Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him will be saved.     John 3:14-15 HCSB

In our Scripture passage, Jesus is referring to the Scripture passage in Numbers 21:4-9. The Israelites became impatient and spoke against God and Moses. This was something they had a habit of doing when the going got rough. God had had enough. He sent poisonous snakes among them, and many Israelites died (Numbers 21:6).

Now this got their attention, so they came to Moses and asked Moses to ask God to take the snakes away. Moses went to God and God instructed Moses to make a bronze snake and mount it on a pole. God told Moses that whenever someone was bitten, they could look at the snake and recover.

Moses did as God had instructed. Whenever someone was bitten, and he looked at the bronze snake, he recovered (Numbers 21:9). Jesus references this in John 3:14-15. He tells us we must look upon Him and be saved. When we look upon Him, we can recover from our sinful ways which lead to death. Romans 6:23 tells us the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This world has many fiery serpents just waiting to strike. The devil slinks around looking for someone to devour (1Peter 5:8). We must stay focused on Jesus. We must look upon Him always. This is how we are saved from the evil in this world.

The greatest problem the Israelites had was they always seemed to be focused on their problems and their circumstances. Had they stayed focused on God, they would not have had so many problems. Many died because of their rebellion. There were several situations where God wanted to destroy all of them, but Moses intervened.

God does not tolerate sin and rebellion. This is why we must focus on Jesus. He is the only way we can be saved. Just as those Israelites who looked on the bronze serpent were saved; we can look on Jesus and be saved.

You hear me talk a lot about focusing on God and Jesus. What does that mean? What does that look like? For starters, when we are focused on Jesus, we are not focused on our circumstances or our situation. We firmly believe God’s word which says to focus on Him, and He will take care of all we need (Matthew 6:33).

We know that after we suffer a little while, God Himself will personally restore, establish, strengthen, and support us (1 Peter 5:10). God’s word tells us in James 4:7 to deal with temptation by submitting to God, resisting the devil and the devil will flee from us. Verse 8 tells us if we draw near to God, He will draw near to us.

The devil has put many things in place to distract us from focusing on Jesus. That’s the last thing he wants us to do. But we must be diligent. We must continually pray (1 Thessalonians 5:17). We must not only read but study His word. We must acknowledge Him in all we do (Proverbs 3:5-6).

We must stay focused on Him. Do your best to resist the devil’s distractions. Limit your time with the television and the internet, be sure you give God plenty of time. Be sure your input (through your ears and eyes) is wholesome so the devil cannot tempt you. Wholesome input equals wholesome output.

Trust in Him and be obedient to His commands. Stay focused on Him.

Have a great day!