Good Morning Friends,
The wilderness story in Exodus and Numbers is, in many ways, the story of a people who became experts at complaining. Even as God delivered and fed them, they grumbled. And honestly, if I had been bitten by a snake, I might have complained too. Yet in that moment of crisis, God invited His people to grow up in faith—to trust His promise and move toward the life He had prepared for them. God told Moses to lift up a bronze serpent on a pole and instructed the people to look at it and live. It was a shocking symbol, but it required a decisive act of trust. Jesus later took this same image and applied it to Himself. So we must ask: Do we have the faith to stop complaining, overcome our instincts, and look to Christ for healing and salvation?
Scripture Summaries
Numbers 21:4–9
Israel grows impatient in the wilderness and speaks against God. Poisonous serpents strike the camp. When the people repent, God instructs Moses to lift up a bronze serpent; those who look at it in faith are healed.
John 8:21–30
Jesus warns that without believing in Him, people will die in their sins. He declares that when the Son of Man is “lifted up,” His true identity and unity with the Father will be revealed. Many believe as He speaks.
Psalm 102:2–21
A prayer from deep distress: the psalmist cries out in weakness and sorrow but affirms God’s eternal reign, compassion, and power to save future generations.
Exodus 15:26
God promises healing to those who listen to His voice and walk in His ways: “I am the Lord who heals you.”
Message: It makes no logical sense that looking at a bronze serpent could heal a snakebite. But God asked His people to trust Him, not the mechanics of the miracle. Their healing required faith.We face the same turning point. We are wounded by sin and longing for healing, yet the symbols God gives us—the serpent on a pole and Christ on the cross—can unsettle us. For a monotheistic people, these images risk misunderstanding, idolatry, or pride in our own goodness. But the truth remains: the only good in us comes from God, and salvation is His work alone.Jesus uses the phrase “lifted up” to show that His crucifixion is both His humiliation and His glory. Like the bronze serpent, He becomes the very thing associated with our sin so that we might live. We may resist comparing Jesus to a serpent, but He Himself makes the comparison. And He does so to reveal God’s mercy.
And So, God could have removed the snakes. Instead, He offered a way of healing that preserved human dignity and required human trust. The same is true today. We are invited to look up and live. When we fix our eyes on Christ, the faith we need is already supplied by His grace.
Pray we understand the message of the serpent and the cross—life, mercy, forgiveness, and love. Pray we resist rebellion and do not reject Jesus. Pray we lift our eyes to His salvation and believe He redeems us. Pray we repent, seek forgiveness, and let the poison of sin leave our system. Pray we take up our cross and follow Him out of our deserts. Pray we trust Christ’s deity, embrace God’s supreme love, and recognize that without the cross there is no salvation. Pray we fix our eyes on Jesus, lifted up for us, and receive the healing He offers.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 