There is a very precious connection between “the serpent of brass” (Num. 21:1-181And when king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners. 2And Israel vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. 3And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah. 4And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. 5And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. 6And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. 7Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 8And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 9And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. 10And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in Oboth. 11And they journeyed from Oboth, and pitched at Ije-abarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sunrising. 12From thence they removed, and pitched in the valley of Zared. 13From thence they removed, and pitched on the other side of Arnon, which is in the wilderness that cometh out of the coasts of the Amorites: for Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. 14Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord, What he did in the Red sea, and in the brooks of Arnon, 15And at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab. 16And from thence they went to Beer: that is the well whereof the Lord spake unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water. 17Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it: 18The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their staves. And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah: (Numbers 21:1‑18)) and “the Jordan” (Josh. 5:1-151And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel. 2At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time. 3And Joshua made him sharp knives, and circumcised the children of Israel at the hill of the foreskins. 4And this is the cause why Joshua did circumcise: All the people that came out of Egypt, that were males, even all the men of war, died in the wilderness by the way, after they came out of Egypt. 5Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised. 6For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord: unto whom the Lord sware that he would not show them the land, which the Lord sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey. 7And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised: for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way. 8And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole. 9And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day. 10And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho. 11And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day. 12And the manna ceased on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land; neither had the children of Israel manna any more; but they did eat of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. 13And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? 14And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant? 15And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so. (Joshua 5:1‑15)), for they are two aspects of the death of Christ. Each presents the truth in an entirely different way. In the serpent of brass we have the wonderful truth of how God gets rid of me, for Himself, while in the Jordan we have the truth of how I can get rid of myself, in my own experience.
The purpose of God for Israel was that He would bring them out from Egypt and bring them into the land of Canaan. In spite of all the opposition of Pharaoh, God brought them out of Egypt, and in spite of Israel’s failure in the wilderness, He brought them into Canaan.
First of all comes the truth of the blood on the lintel, by which we are secured from God’s judgment, as sinners. Then we have the passage of the Red Sea — the truth of the death and resurrection of Christ for us and our sins. The power of the enemy is absolutely broken, God’s salvation manifested, and the people brought to rejoice in it. The Red Sea is the death and resurrection of Christ for our sins, and for ourselves also. You touch the same truth in a certain way when you come to the Jordan. It is very striking to notice that you see Israel as a company go into the Red Sea, but you never see them come out. They did come out, but it does not say they did. When you come to the Jordan, you do not read of their going into the Jordan; you see the ark going in, but you see them come out. The fact is this, that the Red Sea and the Jordan coalesce. To bring them out of Egypt and to bring them into Canaan was God’s purpose. The wilderness came in between, but that was not part of the purpose of God. It was in His ways, but His purpose was to bring them out, and bring them in.
The Serpent of Brass
In Numbers 21 we have the story of the serpent of brass. It is very simple, but we do not learn its truth at the beginning of our Christian pathway, for there is something deeper than merely meeting the need of a poor sinner. What comes out here is that the flesh is incurable and incorrigible. They murmured, the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and “much people of Israel died” (vs. 6). But when they turned to the Lord and owned their sin, He told Moses to make a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole, and when a bitten man looked upon it he lived (vss. 5-9). There, in type, is the wonderful truth that Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin. It is the spring of a totally new life. The first man is incurably bad, cannot be mended, and must go from before God’s eye.
The thing that did the mischief was the fiery serpent, and what cured them was a look at a fiery serpent. Sin brought in death, and only by death is sin put away. Sin in the flesh is incorrigible, incurable and ineradicable. What then can be done with it? God tells us: “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:33For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (Romans 8:3)). That is the serpent of brass. What I am, as a man, has been utterly condemned in the cross of Christ and absolutely set aside from before God in death. Until this is learned, there is self-confidence and an attempt to improve the flesh. Very often, we have to learn by very painful and prolonged practical experience and failure what a poor thing man is. When I learn the truth of the serpent of brass, I find that God has got rid of me, in the cross of His Son, and only Christ remains.
You do not get the serpent of brass until the close of Israel’s wilderness history. It is a long time before we learn that God has set us aside, as children of Adam. What battles and struggles have souls gone through in trying to get rid of the flesh! I see here, with deep relief and thankfulness, that aspect of the death of Christ in which all that I am, as a man in the flesh, is gone and that I am replaced by the Man of God’s heart, the Lord from heaven. And it is He in the energy and power of the Spirit of God that leads the soul on.
The Jordan
If we turn to Joshua, we see the way in which we are brought into the blessing that is ours, for in order to enter into Canaan, Israel must cross the Jordan. They were simply to follow the ark, and I need not remind ourselves that the ark is Christ. It is Christ who has gone into death, as passing through the judgment of God, really ending man’s history, and overcoming the power of death.
When they went into the Red Sea, it was a narrow path; the waters stood up as crystal walls. But when they came to Jordan, there was not a drop of water to be seen, for Zaretan is some thirty miles up the river. So it is with us; I see that death is annulled by Christ. Jordan is death, not my death, but Christ’s, and mine with Him. It is not only death, but my getting the sense that Christ has gone into death and annulled it and overcome it. There was nothing but dry land in sight, and we read, “The priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan” (Josh. 3:1717And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan. (Joshua 3:17)).
The Twelve Stones
When all the people had passed over Jordan, the Lord told Joshua, “Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests’ feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night” (Josh. 4:1-31And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua, saying, 2Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, 3And command ye them, saying, Take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priests' feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night. (Joshua 4:1‑3)). It was the testimony of where the ark had been; it is like what the Lord’s supper is to us. But further: “Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the ark of the covenant stood: and they are there unto this day” (vs. 9). The putting in of these twelve stones expressed that what we were, so to speak, is all under the waters of death. I learn that in the death of Christ I am free to say good-bye to myself. I have life in a risen Christ, but God would always keep alive in my memory the way in which I have been brought into blessing and association with His Son. Also, they are consciously clean over Jordan. Each one could truly say, in type, I know I am dead and risen. Experimentally? Yes, certainly. The point is, I have deep in my soul the sense that I am in association with Him who is risen.
Gilgal
When Israel reached Gilgal, a new lesson was learned, for it was the place of self-judgment. There they were circumcised (ch. 5:2-9). You cannot cut off the flesh in the energy of the flesh. They were a dead and risen people in figure, before they were circumcised. You will never find a Christian able to walk practically in the power of what this brings out, until he knows that he is before God in the life of another. That is, I am practically to keep all that is of the first man in the place of death. That is our Gilgal. “The Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal [rolling] unto this day.” They set aside that which is the mark of a man who is living for this world. For a heavenly man to be worldly is his reproach; he needs to go again to Gilgal. And you will observe afterward that Israel always had to return to Gilgal; so must we, if we are to progress in the divine life.
May God guide us each to answer to this in the history of our souls. We are to know ourselves risen with Christ; then we feed on Christ and are to be led by Him to victory over all enemies who oppose our acquisition and enjoyment of heavenly life and blessings.
W. T. P. Wolston, adapted