Lifting Up the Curse
Moses made a copper serpent and mounted it on a standard; and when anyone was bitten by a serpent, he would look at the copper serpent and recover. Numbers 21:9 JPS
Recover – There is no doubt that Yeshua refers to this event as an explanation of the cross and the ascension (see John 3:14). But what does this odd story of the Israelites in the wilderness mean and why would He refer to it?
Archeological evidence suggests that copper (not bronze) snakes were part of the pagan religious iconography in the area, including Egypt. There is also a play on words in Hebrew. Moses makes a nehash nehoshet, the first word meaning “snake” and the second “copper.” Rabbinic tradition teaches that YHWH did not simply remove this plague as He did in Egypt because this is a test of obedience. Only those who looked upon the icon were healed (see Targum Jonathan and Wisdom of Solomon). This event becomes a symbol of faith in the word of the Lord and in His servant’s action. The Hebrew verb used here (sum) has a variety of meanings and is frequently associated with YHWH. Among its umbrella of meanings are “to appoint, to set aside for a special purpose, to assign something, to establish a new relationship, and to bring about a change.” Do you suppose that Yeshua wasn’t aware of these meanings when He pointed Nicodemus toward this story? As a superb rabbi, wouldn’t you expect Him to ask His student (Nicodemus) to discover the deeper truth in this story by examining it carefully? Wouldn’t a play on the multiple definitions fit rabbinic teaching?
What conclusions can we draw that assist in our understanding of Yeshua’s clue? First we find that once again YHWH uses something from familiar paganism to reverse the pagan belief. The children of Abraham would have been familiar with the winged Egyptian uraeus (the cobra) as a symbol of royalty, associated with the sun god and many other deities. Furthermore, this symbol was worn on the headdress as a protective icon. Now imagine that Moses fashions such a symbol, not as homage to the Egyptian gods but as a sign of healing and protection from the One true God. What would this mean to the Israelites? Wouldn’t they see that one more Egyptian icon now falls under the power of YHWH? Wouldn’t they recognize that true protection comes only through the efficacy of the Lord even if the icon once represented a pagan practice? In other words, the copper snake transforms prior idolatry into a standard of the Holy One of Israel. Life, death and healing are found, not in the representations of men, but in the standard lifted up by God.
Roman crucifixion was the ultimate symbol of power over life. Crucifixion was the most brutal, most torturous, most cruel form of execution the Romans could devise. If there were ever a symbol of death, the cross was it. Now Yeshua does what Moses did in the wilderness. He transforms a symbolic representation of pagan control over life into a vehicle of healing through the One true God. The idolatry of Rome is converted into a sign of YHWH’s sovereignty, just as the idolatry of Egypt was converted into a sign of YHWH’s healing. And in both cases, the recipient must look upon that pagan symbol and see something new; not a sign of the power of Man’s gods but a sign of the authority of Israel’s God.
Perhaps Yeshua goes to the cross in order to establish God’s final authority over the real enemy – death. If the sacrifice for forgiveness is accomplished before the world’s foundations, then the cross represents God’s victory over every form of idolatry holding men captive by the threat of death. “It is accomplished,” takes on far greater meaning.
Topical Index: cross, recover, lifted up, Numbers 21:9, snake, John 3:14
Skip: another interesting study. I do have a couple of comments/questions. It seems YHWH has transformed a pagan symbol ( the snake) into a true symbol of healing. The Roman Catholic church would argue that it has done exactly the same thing…. transform the birthday of Mithras into the birthday of the real Sun/Son of God, same for Easter and at least 20 other former pagan ritual feasts. Unfortunately the underlying paganism eventually resurfaces…Christmas degenerates into crass commercialism and drunken parties, etc. There is a real danger here. Saul thought he was improving on God’s plan by saving the sheep of Amalek rather then slaughtering them… more sheep to sacrifice etc. Yet Samuel says he sinned. I am still confused on this issue. I suppose it is fine when YHWH chooses to transform/refocus a pagan practice but we should not try to do so.
