Jesus was compared to the serpent of moses

JESUS WAS COMPARED TO THE SERPENT OF MOSES
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
John 3:14 14Justas Moses lifted up the snake in the
wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
GreatTexts of the Bible
Look And Live
And the Lord saidunto Moses, Makethee a fiery serpent, and setit upon a
standard: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he seeth
it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon the standard:
and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he lookedunto
the serpentof brass, he lived.—Numbers 21:8-9.
[And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, evenso must the Son of
man be lifted up: that whosoeverbelievethmay in him have eternal life.—
John 3:14-15.]
1. While the children of Israelwere roaming homeless through the wilderness,
their heart, we read, failed them because of the way, and, as was their wont,
they vented their vexation in angry thoughts and rebellious words against
God. On this occasionGodsent among them judgment in the form of fiery
serpents. The bite of these serpents was deadly, so that when a man was once
bitten by their venomous fangs his life was forfeited, and, although he did not
drop down dead on the instant, in one sense he was a dead man already. What

a moment of agony and terror it must have been as all around unfortunate
victims were being attackedby these messengers ofdeath! In this terrible
emergencythe people cried to God, and in doing so confessed, “We have
sinned”; and in answerto their prayer Moses wasinstructed to make a fiery
serpent of brass and setit on a pole, and it should come to pass that, if any
were bitten by a fiery serpent, on looking at this they would live.
They did well, when they came to Moses,and said, “We have sinned, for we
have spokenagainstthe Lord, and againstthee.” So far as I know, it is the
only real expressionof true sorrow and willing confessionwhich we find in the
wilderness story. “We have sinned.” And if so, it is well worth while for us to
notice, that this was the occasionfor God’s giving to them the greatsign of
mercy to which Jesus Christ pointed as a sign of Himself. So it is that God
gives grace to the humble, encouragesthe contrite, is found of those who
seek.1[Note:E. S. Talbot.]
2. Recalling this incident of Israel, Jesus found in it a type and prophecy of
Himself. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, evenso must the
Son of man be lifted up: that whosoeverbelievethin him should not perish,
but have eternallife.”
It is very instructive to notice the New Testamentuse of the Old Testament
record of Moses.His history and its incidents are constantly referred to as
illustrations and types of Christ. St. Paul again and again finds his
illustrations in the life of Moses,and much more than illustrations. Not with
any curious fancy is it that his sturdy logic finds the materials for two
compactarguments in these chapters. The manna, the rock, the veil on the
face of Moses,are all immediately connectedwith Jesus Christ. St. John, too,
in the Book ofRevelation, constantlyfinds here the imagery by which he sets
forth the things which are to come. And the Church in all ages has found in
Egypt and the wilderness journey to the goodly land a very Pilgrim’s

Progress. No type is more familiar, no illustration more constant. The
arrangements of Jewishworship are full of predictions of Christ—living
pictures of our salvation. The Lord Jesus is the sacrifice forour sins—the
Lamb of God which beareth awaythe sins of the world. He is the Mercy-seat,
as the word propitiation is rendered in the marginal reference. He is the High
Priestwho ever liveth to make intercessionforus, and who is able to save to
the uttermost all that come to God by Him.2 [Note:M. G. Pearse.]
The old is always becoming the new. “As Moses … so the Son of man”; as the
old, so the new; as the historicalso the prophetical. All the pattern of the
spiritual temple has been shown in the mountain, and has been frayed out in
shapely and significantclouds which themselves were parables. “Thatthe
Scripture might be fulfilled.” History always has something more to do than it
seems to have; it does not only record the event of the day, it redeems old
subjects, old vows and oaths; it takes up what seems to be the exhaustedpast
and turns it into the present and energetic actionof the moment. As Moses, as
Jonah, as Solomon, as the bold Esaias;it is always a going-back upon the
sacredpastand eating up the food that was there provided. Do not live too
much in what we call the present; do not live upon the bubble of the hour;
have some city of the mind, some far-awaystrong temple-sanctuary made
noble by associations and memories of the tenderestkind. You could easilybe
dislodgedfrom some sophism of yesterday. If you are living in the little
programmes that were published but last night you have but a poor lodgment,
and to-morrow you will be found naked, destitute, and hungry. Always go
back to the “As Moses, as David, as Daniel, as Jeremiah,” and see in every
culminating event a confirmation of this holy word—“thatthe Scripture
might be fulfilled.” The plan was drawn before the building was commenced;
the specificationwas allwritten out before the builder handled his hammer
and his trowel; we do but work out old specifications—old, but not decayed;
old with the venerableness oftruth. See that you stand upon a broad rock, and
do not try to launch your lifeship upon a bubble.1 [Note: JosephParker.]

We have here—
I. A Pressing Danger.
i. Deathfrom the bite of a Serpent—“The Lord sent fiery serpents among the
people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israeldied” (Numbers
21:6).
ii. Perishing in Sin—“might not perish” (John 3:15 A.V.; “should not perish,”
Numbers 3:16).
II. A Way of Escape.
i. A BrazenSerpent lifted up on a pole—“Makethee a fiery serpent, and setit
upon a standard” (Numbers 21:8).
ii. A Sin-bearer lifted up on the Cross—“As Moseslifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, evenso must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14).
III. How to use the Way of Escape.
i. Looking to the Serpent—“If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked
unto the serpentof brass, he lived” (Numbers 21:9).

ii. Believing in the Sin-bearer—“thatwhosoeverbelieveth in him,” R.V. “that
whosoeverbelievethmay in him have eternal life” (John 3:15).
IV. The GoodEffect.
i. Life—“Whenhe lookedunto the serpentof brass, he lived” (Numbers 21:9).
ii. Eternal Life—“that whosoeverbelievethmay in him have eternal life”
(John 3:15).
I
A Pressing Danger
The dangeris—(i.) Deathfrom the bite of a serpent(Numbers 21:6); (ii.)
“perishing” in sin (John 3:16).
i. The Serpent and Death
1. The district through which the Israelites were passing is infested at the
present day with venomous reptiles of various kinds, and this seems to have
been its characterin the time of Moses.It is impossible clearlyto identify
these “fiery serpents” with any of the severalspecies now known, or to say
why they receivedthe appellation “fiery.” The name may have been given
them on accountof their colour, or their ferocity, or, inasmuch as the word is
rendered “deadly” in the Septuagint, and “burning” in some other versions, it

may indicate the burning sensationproduced by their bite, and its venomous
and fatal character.
2. The bite was fatal. “Muchpeople died.” It was no light affliction which was
but for a moment, a passing inconvenience that wore away with time; no
sicknesswas it from which prudence and care could recoverthem. Not as
when Paul shook off his venomous beastinto the crackling flames, and it
perished there. He who was bitten died: old and young, strong man and frail
woman. “Ah,” said some of those who are always ready to make light of any
illness unless it is their own, “he will get over it; he is young, and he has youth
on his side.” “See,”saidanother, “what a splendid constitution he has; he will
mend.” “Come,” saidanother, “we must hope for the best.” But much people
died.
In October, 1852, Gurling, one of the keepers ofthe reptiles in the Zoological
Gardens, was about to part with a friend who was going to Australia, and
according to customhe must needs drink with him. He drank considerable
quantities of gin, and although he would probably have been in a great
passionif any one had calledhim drunk, yet reasonand common sense had
evidently been overpowered. He went back to his post at the gardens in an
excited state. He had some months before seenan exhibition of snake-
charming, and this was on his poor muddled brain. He must emulate the
Egyptians, and play with serpents. First he took out of its cage a Morocco
venom-snake, put it round his neck, twistedit about, and whirled it round
about him. Happily for him it did not rouse itself so as to bite. The assistant-
keepercried out, “ForGod’s sake, put back the snake,” but the foolish man
replied, “I am inspired.” Putting back the venom-snake, he exclaimed, “Now
for the cobra!” This deadly serpentwas somewhattorpid with the coldof the
previous night, and therefore the rash man placedit in his bosomtill it
revived, and glided downwardtill its head appeared below the back of his
waistcoat. He took it by the body, about a footfrom the head, and then seized
it lowerdown by the other hand, intending to hold it by the tail and swing it

round his head. He held it for an instant opposite to his face, and like a flash
of lightning the serpent struck him betweenthe eyes. The blood streamed
down his face, and he called for help, but his companion fled in horror; and,
as he told the jury, he did not know how long he was gone, for he was “in a
maze.” When assistancearrived, Gurling was sitting on a chair, having
restoredthe cobra to its place. He said, “I am a dead man.” They put him in a
cab, and took him to the hospital. First his speechwent, he could only point to
his poor throat and moan; then his vision failed him, and lastly his hearing.
His pulse gradually sank, and in one hour from the time at which he had been
struck he was a corpse. There was only a little mark upon the bridge of his
nose, but the poisonspread over the body, and he was a dead Man 1:1 [Note:
C. H. Spurgeon.]
ii. Sin and Perishing
1. The bite of these serpents was mortal. The Israelites could have no question
about that, because in their own presence “much people of Israel died.” They
saw their own friends die of the snake-bite, and they helped to bury them.
They knew why they died, and were sure that it was because the venom of the
fiery serpents was in their veins. They were left almostwithout an excuse for
imagining that they could be bitten and yet live. Now, we know that many
have perished as the result of sin. We are not in doubt as to what sin will do,
for we are told by the infallible Word, that “the wages ofsin is death,” and,
yet again, “sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
Sin canhave but one ending—death—death—death. The soul that sinneth it
shall die, so rings the warning of God. How foolishly we talk of it! When it is
the child, we say, “He is young, and will grow better.” When it is the youth, we
say, “Let him sow his wild oats, and he will settle down.” Ah, what cruel folly!
What a man soweth, that shall he also reap. When it is middle age, we say,
“Yes, it is very sad, but he has a greatmany goodpoints, you know.” And

when he is an old man and dies, we say, “Well, we must hope for the best.”
And in upon this Babelthere comes the terrible note of doom: The wagesof
sin is death.1 [Note:M. G. Pearse.]
2. Is it always immediate? Notalways. May we not play with the serpent? We
may not. Are there not moments when the cruel beastis not cruel? Not one.
The sandwaspparalyses the beetle with his sting that he may, and that his
progeny may profit, by the paralysis. The sandwaspdoes not kill the insect,
but thrusts a sting into him, not fatally; the insectcan still lay eggs forthe
advantage of the progeny of the sandwasp. It is so with many serpentine
tricks; we are paralysedto be used, not to-day, but to be eaten in six months.
We are so paralysed that we will do this or do that and have joy in it and have
a banquet over it, ay, a foaming tankard of wine that froths out its own
mocking laugh. It is the sting of the sandwasp;it has thrust in that venomous
sting and hung us up for the next meeting, for the next occasion, just before
the bankruptcy comes, andthe devouring of our very soulby those whom we
have wronged.
The worstconsequencesofsin are sin itself, more sin. Drink and lust mean
strongerpassion, more ungovernable desire. Anger and temper mean as their
consequence a heartmore bitter, more ready for more wrath. Selfishways
mean less powereven to see whenwe are selfish or what selfishness is. Yes,
and not only is there deepening of the same sin, but other sins are bred from
it; cruelty, even murderous, out of lust and drink; cruelty, too, out of
selfishness;lying and slander out of the hot heart and ungoverned life of
anger. So it goes:sin breeding sin, sin deepening into more sin.2 [Note: E. S.
Talbot.]
It is necessaryto be ever vigilant, and, always looking on a trifling sin as one
of magnitude, to flee far from it; because if the virtuous deeds exceedthe
sinful acts by even the point of one of the hairs of the eyelashes, the spirit goes

