"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."
(Num. 21:6-9)
The people desire the serpents to be removed, but instead the serpents and their bites remain and God says look and live.
Look at the the very image of your suffering. Look and live.
In this life we groan and desire the removal of our sin and suffering and the deadly bite of the serpent, but God says, Look and live.
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in him may have eternal life."
(John 3:14)
Look to your suffering substitute. Look to Him who was made sin for you. Look to the very image of your suffering poured out upon Him as He hangs there upon the tree. Look and live!
2 comments:
I was thinking about this today myself. The thought went something like this. Why did God send the serpents? Because those were HIS people. Whom the Lord loves, He disciplines. Reminded me of this passage:
Heb 12:1-6 ESV
(1) Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
(2) looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
(3) Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
(4) In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
(5) And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
(6) For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives."
Thanks Tom,
Craig
Good reminder Craig. Thanks be to our faithful Father!
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