Links for today’s readings:
Read: Numbers 21 Listen: (5:03) Read: 1 Thessalonians 3 Listen: (1:44)
Scripture Focus: Numbers 21.7-9
7 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.
8 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.” 9 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, they lived.
Image Note: The image is of The Brazen Serpent Monument by Giovanni Fantoni. It is located on Mount Nebo, the traditional site of Moses’ death overlooking the Promised Land
Reflection: The Antivenom for Sin
By John Tillman
With sin, as with serpents, it isn’t the size that kills you—it is the venom.
Venom is a specific kind of poison. Poison can be transmitted by touch or ingestion, like the poison on the skin of a poisonous frog or in a poisonous plant. Venom is a poison inflicted through a wounding attack, such as a bite or sting.
Venoms can cause necrosis, killing the tissue it is injected into. Many cause vomiting, hemorrhaging, seizures, heart failure, and other deadly symptoms. Many venoms also cause blindness, paralysis, or disorientation, making victims easier to kill by other means.
Through the serpent in the Garden of Eden, humanity was stung by sin. Its venom necrotizes our spirit, disorients us, blinds us, and makes us easy victims to be toyed with or killed by our adversary, the devil. (1 Peter 5.8)
Contrary to popular belief, venom cannot be sucked out of a wound. In most cases, the surrounding tissue is flooded with venom and it is nearly instantly carried through the bloodstream. Antivenom must be taken. In some cases antivenom must begin to be administered within minutes of being bitten or the victim may not survive.
We cannot save ourselves from the venom of sin. It inevitably will cause our death and many other harms in our lives. The venom that pained and even killed some of the Israelites was a direct consequence of sin and a realistic representation of how the venom of sin infects our bodies and communities.
When the Israelites looked to the sign of the serpent, they were looking in faith at God’s promise of an antivenom for sin. Every heel struck by a serpent in the Israelite camp was healed not by looking at the serpent but by the bruised heel of the one promised to Eve in the garden. (Genesis 3.15; Isaiah 53.4-5)
Jesus was struck by sin, stung with its venom, and raised up as a sign of God’s provision. Sin wounds us. He is the balm. Sin injects venom that necrotizes our souls. Jesus injects us with the antivenom of his indestructible life.
No matter what we have done, or what sin we are struck by, Jesus is lifted up for us to look to for salvation. (John 3.14-18) There is no sting of sin too grievous for him to heal.
Jesus is the only antivenom for sin and we are commanded to lift him up so that the world can be freed from the sting of sin and death. (1 Corinthians 15.54-57; Isaiah 25.7-8; Hosea 13.14)
Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. — Psalm 118.23
– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime
by Phyllis Tickle
Read more: Intercepting Deconstruction
Faith, like young plants, is vulnerable when immature…However, even mature faith can be harmed and even great trees can be felled.
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