Ahhh Snakes. The Twisted Serpent. I'm Mean.
The Twisted Serpent. I’m Mean. Prepare to be offended.
The Twisted Serpent has a point of inspiration for me on my journey. It’s in the bible. Take a deep breath. It’s a weird ride.
Years ago I was dealing with a teaching called “prophetic art.” Prophetic art as a concept, originates out of Bethel, Redding and is taught by a woman named Teresa Dedmon. At the time, I believe she was teaching at Bethel’s School of the Supernatural. Now, she’s got her own gig in full bloom and runs something called the Create Academy. The reason why this is linked together is she also put out a brochure on this whole prophetic art thing justifying prophetic art and wrapping it around a healing ministry idea. In this way, God can miraculously heal people when they look at art. This IS a regular thing, okay. Miracles of healing and deliverance are supposed to - or at least can - happen when you create prophetic art as an artist. Now, if Bethel is anything, it likes to justify and rationalize what it does by finding texts in the bible to support its activities. It’s sort of the nature of the vast majority of the Christian world I am entirely too familiar with. Prophetic art is, or at least was, rather controversial because art is not a listed spiritual gift. As a result, there was lot of jot and tittling through the bible to locate some manner of pretext [or proof text, ha!] to protect the veracity of her creative revelation about art and it being legit as a spiritual gift and a vehicle of spiritual activity - particularly healing people miraculously. I get it. I just wish they exercised a concept called wisdom rather than some of what they do to make the bible bend to their will.[1]
At any rate, in her brochure justifying this God’s creative activity - you know to prove God does art - she cites Nos. 21. And here friends, is where the Twisted Serpent was actually born. Nos. 21 in the Old Testament has this scene where all these Israelite’s are doing some serious grumbling. I mean grumble, grumble, grumble-fumble in the wilderness. They are bitching and moaning about the food. They’re feeling rather impatient with the journey. Are we there yet? Can’t you hear it in the back seat of the car on a long, barren, dusty car ride with no A/C? Apparently, you shouldn’t ask this question if Yahweh is driving. Are we there yet? HA!
“Then they set out from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the people became impatient because of the journey. So the people spoke against God and Moses: “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we are disgusted with this miserable food” [NET Numbers 2.4-5].
Yahweh gets pissed. Yep. Pissed. Look at the passage. The impatient grumbling meant they were speaking against the God and Moses. Sigh. Like LITERALLY never mind what[?], something like 400 plus years of enslaved trauma, a scary exit into great insecurity by a powerful God who actually hasn’t presented itself in all those years in any given way except with some exceptional violence - flood anyone? All that ambivalent activity affects relationship when it comes to humans. Try doing that to your kids and see how much they like and trust you.
At any rate, this God then expects something like unearned blind faith by demanding unwavering belief and loyalty in exchange for protection and blessing. They traverse the desert to a mountain top to meet this all powerful God who defeats all the big badass Gods of Egypt. At the mountain top they are scared out of their wits and practically piss themselves. Then left by Moses for some odd 40 days and 40 nights while all the people wig out and need a comfy security teddy bear - er - more present God [you know an idol]- they are slaughtered by their neighbors for worshiping like they’d been programmed in their God’s absence for hundred’s of years. Let’s get naked they said! No disco ball but definitely quite the orgie was going on down thar at the base of that thar mountain. It clearly was entirely their fault for going back to inter-generational worship programming when that same said God didn’t quite give a total shit centuries before when they were in captivity and suffering. I mean, who changes on a dime, especially when one is scared shitless? We don’t - for the record. It’s kind of a human thing.
Maybe you don’t know but our neuro-pathways head right back to the worn path of comfort that have been present since they were first laid out. And even if we don’t or didn’t know that, doesn’t the alleged Creator know this? Apparently not. Scared shitless these people were to the point they needed - no WANTED - like their hair was on fire, a mediator between them and that scary “it” on a mountain lit on fire. I’d be scared too. So, after one too many mistakes and some weird forms of punishment/mercy/slaughter/grace/forgiveness ambivalence on the part of Yahweh, they end up at Nos. 21 grumbling, tired, sick of the crappy food, and impatient with the journey - to say the least.
Yahweh’s response isn’t some kind of understanding or depth of knowledge and compassion for these people. There is no historical big picture notion that an all-knowing God should have really. I mean, it’s well recognized that this deity is coercive and violent. So, Dedmon, to prove that God uses art for healing, points to the part of Nos. 21 where the bronze serpent is created for the Israelite’s to look to for their healing. If they are bitten and look at the bronze serpent, they will then be healed.
“Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. So the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and against you; intercede with the Lord, that He will remove the serpents from us.” And Moses interceded for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent, and put it on a flag pole; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, and looks at it, will live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent and put it on the flag pole; and it came about, that if a serpent bit someone, and he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived” [NET Numbers 21.6-9].