Second point concerns “God’s final authority over the real enemy- death” I respectfully disagree. I suggest the real enemy is rebellion against YHWH. Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden so that they would not eat of the tree of life and live forever in their fallen sinful state. That would be the worst of all things… eternal life apart from YHWH…a living hell. Once rebellion has been dealt with, then death needs to be removed as well, and life can be lived victoriously forever aligned with the will of Father YHWH.
I agree with HSB. My first thought upon reading this TW this morning was “why then did I leave the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) if idolatry is, after all, somehow transformed and sanctified by YHWH”? The obvious answer is that it is not. All paganism, idolatry and things to do with false gods are thoroughly and consistently rebuked, renounced and repudiated by YHWH and Torah. I think we need to find a better explanation of the copper snake than the one proffered or we need to apologize to the Pope and his RCC for their “enlightened” interpretation of spiritual practices that are acceptable to YHWH. To reduce the cross to an antitype of a pagan symbol sets us upon a slippery slope which can only lead to corrupting the work Messiah accomplished upon the cross. I don’t know why Moses lifted up a copper serpent and all who looked upon it were healed, but having come out of the RCC, I can assure you it is NOT along the line of transforming a pagan symbol into a new standard of holiness. Please take us down another path which doesn’t betray all you have taught us thus far about Yah hating mixture and mingling. Michael
Try this as a path to follow. The incident in the wilderness takes something that is causing death and uses it as a vehicle to bring life. It is not paganism. It is the demonstration that God is sovereign over death. If Yeshua thought of this incident in relation to the cross, then isn’t the cross, a powerful symbol of death in the hands of the Romans, converted into a statement of God’s sovereignty, of life over death? If this is true, then is the cross a place of forgiveness or is it a place where we see the final victory of God? Isn’t that hinted at in the citation of Psalm 22 on the cross? Vindication, not rejection. Victory not defeat. Put that into the mix. Look for the patterns that repeat themselves.
Hi Skip, If the sacrifice for forgiveness is accomplished before the world’s foundations, then the cross represents God’s victory over every form of idolatry holding men captive by the threat of death. “It is accomplished,” takes on far greater meaning.
Gen1:1 בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ׃ This is usually translated “in the beginning” but there is no “the” in the Hebrew scripture, it says “in beginning”. This can mean that there were other beginnings and endings before this particular beginning. When the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world, he conquered death(end), to a new (beginning).
Gen1:3
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים יְהִי אֹור וַֽיְהִי־אֹֽור׃
QUESTION: Was the “light” that was manifested by the Word, His first “appearance” after He conquered death?
There was no other source for that light, it simply manifested through His Word. That light was the beginning of creation. The Word brought His Light into the darkness, order to chaos, and life where there had been none. He is the אֵת
There must have been other beginnings and endings before the creation of the heavens and the earth, or the lamb could not have been slain before the foundations of the world.
Psa 119:105 NASB
Nun. Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
Psa 119:130 NASB
The unfolding of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.
Pro 6:23 NASB
For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; And reproofs for discipline are the way of life
Ecc 2:13 NASB
And I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.
Isa 2:5 NASB
Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
Isa 9:2 NASB
The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them.
Isa 10:17 NASB
And the light of Israel will become a fire and his Holy One a flame, And it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day.
Jhn 8:12 NASB
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
Jhn 9:5 NASB
“While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.”
1. Genesis chapter three – An animal is sacrificed and its blood is shed for a person.
2. Exodus chapter twelve – An animal is sacrificed and its blood is shed for a family.
3. Exodus chapter thirty and Leviticus 16: 3-34 – An animal is sacrificed and its blood is shed for a nation.
4. John 1:29 – Yeshua, the Lamb of God, is sacrificed, and His blood is shed for the world.
Yeshua accomplished -“ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN”
God has all along been revealing the “lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world” !!!
~But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed ~ (Isaiah 53.5)
Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
See Him dying on the tree!
’Tis the Christ by man rejected;
Yes, my soul, ’tis He, ’tis He!
’Tis the long expected prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s LORD;
Proofs I see sufficient of it:
’Tis the true and faithful Word.
Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning,
Was there ever grief like tHis?
Friends through fear His cause disowning,
Foes insulting His distress:
Many hands were raised to wound Him,
None would interpose to save;
But the deepest stroke that pierced Him
Was the stroke that Justice gave.
Ye who think of sin but lightly,
Nor suppose the evil great,
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the Sacrifice appointed!
See Who bears the awful load!
’Tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed,
Son of Man, and Son of God.
Here we have a firm foundation,
Here the refuge of the lost.
Christ the Rock of our salvation,
Christ the Name on which we boast.
Lamb of God for sinners wounded!
Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
Who on Him their hope have built.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr7-fgX1CB0
(Ever-always-only) ~ looking unto Jesus, the Author and Completer of our faith ~ (Hebrews 12.2)
Completer of our faith
Hi Carl,
I didn’t think “completer” was a word in English; learn something new every day 🙂
[Middle English complet, from Latin compltus, past participle of complre, to fill out : com-, intensive pref.; see com- + plre, to fill; see pel-1 in Indo-European roots.]
My Bible says “keep running steadily in the race we have started” (Hebrews 12.2)
2 Corinthians 13:11 “try to grow perfect”
Hmmm
I tend to think/believe that “perfectionism” is a psychological problem that is created by Paul
Maybe that is just a problem with my translation, but the static concept of perfectionism
Would seem to me to be incompatible with the dynamic concept
Of the Yetzer Hara
To think we are perfect or complete would seem to me to be a form of self delusion
Unless it alludes to death as in Shakespeare’s “ripeness is all” (King Lear)
I’ve spent a little time trying to find the significance of the cross and the bronze serpent, but nothing has quite hit the spot. There is the serap/seraphim and the connection to a serpent’s poison burning in the flesh,… but what about concentrating on the verbs instead of the nouns?
We keep trying to find the significance of the objects, and the meanings remain dubious. I found similar frustrations in the Hebrew behind the “flaming sword” that guarded the Garden of Eden,.. it was enough to make me think something was being missed, but I’m not sure what.
Anyways, I’ve been listening to a few of Skip’s audios, and he was stressing the importance of verbs over nouns in the Hebrew POV, so maybe the answer lies there.
“stressing the importance of verbs”
Hi Gabe,
Good point, and I think it applies to Paul’s point about trying “to grow perfect”
Makes me think of Mother Theresa’s point about knowing all the reasons
Why something cannot be done in this world
And then trying to do it anyway
Help!!!
I cant even begin to delve into that subject when I’m hung up on the Lamb that was slain before the foundations of the world. There is lots of rhetoric, we’ve all heard and repeated, without really going there. Why can’t we discuss this too, it’s very important to me to begin at the earliest known point of our faith and then work from there.
There must have been other beginnings and endings before the creation of the heavens and the earth, or the lamb could not have been slain before the foundations of the world.
Antoinette consider the shadow and Substance, Earthly vs Heavenly. What happens in the Heavenly realms manifest the reality for eternity, not Earth. The Heavens too have a tabernacle, altar and Heavenly sacrifices. Whats taking place in the Earthly realm are shadows of truth which represent the “reality” in the Heavens. “Shadow and Substance”
Skip has some stuff on this you can check out form prior today words, also Bob Gorelik has just came out with an audio teaching on the book of Hebrews, this will help with clarity. Bobgorelik.com you can purchase “The Letter to the Hebrews” on his website.
If Hebriac time is pattern repetition, then we should look for patterns of the cross before the event occurs at Calvary. We are supposed to learn what Nicodemus had to learn – from a rabbinic Jewish perspective. What did Yeshua expect Nicodemus to discern with His comment about the serpent in the wilderness?
Doesn’t the serpent on a branch (staff), go ALL the way back? Echoes of Eden?
A thought: Isn’t the crucifixion the outward manifestation of His decision made in heaven to be the eternal sin-offering? Like circumcision. The physical cutting is the outward manifestation of an inward working in the heart. As is obeying any commandment. It also seems to me what was going on on the cross fits the red heifer “sacrifice” more than anything else. Shalom!