You know you’re getting older when you keep antacids on hand. In my purse, my bedside table, and the kitchen cupboard, you can find them stashed throughout the house. Foods that once went down easily send my tummy rumbling. It’s often a problem of my own choosing, but when the inevitable pain sets in, I thank God for antacids to relieve the ache.
You see it’s a natural part of life, this cause and effect. There are always consequences to our actions. Some are positive, and some are negative, and as the Bible puts it “For whatever a person sows he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7). When I eat something greasy, I know it will likely hurt my belly. When I go to bed early, I know I will likely wake up well rested. And when the Israelites spoke out against God, they found themselves surrounded by venomous snakes.
Even though the Israelites realized the error of their ways, God didn’t take away the snakes as they asked. However, God did provide a path to healing—antacids if you will. The Israelites still had to deal with the consequences of their sins, but God was merciful to them in the midst of their struggle.
Oftentimes we want to make poor choices and then pray we don’t have to deal with the fall out. I admit that more than once I’ve ignored the time when getting ready and then prayed for all green lights so I wasn’t late. Of course, there have been more serious actions, sins I’ve committed, ignoring the repercussions that would surely follow. Just as the snakes bit and killed many Israelites because of their sinfulness, we know that our sin deserves death too (Romans 6:23). Can you think of a time recently where you’ve chosen the wrong things and then had to pay the price?
The good news is that while God doesn’t always erase the consequences of our actions, He is happy to heal His people. God did this for the Israelites by providing healing through a golden snake on a pole. All they had to do was look at it. It was that easy.
Our Father is merciful to us too. All we have to do to be healed from all our sins that lead to death is to lift our eyes to the risen Christ (John 3:14). While we still live in a broken world full of darkness, we know that God promises an eternal world full of light. We may not see the perfect healing of our mind, body, and soul here and now, but one day we will experience a place free from tears and pain (Revelation 21:4).
So let’s raise our eyes to heaven. Our merciful God has paid the price of sin and death for us because of His inexhaustible love. All He asks is that we “repent and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15). Healing and eternal life are available to all of us today if we will simply fix our eyes on our Savior, Jesus.
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44 thoughts on "The Bronze Snake"
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Scripture links aren’t working for me. Only the ones within the commentary
I meant to post individually but somehow my post got up as a response to Erica..oops…maybe I hit the reply by mistake. Anywho, I hope you all are doing well she’s. I miss the fellowship with you daily but that will soon return once we settle next week. I got to meet my highschool friends yesterday and prayed for one of the girls who also suffered from narcissistic abuse from her mother for ten years. I was shocked hearing her story, but hers was another extreme level. She had no guidance and consulted some psychic, which was a danger spiritually she didn’t know, and she suffered more after that. I felt the Spirit of God kept nudging me to pray for her out loud. So I asked for her permission if I could pray, and she said yes to my surprise. And I asked God to break any curses that the medium could have cast on her, and heal her relationship with her mom who was very hostile toward her husband and herself and their son. She is of Buddist background as well, and consulting psychic/medium is considered a normal practice. But being a Christian and following many deliverance ministry, I know it’s a gateway to demons and a great abomination to the Lord. I would appreciate your joining prayers over her as well (her name is Tien), she is a doctor and so humble, but so oppressed and pressed through many sides of life that God was so adamant I prayed. So I did. The Lord is so bold in what He wanted to display and I am learning to be bold too so as I don’t hold Him back in moments like this. Thank you shes. I will catch up with you later. I pray God’s hands sustain you and your families in His goodness and mercy ❤️.
That is bold – may what you prayed and shared with her draw her near to Jesus!!! Thank you, Lord, for using Mercy to bless Tien. We pray she would recognize Your care for her and desire for relationship with her. We pray her eyes would be open to the truth of Jesus and would recognize the evil that has surrounded her. May she have discernment and choose You, Lord, over what she knows. May she understand her life is not her own and everything comes from You. May she come to the full knowledge of salvation and place her trust in You, Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. Thank you, Lord, that we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses. That we aren’t the first ones to walk in faith, not by sight. May Tien have the courage to seek after You and turn away from wickedness. May she see You are so much different than the lies the enemy has spoken about you. May she come to see You are faithful and Your Word is true. May she see Your love and goodness, Jesus, and desire You over everything. Thank you, God, that with You all these things are possible. What seems impossible to us is easy for You to accomplish. Help us to have faith that believes this. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus’s name I pray, amen. ❤️
amen!
