LOOK AND LIVE

John 3:14-17
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up;
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved."
Numbers 21:4-9
"And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
And the people spake against God, and against Moses, wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?
For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.
And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, we have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that He take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.
And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived."

It has been truly said that the best illustrations of New Testament doctrine are those which we find in the Old Testament story. The Old and New Testaments of our Bible are one interwoven whole. As Augustine said, the New is latent in the Old, and the Old is patent in the New. The New is enfolded in the Old, and the Old is unfolded in the New. Every major doctrine of the New Testament is matched by some illuminating type, figure, incident or institution somewhere in the Old Testament. For instance, if we would find the perfect illustration of "walking in the light" and

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being "cleansed from all sin" by the blood of the Lord Jesus, we must turn to Leviticus with its seventeen chapters on cleansing by sacrifice and its remaining ten chapters on practical sanctity.
Or, if we want the best illustration of possessing our possessions in the "heavenly places" in Christ, as taught in Ephesians, we must turn back to the Book of Joshua and see Israel first entering and then subduing and then occupying the earthly Canaan. Even so, if we would best see for ourselves, and best show to others, how salvation and eternal life come to the repentant sinner by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, we have this wonderful illustration which we have just read in the Book of Numbers. The uplifted serpent of brass which saved all the serpent-bitten Israelites who looked at it is the illustration which our Lord Jesus Himself used to the religiously educated but spiritually unenlightened Nicodemus.
As to this Old Testament illustration, according to Jewish tradition this was the last and the worst of Israel's apostasies in the wilderness. The plague of serpents was a most terrible curse from the Lord. The Hebrew idiom is that the people's "soul was shortened." Having a "short soul", indeed, really means more than being impatient, it means being thoroughly discouraged. The people were depressed and cheerless. They had been rejected by the kings of Edom Arad, and had lost their High Priest. So they bitterly complained again to Moses, but the text makes it clear that in so doing they were "speaking against God". They complained that there was no daily provision of food and water, only "worthless food" and the food they called this was the manna, a gift from God!
Such a blatant contempt for God’s gift and purpose for them evoked His great anger. The punishment took the form of deadly "fiery serpents", so-called not from their physical appearance but from the burning sensation of their venom in the body. Most interesting is that word for "serpents" is SERAPHIM—the very word of Isaiah 6 for the creatures around the Lord's throne! In that passage they are angelic servants of the Lord, yet here they are also His servants; there they praise and glorify Him in adoration, here they glorify Him by vindicating Him in judgment. Perhaps then the seraphim here are to be seen as heavenly beings, not earthly reptiles. This fits better with the idea of them as messengers, and suits text such as Psalm 14:1-4.
But this time they are messengers of death,

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and the people quickly acknowledge their fault and confess to the Lord and Moses, who intercedes for them.
God provides an unexpected antidote to the serpents, not by means of a serum based on their venom, but by means of an artificial serpent set up high on a pole, which need be only looked at for recovery and presumably immunity thereafter.
It is not said that the Israelites kept this serpent and took it with them, but in 2 Kings 18:4 part of the much-needed reformative work of King Hezekiah was to destroy a "bronze serpent that Moses had made" and which was being used in pagan worship. It is likely, therefore, that the Israelite did keep it and that later on it degenerate to a pagan symbol under the influence of the various cults that held sway in Israel for so long, many of which may themselves have involved the worship of serpent gods. But the Lord alone is the Healer. And this passage shows just that.
The serpents brought death and the Lord brought the cure. Why didn't He just rid them of the serpents? Because this way He showed that only He was the Healing God, and was in fact also Lord of the serpents.
As the Lord used the form of a serpent to counter to the effects of the serpents, so the New Testament teaches that the counter to the effects of sin and death is found in Jesus Christ who was made sin for us. In this passage we see a simple call to look and live, in other words a call to look in faith and trust so that the Lord can show Himself to be worthy of that trust and bring life.
That uplifted serpent is (in type) the Christ of the Cross. The power which inwardly cured the venom-inoculated Israelites is (in type) the renewing power of the Holy Spirit. In that uplifted serpent of brass God was showing them how He had passed judgment on their sin. Their "looking" to it was an education in faith, and a type of that simple heart-trust on the Lord Jesus which now brings regeneration.
Of course, there was mystery about it. Why or how a "look" to that strange-seeming objective figure should or could effect subjective healing from the viper virus was a mystery which neither priests nor elders could expound. It was something definitely supernatural (as all true conversion to Christ is today). It was beyond human explanation. But the mystery of it did not interfere with the reality of it. The vital fact was that it worked! All who looked were saved.

