Sheep and Snakes

I recall back in elementary school I visited a girlfriend who had moved a distance away where she could have a horse, along with several other farm animals. After giving her horse a carrot, we ventured to the other side of the house and saw a rattlesnake. As we peered closer, he rose up in striking position. We stopped and stared. My immediate thought was to ‘get a picture of the rattlesnake’. Dumb idea, right?

I ran back into the house and got my Brownie camera and came back. The snake had not changed position. I leaned closer to it, probably less than 3 feet away from him and snapped a picture. The snake never moved fortunately because I learned later that he could have easily jumped twelve feet. What did I learn from that experience? Don’t do that again!

I thought of that experience recently when I read something interesting about poisonous snake venom and sheep. The fascinating thing farmers and others have found is that a rattlesnake bite to a sheep or lamb is not deadly. They will swell up for several days, but it won’t kill them. Why?

Here’s the fascinating thing: the blood of a lamb will actually destroy the venom of the sheep. Sheep are used as donor animals to produce life-saving antivenom by creating antibodies that neutralize snake venom.

I immediately thought of many scriptures about the blood of Jesus, especially Ephesians 1:7 that says, “in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.”

You and I are forgiven and cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Just as the sheep’s antivenom helps counter death for those bitten by a poisonous snake, so does Jesus’s blood deliver us from death into His eternal life. Let’s not forget the power of the blood.