Michael Morales on the Bronze Serpent in Numbers 21

Explanation of Numbers 21

The role of Numbers 21–25, conveying the wilderness sojourn of the second generation, is crucial for understanding how Israel was matured by God and made ready for life in the land—even in spite of the apostasy at Baal Peor, a disastrous failure remedied through the young priest Phinehas. These chapters also deal with the responses of the nations to Israel’s progress toward possessing the land, along with Israel’s reaction in turn. Both the battles and the seductions to sexual immorality and idolatry would prove to be recurring threats to life in the land among the nations. The second generation’s experience of conflicts, victories and failures in its engagement with the nations not only foreshadow the later history of Israel, but also underline YHWH’s faithfulness as the key to their hope of triumph and blessing, forgiveness and healing. In terms of narrative movement, dramatic tension heightens as Israel approaches the land of inheritance, only to face the nations’ hostility and opposition—even sorcery and seduction—at every turn. Will Israel ever make it out of the wilderness? These chapters present, as it were, the final test of Israel: when opposed by the powers of the world, God’s people must mature in looking to YHWH for strength and help, trusting that his promises will indeed come to fruition.

After the largely stark section of chapters 16–20, pervaded by rebellion and death, Numbers 21 signals a new, more optimistic turn as the second generation of Israel grows in its relationship with and reliance on YHWH. As they journey ever closer to the land, Israel experiences the faithful shepherding of YHWH, who preserves his people by healing them, giving them water and granting them victory upon victory over hostile nations. Israel’s two experiences of setbacks early in the chapter, with some being taken captive by the Canaanites in battle (Numb. 2:1–3) and many being bitten by snakes in divine judgment (Numb. 21:4–9), serve to mature the people in their trust of YHWH. Both hindrances become the backdrop to YHWH’s provision of victory and preservation of life, bearing fruit in the rest of the chapter as Israel experiences victory over the attacks of the Amorite kings Sihon and Og, possessing their lands. By the third account (Numb. 21:10–20), which forms a transition from wilderness to land, the setbacks and murmuring are past and YHWH leads Israel, providing for their needs (Numb. 21:16) and granting them victory and possession of land, completely apart from any response to his people’s setback or complaints (Numb. 21:24–25, 34–35). In Numbers 21, YHWH’s kingship, especially as displayed in his sovereign control over life and death, is evident. Just as prophecy was a major theme for chapters 11–15, and priesthood for chapters 16–20, so kingship dominates the concern of chapters 21–25—adumbrated in chapter 20’s display of YHWH’s kingship, and with the book’s first use of the root m-l-k (Numb. 20:14, 17), which occurs fourteen times in chapters 21–25 (Numb. 21:1, 21, 22, 26 [twice], 29, 33, 34; 22:4, 10; 23:7, 21; 24:7 [twice]; cf. also Numb. 26:33, 45 [twice]; 27:1; 31:8 [twice]; 32:33 [four times]; 33:40; 36:11).

The four stories (Numb. 21:1–3, 4–9, 10–20, 21–35), simply in terms of verse count, display an escalation in form (from 3 to 6 to 11 to 15 verses), matched by increasing optimism and blessing as Israel moves from an initial setback at the hands of Canaanites (Numb. 21:1) to the conquest of mighty Amorite strong- holds and possession of their lands (Numb. 21:33–35). Israel’s vow and victory (Numb. 21:1–3), a prologue and microcosm of the whole chapter, transitions from captivity to victory through Israel’s dependence on YHWH. The story with the bronze serpent (Numb. 21:4–9) marks a transition from rebellion and judgment to repentance and healing—to life, the last word being ‘he lived’ (ḥāy). Just as the ‘captivity’ of the prologue likely recalls Israel’s Egyptian bondage, so the story of the brazen serpent is marked by an abundance of Egyptian motifs, and the second generation’s deliverance from the deadly poison of serpents may be intended as their own experience of deliverance out of Egypt—never more is the question heard, ‘Why did you cause us to ascend out of Egypt?’ In the third section, on Israel’s journeys (Numb. 21:10–20), the transition from wilderness to land by the second generation is recorded, along with YHWH’s unprompted provision of water as Israel’s faithful shepherd. Here, Israel sings a song by the well, just as the first generation had done by the sea (Exod. 14). In Israel’s conquest and possession of Amorite lands (Numb. 21:21–35), YHWH grants Israel spectacular victories over mighty strongholds, and gives their lands for a possession, a foretaste of the conquest and possession of the land of Canaan. In Numbers 32 (cf. Deut. 3:12–20; Josh. 1:12–16; 12:6), these lands east of the Jordan will be granted to the tribes of Reuben and Gad, to the south in Sihon’s former region, and to the half-tribe of Manasseh northward in Og’s former territory. These conquests were long celebrated by future generations of Israel, praising God for his faithful love (see Pss 135:11; 136:19–20; cf. Neh. 9:22). The chapter, as tabulated in Table 2, forms a summary of Israel’s movement from Egypt to the land of Canaan, from bondage to victory and possession of land, as the second generation—Israel redivivus—relives the experiences of the first generation, but with a successful end.

My own exegesis of Numbers 21 confirms the following general assessment by Helfgot concerning how the new generation of Israel is presented in the second half of Numbers:

In effect, then, the entire process of the travels and travails of the desert, with, of course, the clear changes related to place and circumstances, are experienced by the second generation . . . The second generation re-experienced many of the seminal events of the first generation. Since the mission of the first generation had gone awry, the second generation now had to relive their history, overcome it, and continue . . . [T]hey confronted the major crisis-mistakes of the first generation . . . and were able to emerge victorious.^[1]

1. N. Helfgot, ‘The Conclusion of the Book of Numbers’, in Mikra & Meaning: Studies in Bible and Its Interpretation, (Jerusalem: Maggid), 169, 173.

