March of Israel: The Bronze Snake

INTRO

Yesterday, we talked about Numbers 20 and the two people who died, Miriam and Aaron. Moses got mad, and instead of trusting in the Lord and speaking to the rock, he struck it. The consequence of hitting the rock was Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land.

TEACHING

Numbers 21:1: Arad is an actual town in the Negev (the wilderness) in Israel. Today 60 percent of Israel’s land is in the Negev, but only 7 percent of the people live in that area today. When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in Negev, heard the Israelites were coming on the Atharim road, he attacked and captured some of them. The Atharim road was probably the road the two spies later took when Joshua sent them to spy out the land.

Numbers 21:2: “Then Israel made a vow to the LORD.” The Israelites were committing to give themselves to God by making this vow. If the Lord delivered the Canaanites into their hands, they would completely destroy their cities. The word “destroy,” according to Wiersbe, meant, “to devote something completely to the Lord, wiping out the people and their cities and giving all the spoils to God.”¹

Numbers 21:3: The heard the prayer of the Israelites and gave the Canaanites over to them. The Israelites completely destroyed the Canaanites and named the place Hormah.

Numbers 21:4: When God sent the Israelites out from Mount Hor, along the route of the Red Sea, to go around Edom, the people grew impatient on the way. Their impatience contrasted sharply with the patience shown by others. Abraham waited 25 years for his son. Joseph waited 13 years to go from the pit to the palace. Moses waited 40 years, and walked around with people in the wilderness. David waited 15 years to become king. Jesus waited 30 years to implement His ministry. This was the first time this generation of Israelites encountered the Canaanites, and they didn’t handle it well. God is always taking us through a process. He has much to teach us through the afflictions we face. Instead of asking why or quitting, we should ask God what He is teaching us. Romans 5:3–4 encourages us to rejoice in our afflictions because they produce endurance, proven character, and hope. Hebrews 6:11–12 explains the importance of persevering: “Now we want each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the final realization of your hope, so that you won’t become lazy but will be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance.”

Numbers 21:5: The people spoke against God and Moses, complaining about the lack of bread and water and “this wretched food.” Because they tested God, He sent poisonous snakes that bit them, and many people died. First Corinthians 10:9 says, “Let us not test Christ as some of them did and were destroyed by snakes.” God had continually promised to give the land to the Israelites (Numbers 15:1–2), but they constantly forgot His promises. In Exodus 16, God sent manna and quail every day. God continued to feed them every day despite their whining and complaining. Psalm 78:25 revealed, “People ate the bread of angels. He sent them an abundant supply of food.” God gave them the best of the best, yet they complained: “Contemptible people among them had a strong craving for other food. The Israelites cried again and said, ‘Who will feed us meat?’” (Numbers 11:4) Commentators Keil and Delitzsch said these snakes, with red spots on their bodies, are still around today, affecting the Bedouins.²

Numbers 21:7–8: The people came to Moses and said they had sinned against him and God. They asked Moses to intercede with God for them, so Moses prayed for the people. God told Moses to make a snake image and mount it on a pole so that anyone who was bitten could look at it and recover.

Numbers 21:9: Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole so that whenever someone was bitten, they could look at the bronze snake and recover.

Scripture says this was a picture of Jesus.

• John 3:14: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.” The only way people can be saved from the bite of death is because Jesus was lifted up. Jesus had to be infected by sin, and He actually had to die.
• Hebrews 9:27–28: “And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment—so also the Messiah, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.” Jesus is now the image of death, but when we look through His death, we will get life.
• Romans 10:13: “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” The pole with the snake had to be out in the camp, just like Jesus had to be a part of the world.
• Acts 4:12: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people, and we must be saved by it.”
• John 14:6: “Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’” No one could force someone to look at the snake on the stick. Each person had to do that himself.
• Isaiah 45:22: “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is no other.”
• Ephesians 2:8–9: “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.”

CLOSING

My friends from Wausau, Wisconsin, made me a soapbox. I love this soapbox. So, I’m going to get on my soapbox for a minute here. I’m so tired of people saying you have to do this, this, and this to be saved. There is no Jesus plus. It’s just Jesus! We’ve made it harder than it has to be. Just look at the snake on the stick. Just look at Jesus on the cross.

First Corinthians 1:18–25 tells us: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is God’s power to us who are being saved. For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the understanding of the experts. Where is the philosopher? Or wise? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish? For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached. For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom, because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”

The Israelites were on a journey. They started complaining. They tested God. Finally, God brought His wrath and sent the snakes. Once they finally recognized their sin and repented, God said He would save them. All they had to do was look to Him. He tells us, “Look to Me, and I will save you.” This pointed to the coming Messiah.

We all sin, and our sin leads to death. The snakebite will lead to death. Ephesians 2 says all we have to do is believe in Jesus. Once we say “Jesus, I’m in,” we will have life. That is the message Moses gave. That is the message Jesus gave. That is the message of Numbers 21.