Look unto Jesus

During the Israelites journey in the wilderness, they murmured against God. Finally because of bitterness, rebellion, and a negative syndrome, God sent serpents, and one person after another became the victim of snake bites. Their bodies began to swell, and poison filled their systems. Of course, before God allowed the people to be bitten by the serpents, he already had a provision waiting for them. He told Moses to take a brazen serpent and put it on a pole (2). Anyone who looked at that serpent was healed. God had to bring them to a critical decisive point to get them to look upon Him.

Sooner or later, we will face a crisis. For many years, God had given mercy, grace and patience to the children of Israel. Now the time of crisis had come. They would not accept the process, so God brought a crisis.

The brazen serpent speaks of judgment. It was not a real serpent because Jesus was in the likeness of sinful flesh, but he did not sin (3). The brazen serpent was a type of Christ. It was lifted up because Jesus Christ would be lifted up, bearing all of man’s judgment. So many times we do not keep our eyes on Jesus Christ and God has to take action in order for us to stay occupied with him. Let us learn to keep a single eye on Jesus Christ through hard times as well as prosperous.