So Moses made a snake of fiery copper and put it on top of a flagpole. Anyone bitten by a snake who then looked at the copper snake lived. (Numbers 21:9 ESV)
Snakes
Is not this an odd story?
It seems to reek of superstition, magic, mystery, and mumbo-jumbo.
But it is actually a richly hued metaphor of the Savior, Jesus.
The episode begins with the People of God sinning. Sin inexorably leads to death, and in Numbers 21 that death came in the form of poisonous serpents. (That sounds so much worse than poisonous snakes!) The People of God, as often happens when the catastrophic effects of our sins strike us, repented. They cried out to God, “Help us! Save us!”
And God instructed Moses to put a copper snake on a pole, and command that all who suffered under the poison LOOK at the copper snake on a pole. And if they did, God would heal them.
Of course, this event is the origin of the modern Medical Insignia, the Caduceus, a symbol of medicine and healing.
But the healing of the Israelites was more than medicine.
It demonstrated, early on, how God would save His people from the effects of our sins.
First, God takes the serpent, reminiscent of that Edenic Serpent who brought the house down, and now makes it a method of Redemption. God does that sort of thing a lot.
Second, the snake up on a pole is made of copper. Copper is associated with blood, and it is the shed blood of the Christ that purchases our forgiveness.
Third, the copper (bloody) serpent (sin’s origin, repaired) is put up on a pole. Probably a pole with a bar across the top. Probably similar to a cross.
I like to imagine a lot of the People of God, when they understood that their Innocent Messiah took the snake-guilt on Himself, shedding His copperish blood, hanging on a cross like that old pole… were astonished.
That healing event was a precursor of the Healing Power of our Savior.