Scripture: From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 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 we loathe this worthless food.” Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And 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. And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
Numbers 21:4-9 ESV
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Observation: Recapping Friday’s Daily Focus, Arad’s king hears that Israel, the same tribal nation that had suffered a devastating defeat forty years earlier in the neighboring territory, is approaching the northern edge of the Dead Sea in Moab. So he preemptively leads a raid on Israel and takes captives. But this is a new generation with no personal memory of the prior devastating loss. Hence, Israel vows to the Lord that if he gives these Canaanites over to them, they will devote their enemy’s cities to destruction, following the command their elders failed to uphold. Pleased with their intent, the Lord fulfills his end of the promise and hands this Canaanite king and his army over to Israel, who then razes Arad’s cities. Accordingly, the victors name the place Hormah (ḥormāh), a noun related to the verb ḥāram (“to devote to destruction”).
As for today’s passage, despite exhibiting confidence in God when vowing to devote the cities of Arad to destruction, this next generation shows a relapse of fidelity when Moses leads the people southward toward the Red Sea. Whether this story is an anachronistic insertion or follows a timeline of Yahweh redirecting Israel away from Canaan to test them, the reaction is similar to that of the previous generation. Impatient, they grumble against Moses for bringing them to a wilderness with no water or food other than the “worthless manna” (vv.4-5). This time, they complain not only against Moses but inherently against Yahweh, the source of their miraculous bread. So the Lord acts without discussing the matter with Moses and, instead of quail, sends poisonous snakes whose venom burns like fire (v.6). Seeing loved ones dropping dead, the people wisely confess their sin against Yahweh and Moses and plead for Moses to intercede. Graciously, Moses acts quickly when the Lord commands him to craft a bronze serpent and place it on a pole for the people to gaze upon (vv.7-8). And any who obeyed the directive lived (v.9).
Takeaway: The Lord’s command seems contradictory to his second of the Ten Commandments: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Exodus 20:4 ESV). The distinction here is that God’s people were forbidden to craft idols by their initiative, for to do so would lead them astray. Hence, Yahweh gives the directive in this instance.
Our takeaway? Regardless of whether this is a satisfactory explanation, we must not put God in a box and make assumptions about how he must act in a given situation. Peter had to learn this lesson when the Lord commanded him in a vision not to declare anyone unclean under the New Covenant of Grace. It took three swipes of this vision before Peter understood that his Lord was invoking a new paradigm of salvation where all who put their faith in Christ would become children of God (Acts 10:9-33).
But why would God command Moses to craft an idol to bring salvation? Our marvelous biblical narrative threads a serpent theme from the Fall to the above crisis to the final battle at the Cross of Christ, where the snake, representing evil, gains the momentary advantage but is crushed at Calvary—fulfilling the prophecy God spoke at the Fall of humankind (Genesis 3:14-15). Additionally, Christ, who called himself the Bread of Life (John 6:22-59), is our new Manna in whom anyone seeking sustenance in him will not spiritually die. But to reject this divine food as “worthless” (verse 5 of our text) is to cut off our only means of forgiveness, reconciliation, and eternal life.
Our part? The solution to Israel’s sin problem, which otherwise leads to death, is the same for us. We, too, must raise our heads to behold our Savior and put our faith in him. As Christ responds to Nicodemus’ confusion over being born again by the Spirit, he adds: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15 ESV). But it doesn’t stop there. As the author of Hebrews contends, we must keep looking up to our Savior and Lord: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV). So keep looking up!
Prayer: Father God, thank you for your Son who crushed the serpent, removed the sting of death, and sustains us as our heavenly Manna. Still, in this fallen world, we are prone to fixating on the ills of life. So, please help us keep looking up to behold your glorious Son so that we might not lapse into faithless grumbling when our present circumstances weigh us down. Amen.
Rev. Gordon Green, M.Div., M.A. Counseling
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