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-The Music Man will be presented as our fall theatrical event...click here (www.ChristMemorialProductions.org) for full details and audition information. 

      Performances: November 13, 14,15 at 7:30 pm and November 16 at 2:00.

      Auditions: August 16 and 17 from 1- 5 PM..

Devotions

Bronze Serpent

Nehushtan

Readings: Numbers 21: 4-9 and John 3:14

Snakes have a bad reputation. It goes back all the way to Adam and Eve. Satan used a snake to tempt Eve (Gen. 3:1-6). Since then all humanity has been inflicted with the venom of Satan and subject to sin and death (Rom. 5:12). When God gave Moses the list of unclean foods, which the Israelites were not to eat, snakes were on the list. He made it very clear saying, “You are not to eat any creature that moves about on the ground, whether it moves on its belly or walks on all fours or on many feet; it is detestable” (Lev. 11:42). For ancient Israel, snakes were vile, disgusting, and loathsome.

Yet, at one time, God purposely inflicted His people with an abundance of these abhorrent creatures. After the Lord freed them from Egyptian bondage, the Israelites complained about their situation in the desert. “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” (Num. 21:4-5). They had turned away from the Lord. To bring them back to His loving care it would be difficult and painful—not for Him, but—for them (Heb. 12:10- 11).

God sent poisonous snakes that bit them and killed many (Num. 21:6; confer 1 Cor. 10:9-11). The people repented and “The LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived” (Num. 21:8-9).

The people were healed by looking at the brass image of the vile, unclean snake lifted above them. Seven hundred years after Moses, king Hezekiah destroyed the bronze serpent. It was called Nehushtan (2 Kings 18:4). The word “Nehushtan” is not only a combination of the Hebrew words for “snake” and “bronze”, but it also sounds very similar to the Hebrew word meaning “unclean thing.”

Jesus told Nicodemus, “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” (John 3:14). This bronze snake on the pole reminds us of the “unclean thing” who once hung on the cross for us. Jesus became an unclean thing to destroy the power of the ancient serpent—Satan (Gen. 3:15, Rev. 12:9). “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus bore our sins (1 Pet. 2:24) and took upon Himself God’s curse (Gal. 3:13). Jesus became like a serpent or a worm scorned and despised by the people (Ps. 22:6). His heavenly Father considered Him repulsive (Matt. 27:46).

In his explanation of John 3, Martin Luther calls Christ “our Serpent of Salvation.” Christ is our Nehushtan. He became an unclean thing for us so that all who look up to Him can be healed. To this very day, the caduceus (two snakes twisted around a pole) is a universal sign for healing. May we look to Jesus to heal our every ill in body and soul.

Prayer: Christ Jesus, You are my Nehushtan. Lifted up on the cross, You became an unclean thing when You took my sins upon Yourself. May I always look up to You for the divine healing that only You can give. Amen.