🐍 Shedding the Skin: Becoming Whole by Looking to Christ

There comes a time—sometimes in grief, sometimes in growth—when your old life no longer fits. A belief, a relationship, a fear, or an identity begins to tighten like a garment two sizes too small. You try to cling to it, but it scratches, suffocates, and ultimately splits at the seams.

This is the beginning of transformation.

And Isaiah gives us a vivid metaphor for this moment:

“Each time we complete a new cycle of descent before ascent, passing through the refiner’s fire, we peel off another layer, like a serpent shedding its skin.” — Isaiah Decoded pg. 80

To become like God isn’t just about acquiring more light. It's about letting go—of what once served you, protected you, or defined you, but now confines you. Like a serpent that grows beyond its old skin, we are invited to release what no longer matches our eternal nature.

🔁 Descent Before Ascent: The Fire Before the Fruit

Isaiah's ladder is not a straight climb. It’s a cycle.
You descend, surrender, get stripped down… and then ascend into something clearer, freer, and holier.

“Like a fruit whose outside hides its inner sweetness.”

This is the pattern of:

• Joseph in prison before the palace
• Christ in Gethsemane before resurrection
• You, in your current fire, before your unfolding

We often pray for “next-level light,” but avoid the layer-shedding that precedes it. Yet the serpent must rub against the stone to slough off the old. The fruit must be peeled to be tasted. And your soul must face its false layers to reveal the divine image underneath.

🐍 The Serpent Lifted Up: From Shame to Salvation

This brings us to another serpent—a strange one:

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.” — Numbers 21:8

The Israelites, poisoned by serpents, were commanded to look at a brass serpent lifted up on a pole to be healed.

At first glance, it seems absurd—why look at the image of the very thing that caused the pain?

But this was a prophetic symbol of Christ:

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” — John 3:14

Christ became the very thing we fear—sin, death, and shame—not to condemn us, but to heal us. He took on our false skins so we could shed them.

To look at Him is to face the truth—not just of our sin, but of our potential.

Face the Truth - The Moment of Truth

🕊️ Looking = Trusting = Shedding

Many Israelites refused to look at the brass serpent and perished. It wasn’t complicated—it was just humbling. Healing required a look of faith, not effort.

In the same way, each Isaiah level requires a new look:

• From Babylon (false beliefs) → look up to truth
• From Jacob (inner division) → look inward to wholeness
• From Zion (routine obedience) → look deeper to love
• From Servant (sacrificial path) → look outward to intercede

And each “look” is also a shedding:

• Shedding fear for faith
• Shedding pride for presence
• Shedding pain for peace

🌳 On Cutting Off Roots: This Generation’s Error

In today’s world, a growing number of young people cut off their parents or ancestral lines, not for survival or safety, but in protest of imperfection. Influenced by modern therapeutic culture, they often cast ordinary human failings as unforgivable sins. As Cloe Madanes, co-founder of strategic family therapy, has warned is essence: “The moment you demonize your parents, you condemn yourself to carry their unresolved pain.” (paraphrased)

Demonizing parents often perpetuates unresolved grief and fractures family connection.

Isaiah speaks directly to this spiritual amputation:

“God cuts them off root and branch: they can claim no ancestry, and they leave no posterity.” — Isaiah Decoded

This is more than poetic justice—it is spiritual law. When we reject our roots out of pride or judgment, we lose both belonging and blessing. Healing doesn't come from severing the line—it comes from redeeming it. Christ never cut off His lineage; He sanctified it. As we shed our old skins, we must also honor the soil we grew from, even as we grow beyond it.

✨ Personal Reflection: What Skin Are You Shedding?

Ask yourself:

• What belief used to serve me but now binds me?
• Where am I afraid to look?
• What shame am I avoiding that Christ already carried?

You’re not meant to stay in the old skin. And you’re not meant to heal alone. The serpent on the staff reminds us: looking leads to living.

🧭 Final Thought: The Shine Under the Skin

Isaiah’s pattern isn’t about becoming someone new—it’s about revealing who you've always been under the false layers.

“Becoming like God… consists not so much of adopting new ideas but of discarding old ones that narrow our view and make us prisoners of prejudice.” — Isaiah Decoded

Like the serpent, you grow when you shed. Like the Israelites, you heal when you look. Like Christ, you ascend when you descend in love.

And like the fruit, your sweetness is just beneath the surface.

So peel. Look. Live.