Reference: Serpent, Brazen
Fausets
Nu 21:4-9; Joh 3:14-15. The apocryphal Wisdom (Wis 16:5-12) says "they were troubled for a small season that they might be admonished having a sign of salvation ... for he that turned himself toward it was not saved by the thing that he saw, but by Thee that art the Saviour of all." The brazen serpent typified the Son of man, in that
(1) the brazen serpent had the form without the venom of the deadly serpent; just as Jesus was "in the likeness of sinful flesh" yet "without sin" (Ro 8:3), "made sin for us" though He "knew no sin" (2Co 5:21); the brazen serpent seemed the most unlikely means of curing the serpents' bites; so the condemned One seemed most unlikely to save the condemned.
(2) The brazen serpent lifted up on the pole so as to be visible with its bright brass (which also is typical: Re 1:15) to the remotest Israelite answers to Jesus "evidently set forth before the eyes, crucified" (Ga 3:1), so that "all the ends of the earth" by "looking unto" Him may "be saved" (Isa 45:22), "lifted up from the earth," and so "drawing all men unto Him" (Joh 12:32-34).
(3) The cure of the body by looking naturally typifies the cure of the soul by looking spiritually; faith is the eye of the soul turned to the Saviour (Heb 12:2), a look from however far off saves (Heb 7:25; Eph 2:17; Ac 2:39); the bitten Israelite, however distant, by a look was healed. The serpent form, impaled as the trophy of the conqueror, implies evil, temporal and spiritual, overcome. Wisdom (of which the serpent is the symbol) obeying God is the source of healing; as wisdom severed from God envenoms and degrades man. Moses' serpent rod was the instrument of power overcoming the magicians' serpents (Ex 7:10-12). (See NEHUSHTAN on the worship of the relic; so the cross of Christ itself was perverted into an idol.)
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And Moses goeth in -- Aaron also -- unto Pharaoh, and they do so as Jehovah hath commanded; and Aaron casteth his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it becometh a monster. And Pharaoh also calleth for wise men, and for sorcerers; and the scribes of Egypt, they also, with their flashings, do so, read more. and they cast down each his rod, and they become monsters, and the rod of Aaron swalloweth their rods;
And they journey from mount Hor, the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom, and the soul of the people is short in the way, and the people speak against God, and against Moses, 'Why hast thou brought us up out of Egypt to die in a wilderness? for there is no bread, and there is no water, and our soul hath been weary of this light bread.' read more. And Jehovah sendeth among the people the burning serpents, and they bite the people, and much people of Israel die; and the people come in unto Moses and say, 'We have sinned, for we have spoken against Jehovah, and against thee; pray unto Jehovah, and He doth turn aside from us the serpent;' and Moses prayeth in behalf of the people. And Jehovah saith unto Moses, 'Make for thee a burning serpent, and set it on an ensign; and it hath been, every one who is bitten and hath seen it -- he hath lived. And Moses maketh a serpent of brass, and setteth it on the ensign, and it hath been, if the serpent hath bitten any man, and he hath looked expectingly unto the serpent of brass -- he hath lived.
Turn to Me, and be saved, all ends of the earth, For I am God, and there is none else.
'And as Moses did lift up the serpent in the wilderness, so it behoveth the Son of Man to be lifted up, that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during,
and I, if I may be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself.' And this he said signifying by what death he was about to die; read more. the multitude answered him, 'We heard out of the law that the Christ doth remain -- to the age; and how dost thou say, That it behoveth the Son of Man to be lifted up? who is this -- the Son of Man?'
for to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all those afar off, as many as the Lord our God shall call.'
for what the law was not able to do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, His own Son having sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, did condemn the sin in the flesh,
for him who did not know sin, in our behalf He did make sin, that we may become the righteousness of God in him.
O thoughtless Galatians, who did bewitch you, not to obey the truth -- before whose eyes Jesus Christ was described before among you crucified?
and having come, he did proclaim good news -- peace to you -- the far-off and the nigh,
whence also he is able to save to the very end, those coming through him unto God -- ever living to make intercession for them.
looking to the author and perfecter of faith -- Jesus, who, over-against the joy set before him -- did endure a cross, shame having despised, on the right hand also of the throne of God did sit down;
and his feet like to fine brass, as in a furnace having been fired, and his voice as a sound of many waters,
Hastings
Nu 21:4-9 relates that Moses was commanded by God to make a serpent of brass (or rather, of bronze) and to set it upon a standard (RV), that those who had been bitten by the serpents might look on it and be healed. This was in harmony with a wide-spread belief that the image of a hurtful thing drives the evil away. In the absence of a direct statement we cannot say whether it was Jahweh who was worshipped under the form of the bronze serpent of 2Ki 18:4
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And they journey from mount Hor, the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom, and the soul of the people is short in the way, and the people speak against God, and against Moses, 'Why hast thou brought us up out of Egypt to die in a wilderness? for there is no bread, and there is no water, and our soul hath been weary of this light bread.' read more. And Jehovah sendeth among the people the burning serpents, and they bite the people, and much people of Israel die; and the people come in unto Moses and say, 'We have sinned, for we have spoken against Jehovah, and against thee; pray unto Jehovah, and He doth turn aside from us the serpent;' and Moses prayeth in behalf of the people. And Jehovah saith unto Moses, 'Make for thee a burning serpent, and set it on an ensign; and it hath been, every one who is bitten and hath seen it -- he hath lived. And Moses maketh a serpent of brass, and setteth it on the ensign, and it hath been, if the serpent hath bitten any man, and he hath looked expectingly unto the serpent of brass -- he hath lived.
And Adonijah sacrificeth sheep and oxen and fatlings near the stone of Zoheleth, that is by En-Rogel, and calleth all his brethren, sons of the king, and for all the men of Judah, servants of the king;
he hath turned aside the high places, and broken in pieces the standing-pillars, and cut down the shrine, and beaten down the brazen serpent that Moses made, for unto these days were the sons of Israel making perfume to it, and he calleth it 'a piece of brass.'
And I go out through the gate of the valley by night, and unto the front of the fountain of the dragon, and unto the gate of the dunghill, and I am measuring about the walls of Jerusalem, that are broken down, and its gates consumed with fire.
'And as Moses did lift up the serpent in the wilderness, so it behoveth the Son of Man to be lifted up,
Watsons
SERPENT, BRAZEN. This was a figure of a serpent, called above the seraph, which Moses caused to be put on the top of a pole, Nu 21:9, that all those bitten by the serpent, who should look upon this image, might be healed. Our Saviour, in the Gospel of St. Joh 3:14, declares, that "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up," alluding to his own death, which, through faith, was to give life to the world. The brazen serpent was preserved among the Israelites down to the time of Hezekiah; who, being informed that the people paid a superstitious worship to it, had it broken in pieces, and by way of contempt gave it the name of Nehushtan, that is to say, a brazen bauble or trifle, 2Ki 18:4. See TYPE.
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And Moses maketh a serpent of brass, and setteth it on the ensign, and it hath been, if the serpent hath bitten any man, and he hath looked expectingly unto the serpent of brass -- he hath lived.
he hath turned aside the high places, and broken in pieces the standing-pillars, and cut down the shrine, and beaten down the brazen serpent that Moses made, for unto these days were the sons of Israel making perfume to it, and he calleth it 'a piece of brass.'
'And as Moses did lift up the serpent in the wilderness, so it behoveth the Son of Man to be lifted up,