Poisonous Snakes

When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they sinned against God; He sent poisonous snakes among them, and many were bitten and died. When they cried to Moses to intercede for them, God told him to make a brass serpent, and raise it high upon a pole. When those who were bitten looked upon the brass snake, they would be healed.

Now, Jesus refers to this event in John 3: 14-16 when He said, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 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." Jesus is referring to His death by crucifixion and declares that all who look to the crucified Christ in faith will never be separated from God, but have everlasting life with Him.

The first century reader is further startled by the exclamation that this sacrificial death will not only be for Jews, but for Gentiles as well (God so loved the world- which refers to Gentiles as opposed to Jews in the Bible). What a glorious truth is asserted in this passage!

However, I would like for us to look beyond the surface of this passage to see it in its full context, and examine another spiritual truth which is often overlooked.

First, we must consider that not everyone will look by faith upon Christ, because all men do not see the hopeless and helpless situation they are in because of sin. Only those who knew that they had been bitten by a serpent would have a vital interest in the brass one which Moses had made; so only those who have been enabled by the grace of God to see their own miserable and lost condition before a Holy God will have this vital interest in the sacrifice of the Son of God. Only they can and will believe on Christ and have everlasting life.

Is it not sad to look around you on every hand and see many who are unconcerned about their sinful condition? Unless God does something for them, they will never see their sins, and thus, a need for a Savior.

This agrees completely with the larger context of this passage, for Jesus said a few verses earlier in this chapter (John 3:3-5) that one must have a heavenly birth from God before he can ever see the kingdom of God (understand its truths) or enter the kingdom of God (bow to those truths).

So, then, who is it that looks to Christ for this salvation? It is those in whose hearts God has done this special work of grace in the new birth, who have mourned their sinfulness before a Holy God, and have been made to gaze in faith upon the crucified Savior.

Have you, dear reader, agreed with God that you are a ruined sinner (Romans 3:23) in need of a Savior? Then look to Christ and enter into that salvation which was given to you in Him before the world began (Ephesians 1:4-5) and eternally secured for you when the Savior was lifted up on the cross as a sacrifice for your sins.