ICS Daily Devotions
Look up and Live!
Numbers 21:4-9 Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. 5 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 our soul loathes this worthless bread.” 6 So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. 7 Therefore 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. 8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
God disciplined the Israelites for the sins they had committed. The Israelites had to circumnavigate around the land of Edom because the King of Edom refused to give them permission to pass through the land.
The Israelites did not appreciate nor were they able to understand the big picture. The people became tired and impatient along the way. They were not able to understand the deliverance of God! They yielded to the flesh rather than giving thanks to God for delivering them from the slavery in Egypt as they were heading towards the Promised Land.
The murmuring and complaining against God caused them to wander in the desert for 40 years!! The people forgot about what happened in the past when they experienced the same rebellious situation and confrontation with Moses in the earlier part of the journey. They did not learn their lesson. Therefore, they are going through another cycle of humbling.
These people had no fear of God neither did they have a clear understanding of the holiness, the righteousness and the just God who was leading them out of Egypt towards the Promised Land. They were disgusted by the manna provided by the Lord. They were not able to appreciate the provision and the deliverance of the Lord.
It was not about the lack of water because in Exodus 17, God provided water for them when Moses struck the rock with his rod. It was not about the lack of food because God provided them with manna, but they called it worthless bread! Obviously, there was a sense of rebellion in the camp and an attitude that was coming from the people against God and the leader Moses. They carried an attitude that they were able to do a better job than Moses; if God didn’t seem to know what He was doing then they could take over! It was an attitude of pride, discontent, and rebellion. It’s the same old problem with the people of Israel.
If we do not learn from our lessons, then we might wander longer in the wilderness than usual. It was supposed to be a short trip for them, but they ended up there for 40 years, and the whole generation was not allowed to enter into the Promised Land.
It is good for us to take stock of our lives whether we have dealt with certain attitudes in sin in our lives so that we do not have the déjà vu experience.
The fiery or poisonous serpents were allowed to attack them. Their sin brought it upon them. The serpent is typical of Satan, into whose snare Israel had already fallen into by their unbelieving discouragement, so God was now impressing on them what it means to let Satan take control of them.
The sacrificial system set up at the tabernacle shows us the magnitude of sin, how God sees it, the sinful nature of men and the holiness of God. Nobody was able to enter the Holy Place except the High Priest. The High Priest had to ensure that he was thoroughly cleansed before he entered the Holy Place or else he would drop dead upon entering into the presence of God. In fact, a rope was tied to his leg when he entered into the Holy Place so that someone would be able to pull him out to retrieve his body if he dropped dead.
While God is a loving, merciful and gracious God, He is also a Holy God. He is a Just God and He has to judge sin and rebellion is sin. In this case, it was an outright rebellion against God and His chosen servants!
V8-9 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
It is SIN that brought about separation from God, caused broken relationships among man and sicknesses and pain.
However, God provided a remedy. It was very simple, just look and live. It is the “look of faith” that God has judged the sin on the bronze serpent.
Why was a bronze serpent used? Bronze is the symbol of judgment. The brazen altar was where sacrifices were made in the tabernacle and the brazen laver was where priests washed from their defilement. On the other hand, the serpent is a type of Satan and sin because Satan first appeared in the form of a serpent. Jesus said we will trample on snakes and scorpions and we will overcome all the power of the enemies. Therefore, the brass serpent on the pole would symbolize the sins judged and the destroyer destroyed.
When the Israelites repented before God and Moses and looked towards the serpent, they believed the Word of Moses that sin had been judged as they gazed upon the brazen serpent which was set on a pole.
John 3:14-15 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but[a] have eternal life.
It was on the cross that the Lord Jesus met all the power of Satan and crushed Satan’s head. It was not a live serpent lifted up, but one that symbolized the paralyzing of all Satan’s power. One look at that serpent on the pole was sufficient to heal any victim, just as one looks in faith at Christ in His great sacrifice; it is sufficient to deliver anyone from the poison of sin and give eternal life. What a wonderful message of God’s love and grace！
Sermon Series: Knowing God- Jehovah Rapha
