God through Moses set the Israelite captives free from their oppressors, the Egyptians. True, the Israelites were enslaved by the Egyptian people and rulers. But Egypt also is a reference with slavery or sin. Sin enslaves. Not long after Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and brought them to the border of the Promised Land, the Israelites’ faith failed them because they believed the reports of spies about the enemy ahead. They believed that God could not overcome the enemies. Because of their unbelief, God sent them into the wilderness to wander around until that generation died.
In their discouragement, they started blaming Moses for leading them into the wilderness when it was their own sin that caused them to be there. As a judgement for their sin of blaming Moses, God sent poisonous serpents into the camp to bite them. The people began complaining to Moses about the serpents because many people were dying. Moses went to God to ask for mercy on his people. So God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole and if anyone was bitten by a poisonous serpent, if they looked at the bronze serpent, God would heal them.
At at recent daily Mass, the priest explained that the serpent represents four things.
1) Our own sin.
2) Sin of others
3) Sin pervasive in the Culture.
4) The Devil.
If the serpent generally represents bad things, why would God instruct Moses to make a bronze serpent for the people to look at to be healed, especially if the serpent is associated with sin and the devil? It seems to be an odd choice. The bronze serpent does not represent sin, but God chose it because it served to 1) remind the Israelites how they had sinned and got stuck in the wilderness in the first place, 2) out of His mercy God used this object to heal them even though they had continually sinned against hHm, 3) to show them He is God and He can heal in the most amazing and unusual ways to build their faith.
What serpents do we have in our own lives? Is it our sin that holds us back, the sins of those close to us, or those pervasive in the culture? Are you being harassed by the devil?
Like God released the Isralites from Egypt, we have been released from sin through the cross and resurrection of Christ, yet don’t we still have unbelief and complain? I know I do at times. We face temptations and trials just like the Israelites did. What will our response be? Will we respond in and with God’s grace, and with renewed faith in Him, or will we face trials with unbelief and complaining? Let me know your thoughts.
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