Welcome to this edition of Our Daily Bread. I hope you find today's reading encouraging. It was written by Jennifer Benson Schultz, and she titled it, The Ultimate Healer.

When a medical treatment began to provide relief for a family member's severe food allergies,

I became so excited that I talked about it all the time.

I described the intense process and extolled the doctor who had created the program.

Finally, some friends commented,

We think God should always get the credit for healing. Their statement

made me pause. Had I taken my eyes off the ultimate healer and made the healing into an idol?

The nation of Israel fell into a similar trap when they began to burn incense to a bronze snake,

which God had used to heal them.

They had been performing this act of worship until Hezekiah identified it as idolatry and broke

into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made. Several centuries earlier, a group of venomous snakes

had invaded the Israelite camp. The snakes

bit the people, and many died. Although spiritual rebellion had caused the problem, the people

cried out to God for help. Showing mercy, he directed Moses to sculpt a bronze snake, fasten it to a pole, and hold it up for everyone

to see. When the people looked at it, they were healed. Think of God's gifts to you. Have any of them

become objects of praise instead of evidence of His mercy and grace.

Only our Holy God, the source of every good gift, is worthy of worship.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Numbers chapter 21, verses 4 through 9,

and 2nd Kings chapter 18, verses 4 through 7.

They traveled from Mount Horr along the route to the Red Sea to go around Edom.

But the people grew impatient on the way.

They spoke against God and against Moses, and said, why have you brought us up out of Egypt to

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