Bitten By The Serpent

​Numbers 21:5-9
John 3:14
John 12:32
 
God had given the Israelites the victory over Canaan and not only that but they had seen God do some miraculous things. But God allowed fiery serpents to come into the camp.  God allowed it to happen because of their disobedience and because of the things that they were doing and saying.  As a result these serpents were allowed in to the camp, and as it says, a lot of the people died.
 
These were “fiery serpents” but it wasn’t the glowing or the color of the serpent or the heat that brought the people to repentance - it was the death of the people that brought them to the point of repenting and confessing their sin.  They realized what they had done – they said to Moses “…for we have spoken against the Lord and against you….”
 
They had been complaining.  After all God had done, after all the miracles they had seen, they complained to Moses and against God.  They were out in the wilderness saying, in other words, “What did you bring us out here for? To die? We don’t have any water, we don’t have any bread, we have nothing to eat. What did you bring us out here for?”
 
We can look around us and see how blessed we are. For one thing, we’re still above ground. We should be thanking God that we’re still above ground.  As the saying goes, some folks complaining have got a loaf of bread under one arm, a pound of bologna under the other, and a jar of mayonnaise in their hand and they’re complaining, instead of making some sandwiches and eat. So many times we’re not thinking about the blessing that God has blessed us with.
 
But they recognized their sin and confessed it.  They said “Moses, we have sinned” and then they told Moses to pray to Lord that He will take away the serpents.  So Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord answered his prayer.
 
Verse 8 says: “And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.”
 
A lot of times when we go to the drug store we can see that symbol, that serpent wrapped around a pole; that’s a symbol of healing.   We can be in a foreign country, we can be in some part of Europe or somewhere but if you see that symbol you know that’s a place where you can get some medicine.
 
Now we see here Moses takes this brass and he shapes it in the form of a serpent, and places it upon a pole.  And as the Lord said everyone that looked upon it, if he was bitten, he was healed.  Also, here we see a symbol of Christ – let’s look a little further.
 
Jesus says in John 3: “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”.  His sacrifice saves us from death and gives us eternal life.  And Jesus said in John 12 “If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me”. 
 
But you see it’s something that we have to do. It was something that they had to do. They had to look up. They couldn’t be looking down around their feet – they had to look up at the serpent that Moses had placed on a pole just as God had instructed.
 
In verse 9 of Numbers 21 it says:” …if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.”  In other words, this was the antidote.  As the people looked on that serpent that Moses lifted up they were healed.  And we as Christians as we look to the cross, we can be healed.
 
Because we all have been bitten, brothers and sisters - we all have been bitten by the serpent of sin.  You might say “How did we get bitten by the serpent of sin? I didn’t see no serpent biting me!”
 
Adam was bitten by that serpent in the garden – sin!  And with that we all took on that sinful nature.  So the only way that we can get delivered or healed from that sinful nature is to look up to Jesus.  We have to look to Jesus for our healing - for our deliverance.
 
We get our healing by accepting Jesus Christ; by looking to Him. You see what happened was when they crucified him, they messed up.  When they nailed him to the cross and when they lifted Him up they messed up!  Because He said: “If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me”.  In other words all men can be healed and all men can be delivered.  At the crucifixion Jesus is being lifted up on that cross just as Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness.
 
So, all we have to do is look to Him. Because He is our antidote, He is our serum.
Look up! Look up to Jesus, and be healed from your sins.
~J.T.