The power of faith

Then the people came to Moses and said: We have sinned because we have spoken against the Lord, and against you; pray to Jehovah to remove these serpents from us.

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And Moses prayed for the people. And Jehovah said to Moses, Make yourself a fiery serpent, and put it on a pole; and whoever is bitten and will look to it, he will live. And Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and when a serpent bit one, he looked at the bronze serpent, and he lived

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When you read this passage, are you frustrated with the stubborn ingratitude of the Israelites? In response to his request, God granted him victory over his enemies, the Canaanites. We are not sure how long the trips mentioned here lasted, but if we know that "they were impatient on the way, they complained against God and against Moses" and they protested the food that God provided.

Once again we are reminded of the vital importance of confession of sins. Once again we witnessed the privilege of intercession, while Moses presented the people's contrition before God. But this same passage also bears witness to the most convincing principles of writing. The power of prayer becomes more evident in the presence of faith.
Why would God give Moses that strange order to make an imitation of a bronze metal snake and place it on a tall stick? What's more, God added a promise: Anyone who was bitten by a snake and simply looked at the bronze snake, that person would live.

Of course the bronze serpent had no power, but Moses' obedience to these strange instructions is recorded, as well as the result that every person who followed those instructions was saved. It's that simple, although apparently some people did not look at the snake. In their obstinacy and rebellion they refused to believe that something so simple could save them.
God has very strange ways of acting to encourage the faith of his children, for example we can remember God's order to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, as well as when he anointed the blind man to recover his sight among other things . For God in his omniscience does as he wills.

Today is still like this. Jesus died on the cross to save us from the poison that infects us and leads us to death, which is sin. There are still millions of people wandering the desert of their own sin for refusing to lift their eyes to the cross. They refuse to believe that something so simple can save them.

It is time to raise your eyes to the cross!

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The bronze serpent on the pole is a type or picture of Jesus. Jesus himself refers to this image in his conversation with Nicodemus which is recorded in John 3: "As Moses raised up the serpent in the wilderness so must the son of man be lifted up, so that all who believe in him may have eternal life "(John 3.14-15). In both instances, the will to look and believe is required.

Christ is our mediator and He loves us so much that He paid with His death the penalty for our sins. That means that all of us who look to Jesus as our savior will live with Him for eternity.