# 47 Why A Serpent?

Joh 3:13 "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

Jesus keeps shaking the cobwebs out of the mind of Nicodemus as He attempts to convince Him that He, Jesus, is the Messiah. He has reminded Nicodemus that as a teacher of the Law he should be familiar with these things that speak of Him in the Old Testament.

“You must be born again,” should bring Eze 11:19 to mind,  "Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh,”

Then He blasts Nicodemus with even more proofs. “I am the One who ascends and descends from heaven! I am Jacob’s Ladder personified! I came down from heaven, and I am in heaven, I am both God and man!”

“I am the serpent on the pole that Moses lifted up in the wilderness! To save the people from their sins.

“I am the Son of Man and whoever looks upon Me, (looks toward Me, believes in Me) should not perish but have everlasting life!”

Nicodemus would be very familiar with these declarations and events in Scripture. In the latter incident, the Israelites had been wandering around in the wilderness. They had become very discouraged and impatient. They wanted the goodness of the promised land now!

Nu 21:5 tells us: “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 our soul loathes this worthless bread."

You know, I bet you could’ve heard a pin drop in heaven when those words escaped from the people’s lips! “Loathe this worthless bread? This “worthless bread” is a foreshadow of My Son!”

Jesus described Himself as such in  Joh 6:49-51, “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead.  50 "This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. 51 "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever”

How did God react to their blasphemy? He sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people and many died. These fiery serpents represent all manner of sin and the lesson for Nicodemus and us as well is simply this. Sin kills.

The only ones who escaped the sting of sin, were the one who looked upon the brazen serpent on the pole. But why a serpent? Why not a lamb? The answer is simple. The brazen serpent represents sin and when Jesus was crucified, (lifted up on the pole) He became sin for us!

2Co 5:21 “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Think about that the next time you get impatient with God. The next time you want to return to your old ways. Turn away from those old ways and turn your eyes toward Jesus. Turn your eyes toward life!