Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

A Daily Devotional by Kenton Cheek

3 March 2024

Reading From Numbers 21-22

“They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!’

Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 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.

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.’ 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.”

–Numbers 21:4-9

     Yet again the people of Israel sinned by becoming impatient, complaining against God and Moses, and griping about the Lord’s provision.  The snakes that bit them are symbolic of their own sin.  Satan took the form of a serpent in the Garden of Eden and tempted the first humans to rebel.  It wasn’t the bronze snake that Moses made and put on a pole that healed the stricken Israelites, it was their faith in God’s plan that made them well.  Unfortunately, human beings have an unhealthy habit of worshipping the tools God uses rather than God Himself and later in II Kings 18, King Hezekiah destroyed the bronze serpent Moses had made because the people had named it “Nehushtan” and started worshipping it.

     Jesus made the connection between Himself and the bronze serpent in John 3:14-15 when He said, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”  Why did Jesus Christ, the only one who has ever lived a perfect, sinless life compare Himself to a symbol of sin that later became an idol?  For at least two reasons: because He took all of the sins of the world past, present and future upon Himself and was lifted up on the cross, and because faith in Him brings spiritual and physical healing. 

     Galatians 3:13-14 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.’ He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”  It doesn’t make sense to our finite minds that looking at a bronze snake on a stick would heal us, but sometimes God’s plan doesn’t make sense.  It doesn’t have to. 

Paul wrote in I Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” If everything about God’s ways made sense to us, we would be God rather than Him and life would not require any faith. What a dark and hopeless thought!  But God’s ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.  He alone is God and we are not.  He does not require us to understand or fully comprehend, He only requires us to believe and trust.  As I look to Christ in faith, the one who took all my sins upon Himself and was lifted up on the cross, I am redeemed and healed in Jesus’ Name. Faith in Jesus makes life on Earth an adventure!

“Lord, I pray that I wouldn’t wait until I think I understand Your plan before I’ll trust You.  Help me to trust You even when the path forward doesn’t seem to make sense to my human brain.  Enable me by the power and strength of Your Holy Spirit to trust You and not my own understanding.  Make me grateful for the ways in which You’ve provided for me and my family and not gripe about Your provision.  Forgive me for when I have been ungrateful.  Remind me to count my blessings and look to You in faith for everything I need for life and godliness.  Amen.”

God made him who had no sin to be sinfor us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

–II Corinthians 5:21