There are many serpents in the Bible, one in Genesis that sets a lot of things in motion and many others…
However there is only one that seems to link to Jesus – and that is the serpent in the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites. This is the story we hear in Numbers 21:4-9.
I think it is interesting that this passage is partnered with John 3:14-21 where we hear tell of God loving the world so much that he gave His only son to die for us…
It is interesting in the passage from Numbers the response of God. And to that one could say which response of God…
You see the people are grumbling to Moses that he brought them out of Egypt to kill them off in the wilderness. So after their grumbling God sends poisonous serpents among the people to bite them and kill them. God does this, this is His first response to the situation. They start grumbling and God send poisonous snakes to kill them…
Then when the people get it and go to Moses, Moses goes to God and he tells Moses…
“Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”
He tells Moses to make a serpent and set it on a pole and allow people who get bite to look upon the snake that has been raised up and they shall live. Could not God have removed the snakes all together and gotten rid of the suffering of the people. He after all sent the snakes to them, so why didn’t he just get rid of them? Why make a snake and raise it up?
It is like something else that is raised up for people to behold and allow them to be healed. Jesus – the one and only Son who was raised up because God so loved the world that he gave His only Son so that who ever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life, because God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but that through Him the world might be saved. Look upon Jesus lifted up and be healed…
God never said our lives would be without suffering, but he has given us Jesus to behold and to heal us through our trials and tribulations…
aSacredRebel 