Day 5: Look and live
The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived (Numbers 21:7-9).
The old serpent was the cause of death, temporal and spiritual. Christ Jesus, “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3), was made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), and thus fulfilled, as He Himself explained to Nicodemus, the type of the brazen serpent (John 3:14-15).
The meaning of this type, or “sign of salvation,” is explained in the Book of Wisdom in these words, “He that turned himself toward it was not saved by the thing that he saw, but by Thee, that art the Saviour of all” (Numbers 16:7).
~ Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
Our Father, all of Scripture reveals the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of Your love, "the Lord God Almighty who was was, and is, and is to come" (Revelation 4:8).
You gave the Law, O God, as a shadow of the good things to come, and You, O Lord our Christ were the fulfillment of the Law ( Hebrews 10:1-14).
We remember how You opened the Scriptures to two grieving and bewildered disciples traveling to Emmaus, causing their hearts to burn within them, as beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, You explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning Yourself (Luke 24:27, 32).
They would finally understand what the gospel writer John was later to explain, For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). They would finally understand what You meant when You told Nicodemus, 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 (John 3:14-15).
Thank You, O Lord for Your saving grace that You so perfectly planned. Thank You for Your cradle, Your cross, and Your tomb. Thank You that we "only have to look and live." (Ogden, William, Look and Live, 1887).
Hallelujah!
Rejoice and be glad!
The redeemer has come!
Go look in His cradle,
His cross, and His tomb.
Chorus
Sound his praises, tell the story,
Of Him who was slain;
Sound his praises, tell with gladness,
He liveth again.
Rejoice and be glad!
It is sunshine at last!
The clouds have departed,
The shadows are past.
Rejoice and be glad!
For the blood hath been shed,
Redemption is finished,
The price hath been paid.
Rejoice and be glad!
For the Lamb that was slain
O’er death is triumphant,
And liveth again.
~ Horatius Bonar ~ 1874
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