I am a reasonable man.  Logic, thinking, understanding are things to be worked at, to be strived for.  But with that, goes a good dose of humility and healthy sense of humor (some people may argue a very unhealthy sense of humor…but I digress).

For years, I’ve been puzzled by one story out of the book of Exodus - that classic book of the Bible that tells the story of how God saved his people from the Egyptians and brought them back to their homeland along the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea.

God, who has saved his people from destruction at the hands of the pharaoh, who has commanded his people not to create graven images, who inspired the first prophets and writers of His holy word with tales of the evil serpent ensnaring Adam and Eve, sets what evil upon his people for grumbling?

Serpents.  Deadly serpents.

But it gets better.  How are they to be saved?  Easy, Moses is to make a graven image of a snake, mount it on a pole, and when people are bitten, they are to look at the graven image of the snake and it will save them.

And people think that I have a warped sense of humor.

So our Lord “snakes represent the devil, no graven images, going to save my people” God, is punishing his people with snakes, but will same them with a graven image of a snake.

On the surface, it looks bizarre.

But when you look at the imagery, it becomes less bizarre, and more humbling.

Snakes and serpents, still creatures of God, but used and abused by Satan, are torturing God’s people.  Moses is to act on behalf of God by creating an image of these very creatures of God and setting it up on a pole.  When people are bitten by the snakes, they are to look upon the image of the one that has bitten them.

Thousands of years later…

God sent His Son, as man.  Man, still creatures of God, but used and abused by Satan, are torturing and killing God’s people.  God chooses to set his own Son upon the pole, the gibbet of the cross.  When people are bitten by the deadly sting of death, they need only look up, up to the cross, to the Son of the living God, who died for our sins, so that we might not suffer the sting of eternal death.

What a fitting story for Lent.  As we enter these final days, may we too, when stung by the pain of sin, continue to look up, to Him that can save us.  

Its been a busy couple of weeks for the writer/editor of ThisCountryBoy.com.  Will admit, I’m a little behind.  Due to the timeliness of the flooding in the Red River Valley, some of the “Abroad” writings will be out of order - the backlog of translating my notes, outlines, and memories, may take a while a clear, but the sights and sounds of the Red River Valley Flooding need to be brought home with the news.  More updates will follow on the flooding - followed by more comments from Tucson and the NDSU men’s basketball trip to the NCAA tournament.

We live in interesting times, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.