AMEN!!!
♥️
It blows my mind how much love and care God has for us. We see it in 21:7-9 when, even though the Israelites sinned, God still sent them a way to heal. This isn’t the first time the Israelites have sinned against Him and every time God provides for them. It’s just a wonderful reminder of God’s love for us and it brought me a lot of comfort. I hope you all are doing well ❤️
So thankful for His love, despite myself! I have been learning that I need to keep my eyes on Jesus, otherwise I get really frustrated with different things or just feel hurt or frustrated…He must be my focus, life, treasure! ❤️
Keeping our eyes on Jesus, this sounds simple but is very hard to do in difficult circumstances. But God, He keeps them in perfect peace whose mind fixates on Him. Lord I pray You give me the grace to focus on You. Dear she’s, please pray for my family as we are flying back to Canada with 3 young kids soon in the next couple of days. They got motion sickness and one threw up on me last time, also the cry during the take off from ear pain /air pressure. I am starting to feel the weight of saying goodbye coming and I don’t do well with this. Please pray that my heart and mind is strong and I won’t experience the travel blues returning. On a brighter note, God healed the weird tension between my brother and I as well toward the end of this visit. How amazing is He. Thank you shes for your prayers. Be blessed dear sisters ❤️.
Mercy, as a child that struggled with motion sickness and ear pain on flights I recommend having your children (if old enough) take a decongestant at least half an hour before taking off and using Dramamine or Bonine.
Mercy if they’re old enough have the chew gum.
I just keep thinking this is about choices. The people chose to grumble, we choose salvation, and then we choose to continue to follow Jesus even when we mess up. We choose to “threw off” the things that hinder us. KELLY (Neo) thanks for sharing Heb 12:1-2. Let’s choose to preserve in our faith fixing our eyes on Jesus. Eyes on the prize!
Lord keep my eyes up on you! To choose and stay on the path that You put me on. To find joy and delight in Your Word.
Happy Monday She’s! I don’t comment much but I read through these every day and they bring me so much joy. And you all were so kind to pray for me when I lost my job last November. I just applied for my absolute dream job and I am praying that I get it! Thank you all for your daily insight and wisdom and being such a source of light to me. Let us continue to lift our eyes to Him!
How exciting! Praying it all works out…keep us posted
Yes, Bebe, keep us posted!
“All we have to do to be healed from all our sins that lead to death is to lift our eyes to the risen Christ.” Amen!
I was reminded recently in a sermon my husband preached, that when Christ died on the cross for our sin, it was for All past sin, ALL present sin and All future sin! It wasn’t “covered up” it was taken away with no record of it whatsoever!…just as if we had never sinned. What an amazing, merciful God we serve!
Continuing to pray for all your requests when I see them.
Have a wonderful Monday sisters! ❤️
From NKJV Wiersbe Study Bible
The uplifted snake was the only cure in the camp, just as Jesus Christ is the only Savior of sinners in the world (John 14:6; Acts 4:12).
Nobody could look at the bronze snake for another person; each dying sinner had to look for himself or herself. The salvation Christ offers is personal and individual, and each of us must look to Christ by faith. No matter how hard they tried, no dying Jew could save himself or herself. The only salvation available was what God had graciously provided, and if you rejected it, you died.
From Vines Expository Bible Notes on Biblegateway:
“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14,15).
So anyone who had been bitten by a serpent could simply look up at the bronze snake and be healed. The message is obvious. We have been bitten by the serpent of sin. If we want to be saved, we know where we have to look.
III. A Picture of Our Salvation (21:9)
Through Moses, God gave the way of salvation. He told the people exactly how they could be saved. He showed them the human side and the divine side. The human side was to look. That’s all God asked them to do.
Sin and death began with a look: “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate” (Gen. 3:6, italics mine). Salvation also starts with a look. Just as the people looked at the bronze serpent on a pole to be healed, so we look up at our Savior Jesus on the cross and we’re saved.
Salvation also continues with a look: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).
It just takes a look.
Thank you Cee Gee. Amen.
❤
A friend of mine just went in a cruise to/through Europe. (How a retired teacher has money to do that, I don’t know. I won’t. But I won’t have a pension… Maybe that’s it!)
