WHEN the children of Israel were plagued with the poisonous serpents in the wilderness, wisdom bade Moses make a serpent of brass and lift it up. Those who looked upon the serpent were healed of the sting. But the Israelites did not understand the significance of the brass serpent; they simply benefited from Moses' spiritual understanding. For that reason they were unable as a people to practice spiritual healing. Not understanding the spirit behind the symbols, they became enamored of the symbols themselves and developed an empty ritualism. The Bible tells us that later the brazen serpent had to be destroyed, because the children of Israel burned incense to it.
Down through the centuries until Christ Jesus' time, the prophets did glimpse the truth of perfect God and perfect man, and they vigorously urged the people to return to the worship of the one God. Through the demonstration of their highest understanding of God as Spirit, the prophets continued to lift the thought of the people.
Jesus demonstrated in his activities the fact that spiritual regeneration of human selfhood results in the healing of human ills. He brought that tender affection which fulfills moral law through love. His own sinless human self symbolized pure, spiritual man and proved the real man to be the indestructible image of God, Mind. Through parable and practice Jesus proved spiritual love to be the substance of worship and overruled the burdensome rituals of the Pharisees. In the proportion that we let our human lives express the purity of Spirit, Truth, Life, and Love, we too shall demonstrate the health and immortality of our true selves.
