The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-08-03
The Sunday School.
The Brazen Serpent.
INTRODUCTION.

The pnllOSOpny unueriyiDs tne
strange story in our lesson passage is:
To become familiarized with the expec-
tation Of inevitable dangers is insurance
against panic when they come. The
unusualness of the reptiles they found
in the Arabah, and always to be found
there. unnerved the Israelites. The
cure for nervousness under whistling
bullets is more whistling bullets. Jesus
was not surprised at the scorpion traits
of human nature; he had previously
said: 1t must be that ofenses aciH come.
Paul was not unnamed when hatred
burst upon him; he said In every city
bonds and Affections abide me. The
camp of Israel needed to be saved, not
from the fiery serpents so much as from
the feverish fear of imaginary reptiles.
Sane reliance on Providence had been
lost. Moses employed the brazen ser
pent as a means of mind cure, to restore
sanity.
LESSON STORY.
When the Israelites, at the end of
their thirty eight years of sojourn at
Kadesh Barnea, were ready to resume
their journey to their Promised Land,
they found every direct line of march
closed to them. One route was rem
dered impossible by the formidable ar
mics Of the Philistines, who had added
the fearful war. chariots to their military
equipments. Another road, the one
which the spies had taken thirty eight
years before, led through steep and mar
row passes defended by the Amorites;
through these passes Israel had tried in
vain to force passage. A third road,
at the eastward, led through the noun
tains of Edom, and through the land of
the Moabites, to the region east of the
Jordan.
This third route was the one chosen.
Moses therefore sent messengers from
Kadesh both to the Edomites and to the
Moabites, asking permission to march
through their territory, promising to
harm nothing and to pay for everything,
reminding these tribes of their common
Abrahamic origin with the Israelites,
and making a proffer of future friend
ship. Meanwhile Moses led the Israel
ties about seventy five miles southeast
ward, to the eastern arm Of the Red Sea-,
and entering the Arabah-the valley
which, extending from the Red Sea to
the Dead Sea, suggests that these two
sheets Of water were once connected-he
marched northward about sixty miles to
Mount Hor, literally 1.-The Mountain"
situated at the eastern edge of the
Arabah, and about equi distant from
the Red Sea and the Dead Sea. Here a
tarry was made. Moses waiting to pass
through Edom if permission should be
given and around it if permission should
be refused.
4. The Murmuring People are
Panic-stricken by the Fiery Ser
pentS,- vs.. 46.
Permission to march through Edom
was refused; an army of Edomites sud
denly appeared to defend all the passes
against the Israelites. Hardship for the
Israelites and hope deferred are implied
in the record They journeyed from
Mount Hor by the soay of tie Red
Sea, to compass the land of Edom.
That is. they turned their faces away.
rather than toward, their Promised
Land,
The soul of the people acas mach dis
couraged marginal, was impatient be-
cause of the aUdy. Can we wonder at
this? The long, roundabout, hot and
barren way. must have been great
mystery to them. Their murmurings.
as on many former occasion. began to
assume the form of atheism and rebel
lion. The people spake against God
and against Moses. A delegation of the
people asked of Moses these pertinent
questions: Wherefore haze ye brought
as up out of Egypt to die IN the aoilder-
,aess9 for there is no bread, and there
is no aodter; and our soul loatheth this
light bredd,-or this vile, contemplate
food on which we are compelled to sub
sist.
They were indeed in sorry plight.
In the arid desert they began to feel the
dry fever of thirst. and they saw no cool
ing streams in prospect. From the
rocks they could hope for no grain yield,
and must palliate as best they might
their increasing hunger with the stale
food they had brought with them. They
may have been able to gather some sup
ply of desert mama; but it was at best
a poor substitute for wheat bread. That
they did not, under such circumstances.
exhibit the stoicism of trained veterans,
and that they became feverish and re-
bellious, is what we should expect.
But there now came an evil among
them that drowned all these murmur
ings. The Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the
people; and much people of Israel died.
This is the Hebrew method of declaring
that the host unexpectedly found itself
in contention with multitude of veno.
nous snakes. Modern travellers in this
locality tell us of the poisonous reptiles
lurking in the crevices of the rocks, and
crawling into the lodges, attracted by