Lifted Up, Like A Snake The Desert

by Chuck Ness

Give me a moment of your time and allow me to introduce you to something very few Christians ever considered when hearing the phrase, Lift Christ up with Praise. Quite often you will hear a Pastor use this phrase as he instructs you to give glory to God, through His Son. Have you ever really considered the significance of the phrase?

Many people know the verse, (John 3:16).I would bet that the vast majority of Christians have it locked into their memory bank. For me, that was the first verse I ever memorized in Sunday school as a child. God's gift to mankind was His only Son, Jesus. With the death of His Son on the Cross, all we need to do is confess Him as our Lord and Savior and our sins have been paid for in full. It’s Salvation in a nut shell. Praise God for simplicity! If there is any verse that says it all about God's love for us, it's this one. 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."  (John 3:16)

Now while this is probably the greatest and most well known verse in the Scriptures, what is truly interesting to me is a verse that precedes it. How many times have you have read this verse, only to have your mind mentally skip over it while ignoring the meaning?

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

When you read this verse, it should take you back to a time in Israel’'s past. It was a time when Moses was leading the twelve tribes through the wilderness of Sin. God was showing them His power and love firsthand. In the Old Testament, we read that the children of Israel had grown discouraged and spoke out against Moses and God. 

Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.”So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. (Numbers 21:4-6)

The Israelites were so distraught over the affliction of the snakes that they approached Moses, confessing and pleading with him intercede on their behalf with GOD. 

Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.(Numbers 21:7)

Well God would not remove the cause of their plight, but He did instruct Moses to make a bronze serpent and erect it on a pole.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived. (Numbers 21:8-9)

Moses then placed the pole in the midst of the camp. Now the way the Israelites camped was in such a manner that from God's view it was in the shape of a cross. So if you could have flown over in a plane, you would have literally seen a cross in the desert, like the image below. 

Imagine if you were God, looking down at a sight that resembled the cross which one day He would hang on. Think about it, and meditate on this image. The pole with the snake was placed in the midst of the camp which was near the place where the Tent of the Tabernacle was. Like like the bronze snake was hung, so too would GOD Himself would one day hang to die a human death. His head would occupy the very spot where the snake was lifted. The symbolism is earth shattering to say the least.

Moses told those who were bitten by the serpents to come to the pole, and gaze upon the image of which caused their pain. At that time, to look upon such an image erected on a pole would have been considered repulsive, and many would instinctively look away. However, if they wanted to live, those who had been bitten were required to look upon the bronze snake, or they would surely die.

I Deuteronomy we learn that anyone hanging from a tree was accursed of GOD.

“If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.(Deuteronomy 21:22-23)

Mind you, when Moses lifted the bronze snake into the air, crucifixion as a form of torture and death would not be used for almost 1600 years. Yet God was projecting how His Son would one day die. At the time the Israelites would have to physically go to the center of the camp, and look upon the very image of which was the punishment for their sins, the snake. This is what Paul brought to mind when he wrote to the Galatians, 

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"(Galatians 3:13)

So to see Christ lifted up and crucified meant that He was considered accursed under the Law of Moses, as commanded by God Himself. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness for the Israelites to look upon and thus save themselves from death, so too did GOD lift up His Son on the cross so that we could look upon Him and be saved from the final death and eternal damnation.

Christ couldn'’t just die. He had to die the death of a sinner. Lowly, accursed, and lifted up on a pole. He was an image many found repulsive, like that bronze snake 1600 years earlier. Marred more than any man,

....... So His visage was marred more than any man,
And His form more than the sons of men; (Isaiah 52:14)

He could have come down and said, "Not today!" But he stayed. He died a death of pain and shame for sins he never committed. Sacrificed from the beginning of time, for sins He saw us commit, yet turned His eyes every time we did.

So, every time you are tempted by sin, try to remember how The King of Kings, The Lord of Lords was so violently lifted on a pole for you and me. Take a moment and look up at that Cross, and do not allow your head to turn away, or you very well may find yourself giving in to the temptation of sin. If you find yourself stumbling into sin then take a moment and pray to the One who stayed upon that cross for you to take away your shame of sin.

His arms are outstretched and waiting for you, all it takes is for you to look up willingly and accept His Father’s gift to you. Then you can lift Him up with Praise, because HE was lifted up to become all the sins we are guilty of.

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  (2 Corinthians 5:21)

I pray that those who have ears to hear, will listen to His voice and call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen