A snake went to the doctor, complaining of his poor eyesight. The doctor gave him some eyeglasses and told him to come back in two weeks. When the snake returned, he seemed depressed. “What’s the matter?” inquired the doc. “Didn’t the glasses help?”

“Oh yes, I see perfectly now,” replied the snake. “It just turns out I’m married to a garden hose.”

Yesterday I was hiking in the trails around Waterloo Lake, when I came upon a dead rat snake, about four feet in length. Rat snakes are wonderful creatures that pose no threat to humans whatsoever. They are nonvenomous, and keep the rodent population in check. I’d rather have rat snakes in the areas that I walk than rats any day of the week. Yet, even knowing this in my brain, and knowing the thing was dead, my heart raced, and I immediately got as far away from it as possible.

After my hike, I thought “I’m gonna go take a picture so I can show Tracie.” I went back to the place where the dead snake had lay, and pulled out my phone to snap a picture, only to discover the snake wasn’t dead! I promptly decided he wasn’t bothering me, so I wasn’t going to bother him, and went in the opposite direction.

When we think of snakes, humor is not often the emotion that comes to mind. Since the dawn of history, we have associated snakes with fear, pain, death, and evil. Snakes are dreaded above all God’s creatures. They are symbolic of curse. And that’s what most people do when they see one!

In today’s scripture focus, we find God’s people as we often find them – complaining. They had just been given a military victory, but now had to go the long way around through the desert rather than face another battle. God had sustained them for years on bread from Heaven, but they grumbled about having to eat it. Their impatience led to rebellion. So, God decided to take His hands off.

A plague of “fiery” serpents descended on them at once. The Israelites complained about God’s blessings, and in so doing, traded them for a curse.

Now, if you were paying attention last week, you remember that God had told the people under no circumstances were they ever to make a graven image. That included any representation of an animal. Yet, here God commands Moses to make a snake, put it on a pole, and tell the people to look on it!

The healing wasn’t in the bronze snake. Since the people had quit trusting God to provide, they must show their faith in God’s provision. The snake, so often symbolic of curses, became a sign of salvation.

Snakes are symbols of fear, pain, and death. So are crosses.

“Cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree.” Isn’t it amazing that thousands of years after this incident in the desert, God once again used a symbol of cursing to become a sign of salvation? Jesus came to us as Manna, the Bread of Heaven. What did we do? We grew impatient. We grumbled. We complained. We rebelled. So, God took His hands off. It doesn’t take a long time of trying to take care of yourself to learn the fiery sting of sin.

Are you suffering the sting of a lifetime of selfish choices? Is your life “cursed” with addiction, dysfunction, or isolation. Look up! Redemption draweth nigh.

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.