The Bible is a book of stories and exhortations with immense social, historical, and moral import. One can read it like a newspaper or a self-help manual and extract compelling insights: profound expressions of love, persuasive calls for justice and peace, exhortations to purity and sobriety that yield happiness in this world and offer a vision of another. Its lessons can serve an honest political campaign. They can provide a basis for civil law. They can instruct us in how to treat our spouse, our children, our neighbor. They offer a standard of behavior for those claiming to be God’s own.
But above all, the Bible is a book of prophecy. It exists to vindicate God’s righteousness in His faithfulness to promise and to fulfill with precision. It testifies to His sovereignty over time and space, and it exposes the impotence of all other “gods.” Its aim is to ignite and sustain a kind of faith propelled not by personal experience or moral aspiration but by a love of spiritual truth. It is not designed to serve the world, the flesh, or the ingenuity of men, because those things are passing away. Its benefit to society is indirect—secondary, residual. It builds a world that tolerates evangelism, but its primary aim is something deeper: a remez, a prophetic subtext, a witness to the reality and nature of God for those who view the world not as an end in itself, but as the medium through which truth may be revealed and tested.
The idea of the Cross functions in precisely this dual sense. It is both a wooden structure and a theological claim. Jesus was hung on a physical object made of timber—a vertical beam, perhaps with a horizontal one. But Jesus also made atonement. Is that all the Cross is? A physical p’shat (literal shape) paired with a theological p’shat (doctrine)? Or is our entire modern understanding of the Cross—both in form and concept—still only the p’shat, waiting for a true remez to be revealed?
Which is the better translation of stauros: “cross” or “pole”? If we are truly Word-centered, as we claim to be, we must start with its Hebrew parallel. The word that most closely aligns with stauros is nace (נֵס)—not just in definition, but in spiritual meaning. And this will disturb those who act as though the shape of the cross is more essential to the faith than its prophetic substance.
According to Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon, nace (נֵס) means:
a flag; also a sail; by implication, a flagstaff; generally a signal; figuratively, a token: — banner, pole, sail, (en-)sign, standard.
Another verbal form is:
nacac (נָסַס) – to gleam from afar, i.e., to be conspicuous as a signal (like a flag fluttering in the wind); to raise a beacon; lift up as an ensign.
The word carries three core meanings:
A pole, staff, or flagstaff.
The banner raised upon that pole.
A sign, especially a miraculous or prophetic sign, as in the case of the Messiah.
Especially in its third sense, nace implies something lifted up, an exaltation. Let’s consider how it functions throughout the Old Testament, particularly where what is “lifted up” is prophetic. In each case, we are essentially asking: “How is God lifted up?” And: “Is this the reason and way we lift Him up today?”
“And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole (נֵס): and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And 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.”
(Numbers 21:8–9 KJV)
“How long shall I see the standard (נֵס), and hear the sound of the trumpet? For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.”
(Jeremiah 4:21–22 KJV)
“Thou hast given a banner (נֵס) to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.”
(Psalm 60:4 KJV)
“And he will lift up an ensign (נֵס) to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly.”
(Isaiah 5:26 KJV)
“And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died, what time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men: and they became a sign (נֵס).”
(Numbers 26:10 KJV)
“And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign (נֵס) of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.”
(Isaiah 11:10 KJV)
“And he shall set up an ensign (נֵס) for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”
(Isaiah 11:12 KJV)
“And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign (נֵס), saith the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.”
(Isaiah 31:9 KJV)
“Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard (נֵס) to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.”
(Isaiah 49:22 KJV)
“Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard (נֵס) for the people… Behold, thy salvation cometh… and they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD.”
(Isaiah 62:10–12 KJV)
“Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard (נֵס); publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken… In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come… going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God.”
(Jeremiah 50:1–4 KJV)
If we had to settle on one core definition of nace, it would be this: a prophetic sign. And not only a promise—but the very person or event that fulfills that promise. In the Bible, the speaker and the spoken word are often fused: a man is judged by his word. “He is a man of his word.” “A man is only as good as his word.” This is not merely metaphor—it’s a moral equation. The Messiah is also a sign—and the ultimate one. He was prophesied. His appearing fulfilled the Word. He is the Word.
Jesus was Himself explicitly called a sign—a miraculous, prophetic, and moral ensign:
“For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
…Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against.”
(Luke 2:30–34 KJV)
In Jeremiah 4:21–22, it may seem that only a flag or banner is in view. But go back a few verses and see:
“Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.”
(Jeremiah 4:10 KJV)
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