OUROBOROS

 

There’s a symbol that has quietly slithered through human history — through temples, tombs, scrolls, and science. It is mysterious, mesmerizing, and strangely modern.

It’s called the Ouroboros: the serpent that eats its own tail.

To many, it’s just an ancient emblem of eternity. But beneath its coils lies something more — something spiritual. Something biblical.

Because long before we obsessed over cycles and symbolism, a man named Moses faced a serpent of his own. And what happened in that desert would echo into eternity.

The Ouroboros: A Symbol That Swallows Itself

The image is simple but profound: a serpent biting its own tail, forming a perfect circle. A symbol of eternal return. Life from death. Endings as beginnings.

It first appeared in Egypt — where, coincidentally, Moses was raised.

The Ouroboros symbolized cyclical renewal, self-sufficiency, and the never-ending flow of time. But while the Pharaoh’s magicians understood this symbol through pagan mystery, God would show Moses a different truth about serpents.

Moses and the Serpent: A Holy Disruption

When God first called Moses in Exodus 4, He told him to throw his staff on the ground. It became a serpent — and Moses ran.

Why a serpent?

Because God was confronting more than Pharaoh — He was challenging Egypt’s symbols of power, eternity, and divinity. The serpent, after all, was sacred in Egyptian culture. Worn on crowns. Painted on temples. Even wrapped into the Ouroboros.

God told Moses to grab the serpent by the tail — an act of defiance, danger, and divine authority. The snake turned back into a staff.

God was showing Moses that He had power over the cycle. Power over fear. Power over false eternity.

Later, in Numbers 21, the Israelites are bitten by venomous serpents in the wilderness. God tells Moses to make a bronze serpent and lift it high on a pole. Anyone who looked at it lived.

Again — the serpent, now a symbol of healing, not harm. Death, reversed.

Even Jesus references this moment in John 3:14:
“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”

Jesus becomes the better Moses. The ultimate interruption to our cycles of sin and death.

From Endless Cycle to Eternal Life

While the Ouroboros represents the cycle of life devouring itself to survive, the cross of Christ represents life given freely so we might thrive.

• The Ouroboros survives by consuming itself.

• Jesus saves by giving Himself.

• The serpent coils inward.

• The Savior stretches outward.

This is where Moses and the Ouroboros collide. In the wilderness, God transformed a feared symbol into a path to healing. At Calvary, God transformed a feared death into the doorway to eternal life.

Are You Still Stuck in the Loop?

Many of us live like the Ouroboros — stuck in cycles of fear, regret, guilt, shame. Always devouring, but never satisfied.

But Moses didn’t just confront serpents. He obeyed God in disrupting symbols of false power. And you can, too.

You don't have to keep repeating destructive cycles. You can lift your eyes to the cross — like the Israelites looked at the bronze serpent — and live.

The Final Coil

The Ouroboros tells us life is a circle that never ends.
Moses shows us God breaks the circle.
And Jesus shows us how to begin again.

So when you feel trapped in a loop, remember:

The serpent might eat its own tail, but God calls us to eat the Bread of Life.
The serpent turns inward to survive, but Christ turned outward to save.
The serpent coils, but the Savior conquers.

The ancient symbol isn't wrong — life is cyclical. But through Moses, and finally through Jesus, we see that the cycle doesn't have the final word.

Grace does.