to Paradise;but should the contrary be the case,it descends to hell.1 [Note:
“The Dabistan” in Field’s Book ofEasternWisdom, 121.]
3. What was the sin the Israelites were guilty of?
(1) The fiery serpents came among the people because they had despised
God’s way. “The soul of the people was much discouragedbecause ofthe
way.” It was God’s way; He had chosenit for them, and He had chosenit in
wisdom and mercy, but they murmured at it. As an old divine says, “It was
lonesome and longsome”;but still it was God’s way, and therefore it ought not
to have been loathsome. His pillar of fire and cloud went before them, and His
servants Moses andAaron led them like a flock, and they ought to have
followedcheerfully. Every step of their previous journey had been rightly
ordered, and they ought to have been quite sure that this compassing of the
land of Edom was rightly ordered too. But, no; they quarrelled with God’s
way, and wanted to have their own way. This is one of the greatstanding
follies of men; they cannotbe contentto waiton the Lord and keepHis way,
but prefer a will and a wayof their own.
(2) The people also quarrelled with God’s food. He gave them the best of the
best, for “men did eatangels’food”; but they called the manna by an
opprobrious title, which in the Hebrew has a sound of ridicule about it, and
even in our translation conveys the idea of contempt. They said, “Our soul
loatheth this light bread,” as if they thought it unsubstantial, and only fitted to
puff them out, because it was easyof digestion, and did not breed in them that
heat of blood and tendency to disease whicha heavier diet would have
brought with it. Being discontentedwith their God they quarrelled with the
bread which He set upon their table. This is another of man’s follies; his heart
refuses to feed upon God’s Word or believe God’s truth. He craves the flesh-
meat of carnal reason, the leeks andthe garlic of superstitious tradition, and

the cucumbers of speculation;he cannot bring his mind down to believe the
Word of God, or to accepttruth so simple, so fitted to the capacityof a child.
II
A Way of Escape
The way is—(i.) a brazen serpent lifted up on a pole; (ii.) a Sin-bearer lifted
up on the cross.
i. The Brazen Serpent
1. The command to make a brazen or copper serpent, and set it on some
conspicuous place, that to look on it might stay the effectof the poison, is
remarkable, not only as sanctioning the forming of an image, but as
associating healing powerwith a material object. Two questions must be
consideredseparately—Whatdid the method of cure sayto the men who
turned their bloodshot, languid eyes to it? and What does it mean for us, who
see it by the light of our Lord’s greatwords about it? As to the former
question, we have not to take into accountthe Old Testamentsymbolism
which makes the serpent the emblem of Satanor of sin. Serpents had bitten
the wounded. Here was one like them, but without poison, hanging harmless
on the pole. Surely that would declare that God had rendered innocuous the
else fatal creatures.
That to which they were to look was to be a serpent, but it was to be a serpent
triumphed over, as it were, not triumphing, and held up to view and exhibited
as a trophy. Around on every side the serpents are victorious, and the people

are dying. Here the serpent is representedas conquered and, we may say,
made a spectacle of, and the people who see it live. Strong were the serpents in
their power of death, but strongerwas God in His omnipotence of life, and the
life triumphed.
The sight of the brazen serpent was as though God’s spear had pierced the
plague, and held it aloft before their eyes, a vanquished, broken thing. It was
not one of the serpents;it was an image of all and any of them; it was the
whole serpent curse and plague in effigy.1 [Note: E. S. Talbot.]
2. How could a cure be wrought through merely looking at twisted brass? It
seemed, indeed, to be almost a mockeryto bid men look at the very thing
which had causedtheir misery. Shall the bite of a serpent be cured by looking
at a serpent? Shall that which brings death also bring life? But herein lay the
excellencyof the remedy, that it was of divine origin; for when Godordains a
cure He is by that very factbound to put potency into it. He will not devise a
failure or prescribe a mockery. It should always be enough for us to know that
God ordains a way of blessing us, for if He ordains, it must accomplishthe
promised result. We need not know how it will work, it is quite sufficient for
us that God’s mighty grace is pledged to make it bring forth good to our souls.
ii. The Sin-bearer
1. It is strange that the same which hurt should also heal; that from a serpent
should come the poison, and from a serpent the antidote of the poison; the
same inflicting the wound, and being in God’s ordinance appointed for the
healing of the wound. The history would sound a strange one, and would
suggestsome underlying mystery, even if it stoodalone, with no after-word of
Scripture claiming a specialsignificance forit. But it is strangerand more
mysterious still when we come to the Lord’s appropriation of it to Himself.

The Son of Man, healer and helper of the lost race whose nature He took,
compared to a serpent! Of what is the serpent the figure everywhere else in
Scripture? Notof Christ, but of Christ’s chiefestenemy; of the author of
death, not of the Prince of life. Disguisedin a serpent’s form, he won his first
success, andpoisonedat the fountain-head the life of all our race. His name is
“the Old Serpent”;while the wickedare a “serpentseed,” a “generationof
vipers,” as being in a manner born of him. Strange therefore and most
perplexing it is to find the whole symbolism of Scripture on this one occasion
reversed, and Christ, not Satan, likened to the serpent.
There is only one explanation which really meets the difficulties of the case. In
the words of St. Paul, to the effectthat God sent“His own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh, and for sin,” we have the key to the whole mystery.
2. The “sign of salvation,” as it is calledin the Book ofWisdom, which Moses
was commanded of God to make, was at once most like the serpents which
hurt the people, and also mostunlike them; most like in appearance, most
unlike in reality. In outward appearance it was most like, and doubtless was
fashionedof copperor shining brass that it might resemble their fiery aspect
the more closely;but in reality it was most unlike them, being, in the very
necessitiesofits nature, harmless and without venom; while they were most
harmful, filled with deadliestpoison. And thus it came to pass that the thing
which most resembled the serpents that had hurt them, the thing therefore
which they, the Israelites, must have been disposedto look at with the most
shuddering abhorrence, was yet appointed of God as the salve, remedy,
medicine, and antidote of all their hurts: and approved itself as such; for “it
came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent
of brass, he lived.” Unlikely remedy, and yet most effectual! And exactlythus
it befell in that great apparent paradox, that “foolishness ofGod,” the plan of
our salvation. As a serpent hurt and a serpenthealed, so in like manner, as by
man came death, by man should come also the resurrectionfrom the dead; as
by “one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of

one should many be made righteous”;“as in Adam all die, even so in Christ,”
the secondAdam, “shall all be made alive.”
3. That serpent, so like in many points to those which hurt the people, so like
in colour, in form, in outward show, was yet unlike in one, and that the most
essentialpoint of all—in this, namely, that it was not poisonous, as they were;
that there was no harm or hurt in it, as there was in them. Exactly so the
resemblance ofChrist to His fellow-men, most real in many things, for He was
“found in fashion as a man,” hungered, thirsted, was weary, was tempted,
suffered, died like other men, was yet in one point, and that the most essential,
only apparent. He only seemedto have that poison which they really had.
Wearing the sinner’s likeness, forHe came “in the likeness ofsinful flesh,”
bearing the sinner’s doom, “His face was more marred than any man’s,” He
was yet “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners”; altogetherclear
from every spot, taint, and infection of our fallen nature. What was, and
indeed could only be, negative in a dead thing, such as that brazen serpent, the
poor type and weak figure of the true, namely, the absence ofthe venom, this
was positive in Him, as the presence of the antidote. And thus out of this
Man’s curse came every man’s blessing, out of this Man’s death came every
other man’s life.
My predecessor, Dr. Gill, edited the works of Tobias Crisp, but Tobias Crisp
went further than Dr. Gill or any of us can approve; for in one place Crisp
calls Christ a sinner, though he does not mean that He ever sinned Himself.
He actually calls Christ a transgressor, and justifies himself by that passage,
“He was numbered with the transgressors.” MartinLuther is reputed to have
broadly said that, although Jesus Christwas sinless, yet He was the greatest
sinner that ever lived, because allthe sins of His people lay upon Him. Now,
such expressions I think to be unguarded, if not profane. Certainly Christian
men should take care that they use not language which, by the ignorant and
uninstructed, may be translated to mean what they never intended to teach.1
[Note:C. H. Spurgeon.]

There is a text (2 Corinthians 5:21) which tells us that He “knew no sin.” That
is very beautiful and significant—“who knew no sin.” It does not merely say
did none, but knew none. Sin was no acquaintance of His; He was acquainted
with grief, but no acquaintance ofsin. He had to walk in the midst of its most
frequented haunts, but did not know it; not that He was ignorantof its nature,
or did not know its penalty, but He did not know it; he was a strangerto it, He
never gave it the wink or nod of familiar recognition. Of course He knew what
sin was, forHe was very God, but with sin He had no communion, no
fellowship, no brotherhood. He was a perfect strangerin the presence of sin;
He was a foreigner; He was not an inhabitant of that land where sin is
acknowledged. He passedthrough the wilderness of suffering, but into the
wilderness of sin He could never go. “He knew no sin”; mark that expression
and treasure it up, and when you are thinking of your substitute, and see Him
hang bleeding upon the Cross, think that you see written in those lines of
blood traced along His blessedbody, “He knew no sin.” Mingled with the
redness of His blood (that Rose ofSharon), behold the purity of His nature
(the Lily of the Valley)—“He knew no sin.”2 [Note:Ibid.]
4. The Serpent and the Sin-bearerwere “lifted up.” The elevationof the
serpent was simply intended to make it visible from afar; but it could not have
been setso high as to be seenfrom all parts of the camp, and we must suppose
that the wounded were in many cases carriedfrom the distant parts of the
wide-spreading encampment to places whence they could catcha glimpse of it
glittering in the sunshine.
Of the meaning of this there cannot well be any mistake. It denotes the lifting
up of our Lord on the Cross;as St. John, in another place, tells us, that when
He said to the Pharisees, “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men
unto me,” He spoke, ‘signifying by what death he should die.” He did not
mean merely that His Name should be preachedin all the world, and made
thoroughly known as the only way of salvation; He meant that He should be

really and bodily lifted up. He meant His nailing to the Cross, and then the
setting of the Cross upright in the earth. By this He became, more especially,
the “scornofmen, and the outcastof the people.”1 [Note:John Keble.]
It is the lifting up that is the chief point in the comparisonThe word is
mentioned twice—“As Moseslifted up the serpent, even so must the Sonof
man be lifted up.” To Jesus, and to John as taught by Him, the “lifting up”
was doubly significant. It meant death upon the Cross, but it also suggested
the beginning of His exaltation. As the serpent was lifted up so that it might be
seen, we are compelledto adopt the same reasonfor the lifting up of the Son
of Man. It is a marvellous thought, an amazing foresight. The death which
was intended to consignHim and His teaching to oblivion was the means by
which attention was directedto them. That which was to make Him
“accursed” became the means by which He entered into His glory. His name
was not obscured, but was exaltedabove all other names by the shame which
men put upon it. The crucifixion was the first step of exaltation, the beginning
of a higher stage ofRevelation2 [Note:John Reid.]
I feel a need divine
That meeteth need of mine;
No rigid fate I meet, no law austere.
I see my God, who turns
And o’er His creature yearns:

