4 From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” 6 Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze[c] serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
— Numbers 21:4-9, English Standard Version
Sunday Scripture: The Bronze Serpent
Recent Thoughts
Sunday Scripture: The Reading of the LawIn Sunday ScriptureNo Comments
The MAFF ain’t MAFFin’In PhilosophyNo Comments
Friday T&A: Mordor Day EditionIn fat girl jihadNo Comments
WE WUZ GREEKZ ‘N’ SHIET!!!In Office Space2 Comments- A proper HALOcinationIn Office Space2 Comments
- Sunday Scripture: The Greatest CommandmentIn Sunday Scripture1 Comment
Rumours of Russia’s death are greatly exaggeratedIn Politics1 Comment
If you enjoyed this article, please:
- Visit the Support page and check out the ways to support my work through purchases and affiliate links;
- Email me and connect directly;
- Share this article via social media;
1 Comment
The story of the bronze serpent is striking: when the people were bitten by serpents in the wilderness ( because of their own sins), God instructed Moses to raise up a serpent so that whoever looked upon it would live. Yet generations later, King Hezekiah destroyed that same bronze serpent because people had begun treating it as an object of devotion instead of turning their hearts toward God (2 Kings 18:4–5).
The lesson seems profound: even practices or symbols that once served a holy purpose can, over time, lose their proper place and need renewal or correction. Faithfulness to God sometimes requires the courage not only to preserve tradition, but also to reform it when it no longer leads people toward Him.
As the Psalms say: “It is time to act for the Lord — they have broken Your law” (Psalm 119:126).