The analogy of these two verses cannot be missed or taken out of context. The snake lifted up in the wilderness is like Jesus who is lifted up on the cross.
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. (John 3:14-15 NIV)
To provide a bit of background on what Jesus was alluding to when he said this. During the Israelite’s time in the wilderness, the people had sinned and strayed from God, as a result, many of the Israelites were being bitten by poisonous snakes and in turn, dying from those poisonous snake bites. Moses pleaded with God to heal the Israelites and save them. God instructed Moses to craft a serpant on a pole and to “lift it up” high so that whoever sees it can be healed from the poisonous venom killing them.
Don’t miss the point: people stray from God with our sin. Our lives are poisoned by the consequences of those sins. We hurt and are literally dying from our sin. We cannot save ourselves and if you really think about it, we’re stuck where we are in life because of our sin. But God sent Jesus to this Earth so that we can look at the cross from wherever we are dying from our sin, and be rescued from our sin. Our sins stopped killing us on that day. We are no longer condemned to death. This is why Jesus was lifted up.
In this New Year, if you’re still struggling with the sins and problems of last year, you need to look up at Jesus who is being lifted high now that he has been resurrected by God, the Father, on the third day after dying on that cross. We look up at Him and we are saved. It is because of that fact that we have life this new year to go beyond where we were and seek the promise land of God.
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