Upon the cross Godgives and claims the tear.3 [Note:Dora Greenwell,
Carmina Crucis.]
III
The Acceptance ofthe Offer of Escape
The offer of escape is accepted—(i.)by looking to the brazen serpent; (ii.) by
believing in the Sin-bearer.
i. Looking to the Serpent
1. We are not told that trust in God was an essentialpart of the look, but that
is takenfor granted. Why else should a half-dead man lift his eyelids to look?
Such a one knew that God had commanded the image to be made, and had
promised healing for a look. His gaze was fixed on it, in obedience to the
command involved in the promise, and was, in some measure, a manifestation
of faith. No doubt the faith was very imperfect, and the desire was only for
physical healing; but none the less it had in it the essenceoffaith. It would
have been too hard a requirement for men through whose veins the swift
poison was burning its way, and who, at the best, were so little capable of
rising above sense, to have askedfrom them, as the condition of their cure, a
trust which had no external symbol to help it. The singularity of the method
adopted witnesses to the graciousnessofGod, who gave their feebleness a
thing to look at, in order to aid them in grasping the unseenpower which
really effectedthe cure. “He that hath turned himself to it,” says the Book of
Wisdom, “was notsaved by the thing which he saw, but by thee, that art the
Saviour of all.”

They would try all their ownremedies before they turned to the Lord. I can
think that none would be so busy as the charmers. Amongst them would be
some who knew the secrets ofthe Egyptian snake-charmers. In the “mixed
multitude” may have been the professionalcharmer, boasting a descentwhich
could not fail in its authority. And they come bringing assuredremedies.
There is the music that can charm the serpent, and destroy the poison. There
is the mystic sign set around the place that made it sacred. There are
mysterious magic amulets to be worn for safety; this on the neck, and this
about the wrist. There is a ceremony that shall hold the serpent spellbound
and powerless.But come hither. Lift up this curtain. See here one lies on the
ground. “He sleeps.” Nay, indeed, he will never wake again. Why, it is the
charmer. Here are the spells and the charms and the mystic signs all around
him. And lo! there glides the serpent; the charmer himself is dead.1 [Note:M.
G. Pearse.]
2. We can imagine that when that brazen serpent was lifted up in the
wilderness, there were some bitten by those fiery serpents who refusedto look
at this exalted sign of salvation, and so perished after all.
We may imagine, for instance, a wounded Israelite saying, “I do not believe
this hurt of mine to be deadly. If some have died of the same, yet this is no
reasonwhy all should die. Surely there are natural remedies, herbs, or salves
which the desertitself will supply, by whose aid I canrestore health to
myself.”
We canimagine another Israelite running into an opposite extreme, not
slighting his hurt, but saying on the contrary, “My wound is too deadly for
any remedy to avail for its cure. Thousands who have been bitten have
already died, their carcasesstrew the wilderness. I too must die. Some, indeed,
may have been healedby looking at that serpent lifted up, but none who were
so deeply hurt as I am, none into whose frame that poisonhad penetrated so

far, had circulatedso long;” and so he may have turned awayhis face, and
despaired, and died; and as the other perished by thinking lightly of the hurt,
this will have perished by thinking lightly of the remedy, as fatal, if not as
frequent, an error.
Can we not imagine one of the Israelites demanding, in a moodier and more
sullen discontent, “Why were these serpents sent at all? Why was I exposedto
injury by them? Now, indeed, after I am hurt, a remedy is proposed; why was
not the hurt itself hindered?” Translate these murmurings into the language
of the modern world, and you will recognize in others, perhaps at times in
yourself, the same displeasure againstGod’s plan of salvation. “Why should
this redemption have been needful at all? Why was I framed so obvious to
temptation, so liable to sin? I will not fall in with His plan for counterworking
the evil which He has wrought. Let Him, who is its true author, answerfor it.”
We all know more or less of this temptation, this anger, not againstourselves,
but againstGod, that we should be the sinners which we are, this discontent
with the scheme ofrestorationwhich He has provided. But what is this after
all but an angry putting of that question, older than this world of ours, “Why
is there any evil, and whence?“—amystery none have searchedoutor can
searchout here. This only is sure, that “Godis light, and in him is no darkness
at all”; and of the evil in the world, that it is againstHis will; of the evil in us,
that He is on our side in all our struggles to subdue and castit out.
ii. Believing in the Sin-bearer
1. The brazen serpent was to be lookedupon. The wounded persons were to
turn their eyes towards it, and so to be healed. So Christ, lifted up on the
Cross, is to be believed on, to be lookedupon with the eyes of our heart. “The
Son of man” is “lifted up, that whosoeverbelievethin him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.” “The Law could not save us, in that it was weak
through the flesh”;through the corruption of our fallen nature, for which it

provided no cure. It could but point to Him who is our cure, as Moses did to
the brazen serpent. It could not justify us, it could only bring us to Christ, that
we might be justified by faith. Justification by faith is that which was
betokenedby the healing of the Israelites when they lookedup to the serpent.
It justifies, because it brings us to Him, with whom to be united is to be
justified; that is, to be forgiven and saved from this evil world, to be clothed
with heavenly righteousness.
2. Trust is no arbitrary condition. The Israelite was told to turn to the brazen
serpent. There was no connexion betweenhis look and his healing, exceptin so
far as the symbol was a help to, and looking at it was a test of, his faith in the
healing powerof God. But it is no arbitrary appointment, as many people
often think it is, which connects inseparablytogetherthe look of faith and the
eternal life that Christ gives. Forseeing that salvation is no mere external gift
of shutting up some outward Hell and opening the door to some outward
Heaven, but is a state of heart and mind, of relationto God, the only way by
which that salvation cancome into a man’s heart is that he, knowing his need
of it, shall trust Christ, and through Him the new life will flow into his heart.
Faith is trust, and trust is the stretching out of the hand to take the precious
gift, the opening of the heart for the influx of the grace, the eating of the
bread, the drinking of the water, of life.
Looking at Jesus—whatdoes it mean practically? It means hearing about
Him first, then actually appealing to Him, accepting His word as personalto
one’s self, putting Him to the test in life, trusting His death to square up one’s
sin score, trusting His powerto cleanthe heart and sweetenthe spirit and
stiffen the will. It means holding the whole life up to His ideals. Ay, it means
more yet; something on His side, an answering look from Him. There comes a
consciousnesswithin of His love and winsomeness. Thatanswering look of His
holds us for ever after His willing slaves, love’s slaves. Paulspeaks ofthe eyes
of the heart. It is with these eyes we look to Him, and receive His answering
look.1 [Note:S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks onService, 16.]

Faith is the keynote of the Gospelby John. The very purpose for which this
Gospelwas written was that men might believe that Jesus is the Son of God,
and that believing they might have life through His name (John 20:31). This
purpose is everywhere its predominant feature. From the announcement that
John the Baptistwas sent “that all men through him might believe” (John
1:7), to the confident assurancewith which the beloved disciple makes the
declarationthat he knows his testimony is true (John 21:24), the Gospelof
John is one long argument, conceivedwith the evident intention of inducing
men to believe that Jesus is the Sonof Godand the Saviour of all who trust in
Him. The word “believe” occurs in this Gospelno fewer than ninety-eight
times, and either that or some cognate wordis to be found in every chapter.2
[Note:H. Thorne.]
A woman who was always looking within herself, and could not reach
assurance andpeace, was told she must look out and up. Yet light did not
come. One night she dreamed that she was in a pit which was deep, dark, and
dirty. There was no way of escape—no door, no ladder, no steps, no rope.
Looking right overhead she saw a little bit of blue sky, and in it one star.
While gazing at the star she began to rise inch by inch in the pit. Then she
cried out, “Who is lifting me?” and she lookeddown to see. But the moment
she lookeddownshe was back againat the bottom of the pit. Again she looked
up, saw the star, and beganto rise. Again she lookeddown to see who or what
was lifting her, and again she found herself at the bottom. Resolving not to
look down again, she for the third time gazedat the star. Little by little she
rose;tempted to look down, she resistedthe desire; higher and higher she
ascended, with her eyes on the star, till at last she was out of the pit altogether.
Then she awoke,and said, “I see it all now. I am not to look down or within,
but out and up to the Bright and Morning Star, the Lord Jesus Christ.”3
[Note:J. J. Mackay.]
IV

The GoodEffect
The effectis—(i.) life: “whenhe lookedunto the serpent of brass, he lived”;
(ii.) eternal life: “that whosoeverbelieveth may in him have eternallife.”
i. Life
It does not seempossible that so greata thing as life should depend upon so
small a thing as a look. But life often depends on a look. A traveller was once
walking over a mountain-road; it grew quite dark, and he lost his way. Then a
thunderstorm came on, and he made all the haste he could to try to find some
shelter. A flash of lightning showedjust for a moment where he was going. He
was on the very edge of a precipice. The one look that the lightning enabled
him to take savedhis life. A few weeksago I was in a train after it was dark.
The signalwas put “allright,” and the train started. We had gone a few
hundred yards, when I heard the whistle sound very sharply, and soonthe
train stopped. Some one had shown the engine-driver a red light, and warned
him of danger. It turned out that one of the chains by which the carriages
were coupled togetherhad broken. If the man who saw the broken chain had
not looked, and if the engine-driver had not lookedand so seenthe red light,
most likely many lives would have been lost. Here, again, life depended upon a
look.
The wounded Israelite was in one sense deadalready, his life was forfeit as
soonas he was bitten; it follows that the new life infused by a look at the
brazen serpentwas miraculous in its character. Whathave we here but a
striking figure of death and resurrection? Notby any natural process of
improvement or gradual restorationwas the death-strickenIsraelite rescued
from his fate, but by the direct and supernatural intervention of Him who was

