Healing

I do not like snakes! I cringe in horror just thinking about a multitude of snakes writhing throughout the Israelite camp. Why was this happening?

These serpents were sent by God to chastise His ungrateful, angry children for their lack of trust in Him. Life was just not being lived on their terms.

Enter the snakes — God’s judgment for their sin. Judgment, though, that was tempered by love and mercy and alert to cries for help. As the people repented, God provided deliverance in the form of a bronze snake set on a pole. All that was needed to live was to look at the serpent in faith.

Does this passage of scripture have a ring of familiarity to it? Jesus refers to this incident while talking to Nicodemus in John 3:14, 15. He explains that just as the serpent was lifted up, so the Son of Man will be lifted up, and whoever believes in Him will not perish.

The good news about snakes? The old Serpent, the devil, and all his fiery messengers were defeated at the Cross.

Cynthia Heald

Taken from Women of Faith Devotional Bible