Numbers 21:8, commentary and pictures

When bitten for murmuring against Him, Israel was told to find life not by removal of the serpents but by looking at a brass serpent lifted on a pole in the midst of the camp. The metal itself had no power to heal; recovery came from God alone the moment a sufferer trusted His word enough simply to look. That lifeless likeness of the destroyers was set up to foreshadow One made in the likeness of sinful flesh and lifted on the cross as Sin-bearer to take away the sin of the world. To look is to believe in Jesus as Saviour, laying hold on His merits by faith without waiting to feel saved or trying first to make oneself better. Whoever so looks lives, receiving pardon, cleansing, peace with God, a new heart transformed into His image, and eternal life.

Wilderness Words and Setting

The Lord told Moses to fashion a fiery serpent and raise it on a pole, with the promise that everyone bitten who looked at it would live, and Moses carried this out by making a serpent of brass and setting it on a pole where the people could see it. The uplifted brass serpent was proclaimed through the camp as the appointed remedy for all bitten by the fiery serpents, so that looking in faith brought life.

Israel had fallen into sin by speaking against God and against Moses on the journey from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to go around Edom, growing discouraged because of the way. They complained of having been brought out of Egypt to die in the wilderness with no bread and no water, loathed the light bread from heaven, the angels' food God gave them daily, and murmured over hunger and thirst. This ingratitude followed close after God had given them a wonderful victory over their enemies in answer to prayer, yet they failed the test of trust when brought into strait places.

All through the wilderness they had been preserved every day by a miracle of mercy, with the Son of God as the mighty Angel going before them to make the path even so that their feet did not swell. By angels and by His own presence in the cloud by day and the fire by night He had held in check the wild beasts of the forests and the reptiles and poisonous serpents of the wilderness, saving them from a thousand dangers they did not realize. With hard hearts of unbelief they imagined evils, dwelt on untried dangers, and murmured with selfish discontent, so He withdrew His restraining hand to prove them, to correct selfishness, to teach submission, and to make them sensible of His constant care. The serpents were then permitted to do what they would have done all along the way, distressing the people so they would realize how much they might have suffered without God's merciful encompassing preservation.

The serpents are called fiery because their bites produced severe inflammation and rapid death, and when God's protection was withdrawn many of the people were bitten and many died. Under this affliction the people confessed that they had sinned by speaking against the Lord and against Moses, and they asked Moses to pray to the Lord that the serpents be taken away, and Moses prayed for them. God did not take the serpents away but gave the lifted serpent as the remedy, commanding the brazen fiery serpent to be set on a pole with the promise that every bitten one who looked would live.

The remedy was placed on high in the midst of the congregation, and the invitation to look and live was proclaimed loudly with the trumpet by the leading men of every tribe throughout the camp, not whispered or debated and without scientific explanation of how the symbol could have efficacy. All who obeyed by simply looking were immediately healed and recovered health at once, while those who delayed, reasoned, questioned, talked of the deadly wound, declared the case hopeless, and refused to obey died. The miracle also gave the surrounding nations further evidence that God was with Israel.

The episode stands as a warning to later believers not to tempt Christ, for some of Israel tempted Him and were destroyed by serpents, leaving their experience as an example that calls all to take heed lest they fall.

Healing Through Faith Alone

The brass serpent itself had no power or virtue in itself to cause any change or to heal, and the healing virtue came from God alone, who in His wisdom chose this simple manner to display His power. Looking to it was acceptable to Him as faith in the provision He had made, for God alone could heal the deadly bites. The lifeless symbol pointed beyond itself, for unlike Christ it had no power in itself, while Christ has power in Himself to heal the suffering, repentant, believing sinner and give eternal life.

Healing required an obedient act of their own to show penitence and faith in God's word and provision for recovery, by simply looking in trust in order to live. That look expressed immediate obedience and faith in the Son of God whom the serpent represented, without doing anything else to earn salvation and without understanding how merely looking could heal. They were to accept the word through Moses without delay, without reasoning or questioning how there could be efficacy in the brazen symbol, without demanding a scientific explanation and without controversy or discussion, for to refuse to look was to perish. Salvation comes through God's provision received by faith and obedient response, not through human acts or understanding every reason for His requirements, whether for healing of wounds or pardon of sins the people could do nothing for themselves but show faith in the Gift of God by looking and living.

