I am thinking about the fiery serpents found in Numbers 21, how after the people of Israel spoke against God and against Moses asking, "Did you bring us here in the desert to die?". The Lord answered by sending fiery serpents that bit them and many of them died. After the people repented of speaking against the LORD and against Moses, they asked Moses to pray for them that the fiery serpents be removed. God told Moses to make a fiery serpent of brass and set it up on a pole. And tell the people that when anyone is bitten to come to the pole and look upon the brass serpent, and they shall live. I see this as a type and shadow of the crucifixion of Jesus. I had a hard time making comparison of my Lord to a serpent on a pole, initially. But it became clearer to me in light of 2 Cor. 5:21, "For he made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." I can see how Jesus when He took on our sins became like the brass serpent on the pole. He was and still is a type of the healing brass serpent for those who have been bitten by the fiery serpents that cause death. Only Jesus goes one giant step better, He not only heals us from that first death in the flesh, but Jesus heals us of the second death that comes at judgement day. So, when I come to the cross to look upon Jesus, I am assured that I shall live and not die. When I see a crucifix, my mind goes first and foremost to the love of God. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." The suffering part has long since passed, as Jesus said, "It is finished."