St Gregory of Nyssa | ...the pleasures of the table enslaved them...

Again the pleasures of the table enslaved them, and their desires led them to gluttony. Although they lacked none of the necessities of life, disorderly youths were dreaming of the Egyptian plenty. 

They were disciplined by very severe scourges: Serpents within the encampment as they bit them injected deadly poison in them. 

When deaths caused by the serpents followed in rapid succession, the lawgiver, at the urging of divine counsel, cast a bronze likeness of a serpent and placed it on a height to be seen by the whole camp. 

In this way he stayed the harm done among the people by the serpents and delivered them from destruction. For he who looked on the bronze image of the serpent did not fear the bite of the real serpent, since looking at it counteracted the poison by some mysterious antidote. 

St Gregory of Nyssa