Dr. Freitos was a professor of Immunology at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. His father was a specialist on snakes and worked at the Butantan Institute in the same city. Here they made a serum for poisonous snake bites from the two thousand different snakes under study.
There are two snakes in Brazil that look almost identical. They are both called coral snakes. But to an experienced teacher like Dr. Freitos, who had studied snakes all his life, telling the difference was fairly easy. One is the real coral snake and it is very poisonous. The other is called the false coral snake. It looks just like the real coral snake, but its fangs are pointed so far back in its mouth that it cannot bite its prey. Occasionally, however, there is an exception to the rule, and one in a thousand false coral snakes will be able to inflict a fatal bite.
It was the “Carnival Holiday” time in the Sao Paulo area, and Dr, Freitos was spending the morning on the beach by himself. This beach was close to Santos, a large seaport of Sao Paulo and also near his home. On the beach near some trees he found a false coral snake. He examined it carefully. Yes, it was a false one all right. It was almost noon, and he was on his way to buy something to eat when he found the snake. A discarded bottle was lying nearby, so Dr. Freitos slipped the snake into the bottle and hurried on his way, taking the snake with him. At the sandwich counter some friends saw the snake in the bottle and began asking questions about it. Dr. Freitos took it out of the bottle and began to give a “classroom lecture” about the false coral snake and its characteristics. He showed them how to tell its age and other things of interest.
Suddenly, the snake whipped around and bit him on the arm! It hurt badly and the skin started to turn red. With a fearful feeling Dr. Freitos realized that this false coral was the “one in a thousand"— the one that could make its fangs’ penetrate! And the bite from those fangs meant death...unless the one bitten could get an antivenin injection.
There is a story in the Old Testament in the Bible where God sent poisonous snakes into the camp of Israel to punish them for their evil ways. All those who were bitten died. Only one thing would keep them from dying; they had to look at a brass replica of a snake that their leader Moses had made and hung up on a pole in the middle of the camp. God had instructed Moses to do this.
Each one of us has been bitten by the poisonous snake of sin which will cause death, unless we look to the Lord Jesus Christ. It was He who hung on the cross and died in our place to take away our sin, if we believe in Him. The Lord Jesus said in John 3:1414And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: (John 3:14) and 15, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man (the Lord Jesus Christ) be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
Dr. Freitos went quickly to his home, which was 400 yards or so across the beach. His wife was at home, and he called for her to come help him. He knew that he had to inject the antivenin serum quickly to stop the effect of the snake bite.
He remembered that he had two vials of serum in his home, but neither of these was for the coral’s bite. However, he was beginning to get dizzy and knew that even the wrong serum would help a little until he could get to a hospital. His wife was very nervous, but she managed to inject one of the vials. Still, they needed help, so together they hurried to their car to go to the hospital in Santos.
But now a new problem faced them—the carnival. Everybody was out in their cars wanting to go to the main downtown beach. To get there all the cars had to go over a one-lane bridge. This required cars going in opposite directions to take turns with one car at a time crossing the bridge. The Freitos had to wait their turn and so were delayed in this huge traffic jam.
There is only one bridge to heaven, and that is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. How Satan tries to bring a traffic jam into our lives to stop us from crossing this “bridge"!
Time was getting shorter, but Mrs. Freitos was doing everything she could do to get her sick husband to the place where help was available. When they finally reached the hospital, Dr. Freitos, who by this time was not able to think at all, passed into unconsciousness. At the hospital they were given more bad news— “no serum in Santos!” He would have to be taken by helicopter to the main hospital in Sao Paulo.
Up they went in the helicopter toward the coastal range of mountains that separated them from the mainland. Only 15 minutes to the hospital, serum would be waiting, and all would be well. But as the helicopter approached the mountains a thick fog had settled in, and the pilot had to turn back—back to the place where there was no serum available—away from the only place where Dr. Freitos’s life could be saved.
And so after almost two hours with Mrs. Freitos doing everything she could to save her husband’s life, the poison from the bite of the false coral snake did its evil work and claimed the life of Dr. Freitos.
Do not forget, each of you who have read this story, that the bite of sin is also a deadly poison. Wouldn’t it be sad to spend all your energy trying to cure yourself only to find that you did not go to the only Source that has the “antidote” for sin? The Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, gave Himself for our sins that we might have eternal life.
ML-01/16/1983