The Serpent on the Pole Text: Numbers 21:4-9
Introduction: The Poison and the Remedy
We live in a world that is shot through with poison. This is not a new development. From the moment the first serpent whispered his venomous lies in the Garden, mankind has been infected. The poison is sin, and its symptoms are everywhere: ingratitude, impatience, rebellion, and a profound loathing for the goodness of God. We see it in our politics, in our culture, and if we are honest, we see it bubbling up in our own hearts. Men want a god, but they want a god they can manage, a god who provides catering services on demand, a god who doesn't take them the long way around.
The story before us in Numbers is not some dusty artifact from a primitive tribe. It is a diagnostic manual for the human condition. It shows us the predictable spiral of sin, from impatience to contempt, and it reveals the terrifying and just judgment that follows. But more than that, it reveals a remedy that is so strange, so scandalous to the wisdom of this world, that it could only have been devised by God. It is a remedy that requires us to look at the very thing that is killing us, lifted up and judged by God, in order to be saved.
This account is a stark reminder that God's salvation often comes in a form that offends our sensibilities. We want a god of abstract principles, of gentle suggestions, of tidy, respectable solutions. We do not want a God who demands we look at a bronze snake on a pole. We do not want a God who demands we look at a bloody corpse on a cross. But this is the wisdom of God. He takes the instrument of our damnation, the very image of the curse, and makes it the means of our salvation. This is not just a story about ancient Israel. This is the gospel in miniature. It is a story about us, our sin, our judgment, and the bizarre, glorious, and only remedy God has provided.
The Text
Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.” So Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died. Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned because we have spoken against Yahweh and against you; pray to Yahweh, that He may remove the serpents from us.” And Moses prayed for the people. Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard; and it will be that everyone who is bitten and looks at it, will live.” And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a standard; and it happened, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.
(Numbers 21:4-9 LSB)
The Sin of Impatient Contempt (v. 4-5)
The trouble begins, as it so often does, with a detour and a delay.
"Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, 'Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.'" (Numbers 21:4-5)
Their route is inconvenient. Edom has refused them passage, so they must take the long way around. This inconvenience exposes the condition of their hearts. The text says the people became "impatient." The Hebrew here means their soul was shortened. Their capacity for endurance, for trust, for gratitude, had shrunk to nothing. Impatience is the first crack in the dam of faithfulness. It is the arrogant assumption that our timetable is better than God's.
And this impatience quickly curdles into open rebellion. They spoke "against God and against Moses." Notice the order. When you murmur against God's appointed leaders, you are ultimately murmuring against God Himself. This is the same sin as their parents, the generation that perished in the wilderness. They have learned nothing. Their complaint is a slanderous accusation. They accuse God of malicious intent, bringing them out to the wilderness to kill them. This is a direct assault on the character of God, who had done nothing but deliver and sustain them.
Their final complaint reveals the depth of their corruption: "we loathe this miserable food." The food in question is the manna, the "bread from heaven." God had miraculously provided for them, every single day. But familiarity had bred contempt. What was once a miracle is now "miserable." The word for "loathe" is visceral; it means their very soul detested it. This is the essence of sin. It is not merely breaking a rule; it is a revulsion against the goodness and provision of God Himself. They are not just hungry; they are ungrateful. Ungrateful people are never satisfied, because their problem is not in their stomachs, but in their hearts.
The Judgment of Fiery Serpents (v. 6)
God's response is swift, just, and terrifyingly appropriate.
"So Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died." (Numbers 21:6)
The judgment fits the crime. With their mouths, they had spoken venomous, fiery words against God. In response, God sends serpents with venomous, fiery bites. The word for "fiery" here is seraphim, the same word used for the angelic beings around God's throne. These were likely not literally on fire, but their venom caused an intense, burning inflammation. The people had become a generation of vipers, and so God sent vipers among them.
This is not an overreaction on God's part. It is the necessary consequence of spurning His grace. God is not a cosmic butler who can be insulted without consequence. He is a holy God, and His holiness consumes rebellion. The wilderness, which was meant to be a place of testing and dependence, becomes a place of judgment. The very ground beneath their feet, from which God had provided water and upon which He had laid the manna, now brings forth death. When you despise God's provision, you invite His curse.
