The Brazen Serpent

What is the significance of the bronze snake that was raised by Moses in the wilderness. Do serpents represent healing? It represented the sin/ abomination/ curse that Jesus the Son of God would have to carry.

The snake is not used in the bible to resemble healing. Though it is used in Greek mythology to represent healing, this is not so, in the bible.

I am going to explain the typology of the serpent in the wildness and what it means. 

 John 3:14-15 (NET)

 14 Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 

 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” 

The serpent that Moses lifted in the wilderness was not an actual snake. It was a piece of brass metal, that was placed into the fire and molded to resemble the snakes that were biting and killing people.

Here is the story

 Numbers 21:5-9 (NET) 

 5 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 bread or water, and we detest this worthless food.” 

 6 So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and they bit the people; many people of Israel died. 

 7 Then 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 would take away the snakes from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 

 8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous snake and set it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.” 

 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole, so that if a snake had bitten someone, when he looked at the bronze snake he lived. 

 The Meaning 

There were venomous snakes that had entered into the congregation of Israel, biting them and killing them.

When John the baptist comes, Israel gathers around him. He sees the pharisees, scribes and sadducees who had become the religious leaders and teachers of Israel. He identifies them as the poisonous snakes that were biting and poisoning the people of Israel.

 Matthew 3:7 (NET) 

 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 

Jesus himself confirmed this.

Matthew 23:29, 32-33 (NET)

 29 “Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 

 32 Fill up then the measure of your ancestors! 

 33 You snakes, you offspring of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 

This is the time that Moses was foreshadowing. A time when venomous snakes had entered Israel and started poisoning and killing people with wrong doctrines.

The snakes are false teachers, deceivers, liars, hypocrites, pretenders, who poison the people with their tongues.

 Psalms 140:3 (NET)

 Their tongues wound like a serpent; a viper’s venom is behind their lips. (Selah) 

 The significance of Bronze 

 Numbers 21:9 (NET)

 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole, so that if a snake had bitten someone, when he looked at the bronze snake he lived. 

The first thing to note here is that Moses did not take an actual poisonous snake and put it on a pole. People did not receiving healing from looking at an actual snake, but at bronze metal which had been forged to resemble the outward appearance of a snake.

It was piece of precious metal, that was molded to have an outward resemblance of a snake, but in actual fact it remains just metallic bronze.

This is what happened on the cross.

The bronze represents the nature of the Son of God.

 Revelation 2:18 (NET) 

 “To the angel of the church in Thyatira write the following: “This is the solemn pronouncement of the Son of God,  the one who has eyes like a fiery flame and whose feet are like polished bronze:  

What is the significance of bronze and why does it represent the Son of God?

Bronze is what is called an ALLOY.

An alloy is formed when you take two pure metals with different properties and you place then in a furnace and combine them to produce a New Unique Metal that has the strength and properties of the two.

This is how the Son of God was produced.

He is a combination of two natures. God the Father took his divine nature and combined it with Human nature and produced a New Type of being called The Son of God.

This is how bronze is created, and this is why it’s used to represent the Son of God.

 The Bronze Serpent On the Cross 

Instead of nailing an actual serpent on the cross, Moses nailed a valuable metal instead. Moses took a valuable metal, which was made of two united natures, and he made it to look like a snake and nailed it to a cross. Those who fixed their eyes on this metal, received salvation.

 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) 

  21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 

Jesus was pure sinless and precious. He was both man and God. He was the perfect Son of God. And instead of nailing the pharisees, the sadducees, and the scribes and all the sinners of the world to the cross, God took this precious Son, made him to to resemble a curse, an abomination, a snake and killed him instead. Those who receive this revelation and believe it, that The Son of God was made to take our sin upon himself, are saved and healed.