From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the
Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the
people became impatient on the way. 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 we loathe this worthless food.”
Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the
people, and they bit the people, so that many
people of Israel died. And 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.
And the LORD said to
Moses, “Make a fiery
serpent and set it on
a pole, and everyone
who is bitten, when
he sees it, shall live.”
So Moses made a
bronze serpent and
set it on a pole. And if
a serpent bit anyone,
he would look at the
bronze serpent and live.
(Numbers 21:4-9)
God prescribed an interesting solution
for the problem of His people’s sin in today’s
passage. Due to their rebellion and grumbling in
the wilderness, the Lord sent fiery serpents among
the Israelites to bite them! When Moses interceded
for the people, God provided a way for them to be
saved. But this was no ordinary means of salvation.
God told Moses to set a fiery serpent on a pole so
that anyone who had been bitten could simply
look at the serpent on the pole and live. Now,
looking at a snake may sound like the last thing
you would want to do after being bitten by a
snake. However, as God did throughout the Old
Testament, He was ultimately setting the stage
for the advent, or coming, of Jesus. Notice the
connection Jesus makes between this story in
Numbers 21 and the purpose of His own coming:
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
(John 3:14)
When Jesus talks about being “lifted up,” He’s
talking about being lifted up on a cross.
Like the Israelites, we too deserve
death for our sin, and the only
way we can be saved is by
lifting up our eyes and
looking at a man dying
on the cross.
Here we have a
powerful picture of
how we’re saved,
and it’s not by
doing good works or
checking off boxes of
religious duties. It’s by
looking and living. It’s
by believing and finding
life. It’s the familiar yet
gloriously good news of
John 3:16: “For God so loved
the world, that he gave his only
Son, that whoever believes in him should not
perish but have eternal life.”
PRAYING IN LIGHT OF TODAY’S PASSAGE
Thank God that He has saved you based not on
your own righteousness or efforts but rather on
what He has accomplished by sending His Son to
die for your sins.