SNAKE BITTEN

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!"

Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.

The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us."

So Moses prayed for the people. The Lord said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live."

So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

Numbers 21:4-9

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Let me tell you a little bit about a day I had once back around 2007 or 2008 when I was a Command Master Chief in the United States Navy.

I was stationed at the Navy’s media command and there were more than twenty detachments around the world so I would regularly travel to visit locations overseas and connect with the Sailors stationed abroad. The trips would be long, spanning around almost two weeks as I would fly into a location one day, work that location the next, and then travel to the next stop the day after.

On one particular trip, I was toward the tail end, having already been to Bahrain, Crete, Sicily, and two locations in Italy before arriving in Frankfurt, Germany and driving south to Mannheim. I worked the Mannheim location and then checked out of my hotel and drove back to Frankfurt Airport via the infamous Autobahn. Once at the airport, I dropped off my rental car and checked in for my flight to Madrid.

Well, as can happen when you do a lot of flying, there was a delay in my flight from Frankfurt to Madrid, Spain, a delay that I know was going to hurt me when I got in because I had a connecting flight from Madrid to Jerez so I could visit the Naval base in Rota.

Well, I got to Madrid and, as is typical in that airport, my gate was changed and it wasn’t announced on my incoming flight as they gave the prior gate number. So I had to dash across the airport to the new gate and thankfully got to my flight on time but unfortunately, my bag didn’t because when I got to Rota, it was nowhere to be found.

It was then that I started to get into a bad mood because all my stuff was in my suitcase: my change of clothes, toiletries, uniforms, etc. I was scheduled to visit the Sailors at the detachment on Monday and was hoping I would be able to get everything by then. If I’m honest, I was really feeling sorry for myself within those circumstances and not dealing with the challenge very well.

Now I was already going through so much at that time but as we so often see, more challenges were to come. For when I got to my room on the base, I used my bathroom and after flushing, ended up dealing with a toilet that was clogged and overflowing. So I called the central billeting office and they offered to put me in a different room because they wouldn’t be able to have anyone come and take care of things until the next day. And so I took them up on the offer, grabbing all my things and walking to central billeting so I could get the key for a new room and then return to the building.

At that point, all seemed to be well but as I was walking back to my new room, I was cutting through the grass to try and save time and I ended up stepping down into this dip and into a puddle of smelly muck. I wondered if there was one more thing that could go wrong in my day as I finally into the new room and settled in, spent mentally, emotionally, and physically.

Ever have a day like that, a day when it seems that everything that could go wrong, did?

Well, as I sat down in my room and reflected on the day I had gone through, I was convicted by the Lord concerning my attitude and how I had allowed the day’s events to steal away the joy the Lord had intended for me. You see, I had allowed the devil to enter in and make me miserable when I should have been giving thanks for the blessings that I had. The serpent (Satan) had bitten me and I allowed his damaging venom to infect my spirit.

So when I realized this, I sat down and really turned to the Lord, asking for His forgiveness over the negative way I had allowed myself to feel, and in return, He showed me all I should have been thankful for.

After all, I had made it to Rota safely via planes and ground transport. I had a room to stay in (so many people have no shelter). And I had clothes on even if they were the ones (many people have no clothing). Yes, they were soiled but guess what? I had a washer in my room so I could easily clean the clothes I had on. Further, I had a nice bathroom with a shower that had complimentary soap and shampoo so it wasn’t like I had no toiletries (frankly, just being able to take a nice shower would be more than many people would have available to them).

Friends, I could go on and on but you see my point. Life isn’t always perfect and we should always take the time to just pause and give thanks for the little things, the many small ways that the Lord blesses us, ways we too often take for granted.

As we turn to today’s scripture, we see the Israelite people once again falling back into their complaining ways after they had displayed a renewed belief and trust in God just a few verses earlier. You’ll remember how He responded to their faith by helping them defeat the Arad army.

But now, as they journeyed the route around Edom because the Edomites had refused to let them cross through their territory, they began to become impatient and "spoke against God and against Moses" saying:

"Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!"

The people of Israel quickly forgot how God had displayed the power to bring manna and quail from Heaven and water from rock, not just once but twice. And if they had just stepped back and thought about things, they would have remembered that there hadn’t been a time when the Lord failed to provide for them and yet they still doubted. In fact, we read where they had food but that wasn’t good enough for them. They were in a place where they were completely unsatisfied, just as I had been at the end of my travel day to Rota.

Well, the Lord once again heard their complaining and acted in the same way as before, sending judgment in a way that He hoped would cure Israel of their bad sinful, untrusting habit once and for all. The scriptures tell us that He "sent venomous snakes among them" which "bit the people" and caused many of the Israelites to die.

We should know that it’s not as if the Israelites hadn’t traveled to places where there were poisonous snakes before. The desert was full of them but up to this point, God had placed His protection over His people as they traveled. The people of Israel just took the safety God gave them for granted until it was removed.

So we see where the snake-ravaged Israelites quickly turned to Moses pleading:

“We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us."

And so Moses honored their request and prayed to God who quickly answered, saying:

"Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live."

Moses then complied with God’s command and made a bronze snake, putting it up on a pole. As a result, any Israelite who was bitten could look up toward the bronze snake and when they did, they would be saved, receiving life by way of God’s mercy despite their sinfulness. Although snake-bitten, they could always turn to God for His saving grace.

Today, people still find themselves snake-bitten by that serpent Satan every day, infected with a potentially life-threatening spiritual venom that poisons our hearts and minds, turning us toward sin. Thank goodness that God has provided us with One to turn to in order to find our salvation.

While the Israelites looked up to the bronze snake, people today need to look to Jesus who God lifted up, first on the cross and then into Heaven where He sits on His Father’s right hand. Indeed, through the crucified and risen Christ, we find ourselves saved from the sin we contract when the serpent strikes. We need only look to Him, believing and trusting in Him as our personal Savior.

Need some scriptural support for this?

Look at these words from Jesus Himself as He spoke with Nicodemus in chapter 3 of John’s Gospel:

“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him.” Vv. 14-15

Brothers and sisters, we see in our scripture passage for today how the bronze snake became a blessing to the snake-bitten, afflicted Israelites, a symbol of God’s grace and mercy. For us, God has given us His Son, Jesus, who is our eternal blessing, the only antidote for the serpent Satan and his venomous strikes. It is the ultimate gift of God’s grace and mercy that provides a salvation that endures now and forever more.

Today and every day, let us echo these words from the Apostle Paul:

“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” 2 Corinthians 9:15

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.