Numbers
21:4-9—Sight of the uplifted serpent
brings healing. The complaining Israelites are healed of their serpent bites by
looking at Moses’ upraised bronze serpent. Because of the Israelites’
rebelliousness – speaking evil of Moses and God – the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people. They were
bitten and many died. When Moses interceded with the Lord on the peoples’
behalf, the Lord instructed Moses
to make a bronze snake; when the people looked upon it in faith that the Lord would deliver them from the snakes,
they were spared. There was nothing magical about the snake. The healing came
from God alone, and depended on faith in His Word.
A serpent beguiled the human race at Eden. Serpents
inflict the Israelites as punishment for their sin of rebellion. It is a symbolic
way of saying that the wages of sin is death. As death came by a serpent, so
life also came. Healing came from looking to the upraised bronze serpent. This
strange truth was experienced again in the cross. Man put to death the Christ
but yet by that very death he is saved.
For blessing on the Word—Lord God, bless Your Word
wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a word of power and peace to convert those
not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your
Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the
lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose
for which You send it; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen[1] -10 March 2021
[1] Collect for the blessing on the Word
of God, Lutheran Service Book © Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis
Illustration of The Serpent in the Wilderness is from a woodcut by Baron Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872, a distinguished German artist known especially for his book, The Book of Books in Pictures. Copyright © WLS permission granted for personal and congregational use
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