Snake — Bible — Andrew Forrest

John 3:9-15

9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

In v. 14, Jesus is referring to a story in the Old Testament book of Numbers. There is a plague of snakes attacking the Israelites in the wilderness (Numbers 21:4–9), and the Lord tells Moses to make a bronze image of a snake and put it on a pole—anyone who then looks at the pole is saved. It’s a very strange story that only makes sense after the crucifixion and resurrection; after Jesus is raised, we can see that the thing that was meant for death—the cross—is the thing that makes life possible. The Old Testament story about the bronze snake was meant to teach the Israelites to be prepared for what God would ultimately do on the cross.

As with the snake, Jesus tells Nicodemus that the same thing is going to happen to Him: He will be “lifted up,” i.e., crucified, but his lifting up will make life possible for all who “look,”—i.e., believe—in Him.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
In the Roman world, the cross was a symbol of hideous cruelty, and yet it was exactly that image that the early church adopted as a sign of the gospel.