The bronze serpent
Numbers 21:4–9; 2 Kings 18:4; John 3:14–15
When venomous snakes struck the complaining people, God told Moses to set a bronze serpent on a pole; anyone bitten who looked at it lived.
Moses made a serpent of bronze, and set it on the pole. If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of bronze, he lived.
Numbers 21:9 (World English Bible)
Going around Edom, the people grew impatient and spoke against God and Moses, and God sent fiery serpents among them. When they confessed, God didn't remove the snakes; he provided a remedy that required only a look of faith.
Jesus used this scene to explain his own death: “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).
Places
EdomMount HorWay of the Red Sea
Dating notes
After leaving Mount Hor in the 40th year (Ussher, 1452 BC). Centuries later Hezekiah destroyed the serpent because people had begun burning incense to it (2 Kings 18:4).