day no. 17,004: sons of serpents

“The serpent, in the person of Christ, was impaled on the tree. The wrath of God against all of our vindictive and irrational hatreds was poured over His head and shoulders, and He took all of it to Himself, and then died. He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf. And why? So that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). The moment He died, His arms were free and so He gathered up all the sin that had been poured over them, took it to His chest, and sank into the grave. And when He rose, three days later, all the sin was gone.” — Douglas Wilson, Anxiety Storms and the Empathy Wars

God turned the Son into a snake so that He could turn the snakes into sons. 

2 Corinthians 5:21
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

The sons of serpents are saved because the Son of God was stuck to a tree.

John 3:15

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.

The Son of Man was lifted up like a snake on a cross outside the city just like Moses lifted up a snake on a stick in the wilderness.

Numbers 21:8-9

And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Those with snake venom coursing through their veins could only be saved by staring at the serpent on the stick. They had to stare their sin in the face. By casting their eyes upon the pierced serpent its venom was counteracted. The only antidote was on that pole. Look anywhere else and the venom would stop your heart. The only anti-venom was doing what God had said.

Genesis 3:15

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

By God's grace, the Seed of Eve and the seed of the serpent were set against one another. The Seed of Eve would be bit, but only as a result of stomping on the serpent's skull. The Son of God would break fangs and take names.

2 Kings 18:4

He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.

We do not worship the Cross, we worship the man who hung there. We do not cherish the tree, but the blood that was spilled there. Hezekiah had to destroy the snake of Moses because the people turned their backs on the substance and began to stare at the shadow. 

Isaiah 45:22

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth:

for I am God, and there is none else.