Look Up

(Moses and the Brazen Serpent, Augustus John, 1898, from WikiArt.)

When fiery serpents beset ancient Israel, many souls were bitten and died (Numbers 21:4–9)..

Discouraged Israelites humbly asked Moses to pray for help.

Following divine directions, Moses made a serpent of brass and put it on a pole, promising those who’d look up would be healed.

Making a brass serpent takes time. The people had to wait. Patience is hard, but it’s necessary.

When Moses raised the brass serpent, those who exercised faith and looked up were healed. Looking up was an act of faith.

We can look down to avoid life’s serpents, and we should avoid what we can, but eventually, despite our best efforts, we will be bitten.

When that happens, we must exercise faith and look up.

Seven hundred years after Moses, Hezekiah destroyed Moses’s bronze snake because the Israelites were burning incense to it (2 Kings 18:1-4). They’d connected the miracle of healing with an inanimate object instead of connecting it with an act of faith.

Even when you know how the medicine works, even when the surgery is performed by gifted hands, your healing is a divine act.

When you receive healing, look up in gratitude; when you’re seeking it, look up in faith.

Always look up.