Pam Padgett ... teacher
Nicodemus, one of the Pharisees, came to Jesus. Jesus started telling
him about being born again, born of the Spirit as well as of the flesh,
but Nicodemus didn't understand. Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? (John 3:10)
Jesus then taught Nicodemus about Himself by what Moses had been
instructed by God to do when, as a result of murmuring against God
and against Moses, God had sent serpents to bite the people, killing many of
them ....
Numbers 21:6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people,
and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. 7 Therefore the
people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken
against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take
away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the
LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole:
and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he
looketh upon it, shall live. 9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and
put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten
any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.
By just looking at the brass serpent, as instructed by God, a person
bitten by a real serpent would not die, but live. By believing and
doing what God had said ... to look at the serpent on the pole ... they
were able to live.
Jesus compared Himself to the serpent God directed Moses to make and set on a pole ....
John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world;
but that the world through him might be saved.
As God showed mercy on
the children of Israel by providing a way for them to not die
physically because of the serpent bites, God has provided a way whereby
we might not be destroyed for eternity because of our sins. By
believing in Jesus, we may have eternal life. Our salvation is not of
our own works. Jesus has redeemed us, paying for our sins by His blood.
While considering these things, and how the serpent God directed Moses
to make generations before was used by Jesus to show who He is and what
He would do, I recalled the following ...
Hebrews 3:5 And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a
servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;
By being obedient to what God told him to do, Moses not only taught and
dealt with the children of Israel in the wilderness, but he also
testified of Jesus.
(Comments by Joan Boney ... There are people who come among us and "bite" us with their words like serpents bite with their tongues ... As I read what Pam wrote, I thought about this. I also thought about the way we are healed from the tongue of other people when we turn to God with the pain and look upon the word given us by God in the matter.)