Look at Him and Live

Have you ever been walking or running and suddenly tripped or started turning because you looked the wrong direction? I am not the most coordinated person in the world and have genuinely fallen off sidewalks, just because I wasn’t paying attention to where I was stepping. Our feet follow our gaze! This is true of our physical bodies, but it’s also true of our spiritual lives. The Bible places great emphasis on the importance of where we fix our spiritual eyes.

Throughout the scriptures blindness and sight are used as a metaphor for those who walk with God and those who do not. In Isaiah 42:18, God calls to His people saying,

“Hear, you deaf, and look, you blind, that you may see!”

Psalm 34:5 says,

“Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.”

Every human being walks in spiritual darkness, blind and lost, until they look upon God. It’s seeing Him that opens our eyes and it’s only when we can see that light floods our souls for the first time. In Numbers 21:4-9, there is an unnerving story that takes place in the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land. The Israelites began to grumble against God and Moses saying,

“Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” (Vs. 5)

As a result of their grumbling, fiery serpents came among the people like a plague, killing many of them. The people realized their sin and begged Moses to pray for them. When he did, God responded,

“Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 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.” (Vs. 8-9)

In the wilderness, the people chose to look back to the place God had brought them from instead of the place He was taking them to. They grumbled among themselves, complaining about what they had to the point that they actually longed for slavery. That’s the power of bitterness. It’s a poison that will deceive us into believing there is something for us in the darkness we left, but there is only bondage in Egypt! Even in the wilderness, God provided for the people, and He has never changed. Only in faith and thanksgiving will we walk out of the wilderness into the promised land. God didn’t create us to dwell in the wilderness, but if you find yourself in one, it’s a time to pray and seek God until you see the promised land.

What is so interesting about this story is that the bronze serpent was actually a type of Jesus Christ. We know this is true because Jesus Himself made the connection. The most well-known verse in the Bible is John 3:16, but look at how powerful it is with the context of the verse right before it:

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:14-16)

Jesus was lifted up on the cross as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness and He said in John 12:32,

“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

With the understanding of that Biblical foreshadowing, how were the people saved by the bronze serpent in the wilderness? Numbers 21:9 says,

“And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.”

All they had to do was look and they would live and the same is true today. It is from really looking at Jesus that every spiritual blessing flows: salvation, healing, and freedom. It’s from gazing at Him that the eyes of our hearts are enlightened, and life will flow. In John 6:40, Jesus told us,

“This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Hebrews 12:12 says,

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.”

Jesus is the One who perfects our faith, and it is only by fixing our gaze on Him that we can run the race set before us without slowing or stumbling. It is absolutely imperative that we don’t get distracted by what’s going on around us and look to the right or the left. We have to keep our gaze fixed forward, looking at Jesus. The Bible also gives us some instruction on what not to look at and almost every time He tells us not to look back. Lot’s wife was told not to look back at Sodom when it was going to be destroyed, but she longed for the sin she was leaving behind. When she disobeyed and took one last look, she was destroyed (Gen. 19:19). Jesus said,

“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom.” (Luke 9:62)

You can’t put your hand to the plow, start your race, and come after Jesus while still trying to look behind. It’s only in setting our hearts on Jesus that strength, stability, and peace come. Isaiah 26:3 says,

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”

If you’re struggling with feeling distracted by the cares of the world and you feel like the eyes of your heart are looking in all kinds of different directions, there’s an answer. If you are struggling with moving forward because you’re fighting longing for the Egypt God brought you out of, there’s an answer. If you’re still in Egypt, blind and without hope, there’s an answer. The will of the Father is that we look on the sacrifice of His son and live. Everything we need can be found by fixing our eyes on the One who was lifted up on a cross, for us. Look at Him and live!

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

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