The Bronze Serpent and Christ

There are a multitude of significant factors in the typical relationship between the bronze serpent (Numbers 21: 4-9) and the crucified Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:14-15) at Calvary:

In the first place, the bronze serpent was God’s means of salvation for the Israelites who were bitten by the serpents in the wilderness. Jesus is God’s means of salvation for everyone who has been bitten by the deadly venom of sin in the wilderness of this fallen world.

The bronze serpent was God’s only means of salvation for the bitten Israelites. Jesus is God’s only means of salvation for Jew and Gentile (see. John 3:16).

The bronze serpent was a visual representation of the wrath of God against a grumbling and complaining people. The cross of Christ is a visual representation of the wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

The bronze serpent, representing the wrath of God, also represented the turning away of that wrath. Whoever looked at the serpent would find that the wrath of God was turned away. The cross of Christ, representing the wrath of God, also represents the turning away of that wrath. Mercy and truth meet together at the cross; righteousness and peace kiss one another in the death of Jesus.

The bronze serpent was a representation of the venomous serpents that bit the people and brought deadly consequences on account of their sin, yet it was without the venom that caused their death. Christ represented those who were ruined by sin, making Himself a body in the likeness of sinful flesh–yet without sin–so that He might, by His death, save those who–by their own sin–were poisoned unto death. He was made a curse for us that we might receive the blessings of God.

The bronze serpent was meant to remind the Israelites of the cause of their sin. It was meant to carry their minds back to the Garden of Eden where Satan came in the form of a serpent to tempt their first parents. The punishment for the sin, brought into the world through the temptation of that Serpent of Old, was laid on Jesus at the cross. The penalty for our sin fell on Him. He became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

With the serpent in the wilderness, the healing was dependent upon the word of God concerning His means of salvation. With Christ crucified, salvation is dependent on God’s word concerning His means of that salvation.

In the account of the poisoned Israelites and the bronze serpent, both the means and the instrument of God’s salvation are typified. In the account of Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus both the means and the instrument of God’s salvation are pointed out. A crucified Savior is the means of God’s salvation. Faith, or looking to Him, is the instrument of salvation.

The plagued Israelites were called to look upon the bronze serpent in order to be healed. Sinners are called to look upon the crucified Son of God to be saved.

The serpent was lifted up before the Israelites in the midst of the camp so that those who were bitten  might look and be healed. Christ was lifted up–first on the cross, then in His resurrection, then in His ascension, and finally in the preaching of the Gospel–so that sinners might look on Him and be saved.

The bronze serpent was the central and all sufficient means of healing for the Israelites. The cross is the central and all-sufficient means of the work of Christ. The bronze serpent was the clearest type of the saving work of Jesus at Calvary. Of all the types and shadows, there was not any that showed forth the  principal work of the Savior better than this type. Jesus could have pointed to the passover or any of the sacrificial types that foreshadowed His atoning death, but He chose to point Nicodemus to this type.

Just as God chose a man, namely Moses, to lift up the bronze serpent on the pole so that men might look and be healed, God has chosen ministers to hold up Jesus in the preaching of Christ crucified so that men might look to Him and be saved.

Just as looking to a bronze serpent was a foolish means of healing poisoned Israelites, so looking to a crucified Savior (an executed, dying Man) is a foolish means, in the world’s eyes, for the salvation of a sinners condemned to death.

The bronze serpent was held up for many for salvation from the wrath of God and the deadly consequences of sin. Christ was lifted up for many for the salvation of men from the wrath of God and the deadly consequences of sin.

For further meditations see John Brinsely The Mystical Brazen Serpent (London: Thomas Maxley, 1652)