*Numbers 21:4-9
Angry for their complaints, God sends fiery serpents among the Israelites, but offers healing to those who look upon a bronze serpent Moses makes on a pole, foreshadowing Jesus Christ on the cross.
- Complaints of the Israelites:
- The Israelites, traveling through the wilderness, become discouraged and discontent.
- They voice their grievances against God and Moses, expressing frustration with their circumstances.
- Divine Judgment:
- God responds to their complaints by sending poisonous snakes among the people.
- Many Israelites are bitten and suffer the consequences of their murmuring.
- Repentance and Intercession:
- Realizing their error, the Israelites confess their sin and ask Moses to intercede on their behalf.
- They acknowledge their wrongdoing and seek deliverance from the venomous serpents.
- Divine Provision:
- In response to Moses’s intercession, God instructs him to fashion a bronze serpent and mount it on a pole.
- Anyone who is bitten by a snake can look at the bronze serpent and live.
Conclusion: Numbers 21:4-9 highlights the consequences of grumbling and the profound mercy of God. Despite the Israelites’ disobedience, God responds with compassion, providing a means of deliverance and healing.
21:4 And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.
21:5 And the people spake against God, and against Moses, 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.
21:6 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
21:7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
21:8 And the LORD said unto Moses, 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.
21:9 And Moses made 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.