Numbers 21:1-20 NKJV
21 The king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the South, heard that Israel was coming on the road to Atharim. Then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. 2 So Israel made a vow to the Lord, and said, “If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.” 3 And the Lord listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of that place was called [a]Hormah.
The Bronze Serpent
4 Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very [b]discouraged on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul [c]loathes this worthless bread.” 6 So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.
7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
From Mount Hor to Moab
10 Now the children of Israel moved on and camped in Oboth. 11 And they journeyed from Oboth and camped at [d]Ije Abarim, in the wilderness which is east of Moab, toward the sunrise. 12 From there they moved and camped in the Valley of Zered. 13 From there they moved and camped on the other side of the Arnon, which is in the wilderness that extends from the border of the Amorites; for the Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. 14 Therefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of the Lord:
[e]“Waheb in Suphah,
The brooks of the Arnon,
15 And the slope of the brooks
That reaches to the dwelling of Ar,
And lies on the border of Moab.”
16 From there they went to Beer, which is the well where the Lord said to Moses, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water.” 17 Then Israel sang this song:
“Spring up, O well!
All of you sing to it—
18 The well the leaders sank,
Dug by the nation’s nobles,
By the lawgiver, with their staves.”
And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah, 19 from Mattanah to Nahaliel, from Nahaliel to Bamoth, 20 and from Bamoth, in the valley that is in the [f]country of Moab, to the top of Pisgah which looks down on the [g]wasteland.
Our focus today is on the first half of today’s reading. The Children of Israel had to look to a snake on a pole that God would provide in order to be freed from the deadly consequences of the serpents that were sent to afflict them because of their disobedience. The very cause of their affliction was lifted up before them and became their cure if they obeyed and looked at it.
The serpents were turned loose on the children of Israel because they had become unhappy with Moses, and therefore unhappy with God. The people began to grumble and complain; they were despising God’s daily providence of bread from heaven. They had forgotten how God had miraculously led them out of Egypt, across the red Sea, and provided meat and bread from heaven and water from a rock.
God’s people were repeating the sin of Adam and Eve; they doubted God’s Word and despised the wholesome food He had given them. Now God showed His erring people the nature of their sin and reminded them of the only way they would overcome its effects. He sent them serpents to remind them whose voice they chose to hear instead of His, and many of the people died showing again that the penalty for sin is death. The people saw that they had indeed sinned, and they looked to the Lord to show His mercy as He had in the day of the first serpent. They then turned to God’s servant, Moses, and begged to hear of grace.
The serpent on the pole pointed forward to Christ who was lifted up on the cross to atone for the sins of all mankind. God sent His Son to be punished for our sinfulness and disobedience. Jn 3:14-15 – “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Dear Saint, believe by faith in Jesus who took your sins to Himself and set you free from eternal death and damnation.
Let us pray: Thank You, Jesus, for willingly suffering and dying for my sins. Amen.