Jesus Christ was very fond of using events from the past to illustrate the purpose of His life on this earth. The people to whom He spoke would have generally been well versed in the history of their nation. One incident which Jesus used is very powerful in showing what He came to do.
When the Israelites were travelling through the wilderness, under the leadership of Moses, towards their Promised Land, very sadly they kept moaning and rebelling against God, Who was their protector and provider. So, in order to discipline them, God sent a plague of fiery snakes who bit the people, and this bite was fatal unless treated. The marvellous thing is, that, as well as sending this plague, God also provided a remedy from the snake bite, in the form of looking to a snake of brass erected on a tall pole. To be cured, all anyone had to do was to obey God’s command and look at the brass snake and instead of dying they would live. As simple as that.
The Lord Jesus said that, just like the snake of brass, He would be lifted up, and anybody who ‘looked’ to Him would be healed. By this He meant that all who look to Him, trusting in Him alone are healed of their sin and delivered from its awful eternal consequences in hell.
So Jesus Christ was lifted up on a Cross at Calvary bearing our sin, and suffering the punishment due to us. He is God’s healing provision, sent by Him because He loved the world and thus ensured, in Christ Jesus, a saving provision is made for those who trust in Him.
To be healed, all we need to do is to sincerely acknowledge that we need God’s forgiveness and to put our trust in Christ’s death on the Cross for us. Our focus for forgiveness is not on anything we do, our good works, our prayers, our church-going but wholly and simply on Christ and what He has done for us.
You may think that you don’t know enough to come to Christ in this way. When the snake of brass was erected there were over 2 million people around it. All that many would have seen was a flash of light from the sun shining on it. But if they looked, they were healed. So, with being saved by Christ, it’s not how much we know but whether we have faith to trust in Christ as God’s only way of forgiveness. Do you believe – have you looked?
Psalm 33 vs 22
