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Dr. Terry Harman the Tabernacle Man

What is the connection of the bronze serpent in the wilderness that Moses crafted and the reference to Jesus in the Gospel of John that states, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must be the Son of Man be lifted up." (English Standard Version)

Stop focusing on your past snake bites, hurts, previous poisonous relationships, toxic people. Stop blaming God and other people and take a hard straight look at the root cause of you snake bite. Then look up to God from where your help comes from.

As tough as it is for us to hear, the plain reading of Numbers 21 suggests that the Lord responded to the chaos and confusion the naysayers were creating amongst the Israelites by sending poisonous serpents to bite the people.

The bronze snake in the wilderness that Moses crafted may have actually been made from copper.
In Numbers 21:9 we read in Hebrew nachash nechoshet, referring to a "copper snake." Before we delve into the rest of the story, there is an interesting word play at work with the use of “fiery serpents” (nahashim haseraphim), “serpents” (nahash), and “serpent of brass” (nahash nehoshet) in verses six through nine.

שחנ nehash - is the root of the word. This root alone does not appear to be used anywhere in the Hebrew Bible. The BDB Theological Dictionary3 suggests this root word may be onomatopoeic. In Numbers the serpent is described with a word by imitating the hiss of a snake. Jeremiah 46:22 in the NET offers another illustration of this linguistic device: Egypt will run away, hissing like a snake, as the enemy comes marching up in force. They will come against her with axes as if they were woodsmen chopping down trees.

חשֶׁתנְ nechosheth – is often translated as bronze in many English translations. However, the Hebrew word for the metal being referred to was probably copper.

Numbers 21:4-9 in the JPS 1917 translation reads,
"And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became impatient because of the way. And the people spoke against God, and against Moses: ‘Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, and there is no water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.’ And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses, and said: ‘We have sinned, because 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. 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 seeth it, shall live.’ And Moses made a serpent of brass, and set it upon the pole; and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked unto the serpent of brass, he lived."