Even fainting and dying sufferers who once fixed their languid eyes upon it revived and were instantly healed of all the effects of their poisonous wounds. Mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters anxiously helped their suffering relatives and friends to fix their eyes upon it. By this means the people were made sensible that God had permitted the serpents to afflict them because of their murmurings and lack of faith in Him. They learned that if they would obey Him they had no reason to fear, for He would be their friend and preserve them from the dangers continually surrounding them in the wilderness.

No one was compelled to look, but all could look and live or disbelieve God's simple provision and die. Those who had no faith that merely looking would heal them refused and died, while the promise was verified to all who looked. Some asked what good looking would do, talked of the deadly wound, declared the case hopeless, sought another way, and refused to obey, and they perished.

Serpent Foreshadows Christ Crucified

The image made in the likeness of the destroying, stinging serpents and lifted up for healing was a sign of One made in the likeness of sinful flesh to be lifted up as Redeemer and Sin-bearer and sin offering who takes away the sin of the world. Those bitten by the devil are called to look to the Saviour lifted on the cross and live, receiving hope, courage, faith, pardon and life. Looking to the raised bronze serpent in faith so as to live corresponds to trusting Christ, who alone saves sinners from sin and is their ransom, while rejecting the salvation He offers ends in perishing.

Unlike the lifeless brass symbol, which itself had no power to heal, Christ has virtue and power in Himself to heal the suffering, repentant, believing sinner and give eternal life. Healing in the wilderness came from God alone through the provision He made, and as Israel saved life by looking at the serpent, repenting believing sinners live by looking to Christ as the only hope and salvation made for those suffering the effects of sin. The command to look taught that salvation depends on faith in Christ's merits, and sinners receive pardon by faith in His atoning sacrifice.

As the serpent had no virtue in itself to heal, so the sacrificial service and Israel's offerings had no more virtue in themselves to set free from sin, but were only types of the merits and future sacrifice of the Redeemer to come. They were meant to revive the sacrifice of God's dear Son in minds and to lead to offerings with subdued wills and penitent hearts trusting in Him, and whether for healing of wounds or pardon of sins the people could do nothing for themselves but show faith in the Gift of God by looking and living. Those services and ceremonies are valueless if the Saviour they represent is rejected.

The lifting up means Christ must die by being lifted on a cross on Calvary in the most public manner, not by Jewish stoning on a false charge of breaking the law. Its fulfillment required Him to come when Roman power held sway and the Jews had lost power to inflict capital punishment yet retained enough influence to move Rome to condemn Him. Had He come earlier under full Jewish authority He would have been stoned to death, since the Jews put no one to death by crucifixion, and there would have been no cross on Calvary, and had He come many years later when Jewish power had grown still less the Jews could not have influenced the Roman authorities to sign His death warrant, and soon after His death crucifixion was abolished. As the serpent was lifted up, so the coming Redeemer was to be lifted up, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

The voice of Christ spoke through Moses and the patriarchs in giving it, revealing Christ in the Old Testament as the key unlocking its treasures. The testimony of Moses and the prophets proves His identity with the Messiah in His mission, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension. Jesus applied the wilderness image to Himself with Nicodemus, who remembered it when he saw Jesus on the cross. The two thieves crucified with Him showed the division between one looking in belief and living and the other refusing and dying, for as all who looked lived and all who refused to look died, so those who look upon and believe in the crucified Christ shall live forever while those who refuse shall die without hope.

Lifted according to God's plan before all nations, tongues and peoples, the cross was set to call attention to the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Christ was crucified at a Jewish yearly gathering attended by people from many nations, with representatives of all nations present, so knowledge of His death and work could spread to the remotest regions of the world. The decided look and live message pointed forward to Jesus crucified at that gathering and now points to the uplifted Saviour on the shameful tree, bidding all bitten by that old serpent the devil to look and live.

Meaning of Looking

To look at the lifted serpent and live is to believe in Jesus as Saviour, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, trusting God's word and promise for life. It is faith itself, the hand by which sinners lay hold upon Christ and appropriate His merits as the remedy for sin, exercised by the eye of faith beholding Him as revealed in Scripture and on the cross. The call is simple and not made complicated: see God's judgments falling on Christ the Redeemer, the Sin-bearer, the crucified and risen One who renews the heart, and live, for He is the sinner's only hope. The first response to Him is to look and believe, surrendering to Him and continuing as learners who gain an informed understanding of truth.

