SOME things in this world are attractive, and some repulsive. Some are beneficial, and some injurious. Some are very valuable, and some of little worth. Among the most valuable of metals, gold holds the most prominent place. Silver is inferior to it, and brass is inferior to silver. In fact, brass is sometimes classed as dross—"the dross of silver." Ezek. 22: 18.
In the animal world, one of the most useful and acceptable of all is the patient ox, ready for either the altar of sacrifice or the yoke of service; while of the living creatures, perhaps the most repugnant and revolting, the most dreaded and abhorred, is the poisonous serpent. Its presence is so unwelcome that a community from which it has been banished is thought to be most fortunate. Surely the most prized of metals, associated with the most useful of animals, would apparently make an ideal combination. Fancy, on the other hand, the loathsome reptile fashioned out of the dross of the precious metals. Would it not be repulsive?
We have these two hypothetical creatures actually materialized in the golden calf and the brazen serpent of Israel's desert wanderings. But, lo, what a reversal of all our conjectures about the comparative merit of the two objects! The golden calf brings embarrassment, idolatry, disaster, and death.
The brazen serpent, on the contrary, seen through the eye of faith, affords forgiveness, healing, life, and a prophetic view of the world's Redeemer. How can we account for this? What is the solution of this paradox? "Hearken, all ye people." "Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?" Lam. 3: 37. "The Lord seeth not as man seeth." 1 Sam. 16: 7.
The difference is this: The brazen serpent was an arrangement of God's own appointment, but the golden calf was a creature of human invention. No matter what our own finite reasoning or judgment may dictate to us to be the right and proper thing to do, if God has not appointed it, there is no merit whatever in it; it is useless and valueless.
While many are slighting the opportunities offered them in a land where most abundant means of grace are afforded, many from heathen countries, "dark places of the earth," will be led to serve the God of heaven. And He that gathers the outcasts will accept them. "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are." 1 Cor. 1: 27, 28.
