When the brazen serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, the people were not to look to Moses, nor to the tabernacle, nor to the pillar of cloud, but to the brazen serpent itself. Looking was not enough unless they looked on the right object, and the right object was not enough unless they looked. It was not enough for them to know about the serpent of brass; they each had to look at it for himself (Numbers 21:8-9).
