The Snake on the Pole: Remember the Culprit!

Recently, through my communications with "the Man on the Top," I got a little
revelation about the symbolism of the snake on a pole, which God commanded
Moses to make for the people of Israel to get healed of their snake bites
(Numbers 21:8,9), since God had sent a plague of snakes into their camp as a
punishment for their murmuring about manna.
It had never made sense to me before, why, of all things, God used a serpent as
an image of healing. Why were they supposed to look at a serpent, a symbol of
he very cause of their suffering?
I was familiar with the scripture John 3:14, where Jesus says, "As Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up,"
referring to and prophesying His crucifixion. Was that supposed to make the
serpent look holy, like Jesus, or something? Maybe that's why that symbol is still
a pharmaceutical symbol today...

Recently, the Lord solved some personal problems in my life by exposing the
weaknesses that caused it, and He drove home the point that exposing the
Devil's tactic, or the sin he was using as an inroad into our life, was a key to find
the solution to the problem.
There is also great power in addressing demons and other evils by name, as we
find out from the Gospels and the Book of Acts, where we find Jesus and the
apostles demanding from demons to tell them their names.
The Lord repeatedly was referring to exposing the Enemy's scheme, saying
"you've got his number," & that was a secret to getting the victory over the
particular battle in our lives.

Back to Moses' snake: the snake stands for sin, evil, and the Devil himself; so
how could anyone obtain healing by looking at a snake symbol? Well, my guess
is, by remembering who's behind it all, making him responsible for it, and
remembering that God is much greater than he, & can handle anything the Devil
tries to pull on us.
One of the great advantages of the Devil is camouflage, to work under "shady
cloaks of lies," as one of my songs will tell you, and he doesn't like it at all to be
exposed! (The same applies, by the way, to his earthly followers, whose secret of
success has been their secrecy).
So, pulling away the cloak & calling the problem, the sin, the evil by name, is an
important first step of healing: one of the few requirements of finding Salvation is
to know we're sinners & need a Savior. Even so, in order to be healed of either
physical or spiritual diseases, we need to realize we're sick and need a doctor.
That's why Jesus said, "the healthy don't need a doctor, only the sick. I have
come to call sinners to repentance." In reality, there are only sick people, or
those who need spiritual healing, but there are those who think they don't need it.
In fact, since modern man thinks he's more clever , more "developed" and
sophisticated than ever, it's even harder for him to see his need for healing or
Salvation - at least this applies to those who fall for the facade.
Others can look beyond it & call the problems by names, and these are the
spiritually healthy people I've met.

The first step in order to get healed of any disease is to receive a diagnose from
a doctor. Once you know what you've got, there are chances you can be healed.
And that's the way it is important to find the cause for our other problems as well.
The difficulty nowadays is, many of the sources of our problems are so well
hidden, it's hard to find out what's causing them. First of all, the Devil has
managed to trick many people into believing that he doesn't even exist (which
someone has attributed to be one of his greatest feats), and accordingly, there
are no such things as demons or spiritual sources of problems or evil in the
world.
Well, my personal interpretation of Moses' snake on the pole is this: the message
is, "Remember the culprit!" Evil didn't come into this world by itself, not by
chance, as the Bible says, " As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying,
so the curse causeless shall not come" (Prov. 26:2).

Some time ago, I found out on the Internet that there is such a thing as a first and
second "Book of Adam & Eve." Out of curiosity (because who wouldn't want to
know more about Adam & Eve?), I read them. I can't say whether they're
authentic, but personally, I'd say they're just as authentic as "The Book Of
Enoch," which evidently was still considered holy scripture during the first
centuries, since we find it quoted by Jude (see Jude 14,15), and I'd say there is a
possibility that they were written by Enoch as well. Regardless of their origins,
though, these books show to what lengths the Devil goes in order to deceive the
children of men! He comes up with all kinds of schemes, disguises and deceits to
fool poor Adam, and the first steps toward improvement finally take place once
Adam realizes who's behind all the weird things that happen to him.
Now, I'm not one in favor of given the Devil overdue credit. But I know that if
there's something bad happening in your life, then there's a cause and a reason
for it. So, in order to find a solution, it sure helps to find the cause, otherwise you
may just temporarily cure the symptoms, but keep running into the same
problems over & over.
In the "Books Of Adam & Eve" it was the Lord Himself Who revealed to Adam
who was behind his troubles, and I found out that He is willing to do the same for
any of us today.
If you've got some trouble or something bad in your life, ask God to show you
both, the cause and the solution, and He will. You'll get smarter by the day once
you know how the Enemy of your soul operates in order to fool you, and before
you know it, you won't fall into the same traps & won't be making those same
mistakes again!

I thought I was finished, but there's more. One of the main type of problems we
are having to tackle on a daily basis, are the problems we're having with others:
from the person closest to us, our spouse or children, who can annoy us with any
silly but innocent quirk or remark, the neighbors, the other drivers on the streets
to the declared enemies of our nations, whoever it happens to be that our
government is siding against.
If we just accept our anger, our hatred, our aggressions as "part of ourselves,"
then there's probably not much hope we'll ever find an end to our bickerings,
quarrels, fights, arguments and wars. But could it be that those aggressions are
instigated & artificially hyped up by a third party who would greatly profit from that
disunity with our loved ones, or - on a political level - that war with our enemies?
You bet!
"Divide & conquer" has always been the Devil's own slogan, and until you realize
that your aggressiveness and anger are the problem, and not that particular quirk
that's getting you so upset, you'll be caught in a perpetual treadmill. I've learned
something very valuable today, from something I read in one of our Family's
publications, and that is that you can choose not to be bothered by it!
You can choose to fight the real culprits, namely either the demonic forces who
are blowing your fellowmen's flaws up way out of proportion in your view, or the
hidden human forces who are arming both sides of your governments wars to the
teeth, highly profiting from your confrontation, as they have for centuries!
You can choose to say, "no, I'm not going to allow this to get me angry!" You can
choose to believe in the fact instead, that God knew what He was doing when he
made that other person (or culture) you can't seem to get along with, and praise
and thank Him for their positive qualities!
What it all boils down to again is love, the most important thing & only thing that
matters. Part of that love is forgiveness, which I've lately come to realize as
something far more important than I previously thought, and that's where Jesus
on the cross comes in again: What does Jesus on the cross stand for in one
word? Forgiveness! Look at the cross and know you're forgiven, unconditionally.
The price for your sins has been paid if you will only accept this gift.
And then remember that this same gift of forgiveness applies to your neighbor -
or whoever you have a quarrel with, too.
Look at the serpent on the pole in order to remember there's a culprit: the very
sin in your own heart, which the Enemy of your soul will work hard to make fester
and flourish, like weeds in your garden or a malignant tumor.
Then look at Jesus on the cross and see the solution: salvation, healing and
forgiveness for both, yourself and anyone else who will receive it.