The Bronze Serpent
By:Soukeyna Diallo
“The Lord blesses me and keeps me; He makes His face shine upon me and is gracious to me; the Lord looks at me and gives me peace” (Numbers 6:24-26). I have chosen the story of The Bronze Serpent. I chose this story because it is shown how God can punish you, but also forgive you and save you.
The literal and historical context of this biblical story is different but also similar. The historical context of the book is that it was most likely written down after the Babylonian Exile (400’s BCE). Now dominated by the Persian who let them go back to Israel to rebuild their temple. The book of Numbers mostly takes place in the desert. The literary context of the book is a little different. It’s in the Pentateuch of the Bible, The Book of Law and in between Numbers 10-21. The time period of the story is about the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, rebelling and learning lessons and receiving more laws. Israelites of that time period and modern day people have some things in common. Just like the Israelites rebelled against God so do the modern day people do today, rebelling against God, police and laws.
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In the beginning of the story, The Israelites are in the wilderness looking for the Promised Land and they start complaining about God and Moses and start rebelling against God and Moses. God gets upset, who wouldn’t? After you just saved your people, fed them and you're trying to restore the covenant with them and they turn against you. Next, God decides to punish the Israelites with sending serpent to go and kill the Israelites so they can learn their lesson. In the end, the Israelites repent against their sin. Moses prays to God to forgive them and God tells Moses to make a bronze serpent, when the Israelites look at it they will be cured from the serpent