What is the Meaning of the Brazen Serpent?
In Numbers chapter 21 there’s a strange story about Moses raising a serpent made of brass on a pole. A Hebrew who had been bitten by a serpent only needed to look at the brass serpent to be healed.
Numbers 21:5-9
5 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.
6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
7 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.
8 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.
9 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.
In John chapter 3 verses 14-16 Jesus gives us insight into the meaning of the brazen, or brass, serpent:
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16 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.
When Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross he was made both a curse and sin:
Galatians 3:13
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
The children of Israel were made to wander in the wilderness because they sinned against God. During their wanderings they continued to sin until God sent judgment as biting serpents. The serpent bites represent the people being infected with sin, because sin is in the flesh (Romans 8:3).
God told Moses to make a serpent of brass, and to raise it on a pole. The serpent represents sin (as the serpent in the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 3), brass represents judgment (the brazen altar of the Levites in Exodus 39:39) and the pole represents the cross (anyone who hangs on a tree, or wood, is cursed; Deuteronomy 21:23).
To be healed from the serpents’ bites the people only needed to look at the brass serpent, thus representing God’s grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).
The brazen serpent is a descriptive prophetic foreshadowing of Jesus Christ on the cross.