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The Types of Redemption
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Now, if you turned 20 rattlesnakes loose in a service, do you suppose it would affect things? I’m
talking about big old poisonous rattlesnakes. One crawls right up under your foot, then goes up
behind the aisle. Somebody grabs their leg and shouts, “I’ve been bitten!” and then you feel
something come across your foot.
This is going on throughout the whole camp. I submit to you, there’s chaos in that camp. People
are running and screaming. Animals are spooked. They’re knocking the tents over. They’re
running through the campfires. And it seems amazing to me that in the midst of this, Moses hears
from the Lord and puts a brass serpent up on a pole high enough and big enough for the people to
see, and he sends messengers, and he gets everyone’s attention somehow and says, “Listen!
Listen! I have heard from Jehovah! Everybody who looks on the serpent on the pole will live.”
The Amplified Bible has an interesting note on that verse. When it says “everyone that looks,”
this word for “look” does not mean “a passing glance.” It means “a steady, absorbing gaze.” You
had to fix your gaze on the serpent on the pole in the midst of chaos.
People ask the question, “Well, I hear what you say—by His stripes I’m healed—but what do I
do with these symptoms? I’m hurting. I have pain. I have discomfort. I’ve got this... I can’t do
it.” Yes, you can. You can do it with venom flowing through your veins. You can do it with your
neck swelling up, your eyes bulging out, and your heart up in your throat. You can do it with a
snake crawling behind you. You can do it with your babies crying, with your camels running off
a hill somewhere, and with your tent on fire. Many of them did it.
With venom coursing through their veins and feeling the effects of it, they lifted up their eyes
and just stood there. They heard animals, and people screaming, and they thought they felt
another snake crawl across their foot… But if you want to live, you cannot get immersed in all of
this. You have to do it and see nothing else. What did the Bible say? As many as looked—
everybody that looked—lived.
They were not born again. They were not filled with the Holy Spirit. They had no Bible to quote.
If
they
could do it,
we
can do it. If they could look at a serpent on the pole, we can look at Jesus
on the cross. We can look at Jesus at the whipping post taking our infirmities, bearing our
sicknesses, and carrying our pains. We can look at Him hanging on the cross and paying the
price for every one of our sins, but we must look away from distractions, from feelings and pain
and bad reports, because they will try to pull us down. You can’t be healed like that. If you’re not
paying attention, you’ll start listening to this and that, and paying attention to this and that. Every
day you have to focus, and you have to say, “Quit it! Quit it! Here! Right here! Jesus took my
infirmities. He took my sicknesses. He carried my pains. He hung between heaven and earth. He
interceded for me and ever lives to make intercession for me. He’s my Mediator. He paid the
price. He bought it. He paid for it. By His stripes I am healed. I was healed.” You have to think
about it and talk about it night and day, and keep a steady, absorbing gaze on Him.
That’s not just my theory. Remember Hebrews 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus the author and the
finisher of our faith….” Don’t be distracted by weight and sins and things that would hinder you.
Look at Jesus, keep your eyes on Him, and run that race. You’ll finish it. You’ll finish what
you’re believing for. You’ll get results.