# 48 O Death, Where Is Your Sting?

Joh 3:14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

Forgive me if I’m a little repetitious here, but this serpent/Jesus analogy is one of the most power packed gospel truths in all of Scripture.

The story of Moses and the serpent can be found in Numbers 21. The people had spoken against God and Moses, expressing a desire to go back to their old ways. God sent fiery serpents among them and many of the people were bit and died.

The fiery serpents represent sin, and sin brings death. It always has and it always will. The people became acutely aware of the wages of their sin as the serpents made their way through the camp. So they turn to Moses, confessing their wrongdoing, and ask Moses to pray that God would remove the fiery serpents.

But God responds, not by removing the fiery serpents, but by providing a cure for the bite. He instructs Moses to make an image of a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole, “and it shall be that everyone who is bitten (by sin) when he looks at it, shall live!”

We live in a sinful world. We fall! We succumb to temptation and we sin. We get bit, and unless we take the antidote, we will die. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin and drives us to the cross where we see Jesus “lifted up on a pole” for our sins. “For He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin (fiery serpent) for us.” (2 Cor 5:2)

The bronze serpent on the pole was the foreshadowing of God’s plan of salvation for the world! In the day of Moses, those who looked with faith at the bronze  serpent lived, just as those who by faith today look to Jesus and believe in Him, “will not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Friend, these Old Testament accounts all serve the purpose of pointing us to the New Testament arrival of Jesus! Treasure them! Let them speak to you, and you will see that the cross of Christ is your only hope! You have been bitten by sin, “All we like sheep have gone astray,” (Isa 53:6) We are all in need of a Savior, and God placed our Savior, (His Son) high upon a pole. He is not hidden. He died high on a hill outside Jerusalem for all the world to see. Look upon Him today and be made whole!