Snakebit

Billy Alexander reports: Indonesian pop star Irma Bule was famous for wearing snakes during her performances on stage.  During a recent performance she stepped on a king cobra who struck her thigh before a live audience.  King cobras can release enough venom in a single bite to kill 20 people or an elephant.  The snake’s handler offered Bule an antidote for the snake’s bite but she refused and continued on with the show.  Before her stunned audience, she collapsed on stage and was later pronounced dead.  The entertainer was either unaware that the snake’s bite was fatal or she was too focused on her performance to focus on her ebbing mortality.*

In the Garden of Eden, Eve was the first “bitten” by the serpent (Satan), followed by her husband, Adam.  Seeking to cast doubt on God’s command not to eat of the fruit of tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17), the serpent (Satan) asked Eve, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1).  Then Satan deliberately lied: “You shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4).  Deceived by the deceiver, Eve took a bite of the forbidden fruit, as did Adam, and they sinned (Genesis 3:6).

“Since then all accountable men and women have felt the sting of sin and death,” writes Alexander.

Many of the Israelites were later bitten by literal serpents and died (Numbers 21:6).  “Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, ‘We have sinned for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD that He take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people (v.7).  God’s remedy was that they were to make a fiery serpent of bronze and set it on a pole and raise it up so that when the people were bitten by the serpents they could look up to it and be healed (v.8).

This remedy was a preview of Christ’s ultimate antidote for the “snake bite” of sin that has universally plagued humanity.  Jesus said: “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.  For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14-16).  The Son of Man was lifted up to die on the cross to pay the price for our sins (Ephesians 1:7).

The Scriptures teach us that the way to look to Jesus and live is to place our faith and trust in Him (Acts 16:30-31), turn from our sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and be baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of our sins (Acts 2:38).  Then, we must continue to fix our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2), following Him and trusting His continual cleansing (1 John 1:7).

Quoting Alexander: “Although [Satan] has snapped his fangs into each one of us [through our sin], Jesus was lifted up so that we might live.  Those who carry on with their life’s performance and neglect the only remedy will surely fall.  Those who look to Jesus will live and overcome the serpent’s venom.”

Won’t YOU, through your trusting obedience, look to Jesus and be saved?

-- David A. Sargent

* From “Snakebit” by Billy Alexander in Start2Finish.org, 4/13/16.

David A. Sargent, Minister