The bronze snake in Numbers 21 was God’s strange but simple cure for the Israelites who were dying from snakebites in the wilderness: anyone who looked at it lived. Centuries later, Jesus said this story pointed to him. Just as Moses lifted up the snake, Jesus would be lifted up on the cross so that everyone who looks to him in faith can be saved from the deadly bite of sin.
A Strange Cure in the Wilderness
The Israelites were on their way to the Promised Land, but they were tired of the journey and started grumbling against God and Moses. They complained about the food God was providing and even accused him of bringing them out of Egypt to die. In response, God sent venomous snakes into the camp, and many people were bitten and died. The people realized their sin, asked Moses to pray, and God gave an unexpected answer.
Numbers 21:8-9 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.” 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.
That command must have sounded confusing. Snakes had been a symbol of evil ever since the Garden of Eden, and God had just told his people not to make carved images. Now he was telling Moses to make a snake and lift it up for everyone to see. The cure didn’t require a medicine, a ritual, or a sacrifice from the people. It just required simple faith: look and live.
A Picture of the Cross
This story might have stayed a strange footnote in Israel’s history if Jesus hadn’t brought it up. One night, a religious leader named Nicodemus came to Jesus with questions. In the middle of their conversation, just before the famous words of John 3:16, Jesus pointed back to Numbers 21.
John 3:14-15 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
The bronze snake was a foreshadowing of the cross. The Israelites were dying from snakebites, and we are dying from sin. They were saved by looking at a symbol of the very thing that was killing them, and we are saved by looking to Jesus, who took our sin on himself. Being “lifted up” wasn’t about praising Jesus in worship; it was about his body being lifted up on a cross. The apostle Paul put it this way:
2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
We can’t cure ourselves any more than those Israelites could. The only thing we can do is look to the one who can save us. If you’d like to learn more about putting your faith in Jesus, check out How can I become a Christian?
When a Symbol Becomes an Idol
There’s one more twist in case you missed it. The bronze snake stayed with the Israelites for centuries. Eventually, the people stopped seeing it as a reminder of God’s mercy and started worshiping it. When King Hezekiah led a revival in Judah, he had to deal with it.
2 Kings 18:4 He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)
It’s a sobering reminder of how easily good things can become idols. A gift from God, a tradition, or even a religious symbol can slowly take the place of God himself. Every generation needs to keep coming back to the simple message behind the symbol: we are saved by looking to Jesus in faith, not by anything we can hold in our hands.
The Takeaway
The bronze snake in Numbers 21 was a picture of the cross. Just as the Israelites lived by looking at the snake on the pole, we find life by looking to Jesus in faith. And like Hezekiah, we need to make sure no symbol or tradition takes the place of the Savior it points to.