even then, as He is still, the resurrection and the life, in whom whosoever
believes lives though he were dead.1 [Note:W. H. M. H. Aitken.]
ii. Eternal Life
1. Our Lord said, “Ye must be born again,” and Nicodemus answered, “How
can a man be born againwhen he is old?” Our Lord replied by telling him
something more. A man needs to be born not only outwardly of water, but
inwardly of the Spirit, and when he is so born he will be as free as the wind—
from legalbondage—fromthe tyranny of sin. And to this Nicodemus replied
by asking yet more impatiently, “How canthese things be?” The answerthat
he receives is given through the speaking figure of death and resurrection, and
if we desire a striking commentary on the figure, and a definite statementof
the truth, we have only to turn to St. Paul’s Epistles. “Youhath he quickened,
who were dead in trespassesand sins.” “ButGod, who is rich in mercy, for his
greatlove wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath
quickened us togetherwith Christ, and hath raisedus up together.” “And you,
being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he
quickened togetherwith him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” “Having
spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing
over them in his cross.”Surelynothing can be more striking than the
parallelism betweenthe words of this passageand the symbolism of the scene
that we are contemplating.
Eternal life is the blessing of the Kingdom of God viewed as a personal
possession. The descriptionis peculiar to John’s Gospel, but it agrees with the
“life” which is spokenof with such emphasis in the other Gospels. According
to them, to enter into the Kingdom is to enter into “life” (Matthew 18:3;
Matthew 18:8-9). It is not so much duration that is expressedby the word
“eternal” as the peculiar quality of the life that arises out of the new relations
with God which are brought about by Jesus Christ. It is deathless life,

although the believer has still to die, “and go unterrified into the gulf of
Death.” It may be describedas a life which seeks to obey an eternal rule, the
will of God; which is inspired by an eternal motive, the love of God; which
lives for and is lightened by an eternal glory, the glory of God; and abides in
an eternal blessedness, communion with God. It is both presentand future.
Here and now for the believer there are a new heaven and a new earth, and
the glory of God doth lighten them, and the Lamb is the light thereof. No
change which time or death canbring has power to affectthe essential
characterof his life, though its glory as terrestrialis one, and its glory as
celestialis another. Whereverafter death the man may be who has believed in
Jesus, the life that he lives will be the same in its inner spirit and relation. “To
him all one, if on the earth or in the sun,” God’s will must be his law, God’s
glory his light, God’s presence his blessedness,God’s love his inspiration and
joy.1 [Note:John Reid.]
I distinguish betweenLife, which is our Being in God, and Eternal Life, which
is the Light of the Life, that is, fellowshipwith the Author, Substance, and
Former of our Being, the Alpha and Omega. It is the heart that needs re-
creation;it is the heart that is desperatelywicked, not the Being of man. I
think a distinction is carefully maintained in Holy Scripture betweenthe life
in the heart and the Life of the Being: “Lighten thou my eyes that I sleepnot
in death.” It is the Light of Life we want, to purify or re-create orregenerate
our hearts so that we may be the Children of Light.2 [Note: R. W. Corbet,
Letters from a Mystic of the PresentDay, 63.]
2. In the RevisedVersionthere is a little change made here, partly by the
exclusionof a clause and partly by changing the order of the words. The
alterationis not only nearer the original text, but brings out a striking
thought. It reads that “whosoeverbelievethmay in him have eternal life.”
“Mayin him have eternal life”—union with Christ by faith, that profound
incorporation into Him, which the New Testamentsets forth in all sorts of

aspects as the very foundation of the blessings of Christianity; that union is
the condition of eternal life.
A soldier lay dying on the battlefield; the chaplain speaking to him read St.
John 3. When he came to Numbers 21:14-15, he was askedto read them
again;when they were read, the soldier, having repeatedthem, added, “That
is enough for me; that is all I want.”3 [Note:L. N. Caley.]
There is a most impressive little story which tells how Sternberg, the great
German artist, was led to paint his “Messiah,” whichis his masterpiece. One
day the artist met a little gypsy girl on the street, and was so struck by her
peculiar beauty that he requestedher to accompanyhim to his studio in order
that he might paint her. This she consentedto do, and while sitting for the
greatartist she noticed a half-finished painting of Christ on the cross. The
gypsy girl, who was ignorantand uneducated, askedSternberg what it was,
and wonderedif Christ must not have been an awfully bad man to be nailed to
a cross. Sternberg replied that Christ was the best man that ever lived, and
that He died on the cross that others might live. “Did He die for you?” asked
the gypsy. This question so preyed upon the mind of Sternberg, who was not a
Christian, that he was greatly disturbed by it. The more he pondered it, the
more impressed he became that, though Christ had died for him, he had not
acceptedthe sacrifice. It was this that led him at last to paint the “Messiah,”
which became famous throughout the world. It is said that John Wesleygot
one of his greatestinspirations from this picture.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
An Emblem Of Salvation

John 3:14, 15
J.R. Thomson
It was Christ's teaching that Moses testifiedofhim. This Moses did by
foretelling the advent of a prophet like unto himself, and still more strikingly
by the whole system of sacrifice which he perfected, and which the Messiah
both fulfilled and superseded. He did so likewise by symbolic acts, thus
unconsciouslywitnessing to Christ and his works. It was natural that our
Lord's first mention of Mosesshould occurin his conversationwith a Hebrew
rabbi, an inquirer, and a sympathizing inquirer into his claims. The incident
in Jewishhistory upon which our Lord grafts greatspiritual lessons wasone
familiar, doubtless, to Nicodemus, but one of which he could never until now
have seenthe deep spiritual significance.
I. THE SERPENT BITE IS THE EMBLEM OF SIN. For the moral evil is,
like the venom of the viper,
(1) diffused in action;
(2) rapid in progress;
(3) painful to experience;
(4) dangerous and deadly in result.
II. THE DEATHS IN THE CAMP OF ISRAEL ARE THE EMBLEMS OF
THE SPIRITUAL CONSEQUENCESOF SIN. Scripture consistently
represents death, i.e. moral, spiritual death, as the natural and appointed
result of subjectionto sin. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die;" "The wages of
sin is death." If spiritual life is the vigorous exercise, inthe way appointed by
heavenly wisdom, of the faculties of our intelligent and voluntary nature,
spiritual death consists in the deprivation of power, in the cessationor
suspensionof such activities as are acceptable to God.
III. THE BRAZEN SERPENT IS AN EMBLEM OF THE DIVINE
REDEMPTIVE REMEDY.

1. Like the figure placedupon the banner staff, the provision for salvation
from spiritual death is due to Divine mercy. Christ is the Gift of God; the
powerof spiritual healing is Divine power; the ransompaid is appointed and
acceptedby God.
2. In both there is observable a remarkable connectionbetweenthe disease
and the cure. It was not without significance that the remedy provided in the
wilderness bore a resemblance to the disease.Christ too was made in the
likeness ofsinful flesh, and in a human body endured for us that death which
is the penalty of sin.
IV. THE ELEVATION OF THE BRAZEN SERPENTUPON THE POLE
WAS AN EMBLEM OF OUR SAVIOUR'S CRUCIFIXION AND
EXALTATION. It is observable how early in his ministry Jesus referredto
his "lifting up." That he by this language indicated his crucifixion does not
admit of question. "When ye have lifted up the Sonof man;" "I, if I be lifted
up from the earth;" - are instances which show how distinctly Jesus foresaw
and foretold his death, and even the manner of it. The consistencyis manifest
betweenthis elevationof sacrificialdeath and the subsequent elevationto the
throne of eternal glory.
V. THE LOOKING AT THE LIFTED FIGURE OF THE SERPENTIS AN
EMBLEM OF FAITH IN CHRIST. There was nothing in the act of gazing
which itself contributed to the recoveryof those who were bitten. Nor is there
anything meritorious in the attitude of the soul that exercises faith in the
Saviour. But it is an actwhich brings the soul into closestrelationwith the all-
gracious Redeemer. Faithis an attitude, an inspiration of the soul, which
instrumentally secures salvation. The Divine ordinance is this: "Look and
live!"
VI. THE PUBLICATION OF THE NEWS CONCERNING THE SERPENT
OF BRASS IS EMBLEMATICALOF THE PREACHING OF THE
GOSPEL. It was a ministry of benevolence and of blessing which was
dischargedby those who went through the camp of Israel, heralding
deliverance and life. And there are no tidings so honourable to deliver, and so
profitable to receive, as the glad tidings of a greatSaviour and a great

salvation, which it is the office of the Christian preacherto publish to those
who are afar off and to those who are near. - T.
Biblical Illustrator
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
John 3:14, 15
The brazen serpent
A. Maclaren, D. D.
Nicodemus's confessionoffaith was substantially that of many amongstus,
only he went a bit further. Because he was honesthe deserved, and because he
was half blind he needed, Christ's instruction for the expanding of his creed.
Complete Christianity, according to Christ, involves —(1) A radical change
comparable to birth. When Nicodemus staggers atthis, our Lord(2) unveils
what makes it possible — the Incarnation of the Son of Man who came down
from heaven. But a Christianity that stops at the Incarnation is incomplete, so

our Lord(3) speaks ofthe end of incarnation and ground of the possibility of
being born again.
I. THE PROFOUND PARADOXICALPARALLEL BETWEEN THE
IMAGE OF THE POISONERAND THE LIVING HEALER. The
correspondence betweenthe lifting up of the serpent and the lifting up of
Christ, the look of the half-dead Israelite and the look of faith, the healing in
both cases, are clear;and with these it would be strange were there no
correspondence betweenthe two subjects. We admit that Jesus Christ has
come in the likeness ofthe victims of the poison, "made in the likeness of
sinful flesh," without sin; but in a very profound sense He stoodalso as
representative of the cause ofthe evil. "Godhath made Him to be sin for us,"
etc. And the brazen image in the likeness of the poisonous creature, and yet
with no poison in it, reminds us that on Christ were heaped the evils that
tempt humanity. And Paul, speaking of the consequencesofChrist's death,
says that "He spoiledprincipalities and powers, and made a show of them
openly" — hanging them up there — "triumphing over them in it." Just as
that brazen image was hung up as a proof that the venomous powerof living
serpents was overcome, so in the death of Christ sin is crucified and death
done to death.
II. THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS.
1. The serpent was lifted for conspicuousness;and Nicodemus must have
understood, although vaguely, that this Son of Man was to be presented not to
a handful of people in an obscure corner, but to the whole world, as the
Healer.
2. But Christ's prescient eye and foreboding heart travelled, onwards to the
cross. This is proved from the two other occasions,whenHe used the same
expression.
3. So from the beginning Christ's programme was death. He did not begin as
most teachers, full of enthusiastic dreams, and then, as the illusions
disappeared, face the facts of rejection and death.

