The serpent rising: time to answer the call

From Mount Hor they set out by way of the Red Sea, to bypass the land of Edom, but the people’s patience was worn out by the journey; so the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!” 

So the Lord sent among the people seraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of the Israelites died. Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned in complaining against the Lord and you. Pray to the Lord to take the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people, and the Lord said to Moses: Make a seraph and mount it on a pole, and everyone who has been bitten will look at it and recover. Accordingly Moses made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever the serpent bit someone, the person looked at the bronze serpent and recovered. (Numbers 21:4-9)

It’s that time of the liturgical year again. The Exaltation of the Cross. The bronze serpent made by God which He used to heal—a scripture I never understood until several years ago. 

We again hear of the children of God being wayward and griping. Complain, complain, complain. God didn’t hold back the serpents this time; He permitted the infestation. Unfortunately, too often we must suffer the natural consequences of our choices before we are willing to change. And so many don’t respond nor repent. They embrace the sickness of heart which the serpent brings upon them. 

Today we are flooded with serpents throughout the world. Even tribal cultures that once embraced motherhood and children now embrace the culture of death. Economically-developed nations were first ‘bit’. They embraced the serpents, the very ones bringing them harm. They birthed baby serpents and exported these throughout the world to poison the other cultures. By exporting our culture of death, these unsuspecting people allowed it to suffocate their own culture of life. Hedonism, identity ideologies, birth control and abortion…they’ve lost the wisdom of their elders. 

Yes, the serpents are rising up now, having paved the way for their boldness by propagating hate, first and foremost in bringing people to hate themselves. Self-hatred breeds a certain type of serpent, the most poisonous kind. It attacks who we are at our deepest level of existence: our identity as children of God made in His image. These are the most poisonous and their father, Satan, has held them back until this century. He used the lesser serpents to bite the weakest of us, influencing us to bring others into their cave of darkness. In that darkness, people do not clearly see the serpents lying in wait, and eventually are bitten. A few see and escape, perhaps catching a glimmer of the light of Glory and following the Holy Spirit out of the cave, back into the light. But sadly, most choose to live in the cave, choosing to believe the serpents’ lies. 

Now the serpent has infiltrated the world with his offspring of hate disguised in ways to appeal specifically to the brokenness and sinful inclinations of each person. He specializes in that, knowing each of us so well that he can conform his tactics to fit us like a custom-made glove. He then draws us to others with similar wounds and inclinations, and creates a false sense of belonging as if we have found our ‘tribe’. That allows him to further conform our minds to his own solidified by the false security found in larger numbers of seemingly like-minded people. And people lose knowledge of their true identity in Christ Jesus, their identity as children of our Father. Their perception of their own identity is conformed to the serpent’s instead. 

But that is just perception, not objective reality. The serpent has no power to change the truth of who we are as human persons. So he convolutes our thinking and clouds our vision. 

Yes, the serpents are rising everywhere but the serpent’s own image was used by God in Moses’ time as a symbol of his defeat. Christ’s cross is now the reminder of the true victory that has already been won, that our God is the one and only Lord of all even over the serpents. They can have no power over us unless we let them. 

I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, obeying his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

We are living in a time in which we must choose between life or death, the blessing or the curse. Moses had to rise above the bed of serpents and intercede for the people to God. We too must be bold in Christ Jesus, bold in confidence of His teachings and, most importantly, of His love for us. We must rise up not in hate, anger, or violence but in love and boldly proclaim His truth in love, as it is the antidote for the poison in the heart of mankind. He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life must first be so for ourselves so that we, like Moses, are vessels of the light of Glory to others (Exodus 34:29). 

Throughout this past century, Satan carried out his evil plan of disseminating his serpents throughout the world. At the same time, God has given us leaders who preach and teach us of the calling to which He has commanded: the universal call to holiness. It is time to answer the call, Ad Morem Dei Gloriam.

(Image by Peter Paul Rubens public domain via Wikimedia Commons)