House of Hope Online

February 23, 2025

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Here are some fun facts to know about snake bites in the natural realm.  According to the Cleveland Clinic, depending on the type of snake and other circumstances, a snake bite can be either venomous or non-venomous.  If a snake is venomous and it bites you, it is dangerous and often life-threatening.  The Cleveland Clinic says snakes will voluntarily inject venom into your body, and they can even regulate the amount of venom they inject.  Snake venom can cause swelling and tissue damage, disrupt your blood vessels, prevent your blood from clotting, cause paralysis and other damage to your nervous system, and break down your muscles.  The Clinic estimates between 50% and 70% of venomous snake bites involve injecting venom into the bitten person. 

You are more at risk of a snake bite if you live in a warm, desert, or tropical climate, or in a rural area.  In the U.S., there are between 7,000 and 8,000 venomous snake bites a year.  Worldwide, total snake bites are estimated to be around 5 million per year, of which 1.8 million to 2.7 million are venomous, causing between 81,000 to 138,000 deaths annually.  The medical industry will treat your venomous snake bite with a medication called antivenom, which is a type of antibody therapy that reduces the effects of venom in your body.

Source: my.clevelandclinic.org.  Click this link:  Snake Bites: Treatment & Prevention

So, why am I telling you all these pleasant facts?  In the Bible, Satan is referred to as the serpent, which, in the original Hebrew and Greek, means snake.  Like snakes in the natural realm, the serpent can affect our spiritual health and left untreated, can even cause our faith to die.

Snake Bites in the Spirit Realm

In the Spirit realm, you are also susceptible to snake bites, and the consequences are even worse than a snake bite in the flesh.  Satan, the serpent, is looking to bite us and inject venom into our faith walk.  He does that through deception about the Word of God.  Satan lies to us about God because he doesn’t want us to trust the truth of God’s word, that God loves us, and Jesus would never leave us nor forsake us.  Satan wants us to think that God is mean-spirited, looking to punish, instead of a loving Father who wants only the best for His children.

This characteristic of Satan became evident early in mankind’s existence, as we see in Genesis 3.

Genesis 3:

 1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,

 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman.

The Hebrew word for “crafty” in verse 1 also means cunning, in a bad sense, and subtle.  So, the devil’s lies might not be whoppers, but subtle enough just to get you to accept the wisdom of this world instead of the word of God.  The problem is that subtle lies represent the venom of the serpent, which can spread through your spirit like the venom of a natural snake bite.  It has the potential to damage our faith and become fatal if it leads to unbelief.

It is interesting that God used natural snake bites in Numbers 21 to illustrate the consequences of not believing God’s word.  The people of Israel became impatient and began grumbling and expressing unbelief as they wandered in the wilderness.

Numbers 21:

 4 They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way;

 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “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!”

How many times have we grumbled and expressed unbelief in our frustration?  Why is this happening to me?  Where is God?  Why has He allowed this to happen?  As we know from Adam and Eve, and as we see next in Numbers 21, the consequences of buying the lies of Satan and speaking against God are serious.

Numbers 21:

 6 Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.

 7 The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

 8 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.”

 9 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.

Note the symbolism here.  Why would God send snakes to bite the people?  It is a spiritual principal at play here – if you express unbelief, you separate yourself from the protection of our Lord.  You walk outside His tabernacle of protection.  It is more about what unbelief does than what God does.  God used venomous snakes to represent the danger of unbelief, which in many cases led to death (not eternal life).  Some Israelites died so that all the others would repent and live.  In verse 7, repentance and prayer came, representing faith in God, and the Lord spoke to Moses and gave Him a cure for serpent bites.  When the people looked upon the bronze snake that Moses had lifted and placed on a pole, they would live.  Looking up to the snake on the pole was an expression of faith, leading to salvation.  We will talk more about the prophetic symbolism of this passage later.

Cure The Serpent Bites

So, let’s focus a little more on the cure for snake bites.  Numbers 21 taught us that faith in God’s word is key to treating the venom of the serpent, and its impact on our faith.  Jesus shows us how to do just that in Matthew 4 when he encountered Satan after His 40-day fast.

Matthew 4:

 1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.

 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

 7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

 10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Satan’s venom is intended to distract your faith in God.  He will promise you riches if you play ball with him, and drop this righteousness thing.  Jesus’ cure for the venom of the serpent was to speak the word of God to him.  Verse 11 shows the effectiveness of that cure: the devil left Him, and angels came to minister to Him.  That will happen for us as well.  If we resist the serpent with the truth of God’s word, the devil will flee, and God will minister to us.

In John 3, Jesus referenced Numbers 21 in teaching that eternal life comes from lifting up the Son of Man, who is also the Word.

John 3 (Jesus speaking):

 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,

 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

So, we can now see the prophetic symbolism of Numbers 21.  Lifting up the bronze snake and placing it on the pole became salvation for those who were bitten by the snakes.  It represented the cure for those who bought into the lies of the devil instead of God’s word.  Likewise, and to fulfill the prophetic symbolism, Jesus was lifted up and placed on a pole.  Those of us who look upon Him and receive Him in our hearts shall be saved.

So, there is Good News here for us.  If the devil deceives us, we can look to Jesus who was lifted up on the cross, for our forgiveness and eternal salvation.  Jesus is our antivenom.  Verse 15 says everyone who believes in Jesus may have eternal life.  God so loved us that He wanted us to have a cure for what plagued Adam and Eve and all people who are struggling in a wilderness.

Closing

The thing about snakes is they slither around us undetected.  If the devil were obvious, many would resist.  But as it is, the serpent is crafty, cunning, and subtle.  He sneaks in a little unbelief at a time.  Those who will not stand firmly on the Bible as the inerrant Word, those who accept the wisdom of this world instead, will suffer the consequences of the venom of the serpent, as unbelief will spread throughout their spirits.

If you are confused about things, if you are fearful, if you are depressed, if you are anxious, if you are discouraged, if you are weak, then maybe you have been bitten by the serpent, and perhaps his venom is spreading throughout your spirit man or woman, damaging your faith in God.  Don’t resort to grumbling and unbelief.   Instead, remember there is a remedy for this condition.  It is the logos and rhema Word of God, which is the Man, Jesus Christ, who was held up in the desert by Moses, so that the people with snake bites would not die.  Praise Jesus!  Amen.

In closing, receive more of Jesus’ word from John 3.

John 3:

 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.

 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

Let us pray.

Father God, we come humbly as snake bitten, who have varied from Your word and believed the serpent.  In the name of Jesus, we rebuke the lies of Satan, and we speak Jesus over our lives, over our families, over our bodies, over our infirmities, over our emotions.  We yield to the peace of Your Holy Spirit, that He may speak healing over us.  And we look upon, and call upon, the One lifted up on the cross, in whose name we pray.  Amen.