Open Your Eyes

Reading:   Numbers 21

I'm trying not to get hung up on the obvious biblical stories so that I can shine the light on new lessons to be learned; but this one is a classic and I simply can't ignore it.  The Israelites began to murmur about their hardships again (lack of food and water etc.) and spoke lowly of God and Moses.  This time, however, there was no conversation between God and Moses where Moses tried to dissuade God from harsh retribution - God simply acted by sending forth poisonous snakes to plague the people with deathly bites.  Some of the folks understood what they had brought upon themselves and asked Moses for forgiveness and help.  The meek and humble Moses approached God...

NUMBERS 21:8-9

8    And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 

9    And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Make a snake and put it on a staff, hold it up where all can see, and those that look will be healed.  Easy enough, right, guess not...some, ignorantly, still refused to look.  So stubborn and caught up in their own selfishness and anger that the simplest of tasks - opening your eyes and looking - was ignored and death followed.

Carl B. Cook, of the Seventy, said this (2011 October General Conference, Saturday afternoon
session):

Why is it a challenge to consistently look up in our lives? Perhaps we lack the faith that such a simple act can solve our problems. For example, when the children of Israel were bitten by poisonous serpents, Moses was commanded to raise up a brass serpent on a pole. The brass serpent represented Christ. Those who looked up at the serpent, as admonished by the prophet, were healed. (See Numbers 21:8-9.) But many others failed to look up, and they perished. (See 1 Nephi 17:41.) 

The prophet Alma (74 years prior to the birth of Jesus Christ) prophesied of the coming Savior and reflected on the lesson of Moses and the fiery serpents (Alma 33:21-22)...

21    O my brethren, if ye could be healed by merely casting about your eyes that ye might be healed, would ye not behold quickly, or would ye rather harden your hearts in unbelief, and be slothful, that ye would not cast about your eyes, that ye might perish?  

22    If so, wo shall come upon you; but if not so, then cast about your eyes and begin to believe in the Son of God, that he will come to redeem his people, and that he shall suffer and die to atone for their sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead, which shall bring to pass the resurrection, that all men shall stand before him, to be judged at the last and judgment day, according to their works.  

Don't be slothful!  For the Israelites, it was a simple act of looking up at the standard and they would be healed.  For us, it's as simple as looking toward our standard, Jesus, and we too can find healing, forgiveness, even assistance for whatever our needs might be.

It's ridiculous to think that a dying person would refuse to look at a standard, if there was even the slightest possibility of staying death, and yet, they did?  It truly is unfathomable!  Even the most skeptic of persons today would agree that such a refusal to look would have been utterly asinine; still, we are in the same predicament today with the same asinine, unfathomable, and ridiculous refusals to look.  Our Savior offers healing, forgiveness, and all that we need if we but look to him.  Why then are there so many around us suffering in sin and darkness with the Savior right there in front of them.  They refuse to believe, refuse to look, refuse to exercise the smallest degree of faith, refuse to allow  the possibility that this might all be true, it is sad - they, we, suffer without relief because of our stubbornness.

Wake up people!  Don't be slothful!  Open your eyes and see!

Here are the lyrics to a favorite song of mine called Opened.  The song was written by Tom Shear and is performed by his group Assemblage 23.   Lyrical meaning is obviously subjective; however, for the purposes of this blog, the lyrics are a perfect example of someone opening their eyes and seeing, really seeing, the redeeming value of our Savior and finally, the lies and whispers of Satan that had him held captive...

This day has altered my perception

I'll never see things quite the same

All that I knew was misconception

But all of that's about to change

I opened my eyes today

The world looked so bright and strange

Now I see with clarity

I won't be your casualty

If trust is merely for convenience

Does it mean anything at all?

Your change of character makes no sense

Your bitter actions make you small

I opened my eyes today

The world looked so bright and strange

Now I see with clarity

I won't be your casualty

Greed is the hunger deep inside you

You're burning bridges left and right

I won't allow you to treat upon me

I won't go down without a fight

I opened my eyes today

The world looked so bright and strange

Now I see with clarity

I won't be your casualty

"All that I knew was misconception," I love that line and it is so true. So often we are truly deceived and forget the faith and testimony that has become part of us. It's important to constantly remind ourselves, keep our eyes open, and as always, refrain from being slothful!

~Kipling