earth.” (Maha-Barata Indian Epic of the Great Barats). This empire had worldwide influence and Solomon teachings were being taught around the ancient world.

During this time Solomon taught the nations about the “serpent” in the garden, and the “serpents” in the wilderness and how God healed them and what it all meant. God gave him that wisdom to share with the world.

The healing by looking at the “brazen serpent” went to Greece where many Phoenician colonies were established, and of course got twisted and perverted into the God “Asklepios” and his serpent on a pole. This story went to the Indians which became the “Kundalini serpent” that healed during meditation.

Today’s Medical symbol of the Serpent on the pole the world claims to be from Caduceus or Asklepios and even some say from Moses, but it all stems from the Biblical histories.

So what is the purpose of this event that took place in Numbers 21^st chapter? To focus on the powerful picture of Jesus on the cross. The only way to be saved from the consequences of our rebellion (sin) is to look to Jesus, who was lifted up on the cross (pole). If an Israelite refused to look on the serpent, the poison would run through their body and killed them. If we refuse to look to Jesus (who is Yahweh who says we must look to him to be saved Isa 45:22) the poison of sin will result in our spiritual death, as Christ said, “for if ye believe not that I AM he, ye shall die in your sins.” (John 8:24).

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