The Passion: The Brazen Serpent — Looking Unto Jesus

Study The Word

Numbers 21:8–9
And 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. 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.”

There is a prophecy from the Torah, from the law of Moses, that gives us one of the most powerful pictures of what Jesus accomplished on the cross. The children of Israel had sinned. They had spoken against God and against Moses. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died. The people came to Moses repenting, crying out, “We have sinned! Pray unto the Lord that He take away the serpents from us!” And Moses prayed for the people. But God did not take away the serpents. Instead, God gave a different instruction. He said, “Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole.”

נחש  nachash  serpent  –  serpent, snake; used figuratively of sin, the curse, the enemy

 God did not remove the problem. He provided a solution within the problem. He said, “Set the serpent upon a pole, and everyone that is bitten, when he looks upon it, he shall live.” This is incredible! The very image of the thing that was killing them became the instrument of their healing when it was lifted up. And Jesus Himself referenced this prophecy in John chapter 3 verse 14 when He said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” Jesus was telling us that what happened in Numbers 21 was a prophetic picture of His crucifixion!

αφοράω  aphorao  looking unto  –  to fix one’s eyes upon, to turn the eyes away from other things and gaze steadily at

Now think about this: when Jesus was hanging on that cross, the Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin.” God made Jesus to be sin. When God makes something, it becomes that thing. So Jesus, the sinless one, was made sin. He became the embodiment of every sin, every sickness, every curse, every iniquity of the whole world. Just as the serpent was lifted up on the pole, so Jesus was lifted up on the cross, bearing the sin of all mankind. And everyone who looks upon Him — everyone who believes in Him — shall live! Hallelujah!

υψόω  hypsoo  to lift up  –  to lift up on high, to exalt, to elevate; used of the crucifixion of Christ

And now the Apostle Paul takes this even further in Hebrews 12:2 when he says, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” Looking unto Jesus! Just as the children of Israel had to look upon the brazen serpent to live, we look unto Jesus! How do we look unto Jesus today? We look at Him as we look at His Word – the gospel.  We look at Him today as we look at the Words regarding His death burial and resurrection; in the law, the prophets, the psalms, the gospels and the epistles. That is what it means to behold the glory of God as in a mirror. And as we behold the glory of God as in a mirror we are changed, transfigured from glory to glory into the same image of the living Word of God. We fix our eyes upon the One who was lifted up for us, just like we are doing now in this series. And as we are looking upon Him, we don’t see condemnation — we see salvation. We don’t see sickness and disease — we see healing and divine health. We don’t see death — we see eternal life. We don’t see the curse — we see the one who became a curse for us so that we could receive the blessing. Haha! That is the gospel! That is the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ! The serpent on the pole is a picture of Jesus on the cross — and everyone who looks upon Him lives. Glory to God!

Pray The Word
Heavenly Father, I thank You for the prophetic picture of the brazen serpent that pointed to the cross of Jesus Christ. I thank You that just as everyone who looked upon the serpent lived, so I look unto Jesus and I have eternal life. I fix my eyes upon Him, the author and finisher of my faith, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Speak The Word
I look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith! He was lifted up on the cross for me, and because I behold Him, I live! Every curse is broken. Every sickness is defeated. I am healed, I am delivered, and I am made whole because the Son of Man was lifted up for me. I fix my eyes upon Jesus and I walk in life, in the name of Jesus Christ!