No one is to climb the pole or make himself better first, for deliverance comes only by looking in faith to Jesus and believing His willingness to save. It does not come by mourning over wounds, dwelling on suffering and helplessness, talking of the deadly wound and hopeless case, or depending on obedience to commend to God's favor, but by looking to Him lifted up and trusting His merits, since Christ died while sinners were yet sinners. Even the helpless, discouraged, fainting and dying need not perish, because Jesus saves all who come to Him, and repentance itself comes through Christ. Saving faith believes now that He saves and that His blood cleanses from all sin, however grievous, without waiting to feel Him Saviour or to become good first. Feeling has nothing to do with it and must not control or be made an idol to serve and worship; the sinner must break with the enemy who keeps him under darkness, cry no more, cease mourning, and believe God loves him because God has declared it.

Looking requires taking the eyes off self, sins, wretched condition, poisonous wounds, feelings, terror and putrefying sores, and fastening them upon the uplifted Saviour on the cross. As long as people look at themselves and talk of and deplore their wretched condition their wounds remain, but when they turn from themselves to Him their souls find hope and peace, comfort and even joy in the Holy Ghost. It means trusting in God rather than dwelling on past failures, taking hold of His Word for one's own case, coming to Him in confidence as friend and helper, believing in Him at that very moment as personal Saviour, receiving life through Christ's worthiness and righteousness, rejecting Satan as spokesman and speaking only words of faith and hope and truth. To look is to come to Jesus in prayer and living faith into living connection, as the woman touched the hem of His garment, clinging to His cross and trusting the salvation He bought with His blood instead of straining over unworthiness or trusting self. It is casting the helpless, sinful soul on the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour for forgiveness, cleansing, rest and restored joy, confessing and forsaking sin in penitence and humility, obeying His commandments and following His example, drawing near with petition for self and others, examining the heart and cutting away everything between the soul and God, holding a faith that pierces Satan's darkness and lives in God's presence as King and Redeemer, until those restored can teach transgressors His way.

The look must be to Jesus alone, moment by moment, steadily, constantly and earnestly, turning away from man, human help, pain, weakness, feared future burdens and earthly things. It refuses to make flesh an arm, refuses to worry about things that cannot be helped, and goes directly to Christ, the light of the world and Source of all light, righteousness, peace and grace, for light, help and healing rather than sending to human beings who have no help except what they receive from that same Source. Without beholding the uplifted Saviour with eyes fixed steadily upon Jesus, no one can be saved, any more than Peter could walk on water without keeping his eyes on Him; this faith laying hold on Christ's merits, confessing every sin with contrite heart, with prayers fragrant with the merits of His character, is the life of the church and must be the life business of the sinner, centering hopes of eternal life in Jesus alone, distrusting self but never distrusting the great Helper, giving Him undivided allegiance with self hidden and Christ appearing altogether lovely, walking humbly with Him as Enoch did and looking to His coming, for this looking to God is life itself. Looking unites human weakness with divine power by looking away from human and earthly things and trusting God and His imputed righteousness for eternal life, refusing the devil, meeting temptation with It is written, educating the mind to dwell on Christ's life, character and lessons, committing Scripture to memory as a wall of protection, refusing unholy action until he flees, placing oneself in the light and making God the theme dwelt upon so that knowledge of Him does not remain dead and useless. Refusing this provision because it seems foolish, refusing truth sent by God, or refusing to look to Him and turning to earthly things, is refusing Christ and refusing life, and bears guilt.

Meaning of Living

To live is not to perish but to have everlasting life by looking to Jesus lifted up as Saviour, for every sinner bitten and ready to perish has only to lift the eyes to Him in faith and live. There is only one way to gain eternal life, by uniting with Jesus Christ in faith and perfect obedience, hanging the helpless soul upon Him, continuing to look when despair sweeps over the soul, refusing Satan, and trusting that He lives to make intercession. He loves the sinner and gave His precious life and paid the ransom with His own flesh and blood so that looking gives life instead of perishing, and the greatness and badness of the heart should bring the sinner closer to his only Hope and Helper who counts the soul precious in His sight. Every person of every age and condition whatever his character, from beggar and profligate to infant and aged, slave and savage, however grievous the sins, is valued because Christ paid His life and is a candidate for heaven who may live by looking and believing and beholding the Lamb of God who takes away sin. Those who have learned that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life must work with God to restore the moral image of God in man by reclaiming their brother from vice line upon line and presenting the uplifted Saviour in greatest simplicity so every soul may look and live.

