THE BRAZEN SERPENT

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 20, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 34.

THE BRAZEN SERPENT.

It meant something once, did the piece of brass in the form of a serpent which Moses by the direction of the Lord erected upon a pole in the sight of all Israel. God had given Israel victory after victory; He had manifested His mighty power to save them from perils and enemies; He had dealt mercifully with them in their sinning. Now they were turned back from the nearest entrance to Canaan to compass the land of Edom and enter the Promised Land north of the Dead Sea.

This was of their own choosing. In eleven days after starting from Sinai they might have entered the goodly land. But murmuring turned them back. Now the way was long and hard and difficult; and the soul of the people was discouraged. Then they did what discouraged people nearly always do, criticise and complain. They spoke against God, to whom they owed life and deliverance. They spoke against Moses who would have given his life to save them. What did the Lord do?—He withdrew His protecting hand which shielded them from the poisonous serpents which abounded in that region, and permitted the reptiles to swarm into the camp. He would let Israel know how utterly helpless they were without Him. Many were bitten and died in their rebellion. Others saw in it a merited harvest of their own seed-sowing. They came to Moses and confessed their sins, and pleaded that the plague might be removed. The Lord was waiting for this moment, that He might help them. And to do this He must develop faith, and reveal to them another evidence of His power, and the necessity on their part of unquestioned obedience. He instructs Moses to make a serpent of brass, evidently resembling the poisonous reptiles among them, erect it where all might see it, call the attention of the people to it, and say to the suffering ones that every one who looked upon it would live.

It was not the serpent that healed, it was not the looking that healed; it was not even their faith which healed; it was the power of God that flowed into the poison-infused frame of every man, destroyed the venom of the serpent, and gave life.

It was not to them a type, but an evidence of God’s power to save.

Jesus used it as an illustration of His own work.

As that serpent was lifted up that all might see, so Jesus was lifted up upon the cross, His very death drawing to him the eyes of the world. As the bitten Israelites must look to the brazen serpent, the only remedy for salvation from this plague, so sinners must in faith look to Christ, God’s only remedy for sin. As neither pole nor serpent, but the power of God, healed the people, so neither the cross nor Christ’s mere physical crucifixion saved the people, but souls are saved by the pardon Christ purchased, the life that He gives through His Spirit. These are illustrations from the very circumstances of the case by which Jesus sought to impress the important lesson upon the blinded heart of Nicodemus. As truly the only hope of life from the serpent’s bite was in the means God provided, so the only hope of life from sin is in the Sin-bearer, Jesus Christ our Lord.

The serpent of brass had its little place at one time; but Israel in later apostate times made it a creed; they worshiped the mere thing, the means of power, not the Giver of power. Hezekiah the iconoclast saw it in its true light, broke it in pieces, and called it nehushtan, a “piece of brass.” 2 Kings 18:4.

Not a fact in any creed but sometime did good service, when present duty and present faith transmuted the fact into living, saving truth. After that, when backslidden, men put the cold fact into words, called it a creed, and worshiped that. It would be a great blessing to the world if some men, like Hezekiah of old, would take down the time-worn creeds, denominate each one what it truly is, “a piece of paper,” and destroy it. Not one single truth of God would be lost thereby. Not one soul would be left without hope. God would reign the same. His Word would abide. Christ Jesus would make every word potent to the believer; and many men, now looking to cold, lifeless creeds for life and guidance, would be led to look beyond the material sign, to the living God. Let the brazen serpent and all its ilk in creeds of gold, silver, brass, marble, wood, stone, or paper go; and let Christ Jesus and His Word live and reign in the heart of faith.