faith... trusting what we do not understand...

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for

and certain of what we do not see.

Hebrews 11:1

The reading through of The Journey brought me to the account of the fiery serpents sent by God as a punishment for Israel's sin...

Moses interceded... again... for this rebellious people... and the cure... a bronze snake on a pole...?!

All who looked upon the bronze snake... lived... 

The venomous snakes remained... but the Lord provided a way of healing... in response to their plea of repentance...

But why should Moses make a model of a serpent, the very creature that was causing the people to die? Because on the cross, Jesus became sin for us --- the very thing that condemns the people --- and bore in His body that which brings spiritual death (2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 8:3; Gal. 3:13; 1 Peter 2:22-24). Moses didn't hide the bronze serpent; he lifted it up on a pole and put the pole where everybody could see it! So our Lord was crucified publicly, outside the city of Jerusalem, and those who hear the Gospel can "look to Him" and be saved. "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom. 10:13).

Moses didn't stick the pole inside the tabernacle or even in the tabernacle court, because nobody is saved by keeping the law. The uplifted serpent was the only cure in the camp, just as Jesus Christ is the only Savior of sinners in the world (Acts 4:12; John 14:6). Nobody could look at the bronze serpent for another person; each dying sinner had to look for himself or herself. The salvation Christ offers is personal and individual, and each of us must look to Christ by faith. No matter how hard they tried, no dying Jew could save himself or herself. The only salvation available was what God had graciously provided, and if you rejected it, you died.

Sin and death came into this world through a look (Gen. 3:6), and the only deliverance from sin and eternal death is by a look of faith: "Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth" (Isa. 45:22, NKJV). To look means to exercise faith, and the only way to be saved is by faith (Eph. 2:8-19). A dying Jew might argue, "It's a foolish remedy," but it still worked (1 Cor 1:18-25). Or the dying Israelite might say, "It's too simple," but the remedy still worked.

---Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Counted 

To look by faith... upon this snake... upon Christ... is to trust... without understanding... how... or why... it works...

When people say... I see... it denotes an Aha moment... one where understanding has dawned...

But to be certain of what we do not see... is to be certain of what we do not understand...

Jesus Himself connects Himself to this bronze snake on a pole...

"... 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."

John 3:14 ESV

Faith... trusting without understanding... 

Where do you need to exercise some faith...? God's Word...? His promises...?

You do not need to understand it all... You just need to trust Him...

He is faithful in all He does...

God is not man, that he should lie,

or a son of man, that he should change his mind.

Has he said, and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

Numbers 23:19 ESV