Look and Live 

" If a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived." (Num.21:9).

The people of Israel had sinned against God in speaking against Him and against Moses, His servant. as a penalty, the Lord sent fiery serpents among them, which bit the people and many of the people died. So they came to Moses, acknowledging their sin asking him to pray the Lord to take away the serpents. In answer to his prayers, the Lord instructed Mosess to make a serpent of brass and set it up on a pole, with the promise that every one who had been bitten, if he looked on the brazen serpent , would live. the promise was fulfilled in every instance.

We have the same disease the Israelites had- sin, the worst of all diseases. the devil is the old serpent, a fiery one. Sin is his biting. It is painful and poisonous, inflaming the soul. It is deadly disease. For it, there is no human remedy. The guilt of sin is like the pain caused by the bite of a fiery serpent. the power of the corruption of sin is like the poison of the serpents bite that goes through the whole body. sin defiles every part of our being, sets fire on our whole nature, and is itself set on fire of hell. It and all who leave this earth enslaved by it shall burn eternally in the lake that burns forever with fire and brimstone.

God provides the remedy for sin. Humanly speaking, it is most unlikely method of deliverance. That which cured a bitten Israelite was shaped like the serpent from whose bite he was suffering and dying. that which God has provided for the deliverance of men from the power and the consequences of sin is His Son in the likeness of the flesh in which sin dwells. God's remedy for sin must be used as was the brazen serpent- simply looking upon it. Any person who has faith to look lives. The brazen serpent's being lifted up did not cure if it was not looked at. Concern over the wound is of no avail; he dies who does not look. Whoever looks, wherever he is, whatever he is, lives. Who ever looks even if he be nearly dead lives. Even if he looks with a weak and weeping eye, he is healed. there is life for a look at the crucified One.

With love and regards,

Shajiachen