God’s Word for You
Numbers 21:7-8 Was the bronze snake a sacrament?
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, October 28, 2021
7 The people went to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD to take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed on behalf of the people.
Israel understood right away that what they were suffering was a chastisement from the Lord. This was the moment to repent, and they repented. They asked Moses to pray for them.
Look at what compassion and pastoral care Moses shows for his people! His brother and sister had recently died. He himself had been condemned by God for his unfaithfulness at Kadesh, an unfaithfulness that was a reaction to this people’s complaining. Because of this habitual sin of theirs, not trusting in God to provide for them or take care of them, Moses would not be permitted to enter the Promised Land. He was at a spiritual low. He could have thrown up his hands in disgust and said, “God won’t let me in because of you people! Why should I help you at all? None of you, none of us, deserves to enter into Canaan!” But of course, “None of us deserves…” is the whole point. No one is righteous before God (Psalm 143:2; Romans 3:10). None of us deserves God’s mercy at all, but we depend entirely on his mercy to be saved, for “it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy” (Romans 9:16). The people had doubted, but Moses loved them. “Be merciful to those who doubt, snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear” (Jude 1:22-23). So Moses prayed.
8 The LORD said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake and put it on a pole. If anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.”
God commanded Moses to make an object and to attach it to two things: A pole and a promise. The pole was so that the people could see it. The promise was there for the people to believe. How did Moses make the serpent? By himself or with a good Israelite craftsman, he had a snake cast in bronze. It was probably at least life-sized, if not larger. Modern artistic representations of this incident have the snake coiled around a T-shaped staff, which is a reminder of the cross of Christ. Just as faith in the promise associated with the snake saved the life of anyone bitten, so also faith in the one crucified saved the soul of anyone who is a sinner. In this way, the serpent had much in common with our Sacraments. But we would stop short of calling it a sacrament.
First: What was the bronze serpent?
The serpent was not just an object to see, but it was an object used by God’s command and connected with God’s Word.
What was that Word of God?
God told Moses: “If anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.”
Second: How could the bronze serpent do such a great thing?
It was certainly not the serpent that did this, but God’s Word that was attached to the serpent and faith which trusted that Word used with the serpent.
For without the Word of God the serpent was just a plain artifact and of no use to anyone. But with the Word of God it granted healing and life for those with faith, that is, those who trusted in its promise.
Third: Did the bronze serpent retain this power after the snakes had gone?
The serpent was only an object after the snakes had gone. It was a memorial and nothing more. When it led Israel into idolatry in the days of King Hezekiah many years later, it was not because the snake itself was evil, but because people were led astray by their own unbelief, as the Scripture says: King Hezekiah “broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. It was called Nehushtan” (2 Kings 18:4). Therefore after its time had gone, it no longer had any promise attached to it and therefore it was powerless.
Fourth: Did the bronze serpent have the power to forgive sins?
No, the bronze snake had only the power to heal the poison of the poisonous snakes, as God’s command states: “If anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.” However, obedience to this command called for faith in God, and therefore there was evidence of saving faith. But such saving faith was faith in the promise of God for righteousness, as Moses says in the Fifteenth chapter of Genesis: “Abraham believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”
Therefore using the snake at the time of the promise was like praying the Lord’s Prayer or confessing one of the Creeds today. Using such words show our faith and are beneficial to our faith. Therefore they are good, righteous and wholesome things to do, as blessed Paul says: “If anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8). So the bronze serpent was medicine from snake bites but not from sins. It was a medicine distributed only to the repentant Israelites, for the Edomites and Moabites had no such bronze artifact given to them nor any promise from God. Therefore trust in God’s promises, for in him we have forgiveness and eternal life (John 6:68).
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.