Extracting Poison

During one of our Explore events, one of our team had been seeking God for what to share during a time of ministry. The Lord led her to share on Jesus’ words from John 3, where He told Nicodemus that He would be lifted up, just as Moses lifted up the bronze snake in the desert.

On this particular day, my job was to sit at the sound desk and record the teaching, which meant that my attention was somewhat divided. I’m no great multi-tasker (you can ask my wife about that) and I was only half trying to listen to the message, whilst doing the job. But, as she went on to share, God completely and unexpectedly grabbed my full attention. The message was powerful, and God started speaking to my heart. In this devotion, I’ll try to convey the essence of it.

When Moses lifted the bronze snake in the wilderness, the people had been bitten by real live snakes. They were literally dying of poison. Of course, a bronze snake figurine couldn’t save them, but God could. As they looked up, the Lord somehow dealt with the poison in them.

What poison is inside of you? Bitterness is an example of a powerful poison which leads to much destruction. How can we be saved from bitterness? God simply says: “Look to Me! Only I can administer the antidote”.

What other poisons might be at work in our lives? What about offence? Is there any offence in our hearts? God says: “Look to me and be saved, before the offence completely consumes you”.

What about ingratitude, grumbling and complaining? This is what did it for the Israelites in the desert. It will lead to spiritual death. God says: “Look to Me and be saved!”.

The Bible makes it very clear, the wages of sin is death. Sin brings poison into the bloodstream of our life, and its outworking will be death. There’s only one solution: Jesus!

Last night, as we prayed before bedtime, one of my children prayed something that seemed quite random at the time, and we wondered where he’d got the words from. But what he said, in a child-like way, had something of God’s truth in it. He said: “Jesus, You take the bad blood from us and replace it with good blood”. My wife and I looked at each other and probably both thought the same: medically speaking, I’m not sure that claim holds. But it conveyed a powerful truth. Only Jesus can take out the poison which has somehow become part of us.

I believe God wants to get our attention, lift our heads, and speak to each us: “Look to Me and be saved!”

Prayer: Dear Father, thank You for sending Jesus. Thank You that He was lifted up and that I can look to Him to get rid of any and all poison which has somehow got into me. I look to You, my Saviour and Healer. Amen.