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Years ago, in an American city, the noted infidel, Ingersoll, was advertised to give a lecture on, "The Foundations of the Christian Faith," when he received a remarkable letter from a former schoolmate who lived in the same city.
This schoolmate had started out with good promise upon a legal career, had married a beautiful lady and become the father of two children; but later he had come under the power of alcohol, and had been dragged down so low that he had lost his good name, his character, his friends, and even his home, breaking his wife's heart, and turning his children into the street.
One night a Christian slum-worker found him helplessly drunk in an alley, and took him to a home where he was washed, fed, given hospitality, and told of a Saviour who could save him to the uttermost. By the grace of God and the power of the Cross this human wreck was transformed into a sober and godly man. He rebuilt his shattered home, brought back his children, restored the joys of happy married life to his wife, and attained again a respectability in his career. Seeing the advertisement of Ingersoll's lecture, he wrote the following letter to the infidel:
"My dear Old Friend,
I see that tonight you are to deliver a lecture against Christianity and the Bible. Perhaps you know some of my history since we parted, how I disgraced my home and family, lost my character, and all that a man can hold dear in this world.
You may know that I went down and down until I was a poor, despised outcast; and when I thought there was none to help and none to save, there came One in the name of Jesus, who told me of His power to help, of His loving-kindness and His tender sympathy; and through to the story of the cross of Christ I turned to Him. I brought my wife back to my home, and gathered my children together again, and we are happy now, and I am doing what good I can.
And now, old friend, would you stand tonight before the people of Pittsburgh, and tell them what you have to say against the religion that will come down to the lowest depths of hell and find me, and help me up, and make my life happy, and clothe my children, and give me back home and friends—will you tell them what you have to say against a religion like that?"
"Mr. Ingersoll read that letter before his audience, and then said: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I have nothing to say against a religion that will do that for a man. I am here to talk about a religion that is being preached

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by the preachers. You can find fault with the Church; but there stands One, supreme, and no man has ever dared to point his finger at the character of Christ and find fault with Him."
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up."
Christ has been speaking to Nicodemus about the imperative necessity of the new birth. By nature man is dead in trespasses and sins, and in order to obtain life he must be born again. The new birth is the impartation of divine life, eternal life, but for this to be bestowed on men, the Son of man must be lifted up. Life could come only out of death. The sacrificial work of Christ is the basis of the Spirit's operations and the ground of God’s gift of eternal life. Observe that Christ here speaks of the lifting up of the Son of man, for atonement could be made only by one in the nature of him who sinned, and only as Man was God’s Son capable of taking upon Him the penalty resting on the sinner.
No doubt there was a specific reason why Christ should here refer to His sacrificial death as a "lifting up." The Jews were looking for a Messiah who should be lifted up, but elevated in a manner altogether different from what the Lord here mentions. They expected Him to be elevated to the throne of David, but before this He must be lifted up upon a cross of shame, enduring the judgment of God upon His people's sin.
"Moses lifted up the serpent..."
A "serpent" was a most appropriate figure of that deadly and destructive power, the origin of which the Scriptures teach us to trace to the Serpent, whose "seed" sinners are declared to be.
The poison of the serpent's bite, which vitiates the entire system of its victim, and from the fatal effects of which there was no deliverance, save that which God provided, strikingly exhibited the awful nature and consequences of sin.
The remedy which God provided was the exhibition of the destroyer destroyed! Why was not one of the actual serpents spiked by Moses to the pole? Ah! That would have marred the type: that would have pictured judgment executed on the sinner himself; and, worse still, would have misrepresented our sinless Substitute. In the type chosen there was the likeness of a serpent, not an actual serpent, but a piece of brass made like one. So, the One who is the sinner's Saviour was sent "in the likeness of

