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“It is not in the heavens, to say, ‘Who shall ascend into the heavens for us, and bring it to us, and cause us to hear it, so that we do it?’”  Deuteronomy 30:12  ISR

Ascend – Once upon a time we asked, “If the sacrifice for sin occurred on the heavenly altar, then what was happening on the cross?”  That led us to examine the clue that Yeshua gave as recorded in John 3:14.  Speaking to Nicodemus, Yeshua pointed toward Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness (Numbers 21:9).  We discovered that being lifted up was about exultation, not about forgiveness.  But we might need to pay even more attention to the context of both events.  There is more here than just this tiny insight.

First, the conversation with Nicodemus.  Yeshua outlines what it means to be generated by the Spirit from above (usually translated inaccurately as “born again”).  In this context, Yeshua hints at a verse from Deuteronomy (30:12).  When Moses speaks these words to the people, he is justifying the plain and simple truth of Torah.  Torah is “not too hard and not too far off,” says Moses.  It is unnecessary for someone to ascend to heaven and bring Torah back to earth.  God has given His instructions in plain language.  This claim would have been quite startling to ancient near-Eastern cultures because it was commonly believed that the gods did have demands but they did not reveal those demands to human beings.  Consequently, human beings were operating in the dark.  For YHWH to clearly reveal what He expected was singularly important.  Basically this means that there are no excuses for disobedience.

Notice how Yeshua uses the implications from Moses.  No one has ascended, as Moses points out, but one has descended.  This is essentially a claim of divinity.  Yeshua is saying that He is the equivalent of Torah.  Just as Torah came down from YHWH for the instruction and edification of the people, so Yeshua has come down to demonstrate the living Torah among YHWH’s people.  Nicodemus could hardly have missed the point.

This is the context of Yeshua’s use of Numbers 21:9 (lifting up the serpent).  In other words, Yeshua uses the idea of being lifted up as a sign of authority, not forgiveness.  Once we remove the “born again” mistranslation, this conversation with Nicodemus reveals itself as a teaching about Yeshua’s role as the living Torah, “the way, the truth and the life” of God’s people.  To be generated from above (as John 3:3 actually says) is to accept the authority of Yeshua as the final declaration of Torah.  Not the end of Torah but rather the full disclosure of Torah as seen in the exultation of the Son.

The Hebrew word behind this conversation helps us clarify the meaning.  That word is rum, found in Exodus 17:11 and Numbers 20:11.  We know the context of Numbers 21:9, but consider the context of the other two verses.  The first is about Moses lifting up his hands during battle.  When his staff, lifted by his hands, was held high, Israel prevailed.  When his staff fell, Israel did not prevail.  Eventually Aaron and Joshua helped Moses hold up the staff.  The second account concerns Moses lifting up his hand (staff) to strike the rock.  These three events in the wilderness are all tied together with the idea of lifting up (rum).  Do you imagine that Nicodemus didn’t know the associations with rum when Yeshua mentioned this incident?  In every case, the event is about a display of power.  Yeshua makes the connection when He uses the Hebrew verb rum in the conversation with Nicodemus.   If you were Nicodemus and you heard Yeshua use the Hebrew rum when describing Himself, what would you conclude?  That He was offering forgiveness to the Gentiles?  Or would you see the connection to divine exultation?  What threads would you connect?

It’s worth spending one extra minute to see how paradigms influence biblical interpretation.  In answer to the question, “Why Must the Son of Man ‘Be Lifted Up’?”, the web site www.bibleanswers.ie presents the following explanation:

We have all sinned. Satan, often referred to as a serpent, has bitten every one of us and has infected us with a deadly poison – sin. We, in ourselves, have no antidote. The consequence of sin is death.

Jesus is the remedy. Just as God provided Israel a healing remedy, God has provided us with a remedy for sin’s poison: he has given us his Son. Forgiveness of our sins is realised through Jesus who ‘must be lifted up’, a reference to the sacrificial death on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Every sin we have committed is fully pardoned through the atoning death of Christ on the cross. He alone has the power to save us.

We look to Jesus. The Israelites looked to the bronze serpent God instructed Moses to make, and they were healed. We must look to Jesus for our spiritual healing. We cannot heal ourselves. Our response is one of trust, belief and faith in what he did on our behalf. We must trust the divine remedy if we are to be made right with God.

It is not what we do that saves us, but what Jesus has done for us. Through faith we accept from Jesus the forgiveness of sin through his death. In our baptism we are being identified with him through faith in his death, burial and resurrection. ‘Having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through … faith in the power of God, who has raised him from the dead.’ (Colossians 2:12)”[1]

Do you think Nicodemus, in his wildest dreams, could have supplied such an answer?

Topical Index:  ascend, lift up, rum, John 3:3, John 3:14, Numbers 21:9