All the symbols and emblems for modern medicine have one thing in common: a serpent.

What is the meaning of the serpent?

According to the word of the Lord, the ancient serpent is called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray (Revelation 12:9). He first appears in Genesis chapter 3:1-6, where the Lord acknowledge us that he deceived Eve, which resulted in sin entering the human race and the consequences brought upon it. We read: Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die." Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

One of the key passages of this chapter is verses 14 and 15, which lays out the historic foundation of the struggle between good and evil.....So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:14-15).

Genesis 3:15 is part of God’s judgment on the serpent. In the context of Genesis and the rest of the Bible, the prediction is of an ongoing conflict not merely between snakes and humans but between Satan (the embodiment of ultimate evil) and humanity. The singular “he shall bruise your head” suggests of Jesus; the contrast between head and heel may suggest that he will defeat Satan and thus, evil.

The prophetic words of the Lord were fulfilled with the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and his triumphal rising from the dead and walking out of the grave, defeating the power of sin and death that the serpent caused in the Garden of Eden.

One of the best summaries of this event is found in the letter that the apostle Peter wrote:

For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls (1 Peter 2:21-25).

One of the next places we see the serpent appear is in the Bible, in the life of Moses.

The “seed of the woman” is traced throughout the Holy Scriptures. It first begins in the histoy of the descendants of Patriarch Abraham, the father of the Hebrews. To escape years of famine God had led Abraham’s descendants to Egypt where they resided for 400 years. There they became slave to the Egyptians and numerous. It is in Egypt where first instances of infanticide came to happen, the destruction of children being born to the Hebrew women.

This event sets a common theme throughout human history, as Satan works hard to reduce human population by killing children. By the will of God, Moses was spared being killed and was actually raised in the royal palace, but soon is banished from Egypt for trying to deliver the Hebrews.

He spent 40 years in the wilderness where he settled down, got married, and raised his family.

But the time had come for God to deliver his people from the oppression of the Egyptians, and he had chosen Moses to lead them, by appearing to him in a burning bush that did not burn up. Moses was reluctant and fearful. Satan is thoroughly entrenched in Egyptian culture by this time, and a common shepherd like Moses figured he had speech limitations to save his people, so God gave him some help: Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.” So the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.” And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), “that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you” (Exodus 4:1-5).

Here we have the rod of Moses that miraculously turns into a serpent at the command of God. It was something the magicians of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, also had the power to do. But God was clearly demonstrating his power over Satan, and changing the course of human history.

So the Lord said to Moses: “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.” Then Moses and Aaron did so; just as the Lord commanded them, so they did. And Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three years old when they spoke to Pharaoh. Then the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, ‘Show a miracle for yourselves,’ then you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and let it become a serpent.” So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did so, just as the Lord commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. And Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, as the Lord had said (Exodus 7:1-13).

The story unfolds in the Book of Exodus and Numbers, Moses had continued to perform miracles where plagues afflicted the Egyptians who were under the domain of Satan, until finally, after the first-born of all the Egyptians died while none of the first-born among the Hebrews died during what was called “The Passover,” the Hebrews looted the wealth of the Egyptians and took off for the desert.

In the desert God gave them the Law, represented by the Ten Commandments, in order to start a new life as God’s chosen people, freed from the bondage of Satan.

The Israelites had become “impatient” with the long route and began blaspheming God and condemning Moses for bringing them out of Egypt to starve. They complained about the miraculously supplied bread from heaven (manna): “We detest this wretched food!” this leads us to the next occurrence of Satan being represented in the image of the serpent, and the roots to that symbol in modern medicine.

Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.” So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. Then 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.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived (Numbers 21:4-9).

By lifting an image of the serpent high up into the air, God was signifying his power over the serpent,and portraying that just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life (John 3:14-15).

The medical images bearing the snake you see today, have their origins from this historical event. Modern medicine views the image of the snake in this passage as having curative properties. But that is not what cured the Hebrews. It was their “looking” to it by faith that God would do what He said he would do, which was to heal them.

Nevertheless, this remedy for the Hebrews in the desert was for that specific period of time and place in history, before they entered the “Promised land.” However, the bronze serpent was kept for several generations after they left the desert, and eventually took on the opposite meaning of what it was originally intended, becoming an idol whorshipped by some Hebews which they named Nehushtan.

This came to happen during the days of King Hezekiah, who was a good king and led the people back to worshiping God instead of demonic images, which included the bronze serpent crafted during the days of Moses in the desert. He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan (2 Kings 18:4).

