Christ came as the reality of the bronze serpent; He was lifted up on the cross, and we – the serpent-bitten men, those who became serpentine in nature – can look at Him and not die but live! Hallelujah!
This week in our deeper study of the book of Numbers we come to ch. 21 and in particular we want to see, Christ as Typified by the Bronze Serpent.
Not only the positive things in the Bible are a type of Christ but also some seemingly negative things, things that we may not regard as positive, are also a type of Christ.
In John 3 the Lord used this portion in Num. 21 to refer to Himself, and in 1 Cor. 10 Paul also talked about this instance of the bronze serpent.
The context in Num. 21 is that the people of Israel became impatient on the way, their soul became short, and they complained against God.
They had earlier contended for the water, which was fair because they were thirsty, so God gave them to drink; but now they were just impatient, and they spoke against Moses and against God saying, Why did you bring us out to Egypt to die in this wilderness, for there’s no food and water, and our soul loathes this light bread.
By calling manna, light bread, they considered it worthless and contemptible.
So Jehovah sent fiery serpents, and they bit them, and many of the people died; and the people came to Moses and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against Jehovah and you; pray that Jehovah would take the serpents away.
Moses prayed, and God told him to make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.
As Paul said in 1 Cor. 10:5-9, these things occurred as examples so that we would not lust after evil things even as they also lusted, neither would we test Christ as some of them did, and they were destroyed by serpents in the wilderness.
They tried the Lord to the uttermost so that God’s judgement came in. But when they looked at the bronze serpent, they lived.
May we forget about our situation, our condition, about tomorrow or the past, and just look at Christ as the bronze serpent!
To look doesn’t mean that we just glance but that we look attentively, expectantly, with a steady absorbing gaze; we look to Jesus attentively, expectantly, and with a steady and absorbing gaze, so that we may live!
May we not bewitched by anything or anyone else but look away unto Jesus (Gal. 3:1; Heb. 12:2). Jesus always encourages us to look away unto Him; we need to look away to Jesus with undivided attention by turning away from every other object.
Christ is like an immense magnet drawing all His seekers to Himself when we look away unto Him! Amen!
In John 3, when the Lord was talking to Nicodemus concerning being born again, He said, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Nicodemus did not understand what the Lord was saying, even though he was an educated, ethical, dignified, teacher of the law; the Lord wanted to show him that he needed another life – the divine life, because he was serpentine!
For just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up; Christ had to be lifted up on the cross as the real bronze serpent as a substitute for all sinners, and everyone who believes into Him may have eternal life (John 3:14-16).
The Lord going to the cross as the bronze serpent in the likeness of the flesh of sin but without the sin of the flesh, also released His life from within Him; this was the manifestation of His love to the whole world. Hallelujah!
Christ as the Reality of the Bronze Serpent was Lifted up on the Cross: Look at Him and Live!
This story in Num. 21:4-9 is quite significant and applicable to our Christian life today.
When the children of Israel sinned against God, He sent fiery serpents and they were bitten; then, God told Moses to lift up a bronze serpent on a pole on their behalf for God’s judgment so that by them looking upon the serpent all might live.
God didn’t take away the fiery serpents – He provided a way for His people to look and live.
The bronze serpent typifies Christ (John 3:14) and the pole typifies the cross (1 Pet. 2:24); Christ came as the reality of the bronze serpent, and He bore up our sins in His body on the tree, so that we having died to sins might live to righteousness (1 Pet. 2:24).
Bronze, in typology, signifies judgement; the bronze serpent had the form of a serpent but not the poisonous nature of a serpent.
In the same way, Christ came as the reality of the bronze serpent, and He was lifted up on the cross (John 8:28); He said that, when men will lift up the Son of Man, then they will know that He is – when He was lifted up on the cross, all will know that He is the One who is, the Triune God, the Eternal One!
Christ came in the likeness of the flesh of sin yet without participating in any way in the poisonous sin of the flesh (Rom. 8:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15), just as the bronze serpent had only the likeness of the serpent but not its nature and poison.
God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, and He condemned sin in the flesh. Just as the bronze serpent was in the likeness of the serpent but without its poison, so the Lord didn’t have the sin of the flesh.
This is quite mysterious: God became flesh, He came into the sphere of the flesh to destroy Satan, coming into the territory of Satan to destroy him in the flesh. He went to the cross in the likeness of the flesh of sin yet without any sin in the flesh.
How can this be? This is a mystery, which the Bible calls, the mystery of godliness – God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:15).
So Christ came as the reality of the bronze serpent and was lifted upon on the cross, and now we can look at Him and live!
Yes, the serpent bit us, and yes, we have become serpentine in our very nature, for sin dwells in our flesh, but we can look at the One who has been lifted up, we can gaze on Him and be infused with Him, and we can be saved and live!
Thank You Lord Jesus for coming as the reality of the bronze serpent to be lifted up on the cross and die to condemn sin in the flesh and destroy Satan through the cross. Hallelujah, we can look away unto Jesus, the One lifted up on the cross, and we can live! Amen, Lord, we look away with undivided attention by turning away from every other object to You. We look away unto Jesus, being full of expectation and with a steady absorbing gaze that we may be saved and live! Hallelujah for our dear Lord Jesus Christ who is the reality of the bronze serpent!
