Numbers 21:4-94And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. 5And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. 6And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. 7Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 8And 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. 9And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. (Numbers 21:4‑9)
Even after this wonderful victory over king Arad and his people, the children of Israel became discouraged. How often this is so! Perhaps the Lord has used us in some special way, and then discouragement comes in, because we have become occupied with the victory and lost sight of Him. We can never walk on the “waves” of the world’s trouble unless the eye is upon Christ, can we? It is too much for us in our own strength—always!
Then the people began to complain about the manna, saying, “Our soul loatheth this light bread.” They had once rejoiced at it, saying that it tasted “like wafers made with honey,” Eoxdus 16:31, but now they could not taste its sweetness, and they despised it. It was a solemn thing to despise the bread God had sent, and because of this God had to allow them to feel Satan’s power by the fiery serpents. The serpents bit the people and many of them died. This is like “the bite of sin” for which man has no cure; but God told Moses what to do, and what a beautiful picture it is of Christ on the cross.
God told Moses to make a serpent of brass and put it on a pole. Then if anyone who was bitten by a serpent, looked at that serpent of brass on the pole, he was healed at once and lived. The Lord Jesus Himself spoke of the true meaning of this to Nicodemus. He said, “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.” John 3:14,1514And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:14‑15), The poor bitten Israelite might try many ways of healing the serpent’s bite, but all his efforts were useless. There was only one way, and that was to look and live. And so the Lord Jesus was lifted up on the cross of Calvary, He was made ti ik the serpent (the very thing at had bitten them) on the pole, and by one look of faith to Christ the bite of sin is healed and we have everlasting life. Oh how wonderful the work He has accomplished! How gloriously complete! Dear reader, have you looked to Him?
There is life in a look
at the crucified One,
There is life at this moment
for thee;
Then look, sinner, look unto Him
and be saved,
Unto Him who was nailed
to the tree.
We might mention one other point in connection with this serpent of brass. Many years later the children of Israel began to worship it, and so Hezekiah, a very godly king, broke it in pieces and called it “Nehushtan” which means, a piece of brass. This, we believe, has a very solemn lesson for Christendom today. There was no value in-the serpent of brass itself, but God saw the faith of the one who looked at it for healing, and honored it. And so many speak of the cross as an honored emblem. They wear a cross around their necks and hang it on their walls, but they have never looked to Christ for salvation. Let us remember that He is no longer on the cross but enthroned in heaven, and salvation is not by wooden crosses, images, or any works of man’s hands, but by faith in Him alone. Let us he watchful that we do not go back to these things, but rather take all that savors of “the rudiments of the world” (Col. 2:2020Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Colossians 2:20)), and superstition, and break it to pieces, just as Hezekiah did this serpent of brass. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Romans 14: 93.
ML 12/16/1951