The New Testament also alludes to Genesis 3:15 in several places. Forexample, Romans 16:20 speaks of victory over Satan with the image of crushing underfoot, as one might do to a snake. Galatians 4:4 refers to Jesus being “born of woman,” reminding us that the phrase in Genesis refers to the seed (offspring) of the woman. Hebrew 2:14 refers to Jesus destroying – through his own death – Satan. In adition, Revelation 12:9 and 17 allude to the war of Satan against “the woman” and “the rest of her offspring” – a clear reference back to Genesis 3:15 which ties the first and last books of the Bible together. Jesus may be the ultimate seed of the woman, but his followers are also in battle against Satan against which they will be victorious as Romans 16:20 speaks of. Jesus Replaced the Serpent in the Desert for Healing.

We are being counseled by the world of God: But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). Indeed, we are not only physically healed but healed from sin:

Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And 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. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God” (John 3:11-21).

Now, does the serpent symbol of healing have a biblical origin? Where did this famous medical symbol come from?

The nations of the earth put into practice Moses' use of the a fiery serpent set on a pole while the Israelites wandered in the desert. From Greek god of healing, Asclepius, who is mentioned by Homer in the Iliad (c. eighth century b.c.e.), used a snake-entwined staff symbol which is known as the “Rod of Asclepius” and whose cult developed especially from the sixth century b.c.e. onward.

 

Modern Use:

According to Wikipedia, a number of organizations and services use the rod of Moses as their logo, or part of their logo. These include:

Asia

-   Academy of Medicine of Malaysia

-   Beijing University of Chinese Medicine

-   Chinese Medical Association

-   All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi

-   Dental Council of India

-   Indonesian Medical Association

-   Indonesia Society for Health Promotors and Educators

-   International Medical University, Malaysia

-   Malaysian Medical Council

-   Ministry of Health, Cambodia

-   Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of China

-   Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China

-   Medical Council of India

-   Pakistan Army Medical Corps

-   Sultan Qaboos University Hospital

Africa

      -   Kenya Medical Research Institute

-  Kenya Medical Training College

-  Nigerian Medical Association

      -   South African Medical Research Council former coat of arms

-  South African Military Health Service

-  Tygerberg Academic Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa

South Pacific

       -  Australian Medical Association

-  Australian Medical Students' Association

-  Australian Veterinary Association

-  BHP Emergency Services (West Australian Iron Ore)

-  Medical Council of New Zealand

-  Royal New Zealand Army Medical Corps

-  Royal Australian Army Medical Corps

Canada

       -  Ambulance Paramedics of British Columbia

-  Canadian Association of Physician Assistants

-  Canadian Dental Association

-  Canadian Medical Association

-  Medical Council of Canada

-  Royal Canadian Medical Service

-  Ottawa Paramedic Service

Europe

      -  Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland

-  British Medical Association

-  British Royal Army Medical Corps

-  Dutch army medical corps

-  British Small Animal Veterinary Association

-  Emergency medical services in France (SAMU, SMUR, et al.)

-  Emergency medical services in Italy

-  Emergency medical services in the Netherlands

-  Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom

-  Emergency medical services in Portugal

-  Finnish Medical Association

-  The London Clinic

-  Royal College of Occupational Therapists (UK)

-  Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK)

-  Royal Society of Medicine (UK)

-  Spanish National Council of Medical Student's Association (CEEM)

-  University of Copenhagen Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

-  Państowe Ratownictwie Medyczne – Polish emergency rescue service

-  Jessenius Faculty of Medicine (SVK)

-  Faculty of Medicine Comenius University (SVK)

-  Faculty of Public Health (UK)

-  Hungarian Medical Chamber (HU)

-  National Ambulance Service of Hungary (HU)

United States

       -  Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine

-  American Academy of Family Physicians

-  American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law

-  American Academy of Physician Assistants

-  American College of Occupational & Environmental Medicine

-  American College of Osteopathic Internists

-  American Hippocratic Registry

-  American Medical Association

-  American Medical Response

-  American Medical Student Association

-  American Osteopathic Association

-  American Veterinary Medical Association

-  Army Medical Department of the U.S. Army (AMEDD)

-  Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (U.S.)

-  Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine

-  Hofstra School of Medicine

-  Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine

-  International Medical Corps

-  MedicAlert (U.S.)

-  Michigan State Medical Society

-  Morehouse School of Medicine

-  National Athletic Trainers Association

-  National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians

-  National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians

-  New York University School of Medicine

-  Stanford University School of Medicine

-  Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences

-  Pennsylvania Department of Health

-  Student National Medical Association

-  Student Osteopathic Medical Association (U.S.)

-  United States Navy Hospital Corps

-  United States Air Force Medical Corps

-  University of Minnesota Medical School

-  Yale University School of Medicine

Worldwide

       -   Aerospace Medical Association

-  Medical Protection Society

-  Star of Life, symbol of emergency medical services

-  World Health Organization

Thus, the serpent was cursed by God in (Genesis :13-14) and there is not healing in the serpent animal but a curse.