Bronze snake on a pole

Numbers 21:4 They travelled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” 6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So, Moses prayed for the people. 8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.

The Israelites complained bitterly about their circumstances. The Lord sent venomous snakes among the people. The snakes bit the Israelites, and many died. ‘For the wages of sin is death.’ The lack of faith, unbelief and doubt in God, who had just parted the red sea for them to escape the enemy, was a weakness in this nation. The journey to the promised land – 40 years in the desert is a metaphor of the struggles and challenges we experience in life. This is the storm. How we choose to go through the storm determines the outcome and the receipt of the blessing. We either going to buckle up, lose faith and test God (Matthew 4: 7 You must not test the Lord your God) or we stand firm on the word of God and trust without doubt to see us through.

Sin

The snake in the bible is symbolic of sin and temptation by the tempter Satan.

The consequences of their sin (unbelief/complaining/ungrateful/doubt/bitterness/anger) led to judgment (poisonous snakes to bite the Israelites) which ultimately was death.

Salvation

The Lord then asked Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on the pole. The Israelites that were bitten survived when they looked at the bronze snake.

· Yeshua (Life) - The bronze snake on a pole was symbolic of Yeshua on the cross. Yeshua was nailed to the cross and through his sacrifice we were set free from our sin and given eternal life.

· Satan (Sin and death) - It is no coincidence that the bronze snake is Yeshua nailing the tempter (Sin) on the cross.

· Man (Focus -Looking unto Yeshua) -Hebrews 12:2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. We are saved when we fix our eyes on Yeshua. This means staying in fellowship with God, reading His word, praying and building our faith in Him. After all the eyes are the windows to our soul. Matthew 6: 22 “Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. 23 But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is! Therefore, be careful of what you are looking at in life, what you are watching, what you are reading, what you are admiring, what you are obsessing and lusting after.

What an awesome God we serve. He died on the cross to set us apart, released us from the bondage of our sin and to have eternal life (Psalm 23:6 – dwell in the house of the Lord forever). Romans 6:23 sums up everything - For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus says that He too must be lifted up just like how Moses lifted the bronze snake on the pole. This reminds me of the verse in John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.