To live is to be pardoned, forgiven of transgression, covered in sin, cleansed in the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness, justified by faith so the deadly sting is healed, at peace with God, and clothed in Christ's worthiness and righteousness as a robe woven by Him and as His imputed righteousness received by looking and trusting God's promise. Sinners who have no merit of their own are to look to Jesus and rely wholly on His merits even when troubled by doubt or feeling unworthy, trusting in God rather than dwelling on past failures. Faith in Jesus the Lamb of God brings life to souls dead in sin, for He is the believer's righteousness and sacrifice, and looking away from human and earthly things to Him opens the eyes and makes the heart new. Refusing this provision because it seemed foolish led to death in the wilderness, and likewise refusing truth sent by God that calls people to look to Jesus and trust His imputed righteousness is a refusal of Christ.

The same voice that spoke in the wilderness still speaks as Healer of body and soul, inviting trust in His love rather than grief or questioning, giving sympathy and healing for maladies of body and mind and for sin's deadly poison as a living Saviour and Advocate for those under Satan's power. In affliction to look and live is to take hold of God's word, draw near to God, come with prayer and petition for self and for others, believe God will hear, not lose faith when trial tests and proves, examine the heart and cut away everything between the soul and God, hold a faith that pierces Satan's darkness, and live in God's presence as King and Redeemer for healing and deliverance to His glory. Jesus Himself commands the sin-bitten, Satan-oppressed sinner to come in prayer and faith trusting His love and His purchase with His own blood, and to live is to be healed, to have Satan expelled and his bewitching power broken, to be clasped in everlasting arms, drawn from perdition, hidden in His loving heart as in the cleft of the Rock, and kept as His own property unto the crown of eternal life. That invitation answers Satan's urging to curse God and die and holds good even for one who feels only wrath and condemnation and says there is no hope, for Jesus is an unfailing compassionate friend who promises not to abandon or turn away those who seek His help through darkness and discouragement.

Beholding Christ changes people into His image with daily converting power, imparting a new nature, creating heart and mind anew, writing the law in mind and heart, bringing thoughts and desires into obedience, opening eyes, causing to cease from sin, and reflecting His glory, humility, faith, love, patience and kindness. Looking is faith laying hold upon Christ and appropriating His merits as the remedy, receiving grace as light shining from the cross reveals God's love drawing sinners, leading those who do not resist to repentance at the foot of the cross for the sins that crucified the Saviour where the Spirit through faith produces new life. Looking steadily and earnestly to the Lamb of God by faith brings sanctification, for truth transforms the whole character and renews in righteousness and true holiness, and by beholding the Man of Calvary who takes away sin and heals physical and spiritual disease the sick and suffering gain hope of eternal life.

Looking brings hope, courage, comfort, peace, rest and even joy in the Holy Ghost, with the Sun of Righteousness shining into the heart and redeeming love pouring into the parched soul, giving light and strength in affliction and sickness. Deliverance comes only by looking in faith to Jesus and believing His willingness to save, not by making oneself better, for no one is to climb the pole but only to look, rejecting Satan as spokesman and speaking only words of faith and hope and truth while looking to Christ presented. Looking feeds with the Saviour Himself and gives His Holy Spirit, light, love and abundant blessing, for it is faith working by love purifying the soul and cleansing from all impurity, received by talking of Jesus, meditating on His character, eating the bread of life, humbling pride, doing God's will, and receiving grace day by day for each emergency rather than beforehand. It unites human weakness with divine power so the hopeless sinner bitten by perverted appetite and degrading passion, the tempted and the intemperate, can wrestle against Satan, gain ascendency over appetite and passion, overcome and stand victor in God-given manhood, and it delivers from the dark binding influence of spiritualism and theosophy whose poison the serpent represents, and heals those afflicted by envy, jealousy and accusation.

The dying thief proves the tender consideration for all who look in faith, for he confessed Christ, believed in Him and received Paradise, showing that without shedding of blood no one can be saved yet all who trust His power to save are given victory. David illustrates the same, for he confessed his sin, received forgiveness, and found refuge and deliverance through trusting in the Lord, and Peter shows that without beholding the uplifted Saviour and keeping eyes fixed steadily upon Jesus a man can no more be saved than Peter could walk on water. To look is to come in sincerity by living faith into living connection as the woman touched the hem of His garment, rolling sins upon the Sin-bearer, taking Jesus as personal Saviour, taking position as a child of God, confessing every sin with contrite heart, and trusting He will do as He said; everyone who so looks is healed immediately of terrible wounds and bruises just as bitten Israelites were healed, with prayers fragrant with the merits of Christ's character. He saves to the uttermost all who come and casts out none who come in sincerity, bringing full joy that bears reproach for Christ, and this faith must be the life business of the sinner and the life of the church, centered in Jesus alone rather than looking to man and trusting man for help.

