Bronze Serpent

Num 21:9-23         12/5/2017

On the journey around Edom, the Israelites complained against God and Moses. God sent serpents which struck at the people, killing many of the Israelites. The Israelites repented and asked Moses to intercede. At God’s direction, Moses made a bronze serpent and mounted it to a pole. Upon being bitten, anyone who looked at it was healed.

So what’s going on here? You get bit by a serpent and then look at a staff with a bronze serpent attached to it and you become healed? What’s the connection between looking and healing? How does that work?

Miracles. We say some “thing” can’t be explained in any other way, therefore it’s a miracle; as though it’s about the mechanism of causality that’s at issue.

But is that really the essence of the miraculous?

Isn’t the miraculous found in a moment of utter contingency (contingency: circumstances could be different from what they are) that is deliberately shaped by the divine will of God? And this, without regard to the way it happens?

Right – that’s harder to measure.

But when we say that the miraculous is miraculous because it can’t be causally explained, aren’t we behaving like convinced material-determinist who are hoping against hope that we’re wrong. John Crosby once said, “It’s the air we breathe.” He was right. It’s hard work to think in other terms.

Yet, I’m pretty sure the definition of a heuristic that causes mental bias is when a person unwittingly substitutes a complex question with a simpler question. So let’s see:

I can’t explain it, therefore it’s miraculous. OR

All things work together for good…

Hmmm; Bias Alert.

The kind of healing that takes place as a result of looking at a figure hung to a piece of wood is a healing that’s takes place within – first. It is a matter of faith.

And, when it’s all boiled down, faith for a Christian is treating God like a person – treating Jesus like the person He is. Believing that God is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. That is the healing. That is the miracle – as irreducible as it may be.

But at least now we know what to do. Look to the one who was lifted up in order to be saved.

“Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen”  Heb 11:1