As Moses Lifted Up the Bronze Serpent in the Wilderness

Jesus established the bronze serpent as a type of Him: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). This is part one. Here is part two. Table of ContentsReject the Manna and Get the SerpentThe Bronze Serpent Represents SinLike the Bronze Serpent, Christ Became Sin for UsThe Bronze Serpent Represents JudgmentSin Lifted Up and JudgedSaved by Faith from the Serpent’s BitePersonal Application (Continued in Part Two)Frustration Isn’t an Excuse to SinGod Disciplines His ChildrenComplaining about Authority Can Be Complaining about God When I was in the military we trained with MILES gear. MILES stands for Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System. Thank of a big game of laser tag and you will have the idea. We would also use smoke, blank bullets, grenades, and Claymores to get closer to resembling actual combat. One day a friend of mine said, “Look at these bushes. They stop lasers, but they won’t stop bullets. We want things to be as realistic as possible, but if people try to hide behind leaves in combat, they’re going to be in trouble. They think they’re safe when they’re not.” Imagine believing something would keep you safe when it won’t, or believing something would not keep you safe, when it would. The Israelites faced a situation that required believing a brass snake on a pole would keep them safe from snakebites! Not only that, it would heal them if they had already been bitten. Let’s look at this account in greater detail to see a beautiful type of our Savior. Remember the context from the previous chapter: Israel is making their second attempt at entering the Promised Land. This is the new generation God would bring in, because the old generation was forced to die in the wilderness. Sadly, this new generation (again) looks like their grumbling, faithless parents: From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. Numbers 21:4-9 Reject the Manna and Get the Serpent Israel had to go around Edom because the Edomites refused them passage through their country (Numbers 20:18). This forced the Israelites to travel far south back toward the wilderness and away from Canaan. Understandably this was discouraging. Combined with the lack of food and water, the people engaged in one of their favorite wilderness activities: complaining (Exodus 15:24, 16:2, 17:3, Numbers 12:1, 14:2, 16:3, 41 and 20:2). Although, one difference in this account is that while Israel previously complained about Moses directly (and God indirectly), this time the people complained about God directly. Then they compounded their sin by complaining about the manna (a type of Christ; see chapter 8), and Israel heaped even more judgment on themselves. All of this contributed to the severe discipline. God didn’t punish the Israelites for wanting their bare necessities met; He punished them for their irreverence. In the past, when Israel sinned, the glory of the Lord appeared and the judgment followed. But this time there was no warning. They didn’t want the bread from heaven, so God sent poisonous serpents into the camp. People became sick and “many people died.” It’s a somewhat fitting picture: they rejected God’s gift of life and health from heaven, so God sent them suffering and death from earth. The Israelites who died probably constituted the last remnants of the old generation God said wouldn’t enter the Promised Land. The word “fiery” is the translation of the Hebrew word saraph, which means “burning.” The same word refers to the angels, or seraphim, who minister before the throne of God (Isaiah 6:2, 6). Fiery doesn’t describe the appearance of the servants. Instead, it describes the inflammation and pain caused by their venom. Those bitten suffered greatly. In the past, Moses fell on his face before God and interceded for the people of his own volition, but now the judgment was so terrible the people begged him to pray for them. God didn’t answer the way anyone would’ve expected. Instead of removing the serpents and healing the people who had been bitten, God instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent, put it on a pole, lift it up, and anyone who was bitten could look at it and live. Let’s understand the symbolism behind each element so the type comes fully into view. The Bronze Serpent Represents Sin I remember reading through the Bible soon after becoming a Christian in my early twenties. There were certain passages I found particularly confusing, and this was one of them. The most difficult part was contained in the word, “serpent.” When I read that word my mind went back to the Garden of Eden and the Serpent tempting Eve (Genesis 3:1-14). Looking back at that famous account that apostle Paul wrote, “I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). The Bible concludes with a strong focus on the devil, called the serpent, being defeated: “The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. [An angel] seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer.” Revelation 12:9, 20:2-3; see also Revelation 12:14-15 We can easily wonder why God would tell Moses to use the form that Satan took, the very embodiment of evil, but as we will see, it is this challenging symbolism that makes the bronze serpent such a beautiful type of Christ. Like the Bronze Serpent, Christ Became Sin for Us Jesus established the typology between himself and the bronze serpent: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). If the serpent were put on the pole horizontally toward the top, it would have formed a cross. If the snake were wrapped around the pole, it would form the Asclepius, the sign for healing. This too would be fitting imagery in that “by [Christ’s] stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). But all of this can make the symbolism—the serpent representing sin—even more troubling, because now we see an association between Jesus and the serpent. It was one thing for the serpent to look good, but it’s another thing entirely but that same serpent to be tied to Christ. But how perfect does this become when we read, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is classic double imputation: our sin (unrighteousness) imputed to Christ’s account, and Christ’s righteousness imputed to our account. This occurred when Jesus was “lifted up” on the cross and God “made [Jesus] to be sin.” Isaiah 53:11 looks forward to Christ’s sacrifice: “he shall bear their iniquities.” Consider these verses looking backward on Christ’s sacrifice: “having been offered once to bear the sins of many…He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (Hebrews 9:28, 1 Peter 2:24). These verses all look to Christ as our sin bearer. Romans 8:3 says, “God…[sent] his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. What has the “likeness” of sin more than a serpent? The Bronze Serpent Represents Judgment Bronze pictures judgment because it is formed and shaped by being passed through fire. Here are some biblical examples establishing the association. The bronze altar was the largest of the tabernacle’s seven pieces of furniture. Situated prominently in the outer court, the bronze altar was the most imposing object (Exodus 40:6). No worshiper could avoid seeing it upon entering. In other words, every Israelite would have been familiar with it, and it would’ve shaped their understanding of bronze. Here’s part of the instructions for it: You shall make horns for it on its four corners; its horns shall be of one piece with it, and you shall overlay it with bronze. You shall make all its utensils of bronze. You shall also make for it a grating, a network of bronze, and on the net you shall make four bronze rings at its four corners. And you shall make poles for the altar, poles of acacia wood, and overlay them with bronze. Exodus 27:2-4, 6 All the elements of the tabernacle pointed to God’s plan of salvation through Christ. Each ritual taught the people the fundamental principles of salvation. The bronze altar—where priests offered animal sacrifices for the sins of the people—vividly illustrated substitutionary atonement. According to Leviticus 6:13 “fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.” The bronze altar was also called “the altar of burnt offering” (Exodus 30:28), which means—like the bronze serpent—it combined bronze, sin, fire, and judgment. When God pronounced judgment on the devil,