Voila! Here is total evidence that God uses art - the making of the bronze serpent - to heal people. What she omits in her half crazed need to prove that her revelation of prophetic art is legitimate, is who sent the serpents in the first place - you know - Yahweh. I mean, a regular person would understand this is a text of terror. To completely omit, in order to justify your ministry, that God literally sends the serpents as a response to tired, unhappy people who want to go home to Egypt because its that bad, then orders a bronze serpent to be created for healing is like someone’s abuser taking them to the hospital after they’ve beat the shit out of them and calling the abuser good and all knowing. Because we come from a blame the victim universe, too many claim that God was righteous here - look at what they were doing. I say, read some trauma, epigenetics, and eat some ice cream because that victim-perpetrator bond thing is not okay and it doesn’t lead to anything but more problems. The bible is full of it. But, I digress. This is some twisted relating going on right here.
Now, what is uber fun about these clearly ambivalent people with their war/revenge God, right before this crazy scene, is another bloody crazy scene. It goes something like this - spelled out by the NET translation:
“When the Canaanite, the king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming by the way of Atharim, he fought against Israel and took some of them captive. So Israel made a vow to the Lord and said, “If You will indeed hand over this people to me, then I will utterly destroy their cities.” The Lord heard the voice of Israel and turned over the Canaanites; then they utterly destroyed them and their cities. And the place was named Hormah.”
It’s important to understand here, I get Israel was just defending itself right? Why does this sound terribly familiar? At any rate, that place where it says Israel made a vow to God that if they handed over the people they would destroy the cities - what’s going on there is the ban. The city was put to the ban. Basically it’s understood by scholarship as a ritual like sacrifice of the entire city to God as a sweet aromatic smell in exchange for victory. You know - human sacrifice. Squirmy yet? Burbling it ain’t true? I didn’t say it - the academic verse does - so rationalize all you want. They’re probably more accurate and given the history of this God in the stories, it largely wouldn’t surprise me. What is going on here is a lot of dysfunctional foo-ing on a communal story-telling scale. I’m just reading the story here people. I’m not saying it happened any more than chucky roams the street with a large knife killing people. Most of us recognize the flick as horror. Why people excuse the bible is sort of an interesting twist - ed serpent - don’t you think? I do.
My thing here, is that Mrs. Dedmon chose this bizarre passage to present a dressed up version of Yahweh in Jesus dress. I’ve been to Bethel’s healing rooms where they openly teach people prior to going into the healing room that God doesn’t make you sick, but wants to heal. That’s why her citation of this verse to prove her healing ministry of prophetic artwork is so twisted - in a serpent kind of way. It shows God does kill people and then used “art” to heal people. That’s pretty twisted. The whole story is actually twisted. It’s twisted everywhere. She’s as twisted as a pretzel like the story is, like the god is, like the whole kill you and look at my art rationalization is.
And by the way, and this IS controversial, there is at least one scholar who thinks that whole bronze serpent thing wasn’t some kind of prophetic art healing act Mrs. Dedmon would love it to be - but rather something closer to [possibly] sympathetic magic [Lederman Thetorah.com]. Yeah - magic. Sort of the tail of what bites you can heal ya in the drinkers universe. Or maybe a vodoo doll. Only here it’s a picture of a snake that heals the bite of a snake. I recommend the article. Is it fair then, to say that Teresa is promoting at least possibly some kind of version of sympathetic magic? HA! Nah - it’s just something else - for their mind to rationalize.
That’s twisted.
Notations
[1] What would be wise is to take a more systemic look at the nature and activity of the God of the bible. For instance, when it comes to art, there is this whole creative activity found in the making of the tabernacle. Bezalel [look at the EL ending, oooops] is the person chosen to be “filled” by the spirit for the purpose of constructing the Tabernacle. In fact, it’s quite crazy what happens here:
“The Lord spoke to Moses, ‘See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God in skill, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs for work with gold, with silver, and with bronze, and with cutting and setting stone, and with cutting wood, to work in all kinds of craftsmanship” [Exodus 31.1-5 NET Bible].
Now, I’m not saying this means art is some kind of a spiritual gift. It’s probably pretty typical for ancient people to have craftspeople work on their tabernacles and temples. Having someone filled with the spirit or anointed even, would make a lot of sense as far as the sacredness of the whole project. It does show though, that at least for one person, this deity has provided its spirit for the purpose of building some for that spirit. As a result, some of what Teresa does have some cursory [albeit weak probably] possibility. Why, well because they argue you can do art for the glory of God and God’s kingdom. You’re building God’s house [his people] using art. Look, I said it sounded weak okay, but there is some basic evidence that it’s in the nature and character of this deity to do something like this for its own purposes. Lawdy I sound like an apologetic’s type of person.
Bibliography
Richard Lederman, "Nehushtan, the Copper Serpent: Its Origins and Fate" TheTorah.com (2017). https://thetorah.com/article/nehushtan-the-copper-serpent-its-origins-and-fate
NET Bible. Thomas Nelson, 2019.