Arden's Garden

I just wanted to write a quick post today about something I just realized, while watching Season 1 Episode 7 of "The Chosen", and it blew my mind.  When I was a teenager, I was really into Greek and Roman mythology, so I learned about the "Rod of Asclepius". Asclepius was the Greek god of medicine and healing, and his symbol was a snake on a pole.  This is the symbol seen on ambulances and at hospitals, and it is still a symbol of healing and medicine.  However, I just realized that it must have originated from the bronze snake that Moses put up on a pole in Number 21, when snakes went throughout the Israelite camp. Many people died from snake bites, until God instructed Moses to make a bronze snake and put it up on a pole for everyone to see. Then, anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed.  I can't believe it's taken me this long to figure it out. This revelation carries so much weight for me, since I'm going to star...

Here is that passage of the Bible:           Some time later, God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”      “Here I am,” he replied.      Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love - Isaac - and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”      Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.       On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.       He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”      Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the...

Here is that passage of the Bible, which occurred right after Jesus rose on the third day:      Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.      He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”      They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”      What things?” he asked.      “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they cru...