The Confession and Intercession (v. 7)
The terror of imminent death produces a moment of clarity and a desperate plea.
"Then the people came to Moses and said, 'We have sinned because we have spoken against Yahweh and against you; pray to Yahweh, that He may remove the serpents from us.' And Moses prayed for the people." (Genesis 21:7)
It is amazing how a little mortal peril can clarify one's theology. Suddenly, they recognize their sin. Their confession is specific: "we have spoken against Yahweh and against you." They understand the connection between their sin and their suffering. This is the beginning of true repentance. It is not just sorrow for the consequences, but an admission of the cause. They don't just want the pain to stop; they acknowledge the rebellion that brought it on.
And in their desperation, they turn to the very man they had just been reviling. They ask Moses, their mediator, to intercede for them. And Moses, in a beautiful picture of the grace of Christ, does exactly that. He does not say, "I told you so." He does not hold their sin against them. He immediately turns to God on their behalf. Moses consistently stands in the gap for this rebellious people, foreshadowing the greater Mediator who would one day pray for those who crucified Him.
The Scandalous Remedy (v. 8-9)
God's answer to Moses' prayer is not what anyone would have expected. He does not simply remove the serpents. He provides a bizarre and profound remedy.
"Then Yahweh said to Moses, 'Make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard; and it will be that everyone who is bitten and looks at it, will live.' And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a standard; and it happened, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived." (Numbers 21:8-9)
God's solution is not to eliminate the threat, but to provide a means of salvation in the midst of the threat. The serpents remain. The danger is still real. But there is a way to be healed. The instruction is profoundly counter-intuitive. God tells Moses to make an image of the very thing that is killing them, a bronze serpent, and lift it high on a pole. The remedy is to look at the image of the curse.
This command seems to fly in the face of the second commandment, which forbids making graven images. But the prohibition is against making images to bow down to and worship. This was not an object of worship, but a vehicle of faith. God commanded it be made, and faith's duty is to obey, not to rationalize. The healing was not in the bronze itself. It was not a magical amulet. The healing was in the act of looking in faith, trusting the absurd promise of God. It required humility. The proud Israelite, refusing to look at such a foolish thing, would die. The humble Israelite, acknowledging his desperate need and trusting God's word, would look and live. The only condition was to look.
The Serpent on the Cross
This entire event is a living parable, a historical snapshot of the gospel. We know this because the Lord Jesus Christ Himself told us so. In His conversation with Nicodemus, He reached back to this very story to explain the necessity and the nature of His own crucifixion.
"And 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." (John 3:14-15)
Jesus identifies Himself with that bronze serpent on the pole. This is a staggering claim. The serpent is the very image of the curse, the symbol of Satan and sin from the beginning. And Jesus says that He must be lifted up in the same way. Why? Because on the cross, God "made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us" (2 Corinthians 5:21). On the cross, Jesus became the embodiment of our curse. He took upon Himself the full, fiery venom of our sin and rebellion.
Just as the Israelites were bitten and dying, so all of humanity has been bitten by the ancient serpent. The poison of sin is coursing through our veins, and the wages of sin is death. There is no cure within ourselves. We cannot generate an antidote. Our only hope is to look outside of ourselves to the remedy God has provided.
And what is that remedy? It is to look to the Son of Man, lifted up on the cross. It is to see Him there, bearing our sin, becoming our curse, dying our death. The cross is God's bronze serpent. It is the scandalous, foolish-looking instrument of our salvation. To the world, it is a symbol of weakness and defeat. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
The command is the same today as it was in the wilderness: Look and live. Faith is not a complicated work. It is a look. It is turning your eyes away from your own sin, away from your own efforts, away from your own despair, and fixing them on Christ crucified. It is believing God's promise that all who look to Him, trusting in His finished work, will be healed. The poison of sin is lethal, but the remedy of the cross is absolute. Look to Him, and you will live.