Daily Devotions based the Sermon on Numbers 21:4-9 from March 14, 2021
THIS WEEK: Lead Me to the Cross…Find the Snake…Find the Cross!
“Only when you hit bottom, do you start to look up.”
Israel had hit bottom. They complained of detestable food. They claimed they were out in the desert to die. They wanted a new leader. They wanted a new God.
If that wasn’t enough, now they had poisonous snakes lunging at them wherever they went.
Their first step: Repent (see yesterday’s devotion). God woke them up with the snakes.
They asked Moses to intercede for them. Moses did and God answered.
Ironically, God didn’t take the snakes away. In fact, it appears he allowed individuals to continue to be bitten. But he did provide a way to not perish from the snake bite.
Numbers 21:8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.
The issue wasn’t the snakes. It was the people’s hearts. What would they do now? Would they continue to complain and blame God for the poisonous snakes and their negative impact on life? Would their hearts stay full of complaining, blaming and lack of trust? Or would they listen to their leader Moses and once again trust the Lord their God.
How? By looking up…at the bronze snake on the pole and trusting the promise the Lord attached to it: “Look and live!”
The bronze serpent lifted up on the pole saved people from snakebites.
Jesus would use this event to describe what would happen to him:
John 3:14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
Jesus lifted up on the cross would save people from the bite of THE serpent, Satan.
Satan would and still does prowl around looking for someone to bite with the poison of sin. Sin still has it’s sting of death. Only when we come to the realization that we cannot save ourselves from the curse of sin, do we look up for a solution.
That solution is in Jesus. The Lord allowed his Son to be lifted up on the pole of the cross to not just pay the punishment our sin deserved, but to provide the promise our heart needed to believe.
That promise is powerful to compel our heart to believe it. By believing we have eternal life. That means we will never be threatened by sin and its consequences any more. We will be in the “promise land” of heaven, with our Savior, Jesus.
So, next time you’re fed up, remember to look up. Look up and see your Savior who loves you, was lifted up on a cross for you, and has a place in heaven waiting for you!
Apply: What sin continues to “bite” you? Look up to the cross to see Jesus who lived and died for you. Look up to the cross for power and strength to say “No” to that sin.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for honoring Moses’ request to provide deliverance for your people. Thank you for providing deliverance for me by your Son’s death on the cross. AMEN.