“7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

8 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.”

Numbers 21:7-8

Rather than remove the plague of serpents from among his people the Lord provided them the means of overcoming their effects.

We sometimes desire that our burdens and trials would be taken from us but instead the Lord will always provide a way for us to grow stronger and overcome them. Because without our trials we could not grow stronger. The means of overcoming a usually small and simple, such as ‘looking and living’.

The serpent of brass is a symbol of the saving power of Christ that we must look up to, and live. The Savior is our means of overcoming the trials and burdens that bite us.