Christian Living
Numbers 21:4-9 tells the story of Moses, the disgruntled Israelites, the poisonous serpents and the bronze serpent. As usual, the Israelites had settled into their normal lifestyle of always complaining against Moses and God inspite of God’s goodness, mercy and kindness. This time, something different seemed to be happening; dangerous creepy, stinging and deadly serpents suddenly appeared among them….
‘Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.” So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.’ Numbers 21:4-9 NKJV
Notice that the Lord didn’t quite mean to kill these complaining bunch as evidenced by the fact that He made a way out for the repentant ones- a brozen serpent with healing potentials. This wasn’t a scarecrow, not at all, according to Moses, anyone who looked up at the brozen object on the tree (for help), though bitten by a deadly serpent, such a one would immediately become healed. Seems to me like the Lord teaching a lesson on trust, faith and obedience.
In John 3:14-15, Jesus relates this particular incident and experience in the wilderness to His death on the cross and the salvation of mankind….
‘And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. ‘ John 3:14-15 NKJV
We read from Numbers 21:9, that everyone who had been bitten by the poisonous serpent lived (didn’t die) as they fixed their gaze on Moses’ bronze serpent.
But did you notice that nothing else was said about these poisonous serpents as the people obeyed and directed their gaze as admonished?
Where did the serpents go?
Were they withdrawn? Did they crawl away? Did they die? ….What happened to them?
You know, as I thought about the uneventful ‘disappearance’ of the poisonous serpents, I realized that actually that is how life problems ‘pass away‘ as we move our focus away from them and fix them instead on Jesus and His Word. Suddenly, the pain stops, suddenly the lump is no more, suddenly your marriage is restored.
The serpents just disappear as we fix our gaze on Jesus and His Word.
Can you trust Jesus enough to keep looking unto Him? Do you believe the Word of God as recorded in the Bible to be true?
The righteous lives by faith, meaning that faith is the lifestyle of the righteous, not just in one thing or in one area of life, but throughout life’s journey.
If you are a Christian who have had repeated and unrelenting attacks of different forms, you sometimes get to the point where you must answer to this very pertinent question?- Do you believe the integrity of the Word of God? Whether you continue to trust, obey and follow depends on your conviction about the integrity of the Word, your decisions and choices reflect your stance.
The serpents; troubles and challenges will surely pass away as you stay with God. You should be standing when it’s over.
Stay with God.
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Where Did The Serpents Go? was first published on Grace Obomanu Blog on the October 2020.
