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Now it was time for the faithful to begin to move forward. The timeline was just after the time that Miriam and Aaron had died. During this time period the people of Israel had suffered some great losses.
They seemed so close to the promised land. Yet; their circumstances made them feel so far away.
Now Aaron’s son and Moses were trying to lead them on. These leaders were eager to help the people to cross over to their nation’s new home.
FIRST VICTORY IN CANAAN
They came to the Negev. There, a Canaanite King reigned over a city called Arad. Arad was to the South of this area.
This King saw that Israel was coming. He spotted them along the road to Atharim. So, he attacked them. He even captured some of the people.
At that point, Israel stopped in their tracks. They knew their mistake. The people did not move any further without consulting with The Lord. They prayed this prayer: “If you will deliver these people into our hands, we will totally destroy their cities.”
GOD LISTENS
God listened to their prayers. He granted them an answer. Israel was victorious in the next battle with this same king.
To make it plain that God had won the battle for them, and that all victories belong to God and God alone; they completely destroyed the land. They destroyed the area to the point that no one could inhabit it. Before the faithful could move on, this land of their enemies was left barren and dedicated only to God.
When the process of recovering this land for God’s purposes was finished; Israel named the place “Hormah,” which means destruction.
AN OLDER GENERATION BEGINS TO DIE
There at Hormah, many of Israel’s older generation gave their lives. The crowd of the generation that was not going to be allowed to enter the land was thinning down a bit. However, there were still many of the rebellious generation left among the people of Israel.
Actually, the new generation was also rebellious.
At times they were even worse than their fathers.
A BARGAINING TYPE OF PRAYER
They must have realized their own rebelliousness. You can tell they saw their sins by the way they prayed.
Their prayers were more like bargains than worship.
I wonder how many people from all of humanity have also prayed such a prayer in their own time of need?
Have you ever bargained with God?
The bargaining prayer always goes like this: If you will __________; then we/I will _______.
This is sort of like making a promise or a pact with God in which you promise to deliver something of value, but only if He decides to answer your prayer requesting help for your needs at the moment.
GOD DOES NOT NEED TO BARGAIN
I’m sure that God finds these prayers laughable. Why would The Great God of Heaven ever need to make a bargain with mankind?
Sometimes God simply let’s us have our way. Often He grants us mercy and kindness when we are stupid.
As Numbers; Chapter 21 goes on with the story, we find what happened after the people were leaving Hormah. In these scriptures we can see how God was pondering and considering the people’s way of thinking. Perhaps God decided to give them a taste of their own bargaining prayer in reverse.
Have you ever done this to your own children? You treat them just the way they previously treated you in order to show them how it feels?
Hopefully, they learn from this.
WHY HAVE YOU BROUGHT US HERE TO DIE IN THE WILDERNESS?
As they left Mt. Hor, taking the long way around Edom. They were following the route to the Red Sea. At one point in the journey, the people began to grow impatient.
In the past during times of impatience, they had complained against Moses and Aaron. These complaints had been interpreted as an indirect complaint toward God.
This time they were bold enough to include God in their complaints.
They said to Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”
How many times had Moses heard this same complaint?
THE COMPLAINT DEPARTMENT WASN’T OPEN THAT DAY
When God heard these complaints (just shortly after He had been so kind and merciful to them and allowed them victory in battle;) He sent venomous snakes among them. The snakes bit the people. Many of the Israelites died.
I’m supposing that many of those who died were those who had not been granted entry into the Promised Land because of their previous sins of rebellion. By these snakes they were eliminated before reaching the land.
Those who were left alive finally came to their senses.
You have to wonder how many times this type of behavior could go on.
The people finally became humble and admitted to Moses that they had sinned. They confessed that they had spoken against the LORD and Moses. Then they asked Moses to pray for them.
MOSES INTERCEDES FOR THE PEOPLE
So Moses; being Moses; began to pray.
God gave him answers.
God told Moses to “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”
Moses did exactly as he was told. The snake he made was made out of bronze.
Bronze is the metal that symbolizes God’s judgment of sin.
The places where the cleansing was performed, and the sacrifices were prepared, was positioned outside the Sanctuary of the wilderness tabernacle. Here we can see this was similar to the fact that these people were just outside the vicinity of The Promised Land .
When a worshiper approached the tabernacle from the court outside they would need to pass through a place with a bronze laver and a bronze altar.
THE BRONZE SNAKE
We can see the similarity when we think of Moses making this bronze snake and putting it upon a pole.
In the place in the wilderness, everyone who looked at the bronze serpent on the pole after they were bitten lived.
At the Tabernacle of worship, all who washed in the bronze laver and brought a sacrifice to the bronze altar were forgiven. In other words; they lived in spite of their sins.
Those who did not believe and those who chose not to follow the instructions given by God to Moses did not look at the bronze serpent. They died in that place of the wilderness.
In all worship at the wilderness tabernacle, those who did not bring sacrifices to the bronze altar for their sins also died in their sins.
We can take this symbol of the bronze snake even further. It could be noted that those who looked upon the face of Jesus Christ as He hung on a cross for their sins and believed upon His name; received eternal life. They will live forever. Those who refused to believe will die in their sins.
GOD PROVIDES A WAY THROUGH THE PLACES OF GREAT SIN
The place where all the people were guilty of great sin was just outside the borders of The Promised Land. Isn’t that ironic?
The people were so close to the blessings; but they just could not do what it took to avoid the curses.
In this chaotic place, a provision was made by God. He stated that the people could be saved from the fiery serpents that had been sent to the sinners.
If they were willing to follow God’s commandments and do what God told Moses they should do; to look up at the bronze serpent on the pole; then they would live.
They had sinned greatly. Still; all they had to do was to follow God’s instructions. If they listened and obeyed; they would be saved.
God gave them something bronze to focus upon. They knew and understood from their past experiences at the Tabernacle that bronze was used in cleansing, judgment, and for getting ready for sacrifices.
GOD’S LOVE OUT WEIGHS MANKIND’S SINS
Do you see what happened?
This was God allowing His extraordinary love to out weigh mankind’s ability to sin. God wanted every single person to have enough faith to look up and receive the healing that they needed in order to move on to the promises. He proved this with the bronze snake on the pole.
All they had to do was to chose to obey a merciful God.
Each individual had to make the right choice.
LIFE IS ALWAYS ABOUT CHOICES
So often in life we are asked to make critical choices which determine our faith. Another study also shares a similar theme. The faithful had to make a choice. You may read that lesson too by clicking this link: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/what-did-we-learn-from-gideon/. In both cases, the people had to make a choice. They could obey God with faith, or they could die in their sins.
We too are given this same choice almost every day that we continue to live on this earth.
Moving on with our current story, we know that some felt looking at a bronze serpent on a pole was silly, crazy and stupid. They refused. Hence; they died.
Others saw that God had made a bargain with them. Consequently, this happened in exactly the same way they had bargained with God earlier. In their hearts the people knew that neither time required God to be merciful toward them. However; He had done so anyway.
These survivors trusted in God’s love. The people surrendered their will to that love.
They looked up.
God did the rest.
You can read more details of this story from another author by clicking this link: https://faithfoundedonfact.com/bronze-snake-numbers-21/#:~:text=The%20bronze%20serpent%20-strange%20though%20it
THE FAITHFUL MOVE FORWARD
Those who had faith continued on toward the promises. Everyone noticed with a new type of awareness that only the faithful moved forward.