We are entering the Year of the Horse in the Lunar Calendar in 2026.
Horse in Chinese Mythology
The horse is the 7th animal in the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac (十二生肖). According to tradition, the horse lost to the snake, which wriggled past one of the horse’s hoofs and took 6th place. People born in the Year of the Horse are believed to be energetic, charismatic, and impulsive. They are believed to be full of vitality and speed in everything they do.
Culturally, the Horse is a symbol of victory and success in both the Chinese culture and the Bible. The popular Chinese idiom “马到功成” (Swift Success when the horses arrive).
Horses in the Bible
The serpent in the Bible is a complex symbol, often representing deceit, sin, and temptation.
In Genesis 3:1, we are introduced to the serpent as “more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made“. This craftiness is immediately demonstrated as the serpent engages Eve in a conversation that ultimately leads to the fall of humanity (You can read about it in Genesis 3:1-24).
The snake’s role in this pivotal moment sets the stage for its predominantly negative connotations throughout scripture. After the fall, God curses the serpent, saying, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life“. This curse symbolizes the abasement and humiliation that sin brings.
Throughout the Bible, snakes continue to be associated with evil and danger. Jesus himself refers to the Pharisees as a “brood of vipers” in Matthew 3:7, 12:34, and 23:33, using the snake as a metaphor for their deceitful nature.
The Snake Redeemed
However, the symbolism of the snake is redeemed in a powerful way through the story of the bronze serpent in Numbers 21:4-9. When the ungrateful Israelites spoke against God and Moses, they were bitten by venomous snakes in the wilderness, God instructed Moses to create a bronze serpent and lift it on a pole. Anyone who looked at this bronze serpent would be healed.
The symbol of the snake on a staff (Book of Numbers, written in the 6th-7th century BCE) may have influenced its adoption as the emblem for Medicine or the Rod of Asclepius, the first Greek physician hero from the 5th century BCE.
Jesus draws a parallel between this event and his crucifixion in John 3:14-15:
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him“.
Look to Jesus, Our Bronze Serpent
The ultimate redemption of the snake symbol occurs at the cross, where Jesus takes on the curse associated with the serpent, becoming sin for us. As Paul writes in Galatians 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us”.
It is the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross that transforms the snake from a symbol of judgment to one of salvation. This is beautifully told in John 3:14-18, the context where the most memorised and popular Bible verse John 3:16 is mentioned.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in Him should [c]not perish but have eternal life.
16 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.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “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.
In conclusion, while the serpent in Eden represents the entry of sin into the world (Genesis 3:1-7), Christ’s sacrifice on the cross offers the antidote to this poison of sin, and in so redeemed the symbolism of the snake for those who believe.
The snake redeemed was mentioned by Solomon when he praised four wonderful things that he observed in Proverbs 30:18-19.
18“There are three things that are too amazing for me,
four that I do not understand:
19 the way of an eagle in the sky,
the way of a snake on a rock,
the way of a ship on the high seas,
and the way of a man with a young woman.
In fact, Jesus even used the cunning wisdom of the snake as an example for his disciples as he sends them out to the world in Matthew 10:16
“I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.
So to those born in the year of the Snake, Happy Chinese New Year, and may the Lord bless you with wisdom and grace in your steps and your adventures in 2025!
