The Bronze Serpent Made Simple

In the wilderness of Numbers 21, Israel sinned, fiery serpents bit the people, and the dying were healed by the strangest prescription ever given: a bronze serpent lifted on a pole -- "every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live" (Numbers 21:8). Fifteen centuries later, Jesus told Nicodemus that the wilderness serpent was a picture of His own cross: "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" (John 3:14-15).

The Bronze Serpent Made Simple is a Bible-first walk through the whole story, from the bite to the healing to the life after. Eleven devotional chapters trace it all: the bitten camp, the complaining heart, the Father's discipline, the serpent lifted on the pole, the look of faith, the bronze and the wood, Christ lifted up, the curse carried, the shattered idol Nehushtan, the new birth, and the healed life -- closing with a call to lift your eyes and walk.

Explicitly Trinitarian: the Father who disciplined and provided the cure, Jesus Christ -- Son of God and Son of Man, Lord and Savior -- lifted up on the cross as the serpent was lifted on the pole, and the Holy Spirit who alone breaks the power of sin and works the new birth. Every prayer is to the Father, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit. Freedom comes by the Spirit's power, never by willpower alone.

Read one chapter a day. Look, and live.

More from Kimani Upshur: https://kimaniupshur.com