In John 3:14, Jesus said, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. Why was the serpent of brass on the pole a foreshadowing of Jesus’ death on the cross?
Why were the people of God attacked by fiery serpents?
And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: 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 21:4-9)
God led His people in a way they didn’t want to go, and because of that, they became discouraged. They were not satisfied; therefore, they murmured and complained against Moses and God and came with the familiar ‘why’.
The Israelites were not satisfied and were not excited about God’s plan and all the things that were coming. They didn’t trust the Lord and relied on His words, but they were dissatisfied with God’s plan, God’s leading, and God’s provisions.
They complained about not having bread and water and they loathed the light bread, which God provided for every day.
Due to all their complaining and murmuring and speaking against God and Moses, they brought mischief (evil) upon themselves.
Because of the fact that God’s people turned against God, God turned against His people and took away His protection and gave them up to their ruler; the serpent, the adversary of God, to whom the people listened and were led.
When God sent fiery serpents among the people and the people were bitten by the serpents and many died, the spiritual was revealed in the natural.
The wicked have sharpened their tongues like a serpent
Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? o ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men? Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely (Psalms 58:1-5)
Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Sela (Psalms 140:1-3)
God’s people were not transformed and had not renewed their minds with the words and commandments of God and had not delighted themselves in the law and made the law of God their own
Instead of submitting to God and being led by His words and by His will, the people were led by the will and the nature of the devil aka the serpent, and turned against God and sinned against God through their words.
The serpent of brass was lifted by Moses in the wilderness
But the Israelites repented of their sins, that they had spoken against the Lord and against Moses, and they asked Moses to pray unto God that He would remove the serpents from them.
Moses prayed to God for the people, and God heard Moses’ prayer and answered his prayer, and brought deliverance for the people.
God commanded Moses to make a fiery serpent and put it on a stake. Moses obeyed the words of God and made a serpent of brass and put the brass serpent on a pole, so that the serpent of brass was lifted in the wilderness.
Everyone that was bitten and looked upon the serpent of brass would live
Everyone that was bitten by a serpent and looked upon the serpent of brass on the pole, didn’t die, but lived.
And so God brought salvation (healing) through the serpent of brass and those, who believed and obeyed the words of God and looked upon the serpent of brass, stayed alive.
Why did God command Moses to make a serpent of brass? The serpent is the father of (fallen) mankind. The generation of fallen man has the evil nature of the devil (serpent).
The serpent of brass on the pole, would remember the people of their rebellious behavior and their sin, how they spoke against God and Moses, and the fiery serpents and how God brought salvation (healing) to those, who obeyed His words and looked upon the serpent of brass on the pole.
The moment, when the serpent became the father of mankind
Although Adam walked with God in the garden of Eden, there came a moment when Adam became disobedient to God and believed the words of the devil, which had come to him through the serpent and through Eve, above the words of God and obeyed the words of the devil by eating from the forbidden fruit.
Through his obedience to the devil (serpent), he yielded to the devil and death entered and his spirit died (and came under the authority of death) and lived in the power of the devil.
Through his deed of disobedience to God, Adam had fallen from his position and was (spiritually) separated from God and had become an adversary of God.
The serpent, the devil, had become the father of fallen man and everyone, who would be born of the seed of man, would be born as a sinner and live in the power of the devil and darkness.
From that moment sin and death reigned as king in the lives of fallen mankind (sinners).
But God had already a plan of redemption for fallen mankind, to deliver mankind from the power of the devil, and sin and death. God promised that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent and the serpent would bruise his heel (Genesis 3).
However, this didn’t happen immediately, but it took a long time, before God sent His Son Jesus Christ out of love to the earth to deliver fallen mankind from the power of the devil and reconcile man back to Himself (Read also: What does it mean the head of the devil was bruised because the heel of Jesus was bruised?)
Jesus came to the earth to redeem the sinners from the power of the serpent
Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently, He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonied at thee; His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men: So shall He sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at Him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider (Isaiah 52:13-15)
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not His mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people was He stricken.
And He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors (Isaiah 53)
And so Jesus came in the likeness of man to earth to redeem man from the power of the serpent (the devil).
Jesus became equal to mankind and was tempted in all things, yet without sin, so that Jesus could become the Substitute for fallen mankind. Because if Jesus would not become equal to mankind, and had to be tempted in all things, Jesus couldn’t take the place of mankind and couldn’t become the Substitute for mankind and bear the sins and iniquities of mankind (Isaiah 53, Hebrews 2:14-18 (Read also: The peace restored between fallen man and God and Was Jesus fully Human?)).
Jesus, the Son of Man, was lifted on the cross
Jesus was scourged in such a horrible way, that his face was so marred and His appearance was no longer human. Then Jesus was lifted on the cross. Jesus carried all the sins and iniquities of mankind, which the Lord had laid upon Him, and was made sin and became a curse on the cross (Read also: Why was Jesus crucified on a wooden cross? and Can a Christian live under a curse?)
Although Jesus did the will of God and pleased the Father, and this was all part of God’s redemptive work for fallen mankind, the people esteemed Jesus stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted (a.o. Isaiah 53:4)
Jesus finished His work on the cross, entered Hades to take the power of death and Hell (Hades) and redeem the prisoners of death, and rose from the dead with the keys of Hell and death (Revelation 1:18).
Jesus was highly exalted by the Father
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:5-11)
After 40 days, Jesus ascended to heaven, where Jesus was highly exalted by the Father and took place on the throne at the right hand of the Father, above all principality, power, might, and dominion (Ephesians 1:19-21).
Everyone, who believes in Jesus Christ and His redemptive work and repent and become born of water and Spirit, shall no longer live in the power of the devil (serpent) and the power of sin and death, in disobedience to God, but shall be transferred from the power of the devil to the Kingdom of God, where Jesus Christ is King and reigns, and shall be reconciled with God and be made righteous and inherit eternal life.
Through the disobedience of man to God, the serpent became the father of fallen man, but through the obedience of Jesus Christ to the Father, and Jesus being lifted on the cross, man would be reconciled with God and God would become the Father of the new man (Romans 5 and 6).
The serpent of brass points to Jesus Christ, Who brings salvation and eternal life
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:14-18)
Jesus didn’t come to the earth to condemn mankind, but to save mankind. Because every man is fallen, every man is a sinner and is affected by evil (sinful nature), in other words, is bitten by the serpent, and therefore every man needs salvation. God has provided for the salvation of mankind through His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus came and gave (and still gives) man a choice for life or death.
Because as the serpent of brass was lifted in the wilderness by Moses, brought deliverance from death, and gave life to those, who believed in the words of God and looked upon the serpent, even so, does Jesus Christ, who was lifted on the cross on Calvary, brings deliverance from the power of the serpent (the devil), death, and darkness and gave eternal life to those, who believe in Him and become born again in Him.
And so Jesus became the Substitute, Deliverer, Saviour, Healer, Author, and Lord of the new man, who submits to the Word and listens to Jesus and obeys and does His words and lives in the will of the Father.
‘Be the salt of the earth’
