"Then [YHWH] said to Moses:'Make for yourself a fiery snake and place it upon a signal pole. And it must occur that when anyone has been bitten, he then has to look at it and so must keep alive.'"-Numbers 21:8 NWT [], italics,mine

SOT: I encourage the bible students to read the entire context of the text in question. Please just read the whole 21st chapter. Please meditate on the words that the author chose to use in his narration. This tradition has implications that will be fundamental to how you view your wind god, YHWH.



FDS: YHWH has four main attributes. Justice, Power, Wisdom, and Love.



SOT:

1. Wisdom.

A. Compare 2 Kings 18:4- YHWH is said to have the foresight to make wise choices that produce positive outcomes. But in 2 Kings, we find evidence of a lasting black mark on YHWH's record. Hezekiah, in an effort to promote pure worship in Judea, crushed the copper serpent that Moses had made. Why?

"...for down to those days the sons of Israel had continually been making sacrificial smoke to it, and it used to be called the copper serpent idol."-2 Kings 18:4b NWT

SOT: God's wisdom is matchless according to christians. YHWH has no advisors. He takes no ones advice.

YHWH's odd decision to demand a copper idol to be made and then "looked at", is a direct cause of the spiritual problems Hezekiah had to deal with hundreds of years later.

-SOT





  

...  I don't believed he exercised that intimate knowlege in his decision to send deadly snakes to discipline his fledging nation.

I think He was just making an asp of himself. 

May 16, 2012 -- 9:09AM, Truthwillset wrote:

This whole scenario just shows why a morality based on the Bible has absolutely no merit whatsoever. 

It's only wrong unless or until God tells you it's okay...   

So true. Have you noticed that not a single christian apologist has tried to defend their "Holy" Sovereign Lord? This account in Numbers 21 is simply damning. No room for any academic backflips. No space for some nonsensical verbiage. It's plain and simple. God is culpable in a mortal sin. No matter how you slice it. No christian can defend this chapter.

-SOT

May 19, 2012 -- 10:38AM, Son_of_Thunder wrote:

May 16, 2012 -- 9:09AM, Truthwillset wrote:

This whole scenario just shows why a morality based on the Bible has absolutely no merit whatsoever. 

It's only wrong unless or until God tells you it's okay...   

So true. Have you noticed that not a single christian apologist has tried to defend their "Holy" Sovereign Lord? This account in Numbers 21 is simply damning. No room for any academic backflips. No space for some nonsensical verbiage. It's plain and simple. God is culpable in a mortal sin. No matter how you slice it. No christian can defend this chapter.

-SOT

 

SOT - Well - I am not a single Christian - as I am married.

But I will respond - note I have been busy and had not read this thread - I have answered your questions on other threads.

First - from our literature:

"It is well for every Christian to remember what took place in connection with the figure of the copper serpent made by Moses. During the sojourn of the Israelites in the wilderness, God commanded Moses, who had led Israel out of Egypt, to make the figure of a copper serpent, which was a symbol and had prophetic significance, but it was not for religious worship. (Num. 21:4-9; John 3:14, 15) Thus the copper-serpent image was not adored or used for worship in Moses’ day. Though that image was made under proper circumstances, even at the command of God, yet, finally, it had to be destroyed. How so? Because centuries after Moses’ day the Israelites turned that same image of the copper serpent into an object of religious devotion, even burning incense to it. (2 Ki. 18:4) So when King Hezekiah purged the land of Judah of religious images, he had the copper serpent made by Moses crushed into pieces and utterly destroyed.

That destruction of religious images had God’s blessing, since the true God wants to be worshiped without images or not through images, as Jesus Christ himself stated: “God is a Spirit, and those worshiping him must worship with spirit and truth.”—John 4:24; 2 Ki. 18:1-7." - "The Watchtower," 7/1/64, p. 393.

An important cross reference:

(John 3:13-16) . . .Moreover, no man has ascended into heaven but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone believing in him may have everlasting life. 16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.

Apparently you missed the prophetic significance of this - I'll give you a hint:

Was the copper serpent lifted up on a cross or stake?

Another hint: see Galatians 3:13.