“I know a very faithful young deacon. … Inasmuch as he has sought to follow the counsel of his parents and Church leaders, his faith and determination have been tested every day, even at his young age. He told me one day he was surprised by a very difficult and uncomfortable situation—his friends were accessing pornographic images on their cell phones. In that exact moment, this young man had to decide what was most important—his popularity or his righteousness. In the few seconds that followed, he was filled with courage and told his friends that what they were doing was not right. Moreover, he told them that they should stop what they were doing or they would become slaves to it. Most of his classmates ridiculed his counsel, saying that it was a part of life and that there was nothing wrong with it. However, there was one among them who listened to the counsel of that young man and decided to stop what he was doing” (Ulisses Soares, “Yes, We Can and Will Win!” Ensign or Liahona, May 2015, 75).
When Nephi spoke of Moses lifting up a “brazen serpent,” he referred to a time when the children of Israel were plagued by “fiery serpents” (see Numbers 21:6–9; note that the word brazen means brass). The prelude to the Israelites’ trouble was that they had spoken evil of God and His prophet (see Numbers 21:5). Those who looked at the brazen serpent were healed, and those who chose not to look at it perished (see Numbers 21:9; 1 Nephi 17:41).
Like those Israelites, many of the people in Nephi’s day spoke against God and His prophet. When Nephi referred to the account of the brazen serpent, he emphasized that his people should “look upon the Son of God with faith” and live (Helaman 8:15; see also John 3:14–15, in which Jesus Christ Himself referred to the brazen serpent as a symbol of His coming Crucifixion). Nephi then reminded the people that all the prophets had testified of Christ (see Helaman 8:16–23).