The Brazen Serpent

  

Num 21:5  And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
Num 21:6  And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
Num 21:7  Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
Num 21:8  And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
Num 21:9  And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

 

Later on the brazen serpent was being worshipped, so King Hezekiah broke it into pieces. We are not to worship a graven image.

 

2Ki 18:4  He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.

 

 Nehushtan: A thing of Brass.

 

Joh 3:14  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

 

Brass shines in the sun.

 

Heb 1:3  (Jesus) Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Jesus was lifted up on a pole to destroy the work of the serpent, the devil. We are to look to Jesus for our salvation and our healing. The cross is a symbol of the place where blood was shed for our salvation. We are not to worship the cross, but the one who was on the cross who died to set us free and has risen from the grave to show us that we have eternal life through him. A popular old hymn is the Old Rugged Cross.

The Old Rugged Cross

by George Bernard

 

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suff’ring and shame;
And I love that old cross where the Dearest and Best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.

So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it someday for a crown.

 

Mar 8:34  And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
Mar 8:35  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.

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