Posted by: "Bonny Dunn" bonnydunn@yahoo.com bonnydunn
Thu Apr 12, 2007 11:19 pm (PST)
I would like to suggest that instead of considering the brasen serpent
to be an image of idolatry you consider it as a symbol of salvation
given to the Israelites to uplift their faith, it was after all, erected
in response to an instruction given to Moses by God. Would God in fact
give an instruction so contradictory to the first commandment?
The Old Testament account of the Israelites' journey to the Promised
Land, was a journey in which daily trust in God was being re-discovered.
The Israelites had left a world of idolatry and were filled with doubt
about what their future held. They were continually being given signs
of God's presence, the parting of the red sea, the manna that fed
them, pillar of cloud and fire that lead them through the wilderness to
name just a few. Still, there was that lingering doubt that haunted
them.
If you take a look at the children of Israel's history it was a
history of perpetually needing signs and miracles as a source of proof.
One key verse in this synopsis of the brasen serpent in Numbers, is
verse number seven. The people came to Moses in a moment of
self-realisation, they recognised their error in `speaking against
God and Moses,' and begged Moses to pray for them. God's answer
to the prayer wasn't to take the fiery serpents away, but rather to
allow them to continue to be bitten but to have the choice of life by
looking upon the serpent Moses erected upon the pole.
I find it very interesting that in this same section of the Bible Lesson
is the passage from Science and Health (citation (13) 540:5) with
marginal heading "cleansing upheaval". Here Mrs. Eddy speaks of
moral chemicalisation, "stirring up the belief in error to the
utmost," "bringing it to the surface and reducing it to its
common denominator, nothingness"
with the Israelites, the fiery serpents tormenting them were all around
them on the ground, `stirring up their beliefs' in their
mortality. The brasen serpent Moses constructed was erected on a pole
thus causing the Israelites to have to look up and away from the lies
that were surrounding and tormenting them.
Citation 15 of the lesson sums up the sin illustrated in the brasen
serpent account. The sin I am sure we have all found ourselves guilty
of at one time or another is a `doubt of His government' and a
`distrust of His omnipotent care'. The fiery serpents are of
our own making when we become so wrapped up in the manmade human
inventions and leave God out of the picture. That one Mind which saved
the Israelites and provided for them is the same Mind which provides for
and governs us now. I think the brasen serpent erected by Moses can be
seen as meeting their needs where they were € ¦’¶ they were always
looking for signs so God gave them a sign that they could understand.
In the Apocryphal book of Wisdom of Solomon we find this reference to
the brasen serpent account: (Wisdom of Solomon 16:5-8) The New English
Bible Translation
5) Even when fierce and furious snakes attacked thy people and the bites
of the writhing serpents were spreading death, thy anger did not
continue to the bitter end; 6) their short trouble was sent them as a
lesson, and they were given a symbol of salvation to remind them of the
requirements of thy law. 7) For any man who turned towards it was
saved, not by the thing he looked upon but by thee, the saviour of all.
11) It was to remind them of thy utterances that they were bitten and
quickly recovered; 12) For it was neither herb nor poultice that cured
them, but thy all-healing word O Lord.
In section four of the lesson is the account of the individual
`possessed with a devil' who was healed by Jesus. The Pharisees
accused Jesus of casting out devils through `Beelzebub the prince of
devils'. Jesus counteracted that claim with his statement,
25)"every kingdom divided against itself is brought to
desolation" 26)And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against
himself; how then shall his kingdom stand?"
In the context of the brasen serpent, if that brasen serpent could cast
out the fiery serpents then we are talking of a kingdom divided against
itself as Jesus states. But if instead the brasen serpent represents a
`symbol of salvation' to `remind them of the requirements of
the law' (Wis. 16:6) then it is in fact a gleaning of the Spirit of
God which healed the Israelites, bringing them closer to recognising the
kingdom of God.
It's very interesting to note that Jesus, in his conversation with
Nicodemus in the 3rd chapter of John states this,
14) And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of man be lifted up: 15)That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life.
Jesus likened his crucifixion, his body upon cross, to that image of the
serpent upon the pole. Think about it, two symbols of death and evil,
the brasen serpent and the cross are in a moment converted into symbols
of so much more. The promise for the Israelites who looked upon the
brasen serpent, was "life" (Num 21:8). Eternal life is the
promise Jesus foretold through his crucifixion. (John 3:15) The mistake
made by some is in worshipping the symbol more than message. The
brasen serpent was not the complete message any more than Jesus on the
crucifix was the complete message. Both symbols offered life and both
symbols were associated with the need for the removal of sin;
`Symbols of salvation' to remind of `the requirements of thy
law'. (Wis:16:6) In a sense we can look at the symbol of the brasen
serpent as a foretelling of the crucifixion and the real message of
resurrection as stated in our religion's 5th tenet:
5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection
served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of
Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter.
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