When we were born again, Jesus gave us back a relationship with our Father/God.

We are privileged to be called sons and daughters of God!

Adam was called the son of God [Luke 3:38].

But when he sinned in the Garden, he broke his relationship with God.

We return to that relationship. 1 John 3:1 says, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God."

When we receive Jesus, He sets us free to become the sons of God!

The first Adam disobeyed God and got mankind into trouble.

The last Adam was Jesus Christ who made atonement for us when He died on the cross and God raised Him from the dead.

By laying down His life, Jesus helped us to return to the original possession that Adam had before the Fall [a relationship with God].

In 1 Corinthians 15:45, God make a comparison between the first Adam and the last Adam.

The first man Adam was made a living soul. The last man Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Jesus was our Scapegoat when He hung on the cross, taking the judgment and punishment we deserved so we could walk free from sin and sickness.

Now because of Jesus, we are free from sin when we repent and we are healed and whole.

The Old Testament gives us another picture of Redemption. It is the one of the scapegoat.

Israel had sinned and that sin had to be judged. But God didn't want them to suffer judgment. He wanted them to receive mercy. So He told them to find a spotless, perfect goat and have Aaron the priest lay hands on it and confess their sins over it.

The judgment belonging to them, fell on that scapegoat. God allowed the sins of the people to be transferred to the goat, and the goat bore them and carried them away.

Jesus took sin and sickness and gave us righteousness, health, and eternal life.

He paid for all these benefits and freely gives them to us when we ask in faith.

When we look to Jesus and receive Him as Savior, everything He did on the cross becomes ours.

When Jesus went to the cross,

He forgave our sins,
He purchased our healing
He delivered us from the power of darkness

Then He rose from the dead so we could be born again
and new creatures in Him.

Jesus gave us His right standing with God the Father and His divine health.

Jesus became our substitute.

He had never sinned, but He bacame our sin.

He was never sick, but He took our sicknesses.

When Jesus went to the cross, a divine exchange took place.

He became what we were and gave us what He is.

Jesus gave the answer in John 3:14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up."

Jesus was saying that the serpent on the pole is a picture of Him on the cross.

When the Israelites were bitten by snakes,
they needed;
forgiveness for complaining,
deliverance from the snakes,
and healing for their wounds.

God gave them one answer, the serpent on the pole!

They were forgiven, delivered and healed by looking at an image of sin and sickness.

When symptoms of pain and sickness attack us, we look to Jesus.

He causes us to be victorious in every situation when we look to Him.

Healing was for the Israelites if they looked at the serpent on the pole.

Healing is for us today, if we look to Jesus on the cross.

Like them, we have to look attentively, expectantly, with a steady and absorbing gaze and fix our eyes on what Jesus did for us [theirs was the serpent on a pole].

God was telling the Israelites that they couldn't look at the biting snakes and the serpent on the pole at the same time.

We must choose whether to gaze at the problem or the answer.

BUT, if you want to live, you have to look to His answer!

The Israelites couldn't just take a quick glance. They had to look at it.

The Amplified Bible, God said, "If you want to live, you will have to attentively, expectantly and with a steady and absorbing gaze look to the answer."

Read Numbers 21:8

When the Israelites were bitten in the wilderness, God offered them LIFE for a LOOK!

They didn't automatically get healed. They had to look in order to get it!

We should behold Jesus and receive our forgiveness and healing every day.

When Moses held up the serpent on the pole, he showed a type of Jesus who would someday hang on the cross as the Atonement for the human race.

So when the Israelites looked ahead to what Jesus would do, they were forgiven and healed.

God didn't turn anyone down, Everyone that is bitten, when he looks will live."

We can look back in faith to the forgiveness and healing Jesus has purchased for us!

Ever since the Garden of Eden, a serpent has been a sign of sin/evil.

Jesus never sinned in His life. But when He hung on the Cross, He became sin for us.

At that moment, God had to turn His back on His Son because all the sins and sicknessess of the world were nailed to Jesus' body.

Judgment fell on Him instead of on us!

God told Moses to put a brass serpent on a pole and that whoever looked at the serpent would live.

The serpent is a type of Jesus Christ, and brass is a type of judgment.

The Israelites were looking at a type of redemption. A picture of the Atonement!

When we miss it, we run to our Father for forgiveness.

We must walk daily with Him as our Savior, Healer, Protector and Provider!

The Israelites went to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.

And Moses prayed for the people.

Isn't it amazing how quickly they got a revelation that they had sinned. One minute they were complaining about him and the next they are asking him to pray for them.

God not only forgave them but healed them also.

The Israelites got into trouble spiritually when they sinned.

When the snakes were able to get into the camp, they got into trouble physically also.

God had supernaturally protected His people and had kept the snakes out. But when they broke their covenant by rebelling and complaining it caused God's protection to withdraw. It was only then that they were bitten.

After the Israelites complained against Moses and God, serpents crawled into the camp and began biting them.

They were in the wilderness full of snakes. The miracle was that they hadn't been bitten until then.

Read Numbers 21

Even in trying situations, we must watch our words and refuse to speak doubt and unbelief.

And especially start murmuring and complaining about God and His Word!

No matter how long it might take for our healing to manifest, we can't let discouragement which is doubt get to us.

Remember, God has already provided healing so we must use our mouth to praise Him!