A story about venomous snakes, trekking through the wilderness, and big miracles was enough to make any elementary student sit on the edge of her seat.
I still remember the first time I heard this adventurous story. Dressed in a new dress and my favorite church shoes, I was sitting in a weekly chapel service along my classmates and elementary school teacher. There were about eighty of us students kindergarten through eighth grade in this small school—and once a week, we all sat in those rigid mahogany pews in the intimate sanctuary above our classrooms to listen to the Bible come to life.
As one of the teachers told this story, she held up a picture book to represent this Old Testament truth — a journey of the Israelites and one of their specific struggles in the wilderness. This struggle seemed like a very big struggle in the eyes of a young fourth grader, as it involved snakes. Yes, snakes.
I glanced forward.
In the picture before me, there were a large group of distraught people laying on the ground floor with their tattered tents behind them, obviously very sick and in need of saving. The scene set before me in this picture book made me sit on the edge of my seat, as I did not want to miss a single detail. These people looked like they needed help. My empathetic heart was curious.
My teacher continued.
The Israelites put themselves in a horrible predicament. They became very ungrateful for all that the Lord had done for them and started grumbling against His handiwork. They had completely forgotten their rescue flight from evil Pharaoh and the awesome miracle of walking through the Red Sea on dry ground. Instead of seeing God’s provision as a guiding light through dark evenings in this unknown wilderness or His provision of manna each morning, God’s own children were ready to throw in the towel on this desert journey and decided to become very vocal in their dissatisfaction.
So, God stepped in.
He sent a very unfortunate life lesson in the form of dangerous snakes that attacked several people — the venomous bites caused extreme pain and to some, it caused death. My heart started racing. Their punishment sounded harsh. Yet, here is the flip side — the value behind this incredible life lesson and God’s solution would foreshadow a true Savior to come, YEARS LATER.
God was already planting seeds for the future while using this moment in time to teach truth.
<<no kidding, this is the LARGEST snake I've ever seen. Ran across a rattler at a national park in Arizona and realized one snake was enough to make this gal get out of there, after snapping a picture, of course! Could you imagine an entire camp infested with snakes? I would definitely need rescuing!>>
Just like children who are disciplined and realize far too late that they have made a big mistake with their actions, the Israelites ran to their leader Moses begging for forgiveness and asked him to plead on their behalf to take away this unfortunate plague of snakes within their camp.
Moses prayed, God answered.
//Enter God’s solution.
THE SOLUTION TO A HORRIBLE PREDICAMENT>>
He told Moses to make a bronze snake and place it on a pole in the middle of the camp: anyone who looked at it would be healed. Their life would be spared just by casting their eyes on this solution. For, if truth be told, God knew that those who believed in His healing power would go through the action step of doing whatever they could to cast their eyes upward — to pause what they were doing, admist their pain, their hurt, their disbelief.
ALL THEY HAD TO DO WAS LOOK UP.
As a kid, my mind was running wild. The cure would be that easy?? You just had to look at the snake on the pole. It sounded too simple. Even a fourth grader could do that! I leaned forward in that hard pew, curious to see if the main characters of this story stepped out in belief to a God much bigger than them and those awful snakes.
I waited.
My teacher turned to the next page in the picture book. It was of a bronze pole with a snake twisted around the top of it. There were people laying all around the base of the structure, desperate to cast their eyes on the one thing that could heal them— the one and only cure.
My heart lifted.
A LESSON NOT FORGOTTEN:
Moses writes of this particular event in the wilderness in the Old Testament, in Numbers chapter 21. The last verse of this story is succinctly summarized by saying: ’when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.’ Did you hear that? THEY LIVED!
My little fourth grader heart leaped and a smile began to show on my face. They lived.
My teacher flipped to the next page. There’s more?
This wasn’t a single moment in time written for the history books to be forgotten about for years to come: this story foreshadowed a Savior for all — for all who would believe and look up.
Fast forward to the New Testament. In John chapter 3, Jesus was teaching about His power and life with Him, and He references this pertinent life lesson from years earlier. He said: Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him.
This wasn’t a single moment in time written for the history books to be forgotten about for years to come: this story foreshadowed a Savior for all — for all who would believe and look up.
It was that easy.
God gave this lesson to the Israelites in the form of moving their vision from themselves to Himself by asking them to believe in a cure that was outside of anything they could do on their own. He was trying to teach them that they could not have life by doing anything out of their own power. They had to believe they couldn’t save themselves — Someone had to step in to provide a solution on their behalf. Not only did God provide a temporary solution, He used this moment in time to paint a picture of an even greater, permanent solution to come in the form of His Son.
MANY LIFE LESSONS LATER>>
Years to come and many, many life lessons later, I now realize this moment in time was a very special one for the Israelites. As a young girl, I was thrilled that the Israelites had escaped their predicament and had placed their vision on a God who truly cared about them because it reminded that I could do the same. As a young lady aiming to live out my walk with God, I now realize that not only did they live physically, they gained a refreshed perspective on their spiritual journey. Their focus was cast above. These people realized they needed Someone to step in and save them from their hardened hearts and jaded attitudes.
The truth? Jesus stepped in to be lifted up for us. All we have to do is look to Him and believe. Mirroring the simple solution to be saved from venomous snake bites, the concept is just as simple: believe in a God bigger than yourself.
Turn your eyes to Him. Do everything you can do to get to a place in your camp - your journey, your life, your moment - to fully believe in His power to redeem and restore your life.
It starts with just looking up.
Look up and believe. It’s that easy!
Father, show me the areas of my life that I need to completely give over to you. Remind me to look up to You for guidance in each situation I walk through in my day. May I not count on myself but, instead, count on You. I let go of all moments and areas of my life that are causing friction and pain. Please provide peace in the most stressful moments. Thank you for providing a solution that is outside of myself and reminding me that is not anything I can do but what You have done for me.
