Look at Jesus Christ on the cross
everyone bitten by fiery serpents will live when he looks at a bronze serpent , which represnts Jesus Christ on the cross.
SERPENT (נָחָשׁ, nachash; ὄφις, ophis). A fearsome creature of both land and sea. In ancient Near Eastern cultural contexts, the serpent is a symbol with both positive and negative valences. In the Bible, the serpent is a venomous creature whose physical characteristics easily become the basis for a complex array of symbolic and metaphorical connections.
Ancient Near Eastern Contexts
In the wider cultural context of the ancient Near East, the serpent served as a metaphor for a vast complex of meanings, including life, fertility, and wisdom, as well as chaos and death.
Notes for 21:9
18 sn The image of the snake was to be a symbol of the curse that the Israelites were experiencing; by lifting the snake up on a pole Moses was indicating that the curse would be drawn away from the people—if they looked to it, which was a sign of faith. This symbol was later stored in the temple, until it became an object of worship and had to be removed (2 Kgs 18:4). Jesus, of course, alluded to it and used it as an illustration of his own mission. He would become the curse, and be lifted up, so that people who looked by faith to him would live (John 3:14). For further material, see D. J. Wiseman, “Flying Serpents,” TynBul 23 (1972): 108–10; and K. R. Joines, “The Bronze Serpent in the Israelite Cult,” JBL 87 (1968): 245–56.
When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, then he fought against Israel and took some of them captive.
네겝에 거주하는 가나안 사람 곧 아랏의 왕이 이스라엘이 아다림 길로 온다 함을 듣고 이스라엘을 쳐서 그 중 몇 사람을 사로잡은지라
우상 숭배하는 일을 피하라
10 형제들아 나는 너희가 알지 못하기를 원하지 아니하노니 우리 조상들이 다 구름 아래에 있고 바다 가운데로 지나며
2 모세에게 속하여 다 구름과 바다에서 세례를 받고
3 다 같은 신령한 음식을 먹으며
4 다 같은 신령한 음료를 마셨으니 이는 그들을 따르는 신령한 반석으로부터 마셨으매 그 반석은 곧 그리스도시라
5 그러나 그들의 다수를 하나님이 기뻐하지 아니하셨으므로 그들이 광야에서 멸망을 받았느니라
6 이러한 일은 우리의 본보기가 되어 우리로 하여금 그들이 악을 즐겨 한 것 같이 즐겨 하는 자가 되지 않게 하려 함이니
7 그들 가운데 어떤 사람들과 같이 너희는 우상 숭배하는 자가 되지 말라 기록된 바 백성이 앉아서 먹고 마시며 일어나서 뛰논다 함과 같으니라
8 그들 중의 어떤 사람들이 음행하다가 하루에 이만 삼천 명이 죽었나니 우리는 그들과 같이 음행하지 말자
9 그들 가운데 어떤 사람들이 주를 시험하다가 뱀에게 멸망하였나니 우리는 그들과 같이 시험하지 말자
4. How this archaeological evidence should be interpreted depends on one’s presuppositions, but that there must be a connection with the biblical story is plain. For verse 4 states, From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. Whether Mount Hor is to be located near Petra or near Kadesh-barnea, it seems clear that the Israelites were heading south down the Arabah towards Timna. Furthermore, Moses had married a Midianite and greatly valued the advice of his father-in-law (Exod. 2:16ff.; 18; Num. 10:29–32). Thus, it may be that Moses owed the idea of the tabernacle and the copper serpent to his Midianite relatives. Alternatively, it may be that the Midianite tent-temple and copper serpents were imitations of the Mosaic ones which had been seen in this area at least a century prior to the erection of the Midianite tent in 1150 BC. Whichever hypothesis is adopted, it seems likely that the story of the brazen serpent is based on a historical incident, and is not merely the retrojection of a later writer’s imagination.
5–6. This is the last recorded occasion that Israel grumbled about their food (cf. 11:4ff.; Exod. 16) and yearned for the delicacies of Egypt. They describe the manna as worthless food. The term worthless (qĕlōqēl) is found only here and may be derived from qillēl, to ‘despise’ or qal, ‘light’, hence the AV rendering. Whichever translation is preferred, it is a disparaging comment on the bread of heaven (Pss. 78:24–25; 105:40; cf. John 6:31). As on the previous occasion, it provoked God’s anger (cf. 11:33), this time in the form of fiery serpents, whose bite was lethal. It seems likely that the inflammation caused by this bite prompted them to be called fiery.
7–9. As an antidote to the snake-bites Moses was instructed to make a snake, and he decided to make it out of ‘copper’. Though the English versions generally translate nĕḥōšet as brass or bronze (i.e. copper alloys), it certainly can mean the pure metal (Deut. 8:9). In the light of the discoveries at Timna, ‘copper’ seems the best translation here. But why make a serpent at all, and why make it out of copper?
The text is not explicit, but various explanations have been offered. Among Israel’s neighbours the serpent seems to have been a symbol of life and fertility, and in Egypt model serpents were worn to ward off serpent-bites. But neither of these explanations seems very appropriate here. In Israel snakes were unclean and personified sin (Lev. 11:41–42; Gen. 3). Here, too, the serpent is a cure for those bitten, not a protection against bites. I suggest that the clue to the symbolism should be sought in the general principles underlying the sacrifices and purificatory rites in the Old Testament. Animals are killed, so that sinful men who deserve to die may live. Blood which pollutes when it is spilled can be used to sanctify and purify men and articles. The ashes of a dead heifer cleanse those who suffer from the impurity caused by death. In all these rituals there is an inversion: normally polluting substances or actions may in a ritual context have the opposite effect and serve to purify. In the case of the copper serpent similar principles operate. Those inflamed and dying through the bite of living snakes were restored to life by a dead reddish-coloured snake. It may be that copper was chosen not only because its hue matched the inflammation caused by the bites, but because red is the colour that symbolizes atonement and purification.16
Finally it should be noted that in every sacrifice (e.g. Lev. 1–4) the worshipper had to lay his hand on the animal’s head. In purification rituals the worshipper had to be sprinkled with the purifying liquid (Lev. 14; Num. 19, etc.). Without physical contact the sacrifice or cleansing ritual was ineffective. In the case of the copper serpent there is a similar insistence on the affected person appropriating the healing power of God through looking at the snake set up on the pole. The importance of seeing the copper snake is brought out by the command to set it on a pole (8–9) and the twice-repeated comment everyone who … sees it shall live. In other words, contact between the saving symbol and the affected person was still required, but in the special circumstances here described visual contact was all that was necessary.
If this is the right way to interpret the story of the copper snake, it is clear how our Lord could use it as an apt picture of his own saving ministry. Men dying in sin are saved by the dead body of a man suspended on the cross. Just as physical contact was impossible between those bitten by snakes and the copper snake, so sinners are unable to touch the life-giving body of Christ. Yet in both situations the sufferers must appropriate God’s healing power themselves: by looking at the copper snake or ‘believing in the Son of man’ (John 3:15).