Why is a bronze serpent used to save the Israelites in Numbers 21:8-9?

It is not God cancelling His judgments, but providing the sinner with an answer to them. This little narrative finely and vividly exhibits this. Israel had sinned, as we have seen, and fiery serpents were sent into the midst of them. They prayed that the serpents might be taken away; but no such prayer could prevail. The executioners of righteousness must remain in the camp — death must follow sin, for God had said at the beginning, "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." But the Lord commands Moses to make a Serpent of brass and set it on a pole, and then proclaim, as in the hearing of the whole camp, that every bitten Israelite who looked to that uplifted Serpent, should be healed and live.

This was life confronting death — a secret spring of life and healing in the midst of the powers of death — it was as the revelation of the bruised Seed of the Woman in the freshly death-stricken garden of Eden. But this was not the withdrawing of the fiery serpents, as the camp had craved — it was not the cancelling of the sentence which had been passed upon their sin; it was another, a different, and a higher thing; it was enabling the Israelite in the wilderness to triumph over that miserable estate in which he had involved himself. This is what it was. It was not simply an escape from it, but a triumph over it — for an Israelite bitten by a fiery serpent, if he but looked at the brazen Serpent, might then smile at the fiery serpents though still abroad in the camp — just as Noah long before, on the vantage-ground where grace and salvation had put him, might have smiled at the waters as they were rising around him — or as the Israelite in Egypt, under the sprinkled lintel, might have smiled at the sword of the destroying Angel as he was passing through the land.

The Remedy God Provided. Why should God provide a remedy? Did the people deserve it? No. They had sinned, and merited God's righteous indignation. But their need, their helpless state, moved God's compassion and mercy, and He brought life and salvation to the dying and needy. The thought of the people was merely to have the serpents taken away from them — they only thought of some improvement in their present circumstances; but God's thoughts of love and pity are far higher than this. His way is to give life to dying souls — to abolish death; He therefore provided such a remedy, that whoever LOOKED upon it LIVED. This is a remedy worthy of the God of resurrection. It never entered into man's heart to conceive a remedy so perfect, so suitable, so glorious, so abundant in mercy. "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." The remedy was simple, and the cure immediate. It was not a question of their doings, experiences, or evidences; it was look and live. They were commanded to look outside themselves, straight to the object set before them, and, though at the point of death, they immediately lived. Those who felt the mortal wound inflicted by the fiery serpent had simply to behold the serpent of brass set upon the pole, and death in them gave place to life.

Yet it is good to see that Israel's conscience was awakened at this time to confess before Moses that they had sinned in speaking against the Lord and against Moses. This is a refreshing contrast to their usual attitude all through the wilderness. Then they asked Moses to pray that the Lord would take away the serpents (v.7).

But the Lord in His great grace did more than this. He told Moses to make a serpent of brass (or copper) and set it on a pole that evidently stood upright. Then anyone who had been bitten needed only to look at this imitation serpent to be cured (vs.8-9). The Lord Jesus refers to this event in John 3:14-15, when He says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."

It may seem strange that the brazen serpent is used to illustrate the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, for the serpent is a picture of Satan. But it was on the cross that the Lord Jesus met all the power of Satan and crushed Satan's head (Gen.3:15). So it was not a live serpent lifted up, but one that symbolized the paralyzing of all Satan's power. One look at that serpent on the pole was sufficient to heal any victim, just as one look in faith at Christ in His great sacrifice is sufficient to both deliver anyone from the poison of sin and give eternal life. Wonderful message of God's love and grace!

The manner of Israel's healing is the foreshadowing of this. Then it was simply to look at a serpent upon a pole. A look in itself had been nothing; but God now joined healing and life to it: therefore to look is everything. What a lesson of faith is here! All is referred to the power and grace of God of Him Who said, that every one that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live. Precious testimony of the efficacy of faith, and of Christ, Who, lifted up like the brazen serpent, had said "that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Here is a type of Christ, not simply of blood, but of death. It is a question of sin in the flesh, not of sins by flesh active. Blood purges, purges the conscience, purges us from our sins. The flesh is never purged. The old man — the flesh — is condemned. Christ was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin; and so sin in the flesh God condemned. This is not a process in the soul always going on; but it is made experimentally true. The old man has been crucified with Christ (Rom. 6). The body of sin is thus annulled. An immense fact for us; effected on the cross. Only neither this nor any other blessing is known without faith. Realising by faith that the flesh was condemned and put to death by the crucifixion of Christ, and practically putting on the new man, is both the privilege and the responsibility of believers. Death to the flesh, not atonement by blood, nor mere cleansing, is the lesson here. It is Christ our Substitute, and seems to proclaim a deeper truth than that typified on the great day of atonement. On that day we saw the blood that washed away all our sins. It is propitiation. Here in the brazen serpent it is life through death. Christ in the likeness of sinful flesh, and on the cross, made sin, and then dying under the judgment of God. That is, He takes our place, made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That righteousness which we are made is the standing we have in Him; is it not also practically that which believers are when they judge their own flesh with the judgment of God? Condemning it root and branch? I am persuaded we shall never know the blessedness of becoming God's righteousness in Him till we pass sentence of death upon self. A nature which was not inherently sin, but might have some good element, would need blood-washing if it transgressed; but you cannot cleanse sin. Our souls are forgiven their sins; that is another thing. Fallen nature is still nature, and must be condemned. The flesh is never cleansed. Christ, our Substitute, has fully borne the judgment of flesh. He was lifted up for that purpose, that we, beholding the judgment of our nature resting upon Him, might be able to say that we died with Him. As the bitten Israelite looked upon the serpent of brass, and lived, so we look upon Christ and in a new life live to God. The question of sin is settled for ever. Of course it is but a hint here: the full truth can only come out in Christ dead and risen.

