Look And Live!

The LORD sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died. Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people. Then the LORD told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed! Numbers 21:6-9

THE PEOPLE WERE complaining about being brought up out of Egypt, longingly remembering the good food they ate there but apparently forgetting their bitter slavery. And so the Lord sent snakes. Why snakes? The symbol of Egyptian power —featured on the Pharaoh’s crown —was a serpent. So these serpents said with every hiss: “Is this really what you want? Do you want to be afflicted with suffering by the mighty serpent of Egypt again?” The serpents were also a reminder of the ancient serpent who slithered into the Garden of Eden and tempted Adam and Eve, causing them to be ejected into the wilderness.

God instructed Moses to mount the symbol of Israel’s mortal enemies —Egypt and Satan —lifeless and defeated on a pole. It was a picture of how the power of sin would one day be defeated for good when the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). The Israelites received life and healing when they fixed their gaze on the bronze snake on the pole, a picture of the future defeat of the ancient serpent when Jesus would be lifted up on the pole of the cross.

Just as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so Jesus was lifted up on the cross so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. You love ________ so much that you gave your one and only Son, so that if ________ believes in you, she will have eternal life. You sent your Son into the world not to judge ________ but to save her through him. Please call ________ to yourself so that she might fix her gaze on the cross, where her salvation is found.