Smith Family Crazies: January 2015

Friday, January 9, 2015

Complete with New Scarf...

Jessica was kind enough to make Garvin a new

black scarf...to go with his new coat...

for his new job...

smile

I took this picture this morning...

so, Jessica, could see how

it looks...

smile

It is hard to see the scarf...against his

black coat...smile

It really did look nice!
smile

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

The Significance of the Brazen Serpent

I've been studying the Atonement recently and have been keeping my studies strictly to the Standard Works. As I was pondering about what the Atonement is and Who was involved, my thoughts caught hold upon these thoughts, "How can I possibly accept His forgiveness? After my many, oftentimes repetitious, mistakes, how can I let Him take my sins upon His perfect soul?" Well, there can be many quick responses to these and maybe some of you had a response instantly enter your mind. Let me tell you that it's a little harder to allow easy answers into your head when you're the one seeking forgiveness.

I was brought to Isaiah 53 - "...the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (v.6), "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin..."(v.10), "...for he shall bear their iniquities."(v.11).
Following the contemplation of those verses, my mind received direction toward the story of Moses and the Brazen Serpent found in Numbers 21:7-9 -

"Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned...pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.

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.

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."

Here is what I have learned:

Moses was commanded to lift a brazen serpent upon a pole to relieve the afflicted Israelites. This commandment came directly after the Israelites came forth in confession. All who looked upon the serpent was healed.
The serpent was already erected for them as Christ has already been erected for us. There wasn't a need to erect a new serpent only after one was willing to be healed. The same goes for Christ and the sinner. Christ doesn't then feel the pain of our sins when we accept Him, it has already been felt and paid for. One may ask, "How can I LET Him take my sins and save me? I don't deserve it and I must stay in this anguish. I can't allow Him to save me when I have let Him down so many times before." Indeed, this may have been the actual thought process of many of the Israelites who refused to look (instead of arrogant pride as we oftentimes hear in talks).
Perhaps this is what leads many to inactivity because they feel unworthy of forgiveness, or rather, they feel that they are lesser than scum. I say that out of person experience as these thoughts have entered my head...to give up. The summarize the lesson I learned, or rather internalized more than I had before: the debt has already been paid, so let it go. (the Born-Again's have something right!)

As a concluding sidenote, it's interesting to consider the symbolism of the brazen serpent. Although there is a type of the crucifixion in this story, remember that Satan is often represented by a serpent. Consider as well that brass is symbolic of judgement and also has some connection to fallen, earthly man. So, when we see the brazen serpent lifted up on a pole we see the death of fallen, carnal, devilish man in the lifting up of Christ on the cross. When we look towards Him, our fallen selves will die and we can be healed of the wounds of the fiery serpents.