HE THAT LOOKS UNTO JESUS SHALL LIVE

 WEDNESDAY, 19TH APRIL, 2023.

Topic: HE THAT LOOKS UNTO JESUS SHALL LIVE

MEMORIZE: “And 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.”  John 3:14-15.

SCRIPTURE READING: Numbers 21:4-9.

“Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses: "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread." 6 So the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. 7 Therefore 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. 8 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live." 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”  

EXPOSITION:

The children of Israel had been in a long journey in their matching into the Canaan land (the promise land). They grew wearied and exercised unbelief and murmuring against God and Moses. The righteous judgment which God brought upon them for their murmuring, Nu 21:6. He sent fiery serpents among them, which bit or stung many of them to death. Sin is the biting of this fiery serpent; it is painful to the startled conscience, and poisonous to the seared conscience. Satan's temptations are called his fiery darts - “above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” Ephesians 6:16. Lust and passion inflame the soul, so do the terrors of the Almighty, when they set themselves in array. At the last, sin bites like a serpent and stings like an adder; and even its sweets are turned into the gall of asps. 

When they cried unto God for forgiveness and healing, God provided a solution in the bronze serpent that must be set up on a pole. “Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live." 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”  

Let us look closely the relationship between their remedy and ours. 

(1.) It was God himself that devised and prescribed this antidote against the fiery serpents; so our salvation by Christ was the contrivance of Infinite Wisdom; God himself has found the ransom. 

(2.) It was a very unlikely method of cure; so our salvation by the death of Christ is to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness. It was Moses that lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the law is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, and Moses wrote of him, John Nu 21:35. Christ was lifted up by the rulers of the Jews, who were the successors of Moses. 

(3.) That which cured was shaped in the likeness of that which wounded. So Christ, though perfectly free from sin himself, yet was made in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3), so like that it was taken for granted that this man was a sinner, John 9:24. 

(4.) The brazen serpent was lifted up; so was Christ. He was lifted up upon the cross (John 12:33,34), for his was made a spectacle to the world. He was lifted up by the preaching of the gospel. The word here used for a pole signifies a banner, or ensign, for Christ crucified stands for an ensign of the people, Isaiah 11:10. Some make the lifting up of the serpent to be a figure of Christ's triumphing over Satan, the old serpent, whose head he bruised, when in his cross he made an open show of the principalities and powers which he had spoiled and destroyed - Colossians 2:15. 

They looked and lived, and we, if we believe, shall not perish; it is by faith that we look unto Jesus, Hebrews 12:2. Look unto me, and be you saved, Isaiah 45:22. We must be sensible of our wound and of our danger by it, receive the record which God has given concerning his Son, and rely upon the assurance he has given us that we shall be healed and saved by him if we resign ourselves to his direction. The brazen serpent's being lifted up would not cure if it was not looked upon. If any pored on their wound, and would not look up to the brazen serpent, they inevitably died. If they slighted this method of cure, and had recourse to natural medicines, and trusted to them, they justly perished; so if sinners either despise Christ's righteousness or despair of benefit by it their wound will, without doubt, be fatal. But whoever looked up to this healing sign, though from the outmost part of the camp, though with a weak and weeping eye, was certainly healed; so whosoever believes in Christ, though as yet but weak in faith, shall not perish. 

PRAYER POINT: Lord, Open my eyes of faith to see your salvation in all my situations in Jesus name.

DAILY BIBLE READING IN A YEAR –  1 Chronicles 11-14.