As a Country, We Worship the Bronze Snake

 ⁸ The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” ⁹ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. 

Numbers 21:8

Was this snake magic? Something that Israel needed to survive in a crazy world? Reality states that the snake came upon them because they didn't trust God:

 
  They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea,^[c] to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; ⁵ they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”
⁶ Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. ⁷ The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

Numbers 21:4-6

Later, the Snake was destroyed. 

In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. ² He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Abijah^[a] daughter of Zechariah. ³ He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. ⁴ He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.^[b])

2 Kings 18


The snake was never meant to be worshiped (they were burning incense to it). Or depended on as a healer. Reality is the God is the healer. The snake never had power, it like anything in this world, is subject to the power of God.  The function of the snake was to force the people of Israel to do what God told them to do, act on Him and trust Him. The weird thing is why were there snakes in the first place. Get sick, and I think you will know the answer. 

Sickness and pain is part of the curse. But for me, it is a constant reminder that we are mere mortals that are destined to a better world. Pain reminds me that I should not be happy with this current body, sickness reminds me that my strength comes from God. 

Sometimes I think I'm a little too attached to this life. Death should be bittersweet. To leave people behind that we love is bitter, to move on to eternity is sweet. Sometimes when people die, it has the same effect as when people quit a really fun game mid-game (hey, you were winning, you can't just put your pieces in the box and go home!). But we should harbor no hard feelings against them when they are moving on to where they need to be, and we should fill the vacuum and continue on till it is are time to leave too. Perhaps asking someone in the room to play for us, and they continue on. 

The other side of this story is fear. God's children were fearful. Fearful that God wouldn't take care of them,

“Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

Wen you think things are bad, they could always be worse. But whether you are in good times, or bad times, we should never have a spirit of fear. Our only fear should be of God (perhaps we lack that), and trust should replace fear of all other things. 
 
 Now you may be asking, what are we worshiping as a bronze snake? The answer lies in the image below:

We worship medicine. We worship our medical insurance companies. We fear sickness, we fear death, we fear going bankrupt. I'm not sure why, but we do, we all do apparently. We fear it for ourselves, along with every other person in our country. Why do you think Obamacare was passed. If we didn't think it was an issue, then we would never had thought to pass legislation on it. But here we are, we were so fearful of everything to do with the medical industry that we willingly gave it over to the hands of the Federal Government. I think we treat the Federal Government like God. We fear it, but we worship it too, by giving it power and giving it our money, and control of our lives, control of our children education, control of our safety.


We are eating the meal we prepared for ourselves. It will be bitter and turn to dust in our mouths. I would like to think that God will laugh when we try to swallow it. But I think that is what I would do, He will watch in sorrow. After all, we have free will, and He won't intervene in our own stupidity. 

There's a lot more I could say, but I think I will save it for another blog. Right now I just want to state that regardless of the mayhem this country may face in the future, I refuse to be subject to a spirit of fear. If I can't afford healthcare insurance because of this legislation, so be it. I will do without, and trust God to take care of me (after all, it wasn't till post WWII that healthcare insurance existed, and all the people before that survived, or did they). I will pay for what I can if I get sick, and if I can't afford it, then I will simply die. If you don't want me to die, then perhaps others will help out. Like the Amish do. And if I'm not worth, I will just decrease the surplus population. Put in my game pieces, and move on to glory. Cuz if you think about it, that's were we should want to be anyways.

New International Version (NIV)

The Helper of Israel

41 “Be silent before me, you islands!
    Let the nations renew their strength!
Let them come forward and speak;
    let us meet together at the place of judgment.

² “Who has stirred up one from the east,
    calling him in righteousness to his service^[a]?
He hands nations over to him
    and subdues kings before him.
He turns them to dust with his sword,
    to windblown chaff with his bow.
³ He pursues them and moves on unscathed,
    by a path his feet have not traveled before.
⁴ Who has done this and carried it through,
    calling forth the generations from the beginning?
I, the Lord—with the first of them
    and with the last—I am he.”

⁵ The islands have seen it and fear;
    the ends of the earth tremble.
They approach and come forward;
⁶     they help each other
    and say to their companions, “Be strong!”
⁷ The metalworker encourages the goldsmith,
    and the one who smooths with the hammer
    spurs on the one who strikes the anvil.
One says of the welding, “It is good.”
    The other nails down the idol so it will not topple.

⁸ “But you, Israel, my servant,
    Jacob, whom I have chosen,
    you descendants of Abraham my friend,
⁹ I took you from the ends of the earth,
    from its farthest corners I called you.
I said, ‘You are my servant’;
    I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
¹⁰ So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

¹¹ “All who rage against you
    will surely be ashamed and disgraced;
those who oppose you
    will be as nothing and perish.
¹² Though you search for your enemies,
    you will not find them.
Those who wage war against you
    will be as nothing at all.
¹³ For I am the Lord your God
    who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear;
    I will help you.
¹⁴ Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob,
    little Israel, do not fear,
for I myself will help you,” declares the Lord,
    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵ “See, I will make you into a threshing sledge,
    new and sharp, with many teeth.
You will thresh the mountains and crush them,
    and reduce the hills to chaff.
¹⁶ You will winnow them, the wind will pick them up,
    and a gale will blow them away.
But you will rejoice in the Lord
    and glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷ “The poor and needy search for water,
    but there is none;
    their tongues are parched with thirst.
But I the Lord will answer them;
    I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
¹⁸ I will make rivers flow on barren heights,
    and springs within the valleys.
I will turn the desert into pools of water,
    and the parched ground into springs.
¹⁹ I will put in the desert
    the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive.
I will set junipers in the wasteland,
    the fir and the cypress together,
²⁰ so that people may see and know,
    may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
    that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹ “Present your case,” says the Lord.
    “Set forth your arguments,” says Jacob’s King.
²² “Tell us, you idols,
    what is going to happen.
Tell us what the former things were,
    so that we may consider them
    and know their final outcome.
Or declare to us the things to come,
²³     tell us what the future holds,
    so we may know that you are gods.
Do something, whether good or bad,
    so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear.
²⁴ But you are less than nothing
    and your works are utterly worthless;
    whoever chooses you is detestable.

²⁵ “I have stirred up one from the north, and he comes—
    one from the rising sun who calls on my name.
He treads on rulers as if they were mortar,
    as if he were a potter treading the clay.
²⁶ Who told of this from the beginning, so we could know,
    or beforehand, so we could say, ‘He was right’?
No one told of this,
    no one foretold it,
    no one heard any words from you.
²⁷ I was the first to tell Zion, ‘Look, here they are!’
    I gave to Jerusalem a messenger of good news.
²⁸ I look but there is no one—
    no one among the gods to give counsel,
    no one to give answer when I ask them.
²⁹ See, they are all false!
    Their deeds amount to nothing;
    their images are but wind and confusion.