Numbers 21:5-9

As usual, the Israelites were rebelling for one reason or another, and then following Israel's sin, God commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent and stick it on top of a pole. He sent all kinds of serpents throughout the camp of Israel, and when anybody was bit by one of those serpents he died. The serpents were venomous. However, because of that pole and the bronze serpent on top of it, and the belief system in those who were bitten, if they rushed and went and looked at the bronze serpent at the top of the pole, they were immediately healed, and the bite they received did not kill them.

Jesus is mentioning this in these two verses in John 3.

I think we can then reach a conclusion. When Jesus was crucified on that tree, that tree became the symbol of the Tree of Life, even as that pole with the bronze serpent on top of it gave life, as it were, to those who, in faith, looked upon it. Why was the bronze serpent placed on the top of the pole in the wilderness? Because, when Jesus took the sins of mankind upon Himself, He became the very embodiment of sin, just as Satan the serpent is continuously. When anyone looks upon Jesus' sacrificial act as being crucified "in faith," and with repentance, they are justified and have taken the first great and most important step toward eternal life.

Numbers 21:4-9

In contrast to God's longsuffering with them, God's own people (the children of Israel) are noticeably impatient with the very One who shows such longsuffering toward them. When they journeyed in the wilderness, after their deliverance by God's hand from Egypt, grumbling and impatience mark their character.

Here we see an example of the opposite of longsuffering: rather than thanking God for their food, their freedom, and His visible presence with them in the wilderness, they grumble because they are taking a long route—taking what they feel is forever—and here impatience is shown for what it is: selfish whining and demanding.

The Israelites placed "the self" above God's purposes and demands. They wanted their selfish desires to be met immediately rather than according to God's perfect plan. Impatience and intolerance are fruits of selfishness, whereas patience and longsuffering are fruits of self-sacrifice.

Numbers 21:1-9

Before I leave this, there is one other thing I wanted to mention about the serpent in the wilderness episode (that is Numbers 21:1-9). Of course, God told Moses to make this bronze serpent and if the people would look at it, then they would be healed from the bite of the serpents. And, of course, he would have to hold it up high for all of the people to see. Well, Jesus uses this imagery when He talks to Nicodemus there in John 3:14 about that He would have to be lifted up like that serpent in the wilderness.

Numbers 21:6-9

Now, of a truth, this later became an object of worship in Israel—idolatry! Be that as it may, it was God who had ordered this bronze serpent to be made in the first place. It was an image of a living creature—an image (supposedly) forbidden in the second commandment—but it was not forbidden in the second commandment, as we will see.