[Elsie]

Isaiah's prophecies were written not only to the Hebrews but to several other Mideast nations . . .

True, but to whom was the serpent thing addressed?

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Exodus 3:7, 13-18 New International Version
 
7 The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.

 

 

13 Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?”

 

14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

 

15 God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’

 

“This is my name forever,
    the name you shall call me
    from generation to generation.

 

16 “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’

 

18 “The elders of Israel will listen to you.

[imardmd1]

imardmd1: Isaiah's prophecies were written not only to the Hebrews but to several other Mideast nations . . .

Elsie: True, but to whom was the serpent thing addressed?

(To the reader, see Numbers 21:8,9 in its context)

It is not clear to me what point you are making, Els, in the context of Frank Broom's meditation under examination.

To me, the serpent thing is referred to by Jesus in the scriptural record, speaking particularly to Nicodemus (Jn. 3:6,14) but generally to all descendants of Adam (Jn. 3:15,16; whosoever), where the brazen serpent is a type, a symbol, for the reality of the antitype--the Only Begotten-in-the-flesh Son of God--to be crucified once, for all.

He is The Physician, the One of the Trinity Who brings healing from the effects of Original Sin in both physical deterioration and eternal condemnation (Gen. 2:16-17) of Adam and all his descendants throughout the dimension of time--past, present, or future.

Note here that this symbol, the elevated brazen serpent, had to be broken up and destroyed by Hezekiah (another spiritually mature servant of God who was a contemporary of Isaiah; cf. 2 Kings 18:4, battling the idolatry then prevalent), because after several centuries the Israelites had deemed it as an object to be worshiped (contrary to the second of the Ten Commandments), rather than merely a symbol to draw the worshippers' attention and total allegiance to the Triune God Jehovah Elohim to Whom it pointed as The Healer, a reminder of His Presence, given to them materially and erected publicly through Moses His Servant.

This error of misdirected allegiance of a worshipper being place on the symbol, attributing Deity to it rather just a tangible item to bring to mind the Person it represents, is committing the same gross heresy of the Romish false doctrine of transubstantiation that attributes Deity to the temporal corruptible substances of baken flour and grape juice. This is idolatry and cannot be a logical and/or spiritually discerned interpretation of Holy Scripture.

Is it not clear from Simon's own sayings and writings that he, Apostle of whom the Romanists also falsely claim primacy, would never have allowed the later Apostolic Fathers or Patristics to codify such nonsense into liturgies?

Just sayin'.