The Hope of the Cross

Numbers 21:8-9

“8 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.” 9 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.”

Snake bites are scary.  A friend of mine was bitten on the foot by a poisonous snake and by the time he reached the hospital his leg was unrecognizable.  

The Israelites who were bitten by snakes in the wilderness were totally dependent upon God for their cure.  People who looked at the bronze snake that God asked Moses to make, lived.  It is  my assumption that they  had to look upon the image of the snake and see life rather than the source of their death in order to be healed.

In the same way, people can either look at the cross with hope and faith and see life, or with skepticism, seeing only a means of death.

Look at the cross.  What do you see?

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)