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    Even in the midst of victory, Israel rebelled against the Lord. While making a relatively short march- compared to the other marches they had made so far- the Israelites grumbled and complained, and God sent a plague of snakes among them.
    This plague served two purposes. First, it continued to fulfill God’s promise that none of the Israelites who left Egypt would enter the Promised Land. Second, it reminded the Israelites who was in control, the Lord God Almighty.
    From this plague, we have one of the most beautiful prophetic visions of the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ. God commanded Moses to raise up on a pole a bronze snake, an whomever looked on that snake was healed of their venomous bite. This symbol reminds us of our Savior, raised up on the cross for our justification.
    This story reminds us that the story of the Bible, even the parts that sometimes seem irrelevant to us in modern times, all help tell the story of salvation. It was these Israelites wandering and rebelling their way through the deserts of the Middle East to whom the Savior would come, and by that coming we all have been saved.
DLH
