Devotion for January 18, 2014: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” -John 3:14-15 The bronze serpent… a serpent that was made because the people of Israel were in the wilderness and were complaining. Though God was leading them they complained that they had been led away from Egypt and were now wandering in the wilderness. So God sent serpents to bite the people… and because of this the people relented. They came to Moses and begged him to pray to God for them that they might be saved. Moses prayed to God and God informed him to make a bronze serpent and hang it on a pole and whoever looked at the serpent would be healed of the snake bite. Wow… what a story about our own lives. God has called you to be His very own and many reading this are indeed God’s children. We are God’s children through baptism and the faith that is worked in our hearts when we are baptized. We are God’s children through faith that is worked in our hearts when we read and hear God’s Word. We are God’s children because He has adopted us and thus we are His. Though we were adopted by God and are now His children, we still sin and grumble and complain. Though God has claimed us, we can definitely act, at times, as though we do not even know that a God exists. We wake up ten minutes late and we blame our alarm clock for not waking us up… and we blame God that our day is already behind… and we probably don’t pray to Him that morning either. We go out to our car and find out that we have forgotten our keys and we curse at the car, using God’s name, and we make sure to ask God why all of this is happening to me. We finally make it to work where we spend the day, not acting as God’s children, but acting as though we want to be a very prominent member of the world, doing everything we can do to fit in with every one else. We get home and yell at our kids because they want our time and we just had a long day at work… and we ask God why He has given us so much responsibility. We get a phone call that our best friend was just in a car accident… and now we are almost certain that God is picking on us and that God hates us because this day couldn’t get any worse. Sure it is a little hyperbole, but you can completely see parts of this in your everyday life. It is so easy to complain and grumble against God… and for that, maybe God should release some ‘fiery serpents’ on us. Maybe we should have to deal with a vengeful God who really wants to spite us and who hates us and who has it in for us… But that is not God. God loves His children. He loved the Israelites and He loves us. We look at a round of discipline and we are convinced that God hates us. However, we know from Scripture that God disciplines those He loves as that discipline allows us to see our faults and drives us closer to God. And just like the Israelites relented, so too do we. We know that we are not perfect and we come before God and beg for His mercy and forgiveness; and He gives it to us. Instead of sending us a snake, God sent His one and only Son Jesus Christ. Jesus came into this world to live a perfect life: no grumbling, no complaining, no sinning… a perfect life. And then Jesus suffered for our sins. He was mocked, beaten, and He was hung on a pole. Jesus was hung on a cross to pay the full price for all of our sins. He was hung on the cross and there He experienced hell itself for us. And because of all that Jesus Christ has done for us, we now have heaven waiting when this world is over. Just as Jesus says in our text, “whoever believes in Him should not perish.” Through faith in all that Jesus Christ has done we will not perish. Yes, we will more than likely die to this world, but that is momentary, because we will arise and live in heaven. We will not perish because God loves us, His faithful children, and He will watch over us. When we believe in Jesus Christ for our salvation, we know that this life is but a blip on the radar and that something more glorious and more grand is awaiting us.. eternity with our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ, the only One who lived, died, and rose again for all of His faithful children. Soli Deo Gloria!
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 01:53:47 +0000
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