God’s Practicality

The Tale of the Bronze Serpent

This particular episode in Numbers is a fascinating one, I think, especially considering this incident with the snake statue is cited by Jesus himself immediately before the most famous verse in all of Scripture, John 3:16. So the question becomes: what’s with the snake idol? And why did God choose that as the thing to bring healing?

The funny thing is that the snake as a form, I think is only to remind the people of what caused this issue. The actual healing is the cool part of this. It seems at first blush like some weird voodoo magic thing. But — as I love to highlight — our God is super practical.

Turns out that when a snake bites you (depending of course on how much venom was injected) your body will try to fight off the venom by itself, but typically people will freak out, which raises their heart rate. Not good. And the temptation might also be to try and get somewhere or do something, which also would bring the heart rate up. Also not good. So what does our practical God do?

He tells the people to look upon (רָאָה) the snake. This word means to gaze upon, to consider, to ponder. This is God having the people stop, focus, slow their circulation rate and let their bodies work to heal the poison. Now it’s certainly possible that God also provided some miraculous intervention, and while I do not discount this, I also don’t think it’s necessary.

I think this is a good reminder of what an amazingly practical God we serve, and how he has designed us from the beginning with thoughtfulness, foresight, and care.

Numbers 19-21 | 064/365

The Original Mold Remediator

A lot of what we read in Leviticus can seem bizarre and foreign to us. Which is not surprising since we are separated from those people and their circumstances not only by thousands of miles, but also thousands of years! The way we look at… everything… is so different. The way we look at family, at neighbours, at men, women, and children. How we look at work, religion, and even the difference in our quality and ease of living are so different that it can be tough to genuinely attempt to place ourselves in the shoes of an ancient near eastern Israelite.

But even in spite of some things needing a decent amount of contextualization and translation, others come shining through. The first part of today’s passage is a prime example of just that.

The priests are given instructions on what to do if they find mold or mildew on the wall of a house!

1) Clear everyone out. 2) Examine and quarantine. 3) Examine and clear OR… 4) Remove the mold and scrape down all the walls. 5) Examine and clear OR… 6) Tear down the house because it is beyond help.

God doesn’t want His people to be sick! Maybe you find this mundane, but I find it amazing. And if people in the “Dark Ages” had access to a Bible they would have known to take their… uh… waste… and bury it outside the city instead of throwing it out the window into the street. Europe might have avoided the bubonic plague.

Anyway! Be well today! God loves you.

Feb 21 | Lev 14:33-16:34 | 052/365