4. Notice, too, the place in Christ's work which the cross assumedto Him.
There have been many answering to Nicodemus's conception — teachers,
examples, righteous men, reformers; but all these have workedby their lives:
"this Man comes to work by His death. He came to heal, and you will not get
the poisonout of men by exhortations, philosophies, moralities, socialreforms.
Poisoncannotbe treatedby surface applications, but by the cross.
5. The Divine necessitywhich Christ accepts — "must." This was often on His
lips. Why?(1) BecauseHis whole life was one long act of obedience to the
Divine Will.(2) BecauseHis whole life was one long actof compassionforHis
brethren.
III. THE LOOK OF FAITH. The dying Israelite had to look. Suppose he had
lookedunbelieving, carelessly, scoffingly, there would have been no healing.
The look was required as the expressionof(1) the consciousness ofburning
death;(2) the confidence that it could be takenaway because Godhad said
so.(3)The convictionof the hopelessness ofcure in any other way.
IV. THE PROMISE OF HEALING.
1. In the one ease ofthe body, in the other case ofthe soul.
2. The gift of life — something bestowed, notevolved.
3. This eternallife is present, and by its powerarrests the process of
poisoning, and heals the whole nature.
4. It is available for the most desperate cases. Christianity knows nothing of
hopeless men.
(A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The brazen serpent
J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.
The difference betweenthe Gospels and the Epistles is that betweenseedand
flower. Christ gave men the seeds oftruth, and left inspired apostles to

develop them. Paul has been chargedwith inventing the doctrine of the
atonement, but it is in this verse in germ. Notice here three analogies —
I. IN THE DISEASE. The poison of the fiery serpents was fermenting in the
Israelites;that of sin is fermenting in us.
1. Men are sinners: a trite observation, but Paul devoted three chapters in
Romans to prove it. Our very righteousness is as filthy rags, and you may
endeavour by moral improvements to wash them, but you canno more wash
them cleanthan an Ethiop can his left hand by rubbing it with his right.
2. We are all sinners. There is no difference. Irrational animals come short of
the glory of God; but men "fall short." The idea of a fall underlies all human
history: hence culpability. Some men have fallen more deeply, but there is no
difference in the fact.
3. All are under sentence of death. "Guilty before God," subject to penalty —
death. The wagesneverfall below that.
4. Notonly so, but we are polluted, morally sick. Whatbrought death upon us
wrought it in us. The venom of the serpents would assuredly terminate in
death, in spite of all selfor other help. We all sinned in Adam, but Adam
continues to sin in us. Sickness is contagious,health never. The Jew
transmitted his depravity, not his circumcision:you impart your sin to your
posterity, not your holiness. Eachhas to be regeneratedanew.
II. IN THE REMEDY.
1. Our salvationcomes through man. The Israelites were bitten by serpents,
and by a serpent they were to be healed. By man came sin; by man comes
salvation.
2. Notonly by man, but the Sonof Man, one who in the core of His being is
closelyunited to every other man. According to the ancient law, the Goelor
nearestrelative alone had the right to redeem. Christ is the nearestrelative
any man canhave.
3. The Son of Man lifted up. The tendency is to make the Incarnation the
centre of Christianity: the Bible makes the Cross that. A glorious display of

condescending gracewas made at Bethlehem; but on Calvary God and man
were reconciled. Christ suffered(1) with man in virtue of His keen
sympathies;(2) for man, in that He suffered martyrdom rather than forsake
the path of duty;(3) instead of man, for He bore the wrath of God.
4. The necessityfor our atonement. Not shall, but must. The "must" of ver. 10
indicates the necessityfor a radicalchange in order to salvation;that of our
text the necessityof an atonement on the part of God. Sin must be published.
God's righteousness must be upheld, and all its demands met.
5. Jesus Christuplifted is now both physician and remedy to His people. The
brazen serpentcould only healour disease:Christ saves to the uttermost(1)
degree of perfection,(2)degree of continuation.
III. Is THE APPLICATION OF THE REMEDYFOR THE DISEASE. The
Israelites were not bidden to apply poultices, but to look. You are not enjoined
to improve yourselves, but to believe.
1. Through faith in Christ the sinner has permission to live. Two words are
used in this connection;forgive — give for; remit — set free; corresponding to
χαρίζομαι,to show grace, and ἀφίημι, to discharge. These must not be
confused. As Broad Church theologians contendevery one has been forgiven,
but in the first sense. Godhas "givenfor" man all that Almighty Love could
offer. But men are only forgiven in the secondsense whenthey acceptGod's
pardoning grace.
2. By faith we acquire the right to live — this is justification and more than
pardon, permission to live.
3. The power to live — regeneration.Conclusion:
1. In Christ's days faith in everlasting life had become practically extinct.
2. Christ revived it, not simply teaching it, but imparting it.
(J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.)
The brazen serpent

W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.
I. IT WAS TO BE MADE IN THE LIKENESS OF THAT WHICH WAS
DESTROYING THEM. Around are serpents victorious: here the serpent
conquered and exhibited as a trophy, and the people who see it live. Around
us the powers of darkness and death are victorious, and sinning souls are dead
in trespassesand sins. Behold on the cross sin, but sin judged, condemned,
executed, held up as a specatcle. "He was made sin," etc.
II. When the wounded Israelite lookedon the brazen serpent, he found a
PROOF OF GOD'S ABILITY AND A PLEDGE OF GOD'S WILLINGNESS
TO SAVE HIM. As we turn to the cross, the old man is crucified that the body
of sin might be destroyed.
III. THE NEW LIFE WAS MIRACULOUS IN ITS CHARACTER:it was not
by any natural process ofimprovement or gradual restoration.
IV. How may we APPROPRIATE THE BENEFITSOF CHRIST'S
REDEMPTION?Letus take a walk round the camp.
1. In one tent is a man who declines to look because he has tried every remedy
that science canprovide, and who says, "How can I be saved by looking at a
mere bit of brass?" anddies because he is too proud to be saved in God's way.
And so people plead that they cannotunderstand the doctrine of the
atonement, and seemto regard themselves as under no obligationto trust Him
who has made that atonement. Will not a generaltrust in the mercy of God
suffice? But the Israelites were not told to discoverthe mode of the Divine
operation.
2. There is another very far gone who says, "Notfor me — too late," and dies.
So many now regardtheir case as hopeless,but Christ came to save the chief
of sinners.
3. We meet with another who says, "I am all right, but I had a narrow escape.
The serpent didn't bite; it was only a scratch." "Buta scratchis fatal; go at
once and look." "Oh, no! there's no danger; but if anything should come of it
I will acton your suggestion. At present I am in a hurry; I have some

business." By and by the poison works. Oh for a look at the serpent now! So
many perish now by making light of their danger.
4. Here is a man suffering acute agony, who listens with eagernessbut
obstinate incredulity. "If God wished to save, He would speak. Besides,the
middle of the camp is a long way, and how can healing influence extend so
far? Well, to oblige you, I will look;but I don't expect anything will come of it.
There; I have looked, and am no better." So, too, many amongstus try a
series ofexperiments. "I'm trying to believe, but I feel no better."
5. We turn aside into a home of sorrow. A broken-heartedmother is bending
over her little girl. But lamentation will not arrestthe malady. "Mother, your
child may live." The mother listens with the incredulity of joy, but the little
one cries, "Mother, I want to look at Moses'serpent." Instantly the mother's
arms are around her, and the child is borne to the door. She lifts her deep
blue eyes, while the mother, in an agony of hope and fear, stands waiting.
"MotherI I am healed." There is life for a look at the crucified One. Look
and live.
(W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.)
The brazen serpent
J. James.
I. An HISTORICAL FACT DIVINELY ACKNOWLEDGED (Numbers 21:4-
9). Christ's entire belief in the Old TestamentScriptures.
II. AN INTIMATE CONNECTIONCLEARLY REVEALED.
1. Eachdivinely appointed.
2. Eachmet a terrible necessity.
3. Benefitin eachcase securedby faith.
III. A GREAT NECESSITYINSISTEDUPON. "Must." Without Christ's
death none can have life.

IV. A BLESSED PURPOSECROWNING ALL.
1. A calamity from which we may be delivered.
2. A blessednessto which we may attain.
3. The means of deliverance.
4. The universality of the statement. The only way of mercy and salvation.
(J. James.)
The brazen serpent
T. Guthrie, D. D.
I. THE BANE. Sin under the aspectofthe serpent's bite. This symbol has a
twofold significance.
1. It glances back to the Old Serpent in Eden; as do also, more or less, that
singular phenomenon among so many heathen nations, serpent-worship.
2. The main significance is the light which it throws on sin itself. Its character
is spiritual venom; its effects are anguish and death. Those who say, I feel
none of those poisonous effects, only prove themselves by that to be the more
fatally steepedin sin's sweltering venom; for they bewray the awful state
describedin Scripture as "past feeling," or having the "consciencesearedas
with a hot iron."
II. THE ANTIDOTE. Christuplifted on the Cross and upheld in the gospelas
the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. The atonementis the only
healing balm. Penances, moralities, and all other substitutes are vain.
1. There is a marked significance in the serpent itself and the very pole. The
atonement is as eloquent of sin as it is of salvation. The most awful exhibition
of sin ever given was that given on the Cross. Hence our guilt is representedas
superscribedthereon — as a handwriting againstus legible to the entire
universe. In the cross, andon the Crucified, God emphatically "condemned
sin."

2. The human race have been so infected with the serpent's venom as to be
calledafter the name of their father, "serpents,""scorpions,"a "generation
of vipers." Now Christ came not in sinful flesh, but in its "likeness."The Lord
laid on Him the iniquity of us all as the representative of humanity. Even as
the serpentof brass on the pole was in the likeness ofthe fiery serpents, but,
unlike them, had no venom in it. In this vicarious way was human guilt
declared, exposed, condemned.
3. The sin, by being condemned, was "put away." As in the ancient sacrifices
the fire symbolically burned up the imputed sin along with the victim, so, on
the Cross, the world's sin was put awayin Christ's sufferings, consideredas a
barrier to salvation. This blow to sin was a death-blow to Satan. It was the
bruising of the serpent's head (Hebrews 2:14, 15).
III. The MEANS by which the antidote becomes available for the removal of
the bane; viz., faith. The wounded Israelites were healedby seeing;the
perishing sinner by believing. Notice here in Its proper place the significance
of the pole. It was the chief military standard — not the minor or portable
ones that were borne about, but the main standard that stoodconspicuous in
the most prominent part of the camp, fixed in the ground, and from which
floated a flag (Jeremiah 51:27;Isaiah 49:22. See also, Isaiah13:2;Isaiah 18:3;
Isaiah62:10, 11). These texts amply illustrate the use and meaning of the large
banner-poles, with their floating insignia, as the symbol of universality of
promulgation, and thence of Divine interposition of world-wide scope. The
texts cited, or referred to, though beginning with the ordinary uses of the
symbol, soonrun it into Gospelmoulds; and most fitly, for very ancient
predictions had declaredthat "unto him," the Shiloh, "shallthe gathering of
the people be" (Genesis 49:10;Isaiah 11:10;John 12:32).
(T. Guthrie, D. D.)
The brazen serpent
T. Gibson, M. A.

