The Serpent / Bronze Serpent

Illustration of The Serpent / Bronze Serpent

In the garden the serpent's subtle deception drew Eve into disobedience and unleashed sin's deadly curse upon all humanity, turning creation's harmony into a realm of suffering and separation from God. Later in the wilderness journey the people's complaints provoked fiery serpents whose bites brought death, yet mercy appeared when Moses lifted a bronze serpent on a pole so that every stricken Israelite who looked upon it in faith received healing and life. That same emblem of judgment becomes, in Christ's words, the pattern for his own lifting up on the cross, where the symbol of sin is transformed into the means of salvation for all who believe.

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Symbolizes
Satan, sin, and paradoxically - Christ lifted up for healing

Old Testament Type

The bronze serpent on a pole that healed those who looked at it (Numbers 21:8-9)

New Testament Fulfillment

Jesus lifted up on the cross - 'as Moses lifted up the serpent...that whosoever believeth in him should not perish' (John 3:14-15)

Key Passages

The Serpent in Eden

Genesis 3:1-5

N1ow the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Bronze Serpent

Numbers 21:8-9

A8nd 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.

As Moses Lifted Up

John 3:14-15

A14nd 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.

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Did You Know?

1

The serpent in the garden brought death. The bronze serpent in the wilderness brought healing to those who looked. Jesus said He would be lifted up like the serpent so that everyone who believes in Him would have eternal life.

2

The serpent on the pole was not magic. It was a picture of sin judged and the only way of escape. Looking was believing. The same is true of the cross.

3

Satan is the serpent of old. Jesus crushed his head on the cross. The symbol of death became the symbol of victory. The serpent is defeated, not by our strength, but by the Seed of the woman.