It wasn’t a real snake. It was made of brass, twisted around a pole and placed very high for everyone to see. I expect you would like to know why that serpent of shining brass was up there in the sunlight that day. Here is the story:
The people of God were camping in the desert near the end of their long, 40-year journey. They had many, many tents, all pitched in a certain order that God had commanded. God had taken good care of His people for all those long years of travel. Now their journey was almost over, and the shortest way was straight ahead, through the land belonging to their father’s brother.
Can we use your highway? Moses asked.
NO! And it was a definite answer!
We won’t spoil anything, and we’ll pay for whatever we use.
The answer was still, NO!
God’s people were really discouraged. God would not let them fight about it, and they were all angry inside.
Do you understand how they felt? Do you feel like that too when things are not fair? God cares about your disappointment. In fact, He cared so much about His people’s disappointment that He made their trouble a whole lot worse!
Are you saying, “I don’t understand”? We have a God who is much wiser than we are. He can see that we don’t always need a smooth trail, but we always need Him.
God sent fiery serpents (serpents are snakes) slithering under the tent walls, and their terrible, poisonous bites began killing the people.
If God hates complaining, you and I deserve to die too, and that’s why God tells you this story. He wants to save you, but first of all He wants you to understand that you need to be saved.
The people cried out to Moses, “Ask God to take away the snakes!” They were ready and wanted to be saved now, but they chose the wrong way of salvation. If God only took away the snakes, there were all those people who were already bitten who would certainly die, and that would be a lot of deaths.
Are you ready to be saved now? If you cry out to God, be sure to let Him decide how to save you. He has already sent His only begotten Son to die for you, because He knew you needed Him. Let Him save you by the blood of Jesus who died for you! God has no other way.
The Bible does not say if God took away the snakes. However, it does tell us that He told Moses to make a serpent of brass and set it up high on a pole so that everyone could see it. The reason for the brass serpent was this—one look at that serpent on the pole meant instant cure! The bitten person was healed at once . . . it only took one look!
No doctor in the world could ever plan a cure like that, and no arguing could change it. God’s promise was true; all they needed was just to look. And God’s promise is true for you too. Jesus who died on the cross is the only Savior of sinners. His way is perfect. Why will you die without Him? “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:2222Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22)).
ML-04/08/2018