What Does It Mean To Believe?

Is it true that you just believe in Jesus and you are saved?

When I first became a Christian at the age of 16 and was taking confirmation classes at Cocoa Presbyterian Church, I remember Reverend Flanagan telling us that if you believe in Jesus you will be saved. Right away that statement raised so many questions for me and started me on a lifelong quest to discover what God really wants from me and what it means to “be saved.” I remember thinking there’s no way it’s that simple.

Do you ever wonder what it means to “believe?”

I’m talking about the statement we heard in the gospel reading, I’m sure you are familiar with it – it is probably the most well-known statement in the Bible – John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.”

Some say this is the summary statement of John’s Gospel – some say this is the whole Gospel message, neatly condensed into one verse. Surely the other stories about Jesus seem to all point this way, most notably the thief on the cross who had never heard of Jesus until he hung beside him on a cross - yet ended the day in Paradise based solely on the faith he expressed that day.

Here I am 34 years later still trying to answer those same questions. Because it’s not as simple as it sounds. Whatever “believe” means to God – I want to make sure my belief is the kind that ensures my salvation. So today we are going to consider what it means to “believe” by examining the passage from Numbers 21 alongside the gospel reading from John.

As I was reading the passage from Numbers today two things stuck out to me. First of all, the Lord sent poisonous serpents out among the Israelites and some died (vs. 6) and secondly, Moses made a serpent of bronze and set it up on a pole so that all who looked at it lived (vs. 9).

Okay, I know the Israelites are whiny and annoying and incredibly ungrateful, but I was shocked that God lost his cool and sent out serpents to kill them. And then instructed Moses to make a statue of a bronze serpent on a pole which kind of sounds like an idol to me.

So, I found these things a little surprising. [Plus, God sent the serpents then sent the cure.]

When I read this passage a little closer there was a surprise in the footnotes! The word translated as “poisonous” in my Bible has been translated as “fiery” in other English versions.

Come to find out that word is seraph in Hebrew and you may be familiar with the other common English translation – “seraphim.”

We learn the most about seraphim in Isaiah 6, where they appear in Isaiah’s vision attending God on the throne and singing “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of His glory.” They are described as having 6 wings: two that cover their face, two that cover their feet and two they use to fly. This part of Isaiah’s book is where God calls Isaiah to be a prophet – to bring God’s message to Israel. Isaiah laments that his lips are unclean and thus not worthy to speak God’s words. So, one of the seraphim bring a live coal and touch it to Isaiah’s lips in an act of purification.

Seraphim are associated with fire, burning, holiness and purification. So, the translation of “fiery” is more appropriate than “poisonous.” Of course, the translators may have made the decision to use poisonous because we are all familiar with poisonous snakes here on earth but we don’t have so many fiery serpents slithering around – unless you count dragons! Yet again we see the pitfalls of translation.

Now this idea that the serpents sent by God were not ordinary snakes, not even poisonous ones, but fiery serpents - or seraphim - opens up a whole new way of seeing this encounter. God sent a wave of purifying holiness through the people and some did not survive. This is a much different view than God sent poisonous snakes out with the intention of killing the people.

Now what happens next is very interesting. The people come to Moses and confess their sin; they tell Moses that they had sinned by speaking against the Lord and ask him to pray to God to take away the serpents. Moses prays to God and God tells him to make a serpent and put it up on a pole so that the people can look at it and live.

I mentioned that I was confused about this bronze serpent that God commanded Moses to make because it seems to be an idol - much like the Golden Calf and in fact, later we read in the book of Second Kings that King Hezekiah had to destroy this bronze serpent because people had been worshipping it. We also learn that they call it Nehushtan.