Spiritual Dullness
I am struck by the reference to the bronze snake being smashed to pieces. What was it doing there to begin with and why were the people burning incenses to it? It is evidence that these Israelites had lost any sense of the Lord's presence. They took a good symbol from the past (Numbers 21:9) and worshiped it. Go figure.
A spiritual dullness had crept in. They worshiped a thing that reminded them of God, but was not God. It seems they wanted to experience God and they returned to an image that most reminded them of a past with God perhaps thinking that would bring them back into God's presence.
I am tempted in similar ways. I might be distracted by a particular place where I experienced God, thinking it is the place that is God, or perhaps it is a song that God chose to move me and now I think God is in the song, or maybe it is a devotion where I heard God and now I think it is the devotion that is God, and I am afraid I can go on and on. Does this make sense? Maybe only to me, but lest I be harsh with the Israelites I see the same seeds in me. Spiritual dullness can be an agent that allows me to be duped into looking everywhere but to God to experience His presence.
Created over 2 years ago
