We had a quiet week this week. Felicia painted designs on a big piece of wood for fun and I crashed my motorcycle for fun. I did $40 in damage but Felicia's painted wood cost way more than that. Some kinds of fun costs more than other kinds of fun. I sometimes contemplate computing $ per person-hour of fun to make a judgement as to whether doing a certain type of vacation or event is worth it.

We discussed the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness in church, today. It was a long period (40 years) of refining for the children of Israel. It was refining period for the children of Israel just like the early persecutions and escape to the desert of the latter-day church was its refining period. When the Lord punished the murmuring Israel with firey serpents, Moses put a brass snake on a pole. Anyone suffering from the venom of the snakes could get relief by looking upon the brass snake.  There were possibly up to 1 million Israelites at that time with their animals, so they were spread out over a large area. It sounds easy to just look at a snake and be cured but these were people who had 1) been bitten and had painful venom in them, and 2) were a considerable distance from the brass snake on the pole. The vast majority likely had to walk in pain many miles to get to see the brass serpent. We talked about the original medical symbol...

From the internet: "The original caduceus is of Biblical origin—a rod with a brass snake on it. The Greeks over a thousand years later gave their god Hermes a rod with wings on the top and two snakes entwined around it. But their god of healing, Ascelpius, had the same rod and snake that Moses had made". I remember, as a child, seeing medical documentation with a snake on a pole symbol (the Caduceus) and thinking that was an odd symbol for the medical profession. Now I know where it comes from. Of course, Christ said:

 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” John 3:14, 15.

Balaam is interesting character, a non-Israelite prophet who had to be reprimanded by a donkey. He was likely a descendent of Lot through Lot's daughter and Moab, her son. When the King of Moab, Balak, asked him to curse Israel, it was a request from a fellow tribe member. He was unable to curse them directly but told Balak to get his people to tempt them through immoral and idolatrous behavior to bring a curse upon the people. Jewish tradition has it (Book of Jasher) that the magicians serving pharaoh, Jannes and Jambres, were the sons of Balaam. 

“Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone” (2 Tim 8-9)