I. THERE IS A STRIKING SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE CONDITION
OF THE WOUNDED ISRAELITES AND THE STATE OF MAN BY
NATURE.
1. Theirs was a degradedcondition. Their pain was the result of their
transgression.
2. Miserable.
3. Guilty.
4. Helpless.
II. THERE IS A STRIKING RESEMBLANCE BETWEEN THE MEANS
EMPLOYED FOR THE RELIEF OF THE WOUNDED ISRAELITES AND
THE METHOD OF OUR RECOVERYFROM SIN AND DEATH BY JESUS
CHRIST.
1. The brazen serpent in shape exactlyresembled the fiery set. pent. So Christ
was made in the likeness ofsinful flesh.
2. The serpent was lifted up, which is emblematicalof —
(1)Christ's crucifixion.
(2)Christ's ascension.
(3)The public exhibition of the Redeemer's Cross in the ministry of
reconciliation.
III. THE RESEMBLANCEBETWEEN THE FEELINGS OF THE
WOUNDED ISRAELITES AND THOSE OF THE AWAKENED PENITENT
IN THE ACTS OF LOOKING AND BELIEVING RESPECTIVELY. They
were —
1. Sensible of their calamity.
2. Filled with humility.
IV. THE RESEMBLANCEAS TO THE EFFICACY OF THE REMEDYIN
BOTH CASES. In their —

1. Instantaneousness.
2. Efficacyto work in the first or last stagesofthe disease.
3. Completeness ofcure.Learn:
1. That salvationcan only be ascribedto the free grace ofGod.
2. The freedom with which this salvationis bestowed.
3. That gratitude becomes those who have receivedmercy.
(T. Gibson, M. A.)
The brazen serpent
D. Moore, M. A.
I. THE INCIDENT REFERRED TO. This typical event occurredtowards the
close ofthe wanderings. The people's discouragements had been. many, and
now the king of Edom suffered them not to pass through his border. The
Church must lay its accountwith difficulty and checks andfoes. The
Christian who turns out of the straight path at the first menace of the Edomite
will find more formidable difficulties before he gets to the heavenly Canaan.
Now see the form their murmurings took. Aaron and Miriam are dead, and as
Moses is not enough to receive all their taunts they "spoke againstGod."
"There is no bread, neither is there any water," and this when they had the
best of both; so easilydoes a fretful spirit turn into bitterness the best gifts of
God. There was something of peculiar aggravationin this sin, and the
retribution was awful. "Would God we had died in the wilderness!" and the
prayer was answered. Now theyhumble themselves. What powerful teachers
are sharp afflictions! Mosesprayed for them, and God heard his prayer. To
have destroyedthe serpents would have been as easyas to command the
setting up of the brazen one; but God would give His people a part in their
own salvation.
1. Of this event there could be no doubt.

(1)The witnesseswere many.
(2)The serpentwas preserved as a memorial of it.
2. The serpent had a sacramentalcharacter.
3. When this sacramentalcharacterencouragedsuperstition, the serpent was
destroyed.
II. THE LESSONS FORESHADOWED.
1. The significant intimation that Christ should die. It was placedon a level
with the sacrificesand other symbols which typified the atonement.
2. Salvationdoes not come to us through Christ's being lifted up merely, but
through our looking at Him. In the other miracles everything was done by
Moses alone. In this case the symbol had no powerbut that which the faith of
the people gave it. The Cross is not a mechanicalchain. We must
believe.Conclusion:
1. As the Old Testamentand the New are one hook, so the Old Testamentway
of saving is the same as that of the New.
2. Salvationis the free gift of God receivedby faith.
(D. Moore, M. A.)
The brazen serpent
S. Sutton.
The type and the antitype correspond—
I. IN THE OCCASION OF THEIR INSTITUTION. The Israelites were
wounded by the serpents; we are wounded by sin.
II. IN THEIR QUALITIES.
1. The serpent was made of an inferior metal; Christ was a rootout of a dry
ground.

2. There was only one brazen serpent for the whole Jewishcamp; there is only
one MediatorbetweenGod and man.
3. The serpent was appointed of God; Christ was appointed by the Father.
4. The serpent was publicly lifted up; Christ is uplifted by His ministers.
III. IN THE MANNER IN WHICH THE BENEFIT IS DERIVED.
1. By looking personally.
2. Instantly.
3. Steadily and constantly.
4. Exclusively.
IV. IN THE EFFECTS THEYPRODUCE.
1. The completeness ofthe cure.
2. Its universality.
(1)Every one may be healed.
(2)The whole of the surviving camp was healed. So all the world will one day
be saved by Christ.Conclusion:
1. How simple is the way of salvation.
2. How injurious is unbelief. If we despise this ordinance of God we shall
perish.
(S. Sutton.)
The mysteries of the brazen serpent
C. H. Spurgeon.

All languagesare basedon figures. When we teachchildren we employ
figures. And so Christ employed figures to teach this spiritual child the things
of the kingdom: a better waythan by the use of abstractterms.
I. THE PEOPLE IN THE WILDERNESS, the representatives ofsinful men.
1. They had stoodvaliantly in fight, but the serpents were things that
trembled not at the sword. They had endured weariness andthirst and
hunger, but these were novelties, and new terrors are terrible from their very
novelty. If we could see our condition we should feel as Israelwhen they saw
the serpents.
2. Beholdthe people after they were bitten — the fire coursing through their
veins. We cannot say that sin produces instantly such an effect, but it will
ultimately. Fiery serpents are nothing to fiery lusts.
3. How awful must have been the death of the serpent! bitten, and how awful
the death of the man without Christ.
II. THE BRAZEN SERPENT.The type of Christ crucified; both remedies.
1. A number, perhaps, declaredit absurd that a brazen serpentshould do
what physicians could not. So many despise Christ crucified.
2. Some say the cross will only increase the evil, just as old physicians averred
that the sight of anything bright would intensify the effectof the poison. So
many make out that salvationby the Cross destroys morality.
3. Much as those who heard of the brazen serpent might have despisedit there
was no other means of cure. So "there is none other name," etc.
III. WHAT WAS TO BE DONE TO THE BRAZEN SERPENT? It was to be
lifted up — so was Christ.
1. By wickedmen.
2. By God the Father.
3. By ministers. Let them so preach Him that He may be seen.

IV. WHAT WERE ISRAEL TO DO? To look;the convincedsinner is to
believe.
1. There were, perhaps, some who would not look, and some will not come to
Christ for life: perhaps —
(1)Through unbelief.
(2)Through insufficient conviction.
(3)Through procrastination.
(4)Through belief in other means.
(5)Through looking too much at their sores, and seeming incurability.
2. Those who would be savedmust look.
(1)Whosoever.
(2)Look now.
V. ENCOURAGEMENT.
1. Christ was lifted up on purpose for you to look at.
2. He invites you to believe.
3. He promises to save.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The lifting up of the brazen serpent
C. H. Spurgeon.
—
I. THE PERSONIN MORTALPERIL for whom the brazen serpent was
made.

1. The fiery serpents came among the people because they had despisedGod's
way and God's bread (Numbers 21.). The natural consequence ofturning
againstGod like serpents is to find serpents waylaying our path.
2. Those for whom the brazen serpent was uplifted had been actuallybitten by
the serpents. The common notion is that salvationis for goodpeople, but
God's medicine is for the guilty.
3. The bite of the serpent was painful. So many by sin are restless,
discontented, and fearful. Jesus died for such as are at their wits' end.
4. The bite was mortal. There could be no question about that — nor about
the effects ofsin.
5. There is no limit setto the stage ofpoisoning: howeverfar gone, the remedy
still had power. So the gospelpromise has no qualifying clause.
II. THE REMEDYPROVIDED FOR HIM.
1. It was purely of Divine origin: and God will not devise a failure.
2. Exceedinglyinstructive. Wonder of wonders that our Lord Jesus should
condescendto be symbolized by a dead snake.
3. There was but one remedy for the serpent bite: there was only one brazen
serpent, not two. If a secondhad been made it would have had no effect.
4. It was bright and lustrous, made of shining metal. So if we do but exhibit
Jesus in His own true metal He is lustrous in the eyes of men.
5. The remedy was enduring. So Jesus saves to the uttermost.
III. THE APPLICATION OF THE REMEDY.
1. The simplest imaginable. It might, had God so ordered, have been carried
into the house, rubbed on the man, and applied with prayers and priestly
ceremonies. Buthe has only to look; and it was wall, for the dangerwas so
frequent.
2. Very personal. A man could not be cured by what others could do for him
— physicians, sisters, mothers, ministers.

3. Very instructive — selfhelp must be abandoned and Godbe trusted.
IV. THE CURE EFFECTED.
1. He was healedat once. He had not to wait five minutes, nor five seconds.
Pardon is not a work of time, although sanctificationis.
2. The remedy healed againand again. The healedIsraelites were in danger.
The safestthing is not to take our eye off the brazen serpent at all.
3. It was of universal efficacy, and no man who looks to Christ remains under
condemnation.
V. A LESSON FOR THOSE WHO LOVE THEIR LORD. Imitate Moses. He
did not "incense" the brazen serpent, or hide it behind vestments or
ceremonies, but raised it on a bare pole that all might see.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Three similitudes
J. Dyke.
I. THE STUNG ISRAELITE AND THE GUILTY SINNER.
1. As the Israelite had death in his bosom, so the sinner (Hebrews 2:14);
although the latter sting may not be felt as was the former.
2. The Israelite wanted all means of cure, and had not God appointed the
serpent he had perished. As helpless is the sinner till God shows us His Christ.
II. THE BRAZEN SERPENT AND CHRIST.
1. The serpent was accursedofGod. Christ was made a curse for us
(Galatians 3:13).
2. The brazen serpent had the likeness ofthe serpent, but not the poison.
Christ came in the similitude of sinful flesh without sin.
3. The brazen serpent was uplifted on a pole; Christ on the Cross.

4. As the poisonof a serpent was healed by a serpent, so the sin of man by
man (Romans 5.; 1 Corinthians 15:21). But Christ had power in Himself to
heal us which the other had not.
5. The brazen serpent was not the device of an Israelite, but of God; so no
man could have found out such a means of salvationas that establishedby
Christ.
III. THE ISRAELITES LOOKING ON THE SERPENT, AND THE
SINNERS BELIEVING IN CHRIST.
1. The Israelite was healed only by looking;so the sinner is justified only by
believing.
2. As looking, as well as the restof the senses,is a passionrather than an
action; so in justification thou art a patient rather than an agent: thou boldest
thy beggar's hands to receive, that is all.
3. The Israelites before they lookedup to the brazen serpentfor help —
(1)Felt themselves stung;
(2)Believedthat God would heal them by that serpent.So the sinner must —
(1)Feelhimself a sinner, be burdened and heavy laden (Matthew 2:28), before
he will or can come to Christ. A man that feels not himself sick, seeksnotthe
physician;
(2)He must believe that in Christ there is all-sufficient help.
4. The stung Israelite lookedon the serpent with a pitiful, humble, craving,
wishly eye, weeping also for the very pain of the sting: with such an eye doth
the believing sinner look on Christ crucified (Zechariah 12:10).
5. The Israelite by looking on the brazen serpent receivedease presently, and
was rid of the poison of the living serpent, and so therein was made, like the
brazen serpent, void of all poison. So the believer, by looking on Christ, is
easedofhis guilty accusing conscience(Romans 5:11, and is transformed into
the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).

