The Bronze Serpent

“Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom” (21:4). Aaron had just died on Mount Hor, and Edom had refused to let Israel pass through its land (20:21). So the people had to take a long road south, away from the land God had promised them. On that hot road, “the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way” (21:4). Discouraged means losing heart. When they lost heart, they started to complain. “And the people spoke against God and against Moses” (21:5). This time they blamed God directly, and they asked the same old question: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?” Then they said, “Our soul loathes this worthless bread” (21:5). Loathes means hates. They were talking about manna, the bread God had sent every morning for almost forty years. God had not stopped caring for them for a single day. When we are tired and discouraged, it is easy to forget God's good gifts and grumble. That is when we most need to thank Him and trust Him.

The detour (21:4). Edom refused to let Israel pass through its land (20:14-21), so the people had to travel south toward the Gulf of Aqaba, away from Canaan. Just before this, God had given Israel victory over the king of Arad (21:1-3). Right after that victory, the grumbling started again. A short soul. The Hebrew phrase behind “very discouraged” literally says the soul of the people was short. Their patience ran out, and their trust in God ran out with it. Speaking against God (21:5). Earlier complaints were aimed mostly at Moses. This time the people spoke “against God and against Moses.” They were openly rebelling against the Lord Himself. “Worthless bread” (21:5). The word means something light or contemptible. They despised the bread from heaven, the same manna Jesus later called a picture of Himself (John 6:32-35). To despise the gift was to despise the Giver. Paul's warning. “Nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents” (1 Corinthians 10:9). Paul says that when Israel tested God in the wilderness, they were testing Christ. He wrote it so Christians would not grumble against the Lord the same way.

Aaron had died on Mount Hor. Now the people set out again. Edom would not let them walk through its land. So they had to take a long road around it. The road went south, away from the land God promised. The sun was hot, and the walk was long. The people became impatient. Soon they were grumbling against God and Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? We will die in this desert!” They complained that there was no bread and no water. Then they said something terrible about manna. They called God's gift from heaven terrible food. Their hearts had turned away from God again.

The people got tired. They grumbled against God. They said manna was terrible food. But God still loved them.

“So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died” (21:6). Fiery may mean that the bites burned like fire. The people had said they would die in the wilderness, and now death came into the camp. The Bible says, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). The snakes showed how deadly sin is. This time the people did not argue. They came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you” (21:7). Confession means admitting sin honestly, without excuses. Then they asked, “Pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” “So Moses prayed for the people” (21:7). These were the same people who had just spoken against him, and Moses prayed for them anyway. He did not hold a grudge. When you sin, the right thing to do is admit it and ask God for help, not hide or make excuses. God is ready to forgive.

Fiery serpents (21:6). The Hebrew nechashim seraphim (say: neh-khah-SHEEM seh-rah-FEEM) means burning serpents. The word saraph (say: sah-RAHF), burning, may describe the venom's effect. Deuteronomy 8:15 remembers the wilderness as a place of “fiery serpents.” Judgment fits the sin. The people said they would die in the wilderness (21:5), and death came to them in the wilderness. Sin leads to death (Romans 6:23). A true confession (21:7). In 14:40 the people said they had sinned and then went off with a plan of their own. This time they confess and ask humbly for help: “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you.” Intercession. “So Moses prayed for the people.” Just as in Numbers 11, 14 and 16, Moses stands between God and the people and prays for them. In this he is a picture of Jesus, who always lives to pray for His people (Hebrews 7:25). God does not simply remove the snakes. God answers the prayer, but not in the way the people asked. He provides a remedy in the middle of the danger. The serpent in Scripture. Since Genesis 3, the serpent stands for the enemy. Revelation 12:9 calls Satan “that serpent of old.” The snakes in the camp were a fitting picture of sin and its deadly power.

God heard the people's angry words. So He sent poisonous snakes into the camp. The snakes bit the people. Many of the Israelites died. Sin is serious, and it brings death. The people knew they had done wrong. They came to Moses. They said, “We sinned when we grumbled at you and the Lord. Pray that the Lord will take away these snakes.” This time they did not argue. They admitted their sin. And Moses prayed for them. Moses had prayed for them many times before. He loved them, even when they were hard to love.