With God’s people journeying ever closer to the land, chapters 21–25 are marked by Israel’s encounters with the surrounding peoples—Edomites, Canaanites, Amorites, Moabites and Midianites—underscoring YHWH’s faithful preservation of his people among the hostility of the nations,^[2] and serving as a preview of the continual threats and temptations Israel will face once in the land. After the sea crossing, Moses had led Israel to sing:

2. C. Frevel, ‘Understanding the Pentateuch by Structuring the Desert: Numbers 21 as a Compositional Joint’, in J. van Ruiten and J. Cornelius de Vos (eds.), The Land of Israel in Bible, History, and Theology. Studies in Honour of Ed Noort, VtSup 124, (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 121.

Now the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed;
the mighty rulers of Moab, trembling will take hold of them; all the inhabitants of Canaan will melt away.
Terror and dread will fall upon them,
by the greatness of your arm they will be still as a stone, until your people cross over, O YHWH,
until your people cross over, whom you have purchased. (Exod. 15:15–16)

Now Israel begins to experience the fulfillment of those prophetic lines. In an eightfold manner, Israel’s progress is tracked with particular reference to Moab: ‘that faced Moab’ (v. 11), ‘border of Moab’, ‘between Moab and the Amorite’ (v. 13), ‘border of Moab’ (v. 15), ‘the field of Moab’ (v. 20), ‘the former king of Moab’ (v. 26), ‘Devouring Ar of Moab’ (v. 28) and ‘Woe to you, Moab!’ (v. 29). The movement traces Israel’s ever-increasing threat, from Moab’s perspective, beginning with Israel’s encampment ‘that faced Moab’ and ending with the dire warning ‘Woe to you, Moab!’ (Numb. 21:11, 29). Although Israel was scrupulous to avoid Moab’s borders, and we learn from Deuteronomy that YHWH had forbidden Moab’s lands to Israel, commanding his people not to do battle with them (Deut. 2:9), Numbers 22 opens with Israel ‘encamped’ on the plains of Moab, causing the people of Moab great fear and distress (Numb. 22:1–3). Aside from the other emphases of Numbers 21, then, the chapter functions to set up Moab’s response to Israel’s progress and nearness, yielding three chapters narrated largely from Moab’s perspective.

The Bronze Serpent

The bronze serpent episode is known especially by the use Jesus made of it in John’s Gospel, saying, ‘Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life,’ God’s giving his only Son out of love for the world (John 3:14–16). Isaiah employs multiple uses of ‘ensign’ or ‘standard’ (nēs), often with verbs for ‘lifting up’ (nāśā’; see Isa. 5:26; 11:12; 13:2; 18:3; cf. 30:17) or ‘exalting’ (rûm, see Isa. 49:22; 62:10), and speaks of the Messiah as an ‘ensign’ (Isa. 11:10) and as being ‘exalted’ and ‘lifted up’ very high (Isa. 52:13, using nāśā’ and rûm). These lines come together in John’s Gospel, where ‘lifted up’ often has the sense of exalted, referring to Jesus’ glory, not only as culminating with his resurrection and ascension but beginning with his crucifixion: ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself’ (John 12:32). A Man of Sorrows, he who knew no sin was made to ‘be sin’ for us (2 Cor. 5:21), becoming our sacrifice (Rom. 8:3) and condemned for our law-breaking (Gal. 4:4–5), that we who lift our eyes to him in faith may live. Augustine explained the uplifted bronze serpent as a symbol of death, since death came through the means of the serpent in Eden, but which savingly signified the death of Jesus Christ, who endured the penalty of his people’s sin.^[3] Just as God, out of his infinite love, sent his Son for the eternal healing of the world, so he provided the remedy for Israel’s serpent-bites out of love for them. What the [Targum] Zohar says regarding the bronze serpent applies to the crucified Messiah: ‘As soon as he (the victim) turns his eyes and sees the likeness of the serpent, he forthwith becomes filled with awe and prays to the Lord, knowing that this was the punishment that he deserved.’^[4] Significantly, this last of the complaint narratives concludes with the theme of YHWH as healer, which was highlighted in the first complaint narrative, where God had avowed that if Israel would give heed to his commands, he would not put on them the diseases he had brought upon the Egyptians, ‘for I, even I, am YHWH your healer.’^[5]

As with the prologue (Numb. 21:1–3), the chapter ends with Israel’s victory over hostile nations who strive to halt Israel’s inheritance of the land promised to the patriarchs. As stressed throughout the stories, Israel triumphs by the sovereign leadership of YHWH. ^[6] In Joshua, in a section that summarizes the conquest of kings before recounting the distribution of land to the twelve tribes (Josh. 11:16–12:23), there is a portion that recounts the kings and lands conquered ‘on the other side of the Jordan’ by Moses the servant of YHWH, who had given those lands as a possession to the Reubenites, Gadites and half the tribe of Manasseh (Josh. 12:1–6; see also 13:8–33). Recounting the events of Numbers 21 at this place in Joshua promotes reading these victories under Moses as foretastes of the conquest under Joshua. While forbidden to enter the land (i.e. cross the Jordan), Moses was nevertheless enabled to experience a taste of the realization of the patriarchal promises, a gracious honour bestowed on him by YHWH. Numbers 21 as a whole, especially the three poems within it, underscore the themes of life-giving water, Israel’s exalted leadership and Israel’s military prowess, elements that will ‘form the crux of Balaam’s final blessing,’^[7] making the chapter a fitting prelude to the Balaam narrative.