Numbers 21

In the Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye ride at Disneyland, the story is that Indy has uncovered a temple where a being known as Mara chills all day, granting gifts of eternal youth, endless riches, or prescience--as long as you don't look into its eyes. If you do, you're doomed to the wretched, inconceivable torment of experiencing one of the best, most thrilling theme park rides extant.

Anyway, Indy has gone missing in the bowels of the temple, causing his trusty friend Sallah to open up the temple to all and sundry in hopes that they'll blunder into the intrepid archaeologist. The ride starts with you running right into Mara's fiberglass countenance. Irked that you made eye contact, the misanthropic Mara sends you on a wild and wooly adventure that represents the height of Disney Imagineering. Of course, this is a ride; Mara, who isn't a real being, let alone a god, gets ticked off at you whether you look at its eyes or not. In fact, Mara blusters just as much at an empty ride vehicle as one filled with slack-jawed tourists.

This chapter features a bronze snake that is the antithesis of Mara. When the Israelites complain yet again--at this point, it's more surprising when they don't complain--God sends a den of poisonous snakes to nip at the heels of His recalcitrant people. When they repent, God tells Moses to make a bronze snake on a pole; "anyone who was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived" (verse 9). While Mara dooms all those who don't avert their eyes, the bronze snake saves all those who gaze upon its lustrous form. One wonders how Indy himself, with his ophidiophobia, would have fared.

I wrote that it's surprising when the Israelites don't act like querulous brats, but they actually act relatively admirably for the balance of this chapter. They rely on God's provision--which He grants--to defeat the king of Arad (verses 1-3), which foreshadows the further victories against the Amorites and the wondrously named King Og of Bashan. See? It's not all doom and gloom. With these victories, why were the Israelites so afraid of conquering Canaan some 40 years prior?

Some fears are justified, but many turn out to be unfounded. Anyone who knows me knows that I stink at math, and yet I somehow managed to get into AB Calculus AP in 12th grade. I was dreading the AP test, especially as I found the class a struggle. As it turned out, the class was much more rigorous than the actual AP test; I finished the test with confidence and sure enough, I got a 5. (If you gave the test to me now, though, I'm pretty sure I'd flunk it.) I don't remember being especially prayerful about the test, but I still did well. How much more, then, will God provide and make me grow spiritually if I continuously place my trust in Him--especially in issues more eternally consequential than an AP test?