God sent snakes. Many people died. The people said they had sinned. Moses prayed for them.

God answered Moses' prayer, but not in the way the people expected. “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole’” (21:8). Then God gave a promise: “It shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” Everyone means no one was left out, no matter how badly he was bitten. “So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole” (21:9). Bronze is a strong metal made from copper. The pole held the serpent high so the whole camp could see it. The bronze snake had no power of its own. The power was in God's promise. Hundreds of years later, people forgot that and burned incense to it. So King Hezekiah “broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made” (2 Kings 18:4). God's way of saving is simple: trust His promise and look where He tells you to look. We do not need to add anything to it.

A strange remedy (21:8). God commanded an image of the very thing that was killing the people. The cure was tied to the judgment. The picture of death, lifted up on a pole, became the place where people found life. Sound-alike words. Serpent is nachash (say: NAH-khash) and bronze is nechoshet (say: neh-KHOH-shet). The two words sound alike in Hebrew, so a bronze snake was easy for every Israelite to remember. “Everyone who is bitten” (21:8). The offer was for everyone in the camp. No one was too badly bitten or too sinful to look. Not a good-luck charm. Later Israel turned the bronze serpent into an idol called Nehushtan (say: neh-HOOSH-tahn), and Hezekiah destroyed it (2 Kings 18:4). The power was never in the bronze. It was in God's word. The curse lifted up. Many Christians see the serpent, a picture of the curse, lifted up so that cursed people could live. Paul writes that Christ became “a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). Jesus' own words. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14). Jesus Himself made this connection. God put the bronze serpent in Israel's history to point ahead to His Son on the cross.

God answered Moses' prayer in a surprising way. He did not take all the snakes away at once. Instead He said, “Make a bronze snake.” Bronze is a shiny metal, a little like gold. Moses was to put the snake high up on a pole. Anyone who was bitten should look at it. Then that person would live. Moses obeyed right away. He made a bronze snake and put it on a pole. Everyone in the camp could see it. The cure was not medicine. It was not hard work. It was simply looking and trusting God's promise. God made it easy for anyone to be saved.

God told Moses to make a bronze snake. Moses put it on a pole. Everyone who looked would live. God had a simple plan.

“And so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived” (21:9). A person might be too sick to walk, but he could still lift his eyes and look. Looking at the serpent meant trusting God's promise. Hundreds of years later, Jesus explained what this story pointed to. He said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14), “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:15). That is our memory verse. Jesus also said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32). John adds that He said this to show the way He would die (12:33). Jesus would be lifted up on a cross. God still gives the same invitation: “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth!” (Isaiah 45:22). Salvation is a gift we receive by trusting Jesus, just as the people received life by looking.

Look and live (21:9). The verb for look (nabat, say: nah-BAHT) means to look closely, to fix your eyes on something. A look of faith toward what God had provided brought life. John 3:14-15. Jesus told Nicodemus that the Son of Man “must” be lifted up, “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Believing in Jesus is like the Israelite's look: you turn away from yourself and trust what God has provided. Lifted up (John 12:32-33; 8:28). In John's Gospel, “lifted up” means the cross, “signifying by what death He would die.” It also means being honored. The place of Jesus' deepest suffering is also the place where His glory is seen. Made sin for us. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Many Christians see a picture of this in the bronze serpent. The serpent bore the image of the judgment, and Christ bore the sin that brings judgment. The serpent crushed. Genesis 3:15 promised that the woman's Seed would bruise the serpent's head. Many Christians see the cross as that victory (Romans 16:20). Isaiah 45:22. “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth!” The invitation reaches beyond Israel to every nation. What God offered one camp in the wilderness He now offers the whole world through Christ.

Now when a snake bit someone, there was hope. The bitten person looked up at the bronze snake. And he lived! Imagine someone too weak to walk. He could still lift his eyes and look. Nobody had to earn being healed. He did not have to be good enough. He only had to trust God's promise and look. Many years later, Jesus talked about this story. He said Moses lifted up the snake in the desert. Jesus said He must be lifted up in the same way. Jesus meant He would be lifted up on the cross. Everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. We look to Jesus, and we live.

The people looked. They lived! Jesus was lifted up too. We trust Jesus and live!