Paul gathered some sticks and put them on the fire. A poisonous snake was driven out by the heat. It fastened itself on Paul’s hand.The people of the island saw the snake hanging from his hand. They said to one another,“ This man must be a murderer. He escaped from the sea. But the female god Justice won’t let him live.”Paul shook the snake off into the fire. He was not harmed.The people expected him to swell up. They thought he would suddenly fall dead. They waited for a long time. But they didn’t see anything unusual happen to him. So they changed their minds. They said he was a god.
Here is a prophecy the Lord gave me about the animals in the Negev Desert. Judah’s messengers carry their riches on the backs of donkeys. They carry their treasures on the humps of camels. They travel through a land of danger and suffering. It’s a land filled with lions. Poisonous snakes are also there. The messengers travel to a nation that can’t do them any good.
“ Their throats are like open graves. With their tongues they tell lies.”( Psalm 5:9)“ The words from their lips are like the poison of a snake.”( Psalm 140:3)
John saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing. He said to them,“ You are like a nest of poisonous snakes! Who warned you to escape the coming of God’s anger?
I will send them hunger. It will make them weak. I will send terrible sickness. I will send deadly plagues. I will send wild animals that will tear them apart. Snakes that glide through the dust will bite them.
