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Scripture Reading – Numbers 21-22
Numbers 21
The Defeat of Arad, the Canaanite King (Numbers 21:1-3)
Numbers 21 finds Israel near the end of their forty-year sojourn in the wilderness. The vastness of Israel’s population was such that neighboring nations feared the congregation. One king, Arad the Canaanite, fought against Israel, taking some of the people as prisoners. Then, the people called on the LORD and vowed, “If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities” (21:2). The LORD heard Israel’s promise and gave them a great victory over the Canaanites. As promised, the people “utterly destroyed them and their cities” (21:3).
The Brass Serpent (Numbers 21:4-9)
Despite their great victory over the Canaanites, Edom’s refusal to allow Israel to pass through their land soon found the people discouraged (21:4). Like their parents before them, they began speaking against God, and Moses, saying, “Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread” (21:5).
The LORD’S judgment was swift, and “fiery [poisonous] serpents” bit the people, and many died (21:6). Moses, evidencing the humility and meekness of a leader who had borne much, prayed for the people when they confessed, “we have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee” (21:7). The LORD heard Moses’ prayer and commanded him, saying, “Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live” (21:8).
The Message of the Cross
Moses obeyed the LORD, and fashioned “a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived” (21:9). Jesus identified the significance of this event in His conversation with Nicodemus (John 3). There, the LORD revealed that the “brass serpent” was a type, a pre-incarnate symbol, of Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: [15] That whosoever believeth in Him [Jesus Christ] should not perish, but have eternal life. [16] For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:14-16).
The brass serpent Moses, suspended on a pole, was God’s object for Israel to look to and live. Some 2,000 years later, Christ was suspended on the Cross. Sinners who look to Jesus’ death and resurrection find the answer to the “wages of sin” (Romans 6:23). As the invitation to Israel was to look and live, so there is an invitation to all sinners:
Look to the Cross, and with eyes of faith, believe Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and raised from the dead.
1 John 5:11-13 – “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”
LOOK and LIVE!
Questions to consider:
1) Who did King Arad the Canaanite take prisoner? (Numbers 21:1)
2) What did the LORD send when the people began to murmur and complain against God and Moses? (Numbers 21:4-6)
3) What did the LORD promise if the people looked upon the brass serpent suspended on a pole? (Numbers 21:8-9)
Copyright © 2023 – Travis D. Smith
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