---

I. SIN. This was the occasion, with its consequent misery, of the setting up of the brazen serpent; so the occasion of Christ's coming was man's being bitten by the old serpent (Revelation 12:9; 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 great part 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). Not only death temporal, but spiritual and eternal (Mark 9:44; Proverbs 8:36).

II. CHRIST SET FORTH BY THE BRAZEN SERPENT.

1. The resemblance between the two.

(1) Both were remedies devised by God's mercy and love (ver. 16). We neither plotted nor asked it. 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 set forth.

(a)  A serpent was chosen to show that He came in a mean estate (Psalm 22:6; Isaiah 53:3; Mark 9:12);

(b)  because the serpent was cursed of God (Genesis 3:14).

(c)  The serpent was 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 beheaded for the faith's sake near the 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 assumed was 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 serpent first stung us by the fruit of a tree, and Christ saved us by suffering on one.

2. The super-excellency of 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) Freed them from present death only, Christ from eternal death (John 11:26).

(4) Became a means of idolatry (2 Kings 18:4), whereas Christ is 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 (Psalm 2:9; Daniel 2:44; Luke 19:27).

III. FAITH THE MEANS OF BENEFITING BY CHRIST.

1. The necessity of faith. None had benefit but such as looked (Numbers 21:8).

2. The encouragement of faith —

(1) To broken-hearted sinners. If you are stung by sin, look to Christ. A felt sense of sin is warrant enough. The Israelites cried out, "Oh! what shall we do?" So Acts 2:37; Acts 16:29, 30.

(2) To lapsed believers. God did not take away the 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 expressed by seeing or looking (Zechariah 12:10; Isaiah 17:7; 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 Peter 1:7; Isaiah 17:7; Psalm 123:2; Psalm 34:5).

(d)  Engaging (Philippians 2:8; Ephesians 1:17).The saving sight: — Two great historical facts — the uplifted serpent and the uplifted Saviour. Infinite is the difference between them in point of dignity and momentousness. The one had a narrow circle of a few thousands for its witnesses, and the desert for its theatre; the other a universe. From the one came body-healing, soon to 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 DESPERATE NATURE 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 expressly for a sign of His merciful interposition.

2. Both were lifted up.

III. IN THE APPLICATION OF THE DIVINELY-APPOINTED REMEDY AND THE CERTAINTY AND INSTANTANEOUSNESS OF THE CURE.

(A. Wilson, B. A.)

---

---

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

WEB: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,