Day 16: The Bronze Snake

Read: Numbers 21:4-9; John 3:14-15; Hebrews 12:2

 Numbers 21 | NIV Bible | YouVersion


Ungrateful!  The people of Israel got impatient on their seemingly endless journey through the desert.  They forgot all the blessings God had rained down on them and began to grumble and complain.  Sometimes we wonder how they could see so many miracles and still complain.  But don’t we do the same?  We forget the gift of life.  We forget the roof over our heads, the clothes on our backs, the kitchens full of food to eat, and clean water to drink at the twist of a faucet.  Most of all, we forget what Jesus did for us on the cross, when He suffered and died to take away our sins so that we could live eternally in heaven with Him.  We don’t deserve any of these blessings, not. a. single. one.

The desert was full of dangers—starvation, lack of water, snakes, scorpions, sun stroke during the day, hypothermia at night.  Yet God had protected them from every single one.  Until now.  The Bible tells us that God sent venomous snakes to punish the people for their lack of belief and grumbling.  In those days, a bite from a venomous snake often meant a slow, agonizing death.  Many people were bitten and died.

Only when they experienced God’s wrath did they repent and cry out to Moses, begging him to pray for them.  God heard their prayers and told Moses to make a replica of the poisonous snake out of bronze and attach it to a pole.  He told Moses that everyone who was bitten by a snake had only to look at the bronze snake and they would live.

We, too, can be healed from the suffering of God’s wrath.  Jesus told his disciples, “As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”  God is not willing that any should perish, and so He sent his son as the sacrifice to pay the price for us.  What a beautiful gift!  Take some time to thank God for your salvation.  Thank Him for sending Jesus to bear the wrath of God’s punishment so that we wouldn’t have to.

 

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