In this weeks passage, Jesus seeks to explain what it means to be "born again."  He references the Old Testament story in Numbers 21:4-9.  In this passage, the Israelites continue through the desert and once again begin to grumble and question God's provision. "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!" The Lord sends poisonous snakes among them.  The snakes bit them and many people died.  When the Israelites humbled themselves and recognized their sin they asked Moses to pray that the Lord would take the snakes away.  Instead, God told Moses to make a bronze snake and put it up on a pole.  Anyone who was bitten was to look at the snake and they would live. Keep this story in mind as you read through the following passage.  Take some time to consider and even question the connection between the two.

John 3:11-17

I assure you, I am telling you what we know and have seen, and yet you won't believe us. But if you don't even believe me when I tell you about things that happen here on earth, how can you possibly believe if I tell you what is going on in heaven? For only I, the Son of Man, have come to earth and will return to heaven again. And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so I, the Son of Man, must be lifted up on a pole, so that everyone who believes in me will have eternal life. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.

For Your Reflection:
• What did you hear as you listened to the text being read? What stands out to you?
• Can you identify the “snakes that have bit you”?
• Reflect on sources for healing. What can you testify to that you know and have seen?
• Journal your prayer that flows out of meditating and contemplating this passage.