In chapter twenty Moses was angry with the people, but God was not angry with them. In chapter twenty-one Moses was not angry with them, but God was angry. "Jehovah sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died" (21:6). This was a serious punishment, a punishment that caused death to the contending people.
"The people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against Jehovah and against you. Pray to Jehovah, that He take away the serpents from us" (v. 7). In all their journeying, this is the first time the children of Israel confessed their sins. Having confessed their sin in speaking against God and Moses, they asked Moses to pray for them, and he did so.
"Jehovah said to Moses, Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and every one who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, and set it on a pole; and if a serpent bit any man, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived" (vv. 8-9). This bronze serpent typifies Christ (John 3:14), and the pole typifies the cross (1 Pet. 2:24). In typology bronze, or brass, signifies judgment. The Hebrew word translated "looked at" in Numbers 21:9 may also be rendered "regarded," or "looked intently at."
The bronze serpent is a type, and in John 3:14 the Lord Jesus applies this type to Himself. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." The bronze serpent had the form of a serpent but not the poisonous nature of a serpent. This is a full type of Christ coming in the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3) to be our replacement. In Numbers 20 we have a type of Christ as the crucified and resurrected One flowing out the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit, but in Numbers 21 we have a type of Christ as our replacement and substitute.
When the children of Israel were bitten by the fiery serpents, they became serpents in the eyes of God. They were serpentine and had the serpentine nature. The bronze serpent, however, had only the form of a serpent but not the nature of a serpent. Therefore, the bronze serpent could be a type of Christ, who had the form, the likeness, of the flesh of sin but not the sinful nature of the flesh of sin. The bronze serpent was put on a pole, which signifies the cross. Thus, in the wilderness there was a bronze serpent on a pole, portraying, in type, a replacement on a cross. The bronze serpent on the pole indicated that the children of Israel, who had become serpentine, were put on the pole where they were replaced by something that had the form but not the nature of a serpent.
Long after Numbers 21 was written, Christ came, and in His conversation with Nicodemus He referred to the type of the bronze serpent. The Lord Jesus seemed to be saying to him, "Nicodemus, the picture of the bronze serpent on a pole signifies what I will be for you. That serpent was the replacement of your forefathers so that they could be saved from death and have life. I will do the same for you. I will die on the cross as your replacement so that you may have eternal life."
At the time the Lord Jesus spoke this word to Nicodemus, it is not likely that he understood it. Nicodemus surely did not regard himself as a serpent but as an ethical gentleman who came to the Lord Jesus for the purpose of receiving teachings about his behavior. However, in His word concerning the bronze serpent, the Lord Jesus appeared to be saying to Nicodemus, "You should not consider yourself a gentleman but realize instead that you are a serpent. You became a serpent when in the garden Adam was bitten by the serpent. Because you have a serpentine nature, I have come not to teach you but to be your replacement. In the eyes of God, you are a serpent. As your replacement, I will be lifted up in the form of a serpent." It is a great blessing for us to know that, as the fulfillment of the type of the bronze serpent, Christ came in the likeness of the flesh of sin to die on the cross as our replacement and substitute.
When Adam was bitten by the serpent, we all became serpents. Christ has come to be our replacement, and we have believed into Him. At this point we need to ask an interesting question: Are we who believe in Christ still serpents? The answer to this question depends on whether, in our experience, we are in John 3, which speaks of the bronze serpent, or in John 7, which speaks of coming to the Lord and drinking (vv. 37-39). If we are drinking of the living water, then we are no longer serpents. But if we are short of the living water, then we are contending serpents.
Christ today is no longer the bronze serpent—He is the life-giving Spirit. The One who died for us on the cross in the form of a serpent, in the likeness of the flesh of sin, has passed through death and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This means that He has changed His form. When He died on the cross, as indicated in John 3, He was in the form of a serpent, but when He came back to His disciples, as revealed in John 20, He was the life-giving Spirit. What kind of Christ is He to you today? Is He a bronze serpent or the life-giving Spirit?
As a believer in Christ, are you still a serpent? The answer depends on whether you are dry, lacking the life-giving Spirit, or are drinking of the Spirit. Apart from the life-giving Spirit, we are contending serpents. In the church life we may be either contending serpents or life-giving-Spirit drinkers. May we all be those who drink of the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit!