The Land of Snakes

In the Old Testament there is a short significant record in Numbers 21:

6 And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much 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 thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.8 And 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.9 And 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 21:6-9

The children of Israel who wandering through the Exodus wilderness came into an area that had a snake infestation and it was a lethal problem! The Lord didn't send the snakes (Hebrew idiom), they were already in the land. The sojourners, as their manner was, had been known to complain often  about the trek through the wildness. The more they complained the less they believed and the snakes became a serious roadblock for them.  As they cried out, God told Moses what they needed to do.  God told him to make a brazen serpent and lift it up on a pole for all to see.  The Israelites were to look at that symbol and in doing so, averted the lethal effects of the snakes.

Fast forwarding to the New Testament, the gospel of John refers to this event in John 3:

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

God's purpose for Jesus Christ's is to destroy the works of the devil:

8 He that committeth (practices ) sin (lack of belief in God) is of the devil; for the devil sinneth (was treasonous to) from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. I John 3:8

These snakes indigenous to the land were harmful to God's people.  God's solution was to focus their sights on the brazen serpent trusting God and they were healed by believing. Jesus Christ took on sin so that we might life.  Our focus on the purpose of Jesus Christ is the answer the difficulties that present to us in the world.  His sacrifice provided a way for us to spiritually be protected from the effects of sin. That is where our focus needs to be.

In the Old Testament record the snakes didn't suddenly disappear, but each individual could choose God's deliverance. They could either sit around and moan or focus on moving forward. Think of all the snaky things in our wilderness. On second thought don't think about these things. Our deliverance spiritually lies with the head of the spiritual church today as our savior. That is what we look at! Jesus shows us the love of God. We are drawn to God through love