The Ultimate Healer

Welcome to this edition of Our Daily Bread. I hope you find today's reading encouraging. It was written by Jennifer Benson Schult, and she titled it The Ultimate Healer. When a medical treatment began to provide relief for a family member's severe food allergies, I became so excited that I talked about it all the time. I described the intense process and extolled the doctor who had created the program. Finally, some friends commented, We think God should always get the credit for healing.

Their statement made me pause. Had I taken my eyes off the ultimate healer and made the healing into an idol? The nation of Israel fell into a similar trap when they began to burn incense to a bronze snake, which God had used to heal them. They'd been performing this act of worship until Hezekiah identified it as idolatry and broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made. Several centuries earlier, a group of venomous snakes had invaded the Israelite camp.

The snakes bit the people and many died. Although spiritual rebellion had caused the problem, the people cried out to God for help. Showing mercy, He directed Moses to sculpt a bronze snake, fasten it to a pole and hold it up for everyone to see. When the people looked at it, they were healed.

Think of God's gifts to you. Have any of them become objects of praise instead of evidence of His mercy and grace? Only our holy God, the source of every good gift, is worthy of worship. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Numbers chapter 21 verses 4 through 9 and 2 Kings chapter 18 verses 4 through 7. They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea to go around Edom.

But the people grew impatient on the way. They spoke against God and against Moses and said, Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread.

There is no water. And we detest this miserable food. Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them. They bit the people and many Israelites died. 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. 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, they lived. Now I'll read 2 Kings chapter 18 verses 4 through 7. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones, and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made. For up to that time, the Israelites had been burning incense to it.

It was called Nehushtan. Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him. He held fast to the Lord and did not stop following him. He kept the commands the Lord had given Moses. And the Lord was with him. He was successful in whatever he undertook.

He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. Let's pray. Dear God, you are the true source of every good gift. Help us recognize that you alone are the source of good. And may we give you the honor and glory and praise. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.