Friends, if you're scared of snakes this may not be for you. I'm here at a reptile park outside of Durban South Africa. I'm holding my friend here who is a red-tailed boa. Snakes are found all over the world. They come in all sizes. Snakes can be found through the trees, they crawl on the ground, they live under the ground and they swim in the water. Very interesting creatures. Some snakes are venomous. Not my friend here but the black mamba, very poisonous. Matter of fact their bite is often referred to as the kiss of death.
They can grow 15 feet long and can travel up to seven miles an hour. They don't call him black mambas because of the color of their skin but the interior of their mouth is black. Snakes also come in all sizes like this Bulla or Python. They can grow to great sizes. Matter of fact in South America they found some fossils of a snake that they call Titanoboa. They believe it was as big as 50 feet long and weighed as much as a car. Say cheese. A lot of people are scared of snakes. I used to live in a mountain in a cave and I ran into snakes frequently. They never bothered me unless I was bothering them.
In the Bible, the snake is often a symbol of the devil. In reality, just a symbol. They are animals like other animals but it says they were cursed to go upon their belly because they were the first medium that the devil used to tempt Adam and Eve. In the book of Numbers Chapter 21, it tells the story of how when the children of Israel were going through the wilderness. They began to complain about God's manner. It says the Lord allowed these fiery serpents to go among the people and many were bitten. The venom was deadly.
I should probably mention at this point that bread they were complaining about is a symbol for the word of God. As many of the people were dying from this plague of serpents, they went on to Moses and they said, "What shall we do?" God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole and lift it up that whoever looked upon the serpent they would be healed of their venom. This is why it's so important because Jesus says in the Gospel of John, Chapter 3 Verse 14 and 15, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, the Son of Man must be lifted up. That whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life."
They needed to look and to live.
You see those ancient shepherds when they would kill a venomous snake, they would carry it off on their staff and bury it. A serpent on a pole represented a defeated snake. It's talking about defeating the devil friends. Have you been bitten by the serpent? We all have. The only cure for the venom of Satan is to look in faith at Jesus. He then defeated the devil. He took the venom of sin in his body to provide the antidote in his blood. Friends, I encourage you to look today and live.
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