Stephen
Terry, Director
Restless and Rebellious
Commentary
for the July 10, 2021, Sabbath School Lesson
"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.' 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
21:8-9, NIV
For four centuries,
the Israelites had been living in Egypt. That had become their normal. Although
the Bible does not give an exact period, longer than Moses had lived, the
Egyptians had enslaved them. This would make it at least over 80 years they had
been enslaved and likely much longer. Also likely, in a time long before what
we call the "Stockholm Syndrome," they had become accustomed to their slavery
and may even have thought of the Egyptians as their benefactors. Perhaps this
explains much of the grumbling that Moses had to deal with. Though they had to
deal with a system of punishments and rewards that kept them subjugated to the Egyptians,
the rules were clear and all they had to do was obey and they could survive.
One can see then how
so much of the Pentateuch is about rules and obedience based on rewards and
punishment. It is speaking a language that enslaved people readily understand.
Only as they grow beyond that culture of forced obedience, as Paul did with
Christ, can they discover what freedom is all about. We have an example of this
in the United States from the antebellum period with Fredrick Douglass. Once he
escaped the culture of slavery in the Southern States, he was able to learn the
meaning of freedom and became a powerful voice for freedom for all who were
enslaved in the South. That passionate voice for freedom even gave him the
opportunity to argue for it in the Whitehouse with Abraham Lincoln. But
approximately four million[i] still in slavery had yet to
learn what freedom could mean.
Some, who had recently
come from Africa, would perhaps remember freedom and
yearn for it, but many who were enslaved had been so for generations as white
slave owners bred their slaves to produce another cash crop of human flesh to
be sold in the public square on the auction block. Whether enslaved to harsh or
benevolent owners, they experienced no other alternative. This may explain why,
out of millions, only a few thousand made the attempt to flee north via the Underground
Railroad. Maybe, just like so many with a conservative disposition today, they
preferred a familiar normal to a possibility that their experience could tell
them nothing about. Like the Israelites, when freedom finally came, many turned
from it, and they simply entered into sharecropping agreements with the very
same "masters" who had them enslaved before emancipation. Perhaps they figured "Better
the evil I know than the one I know nothing about." Missing the leeks of Egypt,[ii] they may have yearned for
some of the certainties of slavery, despite its horrific abuses. While most of us
may feel that we would never trade freedom for slavery, we have the advantage of
experiencing living without being enslaved, unlike the Israelites of the Exodus
and the antebellum blacks. But as generations after those Israelites who went
into Egypt as free men discovered, one does not have to be shackled in irons
for a transatlantic voyage in a cargo hold to find that freedom has evaporated
more quickly than the dew on a blade of grass in the hot summer wind.
However, just as not
having the experience being free can make it hard to appreciate the meaning of
the word, those who have not had the experience of losing their freedom may
also have a distorted understanding of what freedom entails. We see this in the
varied responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Most have valued the system of free
enterprise that rapidly produced workable vaccinations against the virus and
availed themselves of the opportunity to seek protection from the death that
has come to over 620,000 people in the United States alone, as of the date I am
writing this commentary. To put that in perspective, it is the approximate
death toll of the bloodiest war we have ever fought, the Civil War between the
North and the South. The rate of those dying has abated in some states, in
large part due to the rapid progress in vaccinating so many. But states with
low vaccination rates continue to struggle with higher death rates. Per recent
figures from every governmental health care authority, almost all deaths
currently occurring are among the non-vaccinated, highlighting the efficacy of vaccination.
Some have argued
strongly against vaccination for several reasons. Perhaps the most prevalent
reason is they do not trust the government to support a safe and effective
remedy so rapidly as they have. Others, citing rare cases of side effects, fear
that they may suffer a serious side effect. Still others are opposed to anything
that manipulates our immune system. Some see it as a religious issue, while
others see it as a political one. In any event, a sizable minority and even a
majority in some states have chosen not to be vaccinated. When we look back at
the experience the Israelites had with poisonous snakes and the simple solution
God provided in having Moses fashion a bronze snake and place it upon a pole
for everyone to look at, we ask how anyone could refuse to look at that serpent
and live? When faced with such a simple solution how could they not at least
look, even if they did not believe that looking at metal snakes could cure you.
Then we look at our present dilemma over vaccinations and the pandemic, and we
begin to understand how some could choose not to be healed. It is as though we
feel that no matter what anyone says to the contrary, we know we do not need to
look at the serpent on the pole. Ironically for Christians who say they value
faith over science, even if we say we love God, when we turn from the deliverance
he provides, we are left to the processes of Natural Selection. Some will
survive, even if by the skin of their teeth, due to a fortunate genetic code
that is resistant. Many will not.
I wonder if this is
not symptomatic of the overall human condition. When man chose not to trust God
in the Garden of Eden,[iii] God promised to provide
redemption. That promise was fulfilled with the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
But though salvation was simply offered as believe and be saved, many,
especially religious and political leaders, felt it was all a con and Jesus was
not the Savior he purported to be. As a result, they lifted him up in a manner reminiscent
of the snake on the pole. They unknowingly made salvation possible for all
through his death on the cross, though they chose not to accept that salvation
for themselves. When Jesus said he was the cure for the mortal disease that
afflicted them, sin, they denied that they were threatened by such a fatal
affliction. Furthermore, they did not see him as an effective cure, even if
they were so afflicted. Their knowledge trumped his grace, and they would do
all they could to counter and silence his witness. In the end, many of them
died in their sins, but the testimony of his followers nonetheless brought many
to salvation. Then as now, despite the nay sayers, many are drawn by hope that
things can be different and are willing to have faith even when understanding is
not complete.
It can be hard to take
that step. Fear of the unknown can be a powerful demotivator. But at some
point, we always seem to come to the moment of making a choice. Rarely is that
choice ever based on complete and perfect information. It often comes down
simply to whom we are willing to trust. Social media has hundreds of thousands
of people, perhaps millions, all telling us that they are the ones we should
trust. Thanks to the multiplier effect of all those voices as compared to Satan
in the Garden of Eden, his whispering enticement to Eve to believe him has grown
to a vociferous shout. It can be hard to resist such pressure from so many
social media "experts." But freedom in Christ demands just that. Few look back
and do not question why Eve did not resist the charges the Devil made about God's
character and purpose. Nonetheless, we are too ready to entertain such
accusations against those who have been given the responsibility to lead us,
even when we know their accountability is to God. Like Eve we are not only
willing to listen to such insinuations, but we are also willing to pull as many
with us as we can. Although it was only one other person, Eve pulled the entirety
of mankind with her. A similar spirit causes so many modern insurrectionists to
recruit everyone they can to their cause.
The Bible tells us that this spirit arose in heaven when the Devil rose to
challenge God's character and government. He claimed to do so in the name of
freedom and managed to pull a third of the angels onto his side. But it was not
enough, and he was driven from heaven.[iv] The distrust of authority
and the spirit of rebellion did not end there. He, his fallen angels, and his
human minions have done all they could to keep that spirit alive to thwart
every blessing God would give to mankind, up to and including eternal life. God
offers us the freedom to make a choice as to whose voice we will listen to. Will
we join in the Devil's challenge of all authority, or will we accept God's
invitation to "...choose life, so that you and your children may live." (Deuteronomy
30:19b, NIV)