From the beginning

Foretold

Jesus said Moses wrote about Him. It is not a secret code. It is a lot of page: a line, the numbers He counted, the signs He named, and the days He appointed.

Walk it the way the text walks. The Hebrew is still on the page. When a preacher stretched a name, or forced a number, we say so.

The line

It runs from a garden to a town, in the order the text already walks.

01Seed02Names03Nations04Priest05Ram06Joseph07Scepter08I AM09Lamb10Bread11Rock12Curtain13Goat14Serpent15Prophet16Redeemer17House18Pierced19Stone20Immanuel21Branch22Egypt23Bethlehem24Donkey25Silver26Covenant

The numbers

It counts a week, a wait, and a people, then fourteen generations, ten words, a third day, seventy, and a tally.

SevenFortyTwelveFourteenThird dayTen wordsSeventy447

The signs

He named them Himself: a fish, a star, a prophet, a rest, and a bow.

JonahStarElijahSabbathBow

The days

These are appointed times: first fruit, fifty days, booths, and a year of release.

01First fruit02Weeks03Booths04Jubilee

The line · 14 of 26 · Numbers 21

The serpent lifted up

The thing that was killing them is lifted up. Look, and live.

The text
Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on a pole. If a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

The word

נָחָשׁ

serpent, snake, the thing that was killing them (nachash)

Walk this word

What happens

  1. 01Snakes in the camp

    Numbers 21:6

    The people complain in the wilderness. The Lord sends poisonous snakes. Many are bitten. Many die. They come to Moses and admit they spoke against God.

  2. 02A bronze snake on a pole

    Numbers 21:8

    God says to Moses: make a snake and put it on a pole. Anyone who is bitten can look at it and live. Moses makes it of bronze and lifts it up.

  3. 03Look, and live

    Numbers 21:9

    The bitten person does not cut the poison out. They look at the thing that was killing them, lifted up, and they live.

  4. 04The Son of Man must be lifted up

    John 3:14

    As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life. Said at night, to a teacher who knew Numbers.

Read it this way

Looking is not hard work. You do not climb down and heal yourself. You look, and you live.

Nachash (נָחָשׁ) is snake. The camp is dying of what it asked for. God does not take the snakes away first. He lifts a bronze one on a pole. Jesus tells Nicodemus this at night: the Son of Man will be lifted up the same way, so that whoever believes may have life. John names the chapter. He does not hide it.

Then it is named

The other room. Same line. A Person with a name.

John 3:14

Some sayA bronze snake on a pole is superstition. Jesus would never compare Himself to that.

Jesus preaches this Himself, to a teacher of Israel. The pole was always going to look like a cross.

Open Numbers 21

The copies sometimes differ — that is Witness. Words you already say out loud sit in Words with weight. Foretold is what the page already says. It is not a decoder ring.