Numbers 21:4-9: The Bronze Serpent
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Today we explore a story we often hear during the Lenten season when we are called to make reparations. In today’s Noontime, we see people who have tired of living a life of bare survival in the desert with only manna to eat. They complain as they long for the milk and honey that Yahweh has promised. Serpents appear and begin to bite them and so Moses intercedes. The Old Testament image of God is so different from the compassionate image in the New Testament; but today we examine the similarity between the disease and the cure. The bronze serpent made by Moses heals those bitten by the living serpents. And so we ask . . .
Do we too often steer ourselves away from an obstacle when the cure lies in our willingness to enter God’s plan? Do we fear too much and trust too little? Are we as stiff-necked as the people we observe today? Do we complain too much? Do we ask too little? Do we understand God’s mystery, goodness and grace?
Adapted from a reflection written on August 15, 2007.
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Image from: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-brazen-serpent-188732
The Noontimes 
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