The Healing Power of the Cross (Part One)

If you've ever been to a hospital or flipped through a phone book to look up a physician, you've likely seen the image of a serpent coiled around a staff. The emblem is called the Rod of Asclepius. Most medical associations around the world, including the World Health Organization, use it as a traditional symbol of medicine.

According to Homer's Iliad, Asclepius was a skilled physician who practiced in Greece around 1200 B.C. His skills were legendary, and eventually he came to be worshipped as the Greek god of healing. Medical schools developed, which were usually connected to temples or shrines called Asclepions. The Asclepions became very important in Greek society. Patients believed they could be cured by sleeping in them. The sick would visit, offer gifts and sacrifices to the god Asclepius, and be treated by physician-priests (called the Asclepiadae) who claimed to have the power to heal. Hippocrates, the physician-priest responsible for the Hippocratic Oath, was the most renowned Asclepiad.

The Rod of Asclepius represents healing power. But why was this Greek god paired with this odd symbol? What do a snake and stick have to do with healing? The answers date back to a biblical event that took place in Mesopotamia in about 2600 B.C.
(Stop and read Numbers 21:4-9)
Looking up at the bronze serpent-on-a-pole spared the lives of the Israelites who were stricken by venomous snake bites during their journey to the promised land. This act symbolized looking upward in faith to God, but eventually the meaning was forgotten and the pole itself became an object of worship. Worshiping a coiled serpent on a pole was adopted as a common pagan practice. The Greeks ascribed this symbol to their god of healing, Asclepion, and the modern medical world has retained it to this day.

During a time of spiritual reformation, Hezekiah destroyed Moses' mounted bronze serpent (2 Kings 18:4). Hezekiah wanted the people to realize the healing power didn't come from the image but rather from the Lord. He is the healer. The serpent-on-a-pole was merely an object lesson to illustrate and foreshadow the tremendous power of God, which would be centered in the cross of Christ.

Tomorrow we will look more into the healing power of the cross of Jesus Christ

(Devotion from Mary Kassian, Knowing God by Name)