Anyhoo… when in Greece, the tour guide told her that the medical symbol of the snake on the pole represented snakes shedding their skin, and so the medical professionals should always look for new views, after discarding old views/ideas, like a snake sheds its skin. I told her, ummm no! (Of course, I think that would be wise… to look at new ideas with fresh eyes. SOME medical professionals are stuck in the past. there is so much more we now know about nutrition, etc…) And referred her to this passage in Numbers. She was once very liberal, then came to Christ and was shown the Truth. Now it appears she is back to her old ways. She doesn’t go to church anymore. I was saddened that this tour guide misleads others, and that she was believing his word as truth, rather than investigating the real Truth. Isn’t that the way of the world, though?
Let’s share the Truth with others, sweet sisters and friends.
I also returned from a trip to Greece last month, with a tour guide who was one of only 4 in the country who is a follower of Jesus. She has a degree in theology and also in Greek mythology, and she told us the version from Greek mythology (which I would have to look up in my notes.) She also pointed out that most of the myths were based in actual historical events or in the people’s desire for the truth. So what your friend told you may have been at least partly accurate; there is more than one explanation for this symbol. She also delighted in pointing out how wonderful it was to know the True God who these people were seeking in some of their crazy-sounding stories.
Hi Shes, happy Monday ❤️
Praying for all of you, today ❤️
May I always fix my eye on Christ and the cross!
@Kimberly Z, Kelly (NEO), Cee Gee, and Kim Buttonberry. THANK YOU so much for your prayers!! Woke up at 3:30 ish, and tried to go back to sleep but decided to read part of today’s reading then went back to yesterday’s comments. I’m SO glad I did!! Thank you for your prayers of encouragement!!
I woke up a few minutes before you! Praying for a full night of sleep for each of us tonight! (+summer job, reconciliation).
FIXING my eyes on OUR Jesus this morning. I was awake 2 hours earlier and commented below and now FULLY awake and anticipating the sunrise I’m thankful for HIS WORD of encouragement and for all of you sweet She’s! One thing I try to remind myself is that we live in a fallen world full of fallen people (like myself) and we’re going to disappoint and be disappointed. BUT one thing for sure OUR Jesus will NEVER EVER let us down! He can’t and he won’t because its NOT in His character to do so! I trust HIM! He has never nor will HE ever let us down. Because of our human nature it may feel like it, BUT as we read here this morning, none of us are free from tears and pain, BUT we have JESUS and all we have to do is repent and move forward. LOVE you all sweet She’s! Oh….and HAPPY MONDAY! Prayers are appreciated as I really have to be DONE testing this kinders by tomorrow as I’m taking Wednesday morning off to drive my daughter and her friend to and from Graduation practice! MY HEART!!!!
Father I lift my eyes to Jesus! Amen
KELLY (NEO) great verse you shared! Throw off the sin, the doubt, the distractions, lies we’re told.
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Romans 15:5-6 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. NIV BG verse of the day
❤ The verses you and KELLY NEO shared reminded me of 2 Corinthians 10:5, but I am including the previous verses for context:
3 We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. 4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. 5 We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. NLT
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:1-2).
From Enduring Word: The bronze snake refers to an evil (snake) having been judged (bronze). Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us on the cross, and our sin was judged in Jesus.
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Dear Father,
Thank You Jesus, for “living the life we should have lived and dying the death we should have died” (Tim Keller). Thank You for bringing us the Good News, the Gospel.
Your Word is full of it and Your Promises are still true today. All we need to do is LOOK and BELIEVE.
May we turn our eyes upon Jesus.
May we look in His wonderful face.
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and His grace.
AMEN.
Amen
Amen ❤️
Amen!
Yes, and Amen! ❤️
Happy Monday, Sisters! I trust that you had a wonderful weekend!
What stood out to me today is when the king of Edom would not allow the Israelites through and they had to go around. The commentary in my NLT Bible reminds us that “Sometimes conflict is unavoidable. Sometimes, however, it isn’t worth the consequences…At times, we should follow Moses’ example and find another way to solve our problems, even if it is harder for us to do.” Good reminder for me today.
I know that’s a total different spin than where the devotional author was going, but that’s what really hit me.
Have a blessed day!❤️
Thank you for sharing that, Tricia! Do you have any news on your exam results?
Thank you, TRICIA! Making notes – a good lesson on seeking God’s will and understanding that it may not be the easiest path.
That’s good, thank you!
Some people in our lives are like that king of Edom—worth taking the long way around!