September 14, 2026

4The Bronze Serpent. From Mount Hor they set out by way of the Red Sea, to bypass the land of Edom, but the people’s patience was worn out by the journey; 5so the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” 6So the LORD sent among the people seraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of the Israelites died. 7Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray to the LORD to take the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people, 8and the LORD said to Moses: Make a seraph and mount it on a pole, and everyone who has been bitten will look at it and recover. 9Accordingly Moses made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever the serpent bit someone, the person looked at the bronze serpent and recovered.

1Psalm 78 A New Beginning in Zion and David - A maskil of Asaph. I - Attend, my people, to my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. 2I will open my mouth in a parable, unfold the puzzling events of the past. 34When he slew them, they began to seek him; they again looked for God. 35They remembered that God was their rock, God Most High, their redeemer. 36But they deceived him with their mouths, lied to him with their tongues. 37Their hearts were not constant toward him; they were not faithful to his covenant. 38But God being compassionate forgave their sin; he did not utterly destroy them. Time and again he turned back his anger, unwilling to unleash all his rage.

6Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. 7Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, 8he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. 9Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Obedience and Service in the World.

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13No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” 16For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.