Look again for a moment at the serpent of brass. The thing that did the mischief was the fiery serpent, and what cured them was a look at a fiery serpent. Sin brought in death, and only by death is sin put away. Sin in the flesh is incorrigible, incurable, and ineradicable. What then can be done with it? God tells us: "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" (Rom. 8:3). That is the serpent of brass. What I am, as a man, has been utterly condemned in the cross of Christ, and absolutely set aside from before God in death. It has gone from God's eye in the death of His blessed Son, an immense thing for the soul to see. Why? Because until this is learned, there is self-confidence, and an endeavour to improve the flesh. Hence, very often, we have to learn by very painful and prolonged practical experience and failure what a poor good-for-nothing thing man is. When I learn the truth of the serpent of brass I find that God has got rid of me, in the cross of His Son, and only Christ remains.

After this, when their wilderness journey had practically come to an end, and when it was seen that the flesh was unmendably evil, and however faithfully and tenderly God had cared for all their wants during their forty years, while they lived on His bounty, and when apart from His continual interest and ceaseless care on their behalf they would have perished to a man, they were found as disobedient and gainsaying as they had been at the very first, we come to the fiery serpents and the remedy against their poisonous bite. The brazen serpent lifted up on the pole was the unfailing remedy. The Son of Man upon the cross is the antitype of this serpent of brass. The serpent on the pole was exactly like the serpents that had brought death into the camp; the Son of Man came in the likeness of sinful flesh. The serpent on the pole was sinless; the Son of Man was also sinless. The serpent on the pole was a serpent of brass, and brass is the symbol of the judgment of God according to the responsibility of man; the Son of Man lifted up on the cross bore the judgment that lay on the responsible man, and in that judgment that man was ended before God, and now the believer righteously partakes of the life and nature of Him who died for us and rose again; and this is the life of Canaan.

And the remedy is not the removal of the serpents. The people request Moses to pray Jehovah for this. But this cannot be. To take away evil flesh would only be to cast into destruction the whole human race, for evil flesh is all that man as a child of Adam is. To condemn all that is evil, and to condemn it in the judgment of himself, would be his eternal destruction, for out of that judgment there could be no recovery for him. God’s way is not the removal of the serpents through their destruction, but through the serpent of brass lifted up on a pole. This serpent represents in a typical way God’s judgment of sinful flesh. But that judgment is set forth in the Son of Man lifted up on the cross; for “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even to must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

The serpent Moses made was in the likeness of the serpent that bit the people, so was the Son of Man in the likeness of the flesh of sin. It was of brass, and brass is a type of the judgment of God against sin. The altar where the offerings were slain, and their bodies burned, was of brass. So also on the cross was the Son of Man under the judgment of the flesh of sin, abandoned by God, and being dealt with as sin deserved, though He Himself was altogether the delight of the heart of God. Had there been any taint of sin in Him He would have needed a saviour for Himself. But He was holy, spotless and undefiled, always delighting in, and doing, the will of the Father who had sent Him.

The brazen serpent was not a fiery flying serpent, but in the likeness of it. So our Lord was not “sinful flesh.” He was infinitely holy, but He became a Man, came in “the likeness of sinful flesh.” The serpent of brass was lifted on a pole, emblematical of the Son of God being lifted up on the cross, as John 3:14 tells us. DEATH and death only could meet the case.

To Nicodemus our Lord said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6), and Israel's journey served to display its incorrigible character. In their terrible complaints, recorded in Numbers 21:1, things came to a climax, and the people were bitten by the fiery serpents. Their poison burnt like fire in the bodies of those bitten, and so we have an apt type of what the New Testament calls, "sin in the flesh." And further we are told that, "sin, when it is finished brings forth death." This is prefigured in the fact that, "much people of Israel died."

The remedy that God ordained was the brazen serpent, made by Moses, and lifted up on a pole — a type of the crucified Christ, as so plainly claimed in John 3:14. The brazen serpent was made in the likeness of a serpent which had the fiery bite, just as Christ came, "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom. 8:3), so that in His sacrifice "sin in the flesh" might be condemned.

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” The sons of Jacob were dying in the desert from the poisonous bite of the serpents, just as you are from the bite of sin. A serpent of brass was made and lifted up upon a pole, and it came to pass that when one who was bitten beheld the serpent he lived (Num. 21:6-9). In the lifted up Son of Man you have that which was foreshadowed in the serpent of brass. Now you look to Christ. On that cross He was bearing the judgment of all who believe on Him, “That whosoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”