Cast About Your Eyes

In this week’s Come, Follow Me reading we find the story of the brass serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness. After the people complained and spoke against God, the Lord “sent fiery serpents” among them. When they started to repent, the Lord provided a way for their escape: “And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived” (Numbers 21:5-9). Dr. David Thomson in a recent podcast commented on the word beheld in this verse: “The meaning in that word is not just to glance at, but it means or implies to look with intense focus or intent. That gives you an entirely different feel than just glancing at this brass serpent and being healed, that you’re focusing on it, that you are really paying attention.” He suggested that the people had to do more than just glance at the serpent; they needed to really behold it and focus on it. Of course, the brass serpent is a symbol of the Savior, and we need to do more than just briefly regard Him in order to be healed by Him. John the Baptist invited two of his disciples with these words, “Behold the Lamb of God!” The next verse is very instructive about what it means to truly behold Him: “And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus” (John 1:36-37). To truly behold the Son of God we must strive to follow Him—in other words, we don’t just look once but keep Him always in our view.

               I believe there was also an additional requirement for the Israelites to be healed after they had been bitten. They needed to look with faith. John referred to this story in these words: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). To receive eternal life from the Savior, we must truly have faith in Him, and surely there was an element of faith required for these Israelites in the wilderness to look with a belief in the power of God to heal them. Nephi spoke about this story in these words, “Yea, did he not bear record that the Son of God should come? And as he lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness, even so shall he be lifted up who should come. And as many as should look upon that serpent should live, even so as many as should look upon the Son of God with faith, having a contrite spirit, might live, even unto that life which is eternal” (Helaman 8:14-15). We must look upon the Son of God with faith in order to live just as this people must have believed when they looked upon the serpent and were healed. Alma spoke about this story this way: “Behold, he was spoken of by Moses; yea, and behold a type was raised up in the wilderness, that whosoever would look upon it might live. And many did look and live. But few understood the meaning of those things, and this because of the hardness of their hearts. But there were many who were so hardened that they would not look, therefore they perished. Now the reason they would not look is because they did not believe that it would heal them” (Alma 33:19-20). Those who were not healed were exactly those who did not believe, implying that those who looked and were healed had faith in God.

               Alma continued teaching about this story of the brass serpent to the people of Ammonihah with these words: “O my brethren, if ye could be healed by merely casting about your eyes that ye might be healed, would ye not behold quickly, or would ye rather harden your hearts in unbelief, and be slothful, that ye would not cast about your eyes, that ye might perish? If so, wo shall come upon you; but if not so, then cast about your eyes and begin to believe in the Son of God, that he will come to redeem his people, and that he shall suffer and die to atone for their sins” (Alma 33:21-22). Three times he used the word cast to describe how the people looked at the serpent and should look at Christ. In the 1828 Webster’s dictionary there are many definitions of the word. One is what we might traditionally think of: “to glance”. But another possible definition is “to throw forward, as the thoughts, with a view to some determination,” and I think that is more the kind of casting we must do as we look at the Savior. My son recently went fishing with his deacons quorum, and when he came home he told me that nobody caught anything. I mentioned this to his leader, and he commented, “We did a lot of casting!” To cast a fishing rod includes a waiting period with the line in the water and a lot of patience. Often fish are not caught with the first casting of a line, but it takes persistence and time. Perhaps the casting of our eyes to the Savior is similar: more than just glancing at Him, we much look with determination and persistence, waiting with faith for Him to come to heal and help us.