Alma adds a third witness of the Son of God from the plates of brass, or the Old Testament. Probably because of the length of Moses’ prophecies, he tells rather than quotes Moses lifting up a type of the Son of God in the wilderness. He again assumed the Zoramites had knowledge of the account. This account is recorded in our present-day Bible (see Numbers 21:4–9). The type was a serpent made of brass which was lifted on a pole for the people to look upon and be healed from poisonous bites of fiery serpents. The Lord had sent serpents among them because they were speaking evil against God and Moses. The Gospel of John recognizes Moses lifting up the serpent as a type of Christ: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14–15). Alma’s saying that few understood the typology of Christ because of the hardness of their hearts unto unbelief (Alma 33:20) may have been drawn from the ancient account, but it is not presently in the biblical account. Nephi, son of Lehi, had earlier said: “because of the simpleness of the way many perished” (1 Nephi 17:41). He also referred to the incident as a power given to Moses (see 2 Nephi 25:20). Nephi, son of Helaman, also uses the incident as evidence of the coming of the Son of God (see Helaman 8:14–15). Certainly this was a well-known incident among the Nephites, as well as among the ancient Israelites. Alma applied the incident to the Zoramites as a lesson to believe in the Son of God (Alma 33:21–22). We should also apply it to our lives in this dispensation. The day of judgment, spoken of by Alma, is very near and applicable to us.