December 5 - The Serpent In The Desert

(I am very sorry about not posting consistently the past few days - I have had ISP issues)

And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.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.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.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.Numbers 21:5-9

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:John 3:14

One of the commentaries I looked at compared the struggle a Jew would have had looking at the serpent on the pole for healing to the scandal the Pharisees saw when they looked at Jesus. The message was simple - look and live, but I suspect there were those that refused to look. Could pride, unbelief, anger toward God or being busy trying to draw out the poison on their own have prevented someone from looking at the snake on the pole? And by the conscious act of not looking, they died?

Aren't those same type of things what keeps the world from accepting Christ? And isn't that what keeps people from centering the holiday on Him? This Christmas, look around at people around you and see the things people are using to remove the poison on their own and how they're substituting created things for the Creator - that's what Christmas has become to the world. For many, it's about everything but Jesus, as they look for that once a year high born of shopping, carols and really decadent food. But shouldn't Christmas force someone to choose between "look and live" and coming up with their own solution to the poison in their lives? Sadly, many choose the latter.