In the winter of 2013, during a Sunday worship service in San Francisco, I vividly remember the moment when God sparked in my spirit what has become a lifelong investigation of the Rod with the Brazen Serpent. To this day, this symbol and every point in Scripture where it appears has served as the bedrock of my spiritual growth as a physician and the practical foundation of my daily medical practice. As Jesus tells Nicodemus in the dead of night in John 3:14–15, “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.” I believe this strange healing rod, now the symbol of modern medicine, has many lessons for us modern health care professionals. That little known verse connecting the Rod with the Brazen Serpent to Jesus, immediately proceed the most quoted verse in the Bible John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
As I’ve walked with God through the scriptures on this symbol, I’ve felt a necessity to share what I have learned with others. Someday I hope to summarize it all in a book and bible study. In fact, in 2017, I wrote out 20-pages of the first draft and in 2018, eleven gracious friends in healthcare joined me on a short-lived bible study on the scriptures where the symbol appeared. However, both efforts petered out. And by the time residency’s 80-hour work-weeks started, I had shelved this project. Personally, God has continued to grow my understanding of this symbol in my spiritual walk and in many ways, it helped lead me to my current Family Medicine and Addiction Medicine practice and leadership opportunities. As Moses and Aaron raised the Rod with the Brazen Serpent in Numbers 21, Jesus has taught me to raise Christ on the Cross in victory, healing and Glory that has shined into my medical practice and personal healing.
Five months ago, I moved back home to Orange County after 13 long years of being away. I just finished the “Live!” four-week workshop with Newsong Church in Santa Ana and as one of my practical next steps, I decided to revive this project. Even though other friends were interested in this topic before, I sensed the church was not ready to hear this. Now, 2 years after COVID-19 started with a nation that has fallen into division and passive-aggressive civil war, the church is in turmoil. There is a church civil war between conservative institutionalists and progressive deconstructivists. What we all have in common, is that everyone is having to reflect on the essential questions in life. Who am I? What do I value? What do I believe?
God has allowed the world and church to undergo this great trial as He burns off what was not meant to be. It is painful and we are all hurting and aching for something more. The soil of the church is perhaps now ready to dig further into some of this material with me. I look forward to further processing this strange symbol that King Hezekiah named “The Bronze Thing” or “Nehushtan” in 2 Kings 18:4. My invitation is to dialogue with other health care professionals through this blog, coffee conversations, and dialectic process of discussing this strange symbol littered throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. I hope to learn more in processing with others who have been on a similar journey. For while my own journey with the Nehushtan has been incredibly enriching, it also has been terribly lonely as I have processed it largely alone.
Be warned. I am not a typical doctor. In many ways, I am more an intellectual and healer than what has become of the modern physician, who is today more akin to a productive vending machine than what the Greeks originally envisioned. For example, I painted by Hippocratic Oath in acrylic with the Hippocratic Oath in Greek and Matthew 25:31–46. Titled, “Shattering the Glass Floor”, the painting was in many ways my antithetical pursuit of the roots of medicine. The deeper I entered the house of medicine, the more I found myself contrasting against the modern medical system we have built. The painting captured lessons I learned from serving with Mother Teresa Sisters in the Dine (Navajo) Nation. Particularly, that if we walk into the pain and unknown, if we bear witness to suffering and grow in compassion, rather than desperately trying to avoid and bandage every wound or let go of our codependent addiction to “fix things”, that we could discover greater truth, healing, and peace. Thus, I believe I was always meant to practice addiction medicine, a desperately needed field that embodies this antithetical view of medicine. Often times, I deprescribe inappropriate medications prescribed by other physicians that are harming patients. We are now amid an overwhelming drug epidemic that was started by the medical system itself and our overprescribing, failed duty to protect patients and compromised values in our medical system.
As we go along this journey, I invite you to question everything. As the Alcoholics Anonymous adage goes “Take what you need and leave the rest.” I do not purport to have the answers or even secret hidden knowledge. In fact, I recommend strongly against over reading into the symbology I will elucidate. For example, if you goggle the Rod with the Brazen Serpent, you get a lot of Mormon images and websites. Cults often use “teasers” (hits of dopamine) of hidden knowledge and symbols to lead unwitting and hurting souls down dark paths. (A physician friend who is part of a South Korean cult actually tried to pull me into his cult by saying “Did you ever realize God made plants before he made the sun? How did the plants survive? …Isn’t that amazing! …Want to join a bible study where we are looking deeper at the bible?” I shared with him how much I learned from the Mother Teresa Sisters and my interest in the pursuit of Truth and he never contacted me again. I think he could tell I wasn’t going to buy his bullshit. Unfortunately, that guy led another friend of mine deep into cult — this is how I know the guy was part of the South Korean cult.). So please DO NOT go down rabbit holes and always confirm any speculations with scripture, prayer and Godly community. If you start not making sense and making your friends nervous with rabbit holes, take 10-steps back. With this disclaimer, I do believe walking through the bible and taking a look at the Nehushtan will help many Christian healthcare professionals finally feel at home in this modern world that more often alienates and harms than heals. Thus, I invite you on this healing journey with me.
