ONE-YEAR JOURNEY OF THE BIBLE
Day 52 -Numbers 21-22 (Look and Live)
“And the people spoke against God and against Moses: "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread." So the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD that He take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live." So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”
The ever-rebellious people that they were, the Israelites complained again to Moses regarding their seeming lack of food and water. This time God’s response was quicker than usual and He sent fiery serpents among the people that killed many of them. When the people approached Moses asking him to pray to God to take away the snakes, God instructed Moses to make an image of a fiery serpent just like the ones that were killing the people and set it on a pole. Then, God said that “if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”
During His conversation with Nicodemus at night, Jesus said to him, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15) Jesus directly linked the terrible incident in the wilderness with the fiery serpents and the brazen snake on a pole to the sinful condition of man and how our only hope for salvation is to look to the One who hung on the wooden pole on Calvary.
If you are reading this and you have not known what it’s like to be completely forgiven of all your sins and assured of eternal life, God is speaking to you right now to confess your sinful condition to Him and to look to Jesus who alone is able to heal you of your sins and give you eternal life so that you may live forever with Him.
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