41 And he did straiten them in the wilderness with his rod; for they hardened their hearts, even as ye have; and the Lord straitened them because of their iniquity. He sent fiery flying serpents among them; and after they were bitten he prepared a way that they might be healed; and the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished.
This is a continuation of the thought Nephi started in verse
40. It’s more evidence that the Lord loves those who will “have him to be their
God,” and therefore doesn’t easily give up on them. When the children of Israel
hardened their hearts (as his brethren have, points out Nephi), the Lord didn’t
just give up on them. He “[straitened] them in the wilderness with his rod.”
According to Webster’s New World College Dictionary, to straiten in this
instance and context would mean “to restrict or confine in scope, range, etc.;
hamper.” In other words, the Lord punished Israel; or rather he disciplined
Israel by restricting their freedom and their authority. He took away the higher
law that was more principle-based, and gave them the Law of Moses, which is
more performance-based. It’s very similar to what we do as parents when we
ground a child for doing something wrong, or abusing their freedoms. We
restrict or limit the child’s options of behavior, just like the Lord
restricted Israel’s options of behavior. And just like parents on earth, our
Father in Heaven straitens or disciplines us out of love. The Lord said in
D&C 95:1 that, “whom I love I also chasten that their sins may be
forgiven.” If there were no consequence for sin we would have no reason to
repent. If we don’t repent, we are not clean before the Lord. If we are not
clean, we cannot return to our Father. So straitening or disciplining comes
from love. That’s why “the Lord straitened [Israel] because of there iniquity.”
The Lord wanted them to succeed, and He wanted to give them every opportunity
to choose to repent.
In addition to discipline, the Lord gives a type or shadow of
His coming with that very discipline. He not only corrects, but at the same
time teaches those who will be taught. So he sends “fiery flying serpents” as
the wakeup call. New research (as of 2008) indicates this was most likely the
Israeli Saw-scale viper (as opposed to the Egyptian Cobra, as some have
suggested)(see http://www.johnpratt.com/items/docs/lds/meridian/2000/serpent.html
for a more detailed discussion of this). The detail of symbolism is interesting.
For example, some serpents’ venom kills by causing paralysis. The saw-scale
viper’s venom causes a break down of internal organ tissue, and the victim
bleeds to death internally. Blood, of course, is an important part of the
Atonement. If we won’t accept the Savior’s blood (suffering), we must shed our
own, symbolically at least (see D&C 19:15–19). In a practical way, this was
also important because it is slow acting, which gave the Israelites a chance to
get to the brass serpent that Moses had made. Another interesting symbol is the
fact that this serpent can coil and leap as much as 2–3 feet in the air, thus making
it a “flying” serpent. The symbol for Quetzalcoatl is a feathered or winged
snake, and has reference to Christ. An interesting twist to this particular
symbol refers to the statement that Christ has “healing in his wings” (Malachi
4:2). The saw-scale viper also has been found to have great healing powers. A
preventative heart medicine has been developed from the anti-clotting proteins
of the snake’s venom. With particularly deadly venom, this snake needed
miraculous intervention for survival of those who were bitten. Which brings us
to the brass serpent.
The Lord instructed Moses to make a serpent out of brass and
raise it on a pole. Those who simply looked on it were healed. At that time
this type of miraculous healing was the only way to survive the bite of the
fiery flying serpent. This, of course, is another symbol of how we rely on the
Savior to survive the effects of sin. As for the brass serpent, just looking
was enough to heal, but many did not even look. Why would that be? It seems
like if it was that simple people would look just out of curiosity, if nothing
else. I know I wouldn’t be able to help myself. So there must have been more to
it.
My guess is that with around 2 million people in the camp of
Israel they did not parade the brass serpent around and bring it tent to tent.
The area covered by the camp must have quite large, maybe a couple of square
miles or more. So I imagine the brass serpent was probably posted in a central
location, like the tabernacle, and people had to exercise enough faith to get
to it (notice the possible comparison to going to the temple). That show of
faith probably had as much to do with the healing as looking at the brass
serpent did. How healing is it when we exercise faith to go to the temple and
look on the Savior? As difficult as it is at times to exercise faith, it’s
still better and easier than the pain and suffering of fiery flying serpents
(sins). Christ taught that His “yoke is easy, and [his] burden is light”
(Matthew 11:30). That doesn’t mean that following Christ is not difficult at
times. It’s just easier than living with the guilt of sin on your conscience.
So in the case of the Israelites, all they had to do was look
on the brass serpent to be healed. But it probably took effort to get to the
serpent so they could see it. For us, all we need to do to be cleansed of our
sins is accept the Atonement, look to the Savior. That’s a simple (different
from easy) thing to do, but it requires effort to come to the Savior. It also
requires faith that the effort is worth it. And just as in the case of the
Israelites, the farther away you are the harder it is. I’m sure some of the
children of Israel had to go several miles to get to the serpent. That would
require more effort than for those living just next to it. In the spiritual
sense, the further we are from the Savior, the harder it is to come unto Him.
It would take more effort, more time, and require a large amount of faith that
the journey would be worth it.
- 2 Kings 5:13
- Matthew 11:30
- John 3:14
- 2 Nephi 25:20
- Alma 33:19 (18–22)
- Alma 37:46 (44–47)
- Helaman 8:15
- D&C 95:1