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sin’s flesh" (Romans 8:3), and God "made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
But how could a serpent fitly typify the Holy One of God? The brazen serpent only foreshadowed Christ as He was "lifted up." The lifting up manifestly pointed to the Cross. The "serpent" was the reminder and emblem of the curse. It was through the agency of that old Serpent, the Devil, that our first parents were seduced, and brought under the curse of a Holy God. And on the Cross, the holy One of God, incarnate, was made a curse for us. Galatians 3:13 says: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." A serpent was the only thing in all nature which could accurately prefigure the crucified Saviour made a curse for us.
But why a serpent of brass? "Brass" speaks of two things in the symbolism of Scripture. One, it spoke of Divine judgment. In the book of the Revelation, Christ is seen as Judge, inspecting the seven churches. We are told, "His feet were like fine brass." The "serpent" spoke of the curse which sin entailed, the "brass" told of God’s judgment falling on the One made sin for us. Secondly, brass is harder than iron, or silver, or gold. It told then, of Christ’s mighty strength, which was able to endure the awful judgment which fell upon Him--a mere creature, though sinless, would have been utterly consumed.
From what has been said, it will be evident that when God told Moses to make a serpent of brass, fix it upon a pole, and bid the bitten Israelites look on it and they should live, that He was preaching to them the Gospel of His grace.
Let me point out seven things these Israelites were not bidden to do...
(1) They were not told to manufacture some ointment as the means of healing their wounds.
(2) They were not told to minister to others, who were wounded, in order to get relief for themselves. There are many today engaged in works of charity with the vain expectation that giving relief to others will counteract the deadly virus of sin which is at work in their own souls.
(3) They were not told to fight the serpents.
(4) They were not told to make an offering to the serpent on the pole. God did not ask any payment from them in return for their healing. Grace ceases to be grace if any price is paid for what it brings. God does not ask the sinner to give anything, but to receive His Christ!

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(5) They were not told to pray to the serpent.
(6) They were not told to look at Moses. The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, and Christ alone can save.
(7) They were not told to look at their wounds. To be occupied with myself is only to be taken up with that which God has condemned, and which already has the sentence of death written upon it.
Just look to Christ, for He alone can save. Just as the bitten Israelites were healed by a look of faith, so the sinner may be saved by looking to Christ by faith.
Man became a lost sinner by a look, for the first thing recorded of Eve in connection with the fall of our first parents is that "The woman saw that the tree was good for food." (Genesis 3:6) In like manner, the lost sinner is saved by a look. The Christian life begins by looking: "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." (Isaiah 45:22) The Christian life continues by looking: "Let us run with patience the race which is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith." (Hebrews 12:2) And at the end of the Christian life we are still to be looking for Christ: "For our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." (Philippians 3:20)
"That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:15)
In closing, consider with me some of the wonderful benefits and blessings that are ours when we look, with faith, to Christ as our Saviour and Lord.
In Christ, we have acquittal and acceptance. "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21) All our guilt was charged to Christ’s account. By His crucifixion, He has discharged all our liabilities. So now, being in Christ, we have no account of discharge. In God’s sight, we are righteousness as He--and in Him we are accepted. "To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1:6)
In Christ, we are chosen and complete.
"According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." (Ephesians 1:4) We are complete in Him. (Colossians 1:10).
In Christ, we have been delivered. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after

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the flesh, put after the Spirit" (Romans 8:1).
Thus we see that we are secure from all condemnation. And that which God would have to judge at the Great white Throne He has judged in Christ at the cross where Jesus became for us all that God must judge, that we, through faith in Him, could become all that God can not judge.
In Christ, we enjoy all the fullness of God. "And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge. That ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:19) The ditches of our need are filled with the grace of His supply! "Enough and to spare," spoke the Prodigal of the Father's house. "My cup runneth over," said David. In Christ, we have an overflowing portion! "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, through now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." (1 Peter 1:8)
In Christ, we have an inheritance. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you." (1 Peter 1:4-5) "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace; where in He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself; that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him: in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." (Ephesians 1:7-11)
In Christ, we are promised victory and triumph. "God who leads us always to triumph in Christ" (2 Corinthians 2:14). This means victory in all temptations. Keeping in the realm of Christ's protective presence by our obedience, we are sure to be guarded from defeat in hours of conflict."
Oh! What a thrilling, life-changing invitation...Look to Christ and by faith receive Him as your Lord and Savior and a life of meaning and an eternity with God will be the glorious benefits of that look of faith!