Look to the Lord and be saved!
Joh 3:14 "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;
So again remember John 3 where Jesus quoted this very thing about Himself. This is the type that Jesus is saying applies to Himself. He says, 'I am exactly like this bronze serpent that was lifted up.' So the first thing we see about this fiery serpent is that Moses made it bronze. What does bronze stand for in the scriptures? It stands for judgment, and whenever you see bronze mentioned in the scriptures this is what it speaks of. Remember the type in the Old Testament where the tabernacle was set up? Here the entrance to Gods' presence was first of all through the bronze altar. When the nation was disobedient they had over them a 'bronze heaven' meaning that they were under judgment. So here you have this picture of the serpent, which is a type of sin, and it was bronze. Then you see that if you looked to it when you were bitten you would live. This is a type of sin being judged upon a pole. Remember that Christ said 'In the same way that Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man will be lifted up.' So when the Lord Jesus was hung upon the cross He was being judged for all of the sins that we would ever commit. The ones past, the ones present and the ones in the future. He was actually made sin, the righteous for the unrighteous. He was judged by the wrath of God for you and for me. God judged His perfect righteous Son in our place. He was judged as the sin offering and that is something radical to think about, that Christ Himself was actually made sin for us. 2 Corinthians actually says that 'He was made sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.' When Christ was on the cross the skies went dark, because the Father had to remove Himself from the Son as He was made sin. He was the perfect sin offering because He was the only one who had never done anything wrong. He was the righteousness of God and yet He was made a sin offering for you and for me. For the first time in all of eternity the Father had to separate Himself from His Son and this is why you get this cry from Christ 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me!' There had never before been a separation between them. At that moment He was judged by God as the perfect sin offering. Then after He cried out 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?' you get the cry 'It is finished,' which is the beautiful Greek word 'tetelestai' which means 'paid in full.'
So the nation had to put this fiery serpent, which was a picture of sin being judged on their behalf, up on a pole. There was only one remedy for the people and God said 'all they really have to do is come forward and look to it.' It wasn't any good looking to anyone in the nation of Israel to meet their need, or looking anywhere else. God provided one remedy for the nation to be healed and it was to come forward and look upon this bronze serpent which spoke of judgment. There would have been those among them that would have thought it a silly thing to actually come before a pole with a bronze serpent on it and look to that for their healing. But each person had to do this for themselves; it could not be done by proxy. It is as true for us today, repentance is an individual thing. You have to come and look at the Lord Jesus Christ for yourself, and only if you look can you be healed.
I read an account of how Charles Spurgeon got saved. He was going to church in London and there was a massive snowstorm. He couldn't make it to his church because the snowstorm was so heavy. He only managed to get half way there, and ended up going into a little church on the way. Because of the snowstorm the visiting preacher who was supposed to come couldn't make it either. They didn't know what to do, so this old gentleman who was a member of the church thought he ought to read a scripture and so he stood up and read Isaiah 45 which says 'look to Me and be saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is no other.' He shared a couple of thoughts that he had on this scripture and he didn't know what else to say so he just kept shaking the pulpit and calling out 'look to Me and be saved' and he pointed right at Charles Spurgeon, who was convicted of his sin and went on to become one of the best preachers that came out of that part of the world. So when I read that, I thought that is so cool. God always has His ways. This man had nothing to say about the scripture but the scripture itself was enough to convict Charles Spurgeon and it brought him to his knees and he accepted the Lord that day. It took a couple of snowstorms and someone not turning up but God is able to use these things..