Today’s Bible Reading: NUMBERS 19:1-21:35
Numbers 21:8 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." -
We all waver on our spiritual journey. We have success one day and then struggle the next day. We might see great gain one day only to grumble the next day. We are on again off again spiritually. This seems to be a pattern that has plagued our predecessors too. The Israelites would be delighted one day and disgusted the next day. They would rejoice that God give them victory and then rail at Him for their vittles. They vacillated.
In the text God begins judgment upon His people for this very thing. They should have been overjoyed because of their win over the Canaanites; instead they were “over” everything about their circumstances. They were “way past” their wilderness wanderings. They were done with them. They rejected God’s path from Egypt; his purpose for Canaan and his provisions of manna (21:5). They complained. Their dissatisfaction led to disobedience. They sinned in their disbelief. They spoke against Moses and even God because of their situation. Their complaint brought consequences. Their rebellion brought God’s response. As a result, God’s hand was heavy upon them. He had delivered them, now He had to discipline them.
God’s judgment was severe. He sent serpents to strike them. There was no recourse to escape from them. There was no action to stop their advance. Everyone got bit. The deadly venom flowed through every vein permeating their body with its poison. There was no cure or antidote available. Everyone was affected. Everyone was doomed to die. Nothing could help them apart from divine intervention.
In their hopelessness they sought heavenly help. Moses, who previously was their enemy, was now their way of escape. He was their only hope of help. They now come to him with confessions rather than complains. They confess their sins repenting of their rebellion (21:7). They call on him to cry out to the Lord to remove the reptiles from them. God hears and response, not by removing the snakes, but by setting up a remedy that they must respond to in order to be rescued. He provided a way of victory over venom.
God’s cure was a choice. He set before them life or death. They had all been bitten. They were already dying. God’s solution was to believe what He had said. The bronze serpent on the stick was not the solution, but it was in believing that they would be saved by “looking” at the uplifted serpent. The serpent was set where all could see it, but only those who looked at it lived. Those who disbelieved and chose not to look upon it in hopes for another solution, didn’t survive. Those who believed what God said and looked to His provision were saved. Those who didn’t died. Look and live.
The serpent was a precursor of the one who would come to be lifted up to receive the judgement for the sins for all those who would look to Him to be saved. We are all snake bitten. We all experience the poisonous bite of the serpent injecting his sinful venom into our lives. We too will perish without God’s provision. Jesus is God’s provision for our rescue. Jesus says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man (Jesus) be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). Like our desert forerunners, we must respond to God’s remedy. We must either believe in what God says by looking to Jesus for eternal life or reject what He says and experience eternal death. Look to Jesus and live.
Today rejoice that Jesus hung on the cross to be the cure for the sting of sin. Thank the Lord that He has made the provision for us to live by looking to Jesus. Ask the Lord to help you not waver in your commitment to Him by rejoicing in Him one minute and then railing at Him the next. Plead with Him for you friends and family who are “bitten” by sin but are not yet born again. Ask Him to help them see that their cure is in Christ hanging on the cross for them. Ask Him to help them Look to Jesus and live.
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