Growing In Godliness Blog
“The Serpent in The Wilderness”
Categories: Author: Paul Earnhart, Faith, ObedienceThe Serpent in The Wilderness
By Paul Earnhart
The Old Testament is not a law for us to keep today. Colossians 2:14 says that Jesus took it out of the way and nailed it to His cross. God speaks to us today in the New Testament. That does not mean, however, that the Old Testament is worthless. It is essential to the understanding of the New. Jesus used many examples from the O. T. to teach us about Himself. In John 3:14-15, Jesus said “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Without the O. T. that would make no sense.
When we turn back to Numbers 21, however, we find God’s people in the wilderness traveling toward the land that God had promised them. God was providing their needs, but instead of appreciating it, they complained. God was displeased with their grumbling and sent fiery serpents among them so that many Israelites died. When they pled with God for relief, God gave the following instructions to Moses: “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard and it shall come about that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he shall live.” (Num. 21:8) Moses made a serpent of bronze and did as God said, and those who looked upon it were healed.
Now you will agree that this was a strange treatment for snakebite. We understand, of course, that the bronze serpent did not heal them. It was God who healed them. He healed those who had faith enough to look upon the serpent. It was altogether God’s doing; their part was to simply believe.
Today, all of us are the victims of another serpent…Satan. He has tempted us all and we all have sinned. Sin is more deadly than snakebite. We cannot cure ourselves. But Jesus came and died on the cross and, by looking to Him in faith, we can be healed. Just as their faith saved them WHEN THEY OBEYED GOD BY LOOKING AT THE SERPENT, our faith in Jesus saves us when we obey Him. James 2:26 says, “…faith without works is dead.”