Proclaiming Look and Live

God calls every erring, tempest-tossed soul to look and live, taking the eyes off self and imperfections, mistakes and errors to look to the Lord in faith in order to live. Looking removes the false thought that He is stern, watching to denounce and condemn and unwilling to receive a soul in error while there is a legal excuse for not helping, and reveals Him as full of goodness and mercy and truth, with yearning fatherly love toward the erring, as light and love as the Father's representative. Christ came to a world seared and marred with the curse to lift up fallen man, to reveal the Father's love to the perishing and bring them to look and live and thereby bring many sons and daughters to glory, bidding man to place himself in the light, make God the theme dwelt upon, educate the mind on His life, character and lessons, grasp truth as it is in Jesus, commit Scripture to memory as protection, meet temptation with It is written, refuse unholy action until the devil flees, and not let that knowledge remain dead and useless. It is His call to realize His love, rely on Him, take hold of His Word for one's own case, come to Him in confidence as friend and helper, and believe in Him at that very moment as personal Saviour to be helped and blessed and saved, pardoned and restored as His child, with faith that makes Him a personal Saviour and not a pretentious faith, striving lawfully for the crown of everlasting life, for He has promised to save every soul who believes in Him as personal Saviour. Souls are of far greater value than money.

As those bitten lived by repenting and looking in faith to the raised bronze serpent after protection was withdrawn because of transgression, impenitence and stubbornness, so the uplifted Saviour will be presented to people in all lands and in all places in the coming time of confusion and trouble such as never was since there was a nation, that all who look to Him in faith may live. The sacrificial service likewise pointed to Christ to be uplifted before the nations so that all who looked to Him might live. Through that service Christ was to be lifted up before the nations with the promise that all who look shall live, and any turning from idolatry to worship the true God lives by looking to Him, for though sin brings death Christ dies in the sinner's place and gives the transgressor life so every sinner may look and live. Israel was meant to reveal God's character and direct the nations to Christ, but by keeping its blessings for its own glory it failed to bring that life-giving message to the world.

No man is to lift himself up and attract the people to himself, for he interposes himself between Christ and the people and hides Christ, but Christ alone must be lifted up that every soul who looks may live. The cross must be lifted higher before all nations by preaching the gospel to every creature, with sustained attention to see its glory and feel its power, for people wounded by Satan must look to Christ to live. Those who have learned that Christ is the way, the truth and the life must work with God to restore the moral image of God in man by reclaiming their brother from vice, instructing him line upon line and presenting the uplifted Saviour in greatest simplicity so every soul may look and live. The invitation is to be spoken as the word of life in plain, simple language to hungry hearts with ears to hear, seeking those without privilege, while Christ is present softening and subduing hearts and the Holy Spirit works bringing quick and happy response with animated countenances and tearful eyes, teaching dependence on God rather than human help, giving oneself to Jesus, coming to Him and taking a decided stand on the Lord's side to seek a higher standard.

Medical missionary work should direct the sick and suffering to Jesus, the Man of Calvary who takes away sin and can heal both physical and spiritual disease, whose love and saving power give hope of eternal life. By beholding Him they are changed into His likeness.

The soul is not enlightened through controversy and discussion but must look and live, showing faith in the Gift of God, for whether for healing of wounds or pardon of sins the people could do nothing for themselves but look. The serpent lifted in the wilderness is a pattern for lifting up the Word of God as the foundation of faith to which nothing may be added. Those who have set aside God's commandments for human commandments are spiritually bitten and face death unless they repent.

The call to look and live remains God's appeal to trust Him in faith for pardon, freedom, life and salvation through the crucified and risen Saviour, sustained by the Holy Spirit, coming down through the ages to the Israel of God today. Saving help comes only by looking in faith to Jesus Christ, the Saviour who saves from sins and the only source of power to save, given with all heaven in God's gift for the world, and talking about sin while staying away from Him does no good. Rather than dwelling on past mistakes and failures, a person can rely on Christ's worthiness and righteousness, receive His robe of righteousness, and live, for the lifted-up Saviour is the answer to how to be saved. Looking to Jesus and accepting Him, charmed by the matchless attractions of the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh, the mystery hidden for ages, is the way to life, and acceptance or rejection decides eternal interests. It is for every baffling case too hard for human wisdom, with grace and strength supplied as each day demands.