“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)
Here they were, the children of God, saved from the Egyptians, delivered by way of the Red Sea miracle, on their way to the Promised Land and they encounter a land of snakes. And not just king snakes or black snakes, these were poisonous snakes! What the what? “God, what are You doing?”
What do you do when you are in the way the Lord is leading you and bad things happen? Whom do you turn to? Whom do you blame? What do you do?
I’ll tell you what I’ve always done – RUN! Run back to my old ways. Go back to the familiar. Rebuke the devil and confess that I must have missed it somewhere. This is, obviously, not the way God would lead me! Then I would start to assign blame everywhere else – the President, my manager, my co-workers, my wife, my neighbors. Anybody and everybody. My wife used to say I had an excuse for everything and, looking back, perhaps she was right.
To say I fully understand the spiritual meaning behind what God commanded Moses to do in this verse, I would be lying. I know through time the symbol of the two intertwined snakes swallowing each other has become a symbol of the medical profession. Snakes were considered sacred in many ancient civilizations, but we associate the snake with Satan, that old Serpent. He is evil; therefore, snakes are evil. I can’t say.
The only thing I will say is God commanded Moses to make a brazen serpent and erect it high on a pole that all may see it and live. Those who looked upon that serpent were granted healing and life. Those who didn’t – died.
I guess it all comes back to obedience. God was testing the Israelites all through their desert wanderings to see if they would obey Him or not. This was another example of one of His tests. It makes no logical sense when you think about it. Why would I, in my moment of suffering, want to look at an image of the very thing that brought me this pain? That is similar to an abused child loving their abuser, right? The child begins to associate love with the abuse! That can’t be God perverting our love that way. There must be something deeper.
Rather than philosophize about it, let’s just leave it that God commanded Moses to make the serpent, erect it high above the people, and command them to look upon it and live. Check. The people, on the other hand, were to somehow manage their writhing in pain and suffering, turn, and look upon the brazen serpent to obtain their healing. In this instance the Bible is silent about how many perished, but we know many did. This was just another weeding out of those who refused to obey even the simplest of commands. All they had to do was turn and behold the serpent and God would grant them healing.
I think of the commander of the armies who came to Elisha for healing from leprosy. Elisha told him to go dip in the Jordan River seven times and he would be healed. How silly! What was special about the Jordan River? And why seven times? Like the commander, I ask all these questions and doubt the veracity of the command. Yet it was only when he obeyed the simplest of commands that he truly was healed!
Perhaps God is telling you to do something that appears foolish to defeat a situation you are up against. What you sense He is telling you is absolutely absurd! In all your attempts to understand it, it just doesn’t make any sense! Yet, your healing, your deliverance, your salvation lies in the obedience – not your excuses. I once heard a quote that said something like, “He who argues for his weakness, gets to keep it.” How silly!
That is my challenge to you today. Listen for the guidance of God’s voice. Confirm it in your spirit. Then do it. It’s that easy. And it’s that difficult.
Be blessed.
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