God allowed fiery serpents to come among the people because of their sin, which bit them, and many died.  Then they came to Moses, saying, “We have sinned ... pray unto the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.”  Moses did so; and God told him to make a serpent of brass and to put it on a pole; and said that all who looked to the serpent should live.  The serpent of brass could not heal them, but God healed them as they obeyed his command to look to the serpent.  It was look and live.

Now I think we see what Jesus means.  God has said that all must die because of sin; but those who look to Jesus and trust in Him will have their sins pardoned, and will live with Him in glory forever.

[Illustration:  The Brazen serpent.]

THE PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN.

Having wandered for forty years in the wilderness, the Israelites drew near to the river Jordan, at a place opposite Jericho.  Moses was dead, and Joshua was now the leader of the host.  God told him that the time had come when the people of Israel were to enter Canaan; to which land they had all this long time been travelling, but which previously they had not been permitted to enter on account of their sin.  A description of this sin is given in the Bible, in the fourteenth chapter of Numbers.

But the people were now to cross the Jordan and enter Canaan.  They were a very great multitude, and the river lay before them.  How were they to cross?  God told them!  He commanded Joshua that the priests were to take the ark of the covenant and to go before the people; who were to follow a short distance behind.  Could the priests and the people walk across the deep water?  No.  But as soon as the priests reached the river, and their feet were dipped in the water, God divided the Jordan into two, leaving dry ground for the Israelites to cross upon.

The priests carried the ark into the middle of the bed of the river and then stood still, and all the people passed on before them.  When all were over, the priests carrying the ark moved forward also, and the waters returned to their proper place again.  But before they did so, Joshua commanded twelve men, one from each tribe, each to take a stone from the river’s bed; and these stones were set up as a memorial of the marvellous manner in which God had brought the Israelites across the Jordan into Canaan.

[Illustration:  Crossing the Jordan.]

THE CAPTAIN OF THE LORD’S HOST.

News of the miraculous way in which the Israelites had been brought across the Jordan spread rapidly among the Canaanites, and when they heard what God had done, they were very much afraid.  We are told that “their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.”