All Men are Serpentine in Nature by being Bitten by Satan, the Serpent; God Trapped Satan in Man’s Flesh to Destroy him
In Genesis 3 we see how Satan, the serpent, came and injected his nature into man’s flesh; man’s fall was not just man disobeying God and being punished by Him but rather, by man conversing with Satan, the evil one’s very nature was injected into him.
Now all the descendants of Adam are born “bitten” by the old serpent, the devil. In God’s eyes, the entire fallen human race consists of serpentine beings with the poison of the old serpent in their fallen nature; by birth we are serpentine, for sin dwells in us.
The Lord Jesus revealed in John 8:44 that the devil is the father of sinners; in our nature we are children of the old serpent, the devil (1 John 3:10). We are either children of God or children of the devil – there’s no third thing.
In Matt. 12:34 the Lord Jesus called the Pharisees “the offspring of vipers”, and in 23:33 He called them, “Serpents! Brood of vipers!”
The devil is the ancient serpent (Rev. 12:9; 20:2), and all sinners are serpents, the offspring of vipers; in our fallen nature we’re not merely sinful – we are serpentine.
So in Rom. 7 Paul clearly tells us that there’s another person in him (and in us all), the personified sin, which makes him do things he doesn’t want to do. Satan as personified sin is in our flesh; sin can deceive people (v. 11) and it can dwell in them and cause them to do things against their will (vv. 17, 20).
Sin is alive in us (v. 9) and it is exceedingly active, so it must be the evil nature of Satan, the evil one, dwelling in us, acting in us, and working in us as fallen men. Oh Lord Jesus!
This situation seems quite desperate, but God is wise, for He Himself became a man and put upon Himself this flesh, the likeness of the flesh of sin, and He brought it to the cross.
Satan thought he succeeded when he injected his evil nature into man, but this only gave the Lord an opportunity and an easy way to put Satan to death.
For example, if a mouse is loose in the house, it’s not easy to catch him, and it’s easy for him to do a lot of damage; but if we set a bait and a trap, the mouse can easily be caught.
When the mouse eats the bait, he may think he finally got what he wanted – a delicious food, but he’s caught in the trap, and it’s easy for the owner of the house to put him to death.
Similarly, Satan is like a naughty evil mouse running in the universe, but when he entered into man, he was caught and imprisoned in man. Man was “the bait” for Satan to be caught and put to death.
Christ came in the likeness of the flesh of sin as the reality of the bronze serpent; He put on the serpent’s form and brought it to the cross so that He might bring to naught him who has the might of death, that is, the devil.
Christ’s death on the cross was a devil-destroying death (Heb. 2:14). Man was the trap, Satan was trapped within man, and through incarnation God put the corrupted man on Himself brought him to the cross, and at the same time He brought Satan to the cross and destroyed him there.
This is why Satan is afraid of the cross, and this is why the Lord told us to take up our cross; the cross is the way to overcome Satan!
Where is Satan today? Satan is in us – in our flesh; Satan as sin dwells in our flesh (Gal. 5:24). But praise the Lord, Christ crucified the flesh with its passions and its lusts. Satan was put on the cross, then buried, and then Christ left him there in death, imprisoned until he will be fully destroyed.
Just as Israel went in the Red Sea and Pharaoh with his armies followed, and then only Israel came out while Pharaoh and his armies remained there, so Christ brought Satan and sin with Him in death, and He left them there when He rose up in resurrection! Hallelujah!
Christ brought man with Satan into the grave, and He brought man out of the grave in resurrection, leaving Satan buried in the grave; now this resurrected man is one with Christ!
Praise You Lord for Your wisdom and Your wonderful work as the reality of the bronze serpent! Even though Satan injected his evil nature into us and made us serpentine in nature like Him, Christ came in the likeness of the flesh of Sin and destroyed sin and Satan in the flesh! Praise the Lord! Now Satan has been destroyed, put to death, and left in the grave, and we who were crucified with Christ are also resurrected with Him to be a new man in the resurrection of Christ! Thank You Lord Jesus! Praise You!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Cristos a venit ca realitatea șarpelui de bronz și l-a distrus pe Satan pe cruce.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1984, vol. 3,”God’s New Testament Economy,” ch. 3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Numbers (2), week 6, Christ as Typified by the Bronze Serpent.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Look away from all the past—Hallelujah, / Look away from both the good and sin; / To the living One hold fast—Hallelujah, / Look away from everything to Him. (Hymns #1206)
# Brazen serpent, to Thee looking, / Son of Man, uplifted high. / Thou didst bear the flesh of sin in / Likeness on the cross to die. / Old creation’s termination; / Finished, Satan and the world, / Finished Satan and the world! (Hymns #1089)
# My old man has been crucified with Him, / With all its foul corruption deep within; / And buried too its nature serpentine, / Completely finished—this great fact is mine, / I hold it fast. (Hymns #1179)
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