One of the things that fascinated me about the Old Testament, particularly the temple and its structure, but also some of the stories in the Old Testament was how it so symbolic of Jesus and what he did on the cross. One of the examples of this is in John 3:14 when it says, "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." You may not be familiar with the story. It can be found in Numbers 21:4-9.
The story goes that the people grumbled again against Moses and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" This is after the experience they had where they saw Moses produce water from a rock as mentioned in Numbers 20. They were not just doubting Moses, but this statement implies that God was intentionally misleading them into the desert to kill them. Their words express not just a lack of faith, but a hostility toward Moses.
The end result is that God allows snakes to enter the camp and they begin to kill some people. As a result, the people humble themselves and ask for Moses to pray for them. When he does he gets specific instructions from God to make a bronze serpent. This serpent is symbolic in some ways of Jesus.
Bronze is symbolic of judgment. In the outer court of the temple near where animals were sacrificed there was only instruments of bronze. In the inner court, after the sacrifice had been made, all article were made of gold. There is no mention of bronze in the inner court because there is no more judgment. That is also the case for the believer
The snake was cursed in the garden in Genesis. It is also symbolic of being cursed or judged.
This was lifted up. Jesus was also lifted up on a cross.
As many as looked at the snake were healed. As many as look to Jesus are healed of the curse of sin and spiritual death. But, it takes an act of faith to look.
In Number 21:9 it says, "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, he lived."