6. Even the squint-eyed or purblind Israelite was healed; so the weak believer,
being a true believer, is healedby Christ.
7. Though the Israelite were stung never so often, yet if he lookedup to the
serpent he was healed. As we are daily stung by sin, so we must daily look up
to Christ crucified. Every new sin must have a fresh actof faith and
repentance.Yetthere are two differences betwixt their looking on the serpent
and our looking by faith on Christ.
1. By looking they lived, but yet so that after they died; but here, by believing
in Christ, we gain an eternal life.
2. They lookedon the serpent, but the serpent could not look on them; but
here, as thou lookestonChrist, so He on thee, as once on Peter, and on Mary
and John from the Cross, and thy comfort must rather be in Christ's looking
on thee, than in thy looking on Him.
(J. Dyke.)
Sin and salvation through Christ
I. SIN. This was the occasion, with its consequentmisery, of the setting up of
the brazen serpent; so the occasionofChrist's coming was man's being bitten
by the old serpent(Revelation12:9; 2 Corinthians 11:3). Among the Israelites
few were stung, here all; there their bodies, here the soul; there temporal
death followed, here eternal.
1. The sting is painful, although not always. It is a greatpart of our misery not
to know our misery. Yet Satan's darts are often painful (Ephesians 6:16). Sin
in life will make hell in conscience (Proverbs 18:14;Job 6:4; 1 Corinthians
15:56).
2. The sting is deadly (Romans 5:12; Romans 6:23; Genesis 2:17). Notonly
death temporal, but spiritual and eternal(Mark 9:44; Proverbs 8:36).
II. CHRIST SET FORTHBY THE BRAZEN SERPENT.

1. The resemblance betweenthe two.(1)Both were remedies devised by God's
mercy and love (ver. 16). We neither plotted nor askedit. The Israelites did
ask through Moses;but in our case God, the offended party, makes the first
motion (1 John 4:19).(2) Christ's humiliation setforth.
(a)A serpent was chosento show that He came in a mean estate (Psalm22:6;
Isaiah53:3; Mark 9:12);
(b)because the serpent was cursedof God (Genesis 3:14).
(c)The serpentwas made of brass, not of gold.(3) The serpent had the form,
but not the poison. So Christ (Hebrews 4:15).
(a)God would cure a serpent's bite by a serpent (Romans 8:3).
(b)The parties to be cured were men; therefore the Son of Man must be lifted
up.(4) The place where the brazen serpent was uplifted was Punon (Numbers
33:42, 43), for from Punon they came to Oboth (Numbers 21:10). This was in
Idumaea, famous for mines of brass or copper — known among the ancients
as "the metal of Punon." Eusebius ("Eccl. Hist.," bk. 8.) tells us that Sylvanus
and thirty-nine more were beheadedfor the faith's sake nearthe mines of
brass in Punon; and , , and speak of Christians condemned to work in these
mines. So that the brass out of which the serpent was made was found in the
place where they were bitten. That body which Christ assumedwas not
brought from elsewhere. Where the mischief was the remedy was at hand.(5)
The brazen serpent was lifted up on a pole. So Christ on the Cross (1 Peter
2:24). The serpentfirst stung us by the fruit of a tree, and Christ savedus by
suffering on one.
2. The super-excellencyof Christ to the type. The brazen serpent —(1) Was
but a sign of salvation(Wisd. 16:6), but Christ is the author of it (Hebrews
5:9).(2) Benefited the Israelites only, but Christ all nations (Isaiah 11:10).(3)
Freedthem from presentdeath only, Christ from eternaldeath (John
11:26).(4)Became a means of idolatry (2 Kings 18:4), whereas Christis to be
equally honoured with the Father(John 5:23; Hebrews 1:6; Philippians 2:9,
10).(5)Was broken in pieces;but they shall be broken in pieces who deny
Christ (Psalm2:9; Daniel2:44; Luke 19:27).

III. FAITH THE MEANS OF BENEFITINGBYCHRIST.
1. The necessityof faith. None had benefit but such as looked(Numbers 21:8).
2. The encouragementof faith —(1) To broken-hearted sinners. If you are
stung by sin, look to Christ. A felt sense ofsin is warrant enough. The
Israelites criedout, "Oh! what shall we do?" So Acts 2:37; Acts 16:29, 30.(2)
To lapsed believers. God did not take awaythe serpents, only He gave a
remedy. Sin is not abolished, but 1 John 2:1.
3. The nature of faith, which is a looking unto Christ. The act of faith is
expressedby seeing or looking (Zechariah12:10; Isaiah17:7; John 6:40;
Hebrews 11:1, 27;Hebrews 12:2). Faith itself is said to be the eye of the soul
(Ephesians 1:18; Galatians 3:1), and its hindrance blindness (2 Corinthians
4:4).(1) The objects proper to faith are things that lie out of the view of sense
(John 20:29).(2)What kind of sight faith is.
(a)Serious;not a glance, but a fixed eye.
(b)Applicative (Job 5:27; John 20:28).
(c)Affectionate, with desire and trust (2 Chronicles 20:12;Psalm 121:1;1
Peter1:7; Isaiah17:7; Psalm123:2;Psalm 34:5).
(d)Engaging (Philippians 2:8; Ephesians 1:17).The saving sight: — Two great
historicalfacts — the uplifted serpent and the uplifted Saviour. Infinite is the
difference betweenthem in point of dignity and momentousness. The one had
a narrow circle of a few thousands for its witnesses, andthe desertfor its
theatre; the other a universe. From the one came body-healing, soonto be
interrupted by death; from the other flows soul-healing unto life everlasting.
But the one sheds much light on the other. Compare them —
I. IN THE DESPERATENATURE OF THE MALADY.
1. What could he more fatal or terrible than this judgment?
2. Like the camp of Israel, this is a world of dying men.
II. IN THE SURPRISING CHARACTER OF THE DIVINELY-PROVIDED
REMEDY.

1. God alone could stay the judgment. All the virtue of the serpent of brass lay
in the fact that it was appointed by God expresslyfor a sign of His merciful
interposition.
2. Both were lifted up.
III. IN THE APPLICATION OF THE DIVINELY-APPOINTED REMEDY
AND THE CERTAINTYAND INSTANTANEOUSNESS OF THE CURE.
(A. Wilson, B. A.)
Regeneration:its objective cause
A. J. Parry.
In speaking about the subjective work of Christianity Christ mentions only
the initiatory acts in the new birth. In speaking of its objective work He
introduces us to the centralact. Around this very fact objective Christianity
clusters.
I. THE LIFTING UP OF THE SON OF MAN. Our Lord dealt much in
illustrations. In this chapter He borrows one from human life — birth; one
from nature — wind; and now one from the Scriptures, showing how rich the
historicalevents of the Old Testamentwere in types and symbols. This
illustration is intended to set forth —
1. The great factthat Christ was to be a healing medium.
2. The symbol of the devil is made the symbol of his Destroyerin the very act
of bruising his head.
3. The virtue by which He should become the healing medium (John 12:32,
33).
4. Christ's moral as well as physical exaltation (see John 13:31, 32)glorifying
both Himself and His Father.
5. Christ's transcendentgreatness ofmind, enabling Him to take cognizance
only of the glory, and not of the degradation, of His suffering.

6. His "lifting up" by many tongues made eloquent by a love kindled from
Calvary.
II. THIS GREAT TRANSACTION HAD FOR ITS OBJECT THE
SALVATION OF MEN.
1. This salvationis negative and positive — meeting the twofoldnature of sin,
which is —
(1)Positive — entailing misery;
(2)punitive — depriving of positive blessedness. Christdelivers from the first
— "shall not perish" and restores the second — "eternallife."
2. This perishing is not annihilation, but a deprivation of vital relation to God;
eternal life is a restorationof this relation.
3. These effects are the results of Christ's "lifting up," and connectthe
objective transactionwith the subjective effects, and goes back to the matter
of the new birth, which is organicallyconnectedwith eternal life.
III. THE DIVINE LOVE, AS AN IMPELLING MOTIVE, WAS EQUAL TO
THIS (ver. 6). Here, then, are five links in the wondrous chain.
(1)Men are delivered from the perdition of sin, and restoredto the Divine life.
(2)This is securedby the lifting up of the Son of Man.
(3)But this Son of Man is the only-begotten Sonof God.
(4)This only-begottenSon was made incarnate, that He might be lifted up.
(5)This required some mighty motive.It is implied —
1. That the objects were so unworthy, that the method of redeeming them
required so much humiliation and sacrifice, thatthe motive could only be
found in the infinite love of God.
2. That this love is not to be describedby word, but by action. "God so loved."
Here are two loves contending — God's complacentlove for His Son and His
love of commiserationfor the world.

IV. THAT GOD'S OBJECTIN ALL THIS IS BENEVOLENT (ver. 17). The
declarationthat Christ's objectwas to save men, given in vers. 15 and 16, is
here emphasized. It was His sole object.
1. This is an important reminder to all engagedin promulgating the kingdom,
of the spirit which should actuate them (Luke 9:55, 56).
2. An invitation of men's confidence in the gracious intentions of God (Isaiah
55:8, 9).
(A. J. Parry.)
The scene referredto
A. Wilson, B. A.
Not long ago I saw a picture of this by Guido. In the foreground strong men
were writhing in the death agony; some are pallid in death; some hopelessly
lifting eyes, bloodshotand ghastly, to the sacredemblem at the right hand of
the picture, and already a new life throbs within them; joy flushes the
countenance with unexpected hues of health. But in the centre is a mother,
despair in her eye, lifting her babe with both hands, that it may gaze on the
saving sight. Why does not the child look up? All! it is too far gone; the deadly
bite has penetrated to the central springs; it hangs its head; it droops; it will
not look;it gives one throe of anguish, and dies in the mother's uplifted hands.
Oh! the unutterable pathos of that mother's look!Often, alas!do parents,
teachers, pastors,hold up their dear charge, with agonizing solicitude, before
the Saving Sight, without saving results. But the fault lies not with God, but
with you.
(A. Wilson, B. A.)
The agonyof sin
W. M. H. Aitken.

What a moment of agonyand terror it must have been as all around
unfortunate victims were being attackedwith these messengers ofdeath.
Young and old, rich and poor; for with them there was no respectof persons.
On all sides you might see the Israelites writhing in mortal pains. You might
hear the mother's agonizedscreams as the poisonous reptile fastenedits fangs
in her darling's breast. See that strong man tottering along; he has just been
bitten. A moment ago he was in full health and strength, but now the deadly
venom is flowing through his veins, and he is a dead man already. In this
terrible emergencythe people cried unto God, and Moses was instructedto
make a serpent of brass and set it on a pole, and whosoeverlookedonthis
should live.
(W. M. H. Aitken.)
The serpents
To this day a mottled snake, with fiery red spots upon its head, abounds at
certain seasons in the Arabah. It is the dread of the fishermen, and is
peculiarly dangerous to the bare-legged, sandalledBedouin. So inflammable is
its bite, that it is likened to fire coming through the veins; so intense its venom,
and so rapid its action, that the bite is fatal in a few hours. The body swells
with a fiery eruption; the tongue is consumedwith thirst; and the poor wretch
writhes in agonytill death brings' relief. This horrible pest suddenly appeared
in the camp of Israel in prodigious numbers. From crevices in the rocks, from
holes in the sand, from beneath the scanty herbage, these fiery-headed snake-
demons swarmedinto every tent. There was no running away from them, and
killing seemedhardly to diminish their numbers. On every side there was a
cry of anguish; men, women, children, rackedwith the fiery torture; none
able to save or even to help another. "And much of the children of Israel
died" (Numbers 21:6).
The serpent's bite
C. H. Spurgeon.

