In Numbers 21 the Israelites sinned and as a result fiery (poisonous) serpents bit them, resulting in death. These SERPENTS are a picture of SIN, which contains POISON, that produces SICKNESS unto DEATH. When the people repented and asked for salvation from these serpents and their poison, God revealed His REMEDY for sin and sickness by giving a wonderful picture of the Atonement of Christ. "The Lord said to Moses: “Make a fiery SERPENT and set it on a POLE; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he LOOKS at it, shall LIVE” (Numbers 21:8). God was saying the remedy for both sin and sickness, is represented by a BRONZE SERPENT lifted up on a POLE, a picture of CHRIST on the CROSS, as Jesus pointed out in John 3:14-17. He said that what the Bronze Serpent did for Israel, He would do for the whole world through His death on the Cross. So, Jesus being lifted up on the Cross is the fulfilment of the type of the Bronze Serpent. Thus He must have taken both our sins and our sickness on the Cross, for if healing was provided in the Type (the picture of the Atonement), how much more must healing be provided in the fulfilment (the Atonement itself). When Jesus was lifted up on the Cross, He did not just take our SIN, but He also took our CURSE (sickness), so that when we look to Him in faith we can receive forgiveness, eternal life and HEALING.
When they looked upon the FIERY Serpent, they saw a representation of Jesus taking our SIN with its POISON, and its effects (the curse of sickness and death) on Himself, when He was lifted up on the Cross. Thus God's remedy for our both sin and sickness is the Atonement of Christ. When Christ was lifted up on the Cross, He become both sin and curse for us, so we could be forgiven and receive the blessing of life and health (2 Cor 5:21, Galatians 3:13-14). This Serpent was BRONZE, because this metal represents JUDGMENT. So this BRONZE SERPENT represents SIN that has been JUDGED. So the FIERY BRONZE SERPENT on the Pole is a picture of our sin and its curse (sickness) being put upon Jesus on the Cross, and JUDGED (defeated) upon Jesus. Jesus received the judgment for our sin in our place, so we could be set free from the serpent and its poison (sin) and its effects (the curse of sickness). So the serpent of sin and the effects of its poison (sickness) has been taken by Jesus and judged upon Him once and for all.
When they LOOKED upon the Bronze Serpent, they saw their sin and sickness judged (bronzed), and RECEIVED it for themselves, and so they LIVED (received forgiveness, healing and life) - they were delivered from the power of the serpent of sin. Likewise, all who LOOK on Jesus, seeing Him take all their sin and sickness on the Cross, and seeing that it was all judged on Him, will receive His forgiveness and LIFE (healing), which flows from the Cross in His grace. As a result they LIVE. The Spirit of Life flows from the Father through the Son (and His Death on the Cross), so that all those who look to God and see His Spirit flowing to them through the work of Christ on the Cross, can receive His Spirit of life into themselves, imparting eternal life to their spirits, abundant life to their souls, and healing to their bodies (John 10:10).
God wanted them all to be forgiven and healed, so He provided a salvation for them all, but they had to receive it by looking on the Bronze Serpent in faith. Likewise, God wants us all to be forgiven and healed, so He has provided Salvation for us all through the Atonement of Christ, but we have to receive it by looking in faith to Christ and His finished work on the Cross. Thus, both forgiveness from sin and healing from sickness are freely available to us all by God's grace, received by trusting in Christ and His atoning death for us on the Cross. If healing was provided from the serpent's poison in this Type of Salvation, how much more must healing be provided in its fulfilment in Christ, when He was lifted up on the Cross for us all!
