Torah Portion: Numbers 19:1-25:9

Chukat / Balak (‘Decree’ / ‘Balak’)

In Numbers 21 we read about the bronze serpent that Moses put on a pole so that those who were bitten by real serpents could look at the pole in faith and be healed.

It is interesting that a serpent around a pole to this day remains a symbol of medicine and healing. Christians might well take encouragement from this, especially in the midst of this deadly virus that has impacted the entire world. It is an ongoing reminder, in the medical world at least, that the God of Israel brings hope for miraculous healing.

Perhaps, in such a crisis as Covid-19, many might be prompted through this symbol of medicine to turn to God for healing. Was not the National Health Service itself brought about by the quiet inspiration of our compassionate God?

Spiritual Battle

Yet, if one looks into it, the serpent on a pole that symbolises modern medicine goes back, not to Moses, but to a Greek god called Asclepius. Indeed, the original Hippocratic Oath began with the invocation, "I swear by Apollo the Physician and by Asclepius and by Hygieia and Panacea and by all the gods…".

The battle between Greece and Zion typifies all spiritual battles – it is the battle between the world and the Kingdom, between the flesh and the things of God. Zechariah proclaimed the warfare (Zech 9:13): “I will bend Judah as I bend my bow and fill it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, Zion, against your sons, Greece, and make you like a warrior’s sword.”

The serpents that attacked Israel in the wilderness remind us of the Serpent of the Garden of Eden. Moses' bronze serpent did not point to modern medicine, but pointed powerfully to Yeshua on the Cross, who defeated the Serpent, satan, on our behalf, that all who look on Him in faith may yet be healed and delivered.

God’s Call to Humanity

The virus that besets our world may eventually be dealt with through modern medicine. But when we come to our ‘new normal’ on the other side of the virus, mankind would do well to consider carefully what God has been saying through our present tussles with satan.

Other plagues and troubles are going to come, with increasing intensity, as we approach the end times. The humanistic deceptions of ancient Greece in our politics, science, medicine and arts, cultivate counterfeit images which must be addressed. God is not calling people to their own devices, or to the gods of Greece and Rome that are behind modern-day humanism, and which leave us vulnerable to those spiritual ‘fiery serpents’. God is calling all people to turn to Yeshua and be healed, both spiritually and physically.

A point to ponder from our Torah Portion this week! 

Author: Clifford Denton