Some of you recollectthe case ofGurling, one of the keepers ofthe reptiles in
the ZoologicalGardens, in October, 1852. This unhappy man was about to
part with a friend who was going to Australia, and he must needs drink with
him. He went back to his post in an excited state. He had some months before
seenan exhibition of snake-charming, and this was on his poor muddled
brain. He must emulate the Egyptians, and play with serpents. First he took
out of its cage a Morocco venom-snake, put it round his neck, twisted it about,
and whirled it round about him. Happily for him it did not arouse itselfso as
to bite. The assistant-keepercriedout, "ForGod's sake put back the snake!"
but the foolish man replied, "I am inspired." Putting back the venom.snake,
he exclaimed, "Now forthe cobra." This deadly serpent was some. what
torpid with the cold of the previous night, and therefore the rash man placed
it in his bosomtill it revived, and glided downwardtill its head appeared
below the back of his waistcoat. He took it by the body, about a foot from the
head, and then. seized it lowerdown by the other hand, intending to hold it by
the tail and swing it round his head. He held it for an instant opposite to his
face, and like a flash of lightning the serpent struck him betweenthe eyes. The
blood streamed down his face, and he calledfor help, but his companionfled
in horror. When assistance arrivedGurling was sitting on a chair, having
restoredthe cobra to its place. He said, "I am a dead man." They took him to
the hospital. First his speechwent, then his vision failed him, and lastly his
hearing. His pulse gradually sank, and in one hour from the time at which he
had been struck he was a corpse. There was only a little mark upon the bridge
of his nose, but the poisonspread over the body, and he was a dead man. I tell
you that story that you may use it as a parable and learn never to play with
sin, and also to bring vividly before you what it is to be bitten by a serpent.
Suppose that Curling could have been cured by looking at a piece of brass,
would it not have been goodnews for him? There was no remedy for that poor
infatuated creature, but there is a remedy for you.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
A beautiful legend

D. Curry, D. D.
is related respecting a scene in the camp of the Israelites at the time of the
setting up of the brazen serpent. A woman had been bitten, and was lying in
her tent, while the poisonwas doing its deadly work on her system. It was the
day and the hour when the serpent of brass was to be setup in the camp; but
such headwayhad the poisonmade that it seemedlikely that in that case it
would prove too late. But the image was at length raised;and the two
daughters of the dying womanbrought her to the door of the tent, with her
face turned towards the image, when apparently swooning in death; the image
of the brazen serpent fell upon her eyes, and she was healed.
(D. Curry, D. D.)
"The serpent eternal life
Sunday SchoolTimes.
It is a noteworthy fact that in many of the ethnic religions the serpent was
adored as a symbol of life. Horapollon, explaining (wrongly) a particular
Egyptian hieroglyph, remarks that among the ancient Egyptians a serpent
with its tail in its mouth was a symbol of eternity. The ordinary word for
eternity in Egyptian begins with a figure of a serpent. This ancient symbolism,
which leaves its traces also in the classics, mayhave owed something of its
origin to the fact of the apparent renewalof the serpent's life when it awakens
from its dormant condition, and when it casts its old skin. The adoration of
AEsculapius, the Greek godof healing, was always connectedwith serpent
worship. In the chief temple at Epidaurus tame serpents had a place of
honour; and the god was said frequently to take the form of a serpent when he
appearedto men. In the third century before Christ the help of AEsculapius
was invoked by the Romans to avert a pestilence. In response, AEsculapius is
said to have appearedin the form of a serpent, to have gone on board the
Roman ship, and when the ship arrived in the Tiber to have glided over the
side and to have takenpossessionofan island, where a temple was erectedto
him. It will be remembered also that Cadmus was changedinto a serpent at

his ownrequest, when he discoveredthat serpents were dear to the gods.
Among the Arabs the serpent is still the living thing of living things. This is
seenin their ordinary speech. The Arabic word for "life " is haya; a common
word for a serpentis hayyat, a plural form from hayya, a living thing. When
Moses,therefore, lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, it would be
recognizedby the Jews as a symbol of that life which God had promised to
give to those who would look to it in faith. To them it was a most natural
symbol; when it ceasedto be a mere symbol, and became an objectof
idolatrous worship, it was destroyed.
(Sunday SchoolTimes.)
Jesus lifted up
D. L. Moody.
During the American Civil War there was a man on one of the boat-loads of
wounded from the field who was very low and in a kind of stupor. He was
entirely unknown. Mr. Moody calledhim by different names, but could getno
response. At last, at the name "William," the man unclosedhis eyes and
lookedup, and revived. He was askedif he was a Christian. He said, "No,"
but manifestedgreat anxiety upon the subject. "I am so greata sinner that I
can't be a Christian." Mr. Moody told him he would read what Christ said
about that, so turning to St. John's third chapter he read, "And as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, evenso must the Son of Man be lifted
up: that whosoeverbelievethin Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life," etc. "Stop!" said the dying man; "readthat over again, will you?" It was
read again. "Is that there?" "Yes," saidMr. Moody; "that's there just as I
read it to you." "And did Christ say that?" "Yes." The man beganrepeating
the words, settling back upon his pillow as he did so, with a strange, solemn
look of peace on his face. He took no further notice of what was going on
about him, but continued tour. touring the blessedwords till Mr. Moody left
him. The next morning when the soldier's place was visited it was found
empty. Mr. Moody askedif any one knew aught about him during the night. A
nurse who had spent the hours with him till he died, replied, "All the time I

was with him he was repeating something about Moses lifting up a serpent in
the wilderness. I askedhim if there was anything I could do for him, but he
only answered, 'As Moseslifted up the serpent.' Just before he died, about
midnight, I saw his lips moving, though there was no sound escaping. I
thought he might have some dying messagefor home, so I askedhim for one.
But the only answerwas the whispered words, 'As Moseslifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, evenso must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever
believeth in Him — ' and so on until his voice died away, and his lips moved
no longer."
(D. L. Moody.)
Looking at Christ
Mr. Barnes, of the JewishMission, Mildmay, London, said: "I was visiting in
a Jewishneighbourhood in the EastEnd of London, and calledupon a Jewess,
whom I had known for a long time as a very hard-hearted unbeliever in Jesus
Christ. I did not know what to say to her; in fact, I had given her up as almost
hopeless. When, however, I calledon this occasionshe said, 'I love Jesus, I
have got Jesus now as my Saviour.'I said, 'You have! How came you to love
Jesus?''Well,'she said, 'I will tell you. You know my little girl attends your
school, and she comes home and sings the hymns you teachher. She has been
singing a gooddeal lately, "There is life for a look at the Crucified One." She
kept on singing and singing, and at last it broke my heart, and I wondered, is
it true there is life for a look. I have been induced to searchthe Bible, and I
believe Jesus is now my Saviour."
Christ exalted
Describing the artistic glories of the Church of St. Mark at Venice, Mr.
Ruskin says:"Here are all the successions ofcrowdedimagery showing the
passions and the pleasures of human life symbolized togetherand the mystery
of its redemption; for the maze of interwoven lines and changefulpictures
lead always at lastto the cross, lifted and carved in every place and upon

every stone; sometimes with the serpent of eternity wrapped round it,
sometimes with doves beneath its arms and sweetherbage growing forth from
its feet; but conspicuous mostof all on the greatrood that crosses the church
before the altar, raisedin bright blazonry againstthe shadow of the apse. It is
the Cross that is first seenand always burning in the centre of the temple; and
every dome and hollow of its roof has the figure of Christ in the utmost height
of it, raisedin power, or returning in judgment."
Savedby a sight of Christ
D. Newton.
"I have seenJesus." This was the saying of a half-witted man, who had turned
awayfrom living a very wickedlife, when he was askedwhathad led to this
greatchange. The late Dr. Bushnell, of Hartford, Connecticut, tells this story.
He was well acquainted with the person to whom it refers. In addition to his
being naturally weak-minded, he had fallen into very wickedways. He swore
dreadfully; he was a confirmed drunkard; he would tell lies, and steal, and do
almost anything that was sinful. At one time there was a revival of religion in
connectionwith Dr. Bushnell's church. Among others who came to see the
doctor then with the earnestinquiry, What must we do to be saved? was this
weak-minded, wickedman. Thoughtless people, whenthey saw him going to
church, supposed he was only going in mockery, and to make sport of it. And
even serious Christians lookedon him with pity, and rather wished he would
not come. But when Dr. Bushnell came to converse with him he found him so
earnest, and apparently so sincere, that he did not hesitate to receive him into
the communion of the church. And the whole course ofthe poor man's life
after this showedthat the doctor was right in doing so. From that time
onward everything about the man showedthat "old things had passedaway"
with him, "and all things had become new." He became an humble and
consistentfollowerof the Lord Jesus Christ. All his bad habits were given up.
He never drank intoxicating liquor again. A profane word was never heard
from his lips. He was truthful and honest; regular in attending church;
diligent in reading the Bible, and faithful in practising what it taught. To those

who had knownhim in former years this change seemedwonderful. And
when he was askedby some one to tell what it was which had led to it, his
answerwas, in the words already quoted, "I have seenJesus."This explained
it all.
(D. Newton.)
We are saved by looking to Christ
H. W. Beecher.
As a generalrule, self-contemplationis a powertowards mischief. The only
way to grow is to look out of one's self. There is too much introversion among
Christians. A shipmastermight as well look down into the hold of his ship for
the north star as a Christian look down into his own heart for the Sun of
Righteousness. Outand beyond is the shining.
(H. W. Beecher.)
We must look awayfrom ourselvesforpeace
C. H. Spurgeon.
Did you ever hear of a captainof a vesseldriven about by rough winds who
wanted anchorage andtried to find it on board his vessel? He desires to place
his anchorsomewhere onboard the ship where it will prove a hold-fast. He
hangs it at the prow, but still the ship drives; he exhibits the anchor upon
deck, but that does not hold the vessel;at last he puts it down into the hold;
but with no better success. Why, man alive, anchors do not hold as long as
they are on board a ship. They must be thrown into the deep, and then they
will geta grip of the sea-bottom, and hold the vesselagainstwind and tide. As
long as ever you have confidence in yourselves you are like a man who keeps
his anchoron board his boat, and you will never come to a resting-place. Over
with your faith into the greatdeeps of eternal love and power, and trust in the
infinitely faithful One. Then shall you be glad because your heart is quiet.

Jesus was compared to the serpent of moses

Jesus was compared to the serpent of moses

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Jesus was compared to the serpent of moses