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.
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.”
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Have you ever wondered about the meaning of the Medical logo with a snake on a pole? Google may attribute this to a Greek god or legend, but if you read the above verses, it is obvious that these images were clearly inspired by scripture.
God’s use of serpent symbolism for healing was appropriate for the Israelites, as they associated serpents with life and healing, due to their regenerative healing powers through their ability to shed their skin.
When the Israelites kept moaning and complaining about their mundane life in the Wilderness, God sent poisonous snakes to bite them. But when Moses prayed for them to be healed, God gave the instruction in Numbers 21:8 (see above). God was teaching them something about faith. It is illogical to think that looking at a bronze image of the cause could heal anyone, but that is exactly what God did. The saving power came not from the bronze serpent itself, but from God, who saved the people when they trusted Him by looking at the bronze serpent. The revelation here is that God doesn’t always prevent or remove the things that may cause our death or when we are ‘bitten’ by sin, but He does promise that we will be cured from death, and healed from the poison of sin.
In the John 3:14 reference, we see that the bronze serpent was a foreshadowing of Jesus. The serpent, a symbol of sin, was lifted up from the earth and put on a pole, just like Jesus was lifted up with his crucifixion at Calvary. Jesus became sin in order to take away the sin from everyone who would look to Him in faith, just like the Israelites had to look to the up-raised symbol in the wilderness.
Jesus, in the place of the snake, is the source of our healing, the source of rescue from the poison of sin, and from the wrath of God. Jesus in the place of the snake is portrayed as evil and a curse. The snake on the pole is a picture of God’s curse on the people. So it was with Jesus. In becoming like the snake, He was the embodiment of our sin, and the embodiment of our curse, and in becoming sin and curse for us, He took ours away.
When we look to Jesus, we are promised a new life or a rebirth, which symbolises how a snake shed’s its skin in order to get a new one. The grace of the new birth is in our seeing Jesus Christ lifted up.
God redeemed a symbol of evil (the serpent) and turned it into a symbol of salvation. Just as the Israelites had looked in faith on the serpent on a pole to be saved from death, we also look in faith to the crucified Saviour in order receive healing and eternal life.
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