When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus about being born again, it seemed like He was hitting a wall of unbelief. In John 3:11, Jesus confronts his unbelief by saying: “…we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.” Jesus talked about what it is was like to be born of the Spirit and about the heavenly reality verses natural reality, but it just wasn’t penetrating the fortresses of religious tradition that had been established in his mind. Then Jesus shifts gears and talks about something altogether different. In verses 14-15, He says: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Something had to happen first before the power of unbelief, that was keeping Nicodemus from understanding spiritual truth, be broken.
Jesus takes a story from the time of Israel’s journeying in the wilderness and applies it to Himself. In Numbers 21, the people of Israel had once again entered into unbelief. The generation that had been slaves in Egypt had all died and now they were about to enter into the Promised Land. The people had become tired of waiting and started to complain about the food God had provided for them. It was like they were saying: “When will this all end?!”, “Just the same old food, over and over again!” Now, these people were not the “new converts” of recently delivered slaves, they were the “mature” people of God, that had known the pillar of fire, the miraculous manna and the water that gushed forth from the rock. Those that were tired and discouraged were like the Nicodemus’s and maybe like many of us. Fiery snakes were sent among the children of Israel and thousands died as a result of being bit by them.
God told Moses to make a snake out of bronze and set it on a pole, (cross). He did not remove the snakes from among the people but gave them a way to be saved. If the people, who were bit, would just look at the snake on the cross, they would be saved. Jesus takes this story and applies it to Himself. He identifies with the snake. The snake represents our unbelief, our sin. Jesus took our disappointments, doubts, and complaining, upon Himself and as He was nailed to the cross they were too. The cross is the definitive act of redemption. The sin that began with a serpent and a tree in the Garden of Eden, was resolved with a serpent and tree at Calvary. The questioning of God’s goodness and the resulting unbelief that were sowed into Adam and Eve’s heart in the Garden has polluted mankind throughout the ages. Even a religious leader like Nicodemus, and, can I say, even mature Christians? were and are bit by that fiery snakes. It can be deadly if we don’t apply God’s solution.
In the next verse, we see God’s plan in a nutshell. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) This is the Good News. It is not only the way to be born again, but it is the secret of living in victory here on the earth. Sure, there are the snakes of unbelief and disappointment still around, and there is no guarantee that we will not be bit from time to time, but the solution is the same. Look to Jesus.
Scriptures to meditate on:
Numbers 21:8-9; Genesis 3:1-4; John 3:13-17; 12:32.