A Snake on a Pole and Jesus Christ

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." (1)

Nicodemus, a Pharisee and ruler of the Jews came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." (2) The conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus is recorded in John 3:1-21.

In the conversation, Jesus talked about Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness and stated that He Himself must also be lifted up in order to give eternal life to all who would believe in Him.

Why did Jesus refer to a snake on a pole during Israel's wandering in the wilderness? As the Children of Israel traveled through the wilderness they became very discouraged. They complained against God and Moses and against the manna that God provided that sustained their lives, which they referred to as "worthless bread". The Bible records that fiery serpents came in among the people and many of the people of Israel died.

The people came to Moses and asked for his intercession with the Lord that the Lord would take away the serpents from among them. "So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live. So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.' " (3)

Why would God use the figure of a snake on a pole in the wilderness as a symbol for the people to look at to be saved from the poisonous venom of the snake infested camp of Israel? A snake is a symbol of Satan and of sin. Why would God use a poisonous snake as a symbol to look at and live?

Consider this! "For He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (4) Wow, Jesus was made to be sin for us. On the cross, Jesus represented that snake on the pole when He died for us.

That snake on the pole in the wilderness was the perfect symbol of Jesus when He died on the cross for you and me. Jesus took the sins of the world upon Himself at the cross and buried them forever by His death, so that in His resurrection, you and I might receive His life, His Spirit and His character, His righteousness, and be made like Him.

What a transference. As the Israelites, poisoned by the snakes infesting their camp, looked upon the snake on a pole and lived, so we today, in the snake infested environments in which we live may keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and receive His life sustaining grace and His Holy Spirit to lead us through this temporal existence in preparation for the eternal life that He has promised.

Jesus is the antidote for the venom of the snakes of sin in our lives. He takes our sins upon Himself and shares His righteousness with us.

It is recorded that Nicodemus yielded His life to Jesus when He witnessed Christ's sacrifice on the cross. And he participated with Joseph of Arimathea who took the body of Jesus and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, "a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds" provided by Nicodemus. (5)

"And it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live." (6)

1. John 3:14, 15.
2. John 3:2.
3. Numbers 21:7-9.
4. 2 Corinthians 5:21.
5. John 19:39, 40.
6. Numbers 21:8.