I'm sorry you can't see it, but there is a very clear difference between "looking" (in Numbers) and "believing" (in John). It is in precisely this way -- muddying the patent meanings of fairly simple words -- that religious beliefs get invented and promulgated.
Exegesis is a process of trying to discover what the author meant by studying what the author actually said. Eisegesis always insists on adding something -- in your case, the subtle notion that there is not much difference between looking and believing.
And in this way, you make the Bible (including these two texts written some 1000 years apart) try to say something that neither of them actually says.
Simple is the right word. If you don't believe, you don't look? So when somebody flashes something in front of your face and says "look at this," you only actually look if you already have a belief? I think -- knowing something about human nature -- that that is far, far from true.
I repeat what I said, you are reading something in which is not there, for the sole purpose of reinforcing what you wish to believe. And that's fine -- for you. I prefer reason.
COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF NUMBERS
Critical and Explanatory
on the Whole Bible
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown. Published 1871
The severity of the scourge and the appalling extent of mortality brought them to a sense of sin, and through the intercessions of Moses, which they implored, they were miraculously healed. He was directed to make the figure of a serpent in brass, to be elevated on a pole or standard, that it might be seen at the extremities of the camp and that every bitten Israelite who looked to it might be healed. This peculiar method of cure was designed, in the first instance, to show that it was the efficacy of God‘s power and grace, not the effect of nature or art, and also that it might be a type of the power of faith in Christ to heal all who look to Him because of their sins (John 3:14, John 3:15; see also on 2 Kings 18:4).
Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III Chancellor & CE of Reformed Theological Seminary and John E. Richards Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology
So God in His mercy uses this trial to move the people to repentance and prayer. The fact that they acknowledge their sin, that they seek God's forgiveness, that they go to God's personally appointed mediator and ask him to intercede is an indication that God in His mercy has used even this trial for their spiritual well being. And so they respond in repentance and prayer. God has used the trial to press them to the point where they recognize their need; they have responded to their need in repentance for their sin; they specifically confess their sin; and they seek God's relief and forgiveness in prayer. Notice, they acknowledge their sin: “We have sinned”; they’re specific in their acknowledgement of their sin: “We have spoken against the Lord and against you”; and, they acknowledge that Moses is God's appointed mediator: “Pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” In that last phrase they acknowledge that only God can give them the relief that they need. So the Lord has used this trial in order to move them to repentance and prayer.
And He has pressed Israel so hard in this trial that they have run to Him–what they ought to have done in the first place. There would have been an easy way to do this. They didn't take the easy way. They took the hard way, but God in His mercy has led them to run to Him and look for help.
First of all, what's on the pole? Snake. OK. What are snakes doing here? They’re killing people. Why are snakes killing people? The judgment of God. What's the copper snake on the pole a picture of? It is a picture of God's just judgment on Israel for their sin.
Secondly, isn't it interesting that in other Hebrew sacrifices when the representative was being prepared to be slain in your place for your sin, what did the head of the family have to do? You had to touch the representative sacrifice. Here all they do is look. Just look. They look away from themselves and to this symbol, this sign God has provided. Can you imagine a more dramatic way to emphasize that Israel has nothing to do with the sparing, forgiving, saving power that God is going to display in the healing of them from the bites of these poisonous snakes? They are contributing zippo, zilch, nothing, nada! All they have to do is look! (That is, by the way, why we sang My Faith Looks Up to Thee.) Is this not the essential act of saving faith? Looking to Christ…looking away from ourselves, from our good deeds and our bad deeds, and looking to Him alone? Surely this is one of the reasons why Jesus will point to this passage when He's trying to explain faith to Nicodemus. You remember that this is the passage that Jesus goes to eventually when He's speaking to Nicodemus. Before He said,
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life”
…before He says that, Jesus says,
“[Nicodemus,] As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in Him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world….”
In other words, Jesus says to Nicodemus just as the people had to look at that brass serpent, simply trust on God's word of promise that if you will look at the serpent you will be saved, so also we must look to Christ and Him crucified.
I'm in good company of believing Christian scholars with whom we all agree to the exegesis of the text. But of course you have your company of atheists who reject God and His written revelation and so what's to be expected but denial.
Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
