Bible in 90 days – Day 12 – Numbers 21-32
So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. Numbers 21:9 – ESV
God’s artistry in foreshadowing here is astonishing. When God provides the solution for a deadly problem His people have (in this case, poisonous snakes), He lifts an image of that problem up on a pole for all to see, and calls the people to look to that image in faith that doing so will spare them the consequence of their problem.
Look and live.
Our deadliest problem? Our sinful selves.
The image? Jesus “in the likeness of sinful flesh.”
Lifted up for all to see.
Look to Him as the solution to our problem, and live.
Fun bonus parallel: the Israelites later took the image and worshipped it as a sacred symbol, after the moment it was relevant had passed.