Rev. A. J. Ogden

In Numbers Chapter twenty-one we see God’s people having their ups and downs as usual. Sin, as now, was their greatest problem. In that chapter we learn that they had scored many victories because God enabled them by His mighty power. But like so many Christians today, they got tired and weary in their journey, and that is always a good opportunity for Satan to get into a life. They were so worn out they began to be irritable, cross, and unkind to everyone around them. Has that ever happened to you? Their thinking began to be upside down. Moses, who had been their best friend and deliverer, was condemned and criticized by the very people who should have lifted him up. We are told in Numbers 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.” They were tired of God’s provision.

There we see the voice of ingratitude and sin. How could they have been so unthankful and faithless, when God had already worked miracles before their eyes? Have we ever been guilty of that kind of sin?

The Bible says God turned loose hundreds of poisonous snakes in their midst to deal with their rebellion, and the snakes were biting and killing many of them. Scared out of their minds, they began to run to Moses, asking him to beg God to take away the snakes. They were willing then to quit whining, fussing and grumbling, and condemning God’s man, Moses.

Numbers 21:8 tells us, “And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.” Verse nine says, “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.”

In the Old Testament that was a picture or type of Jesus, who in the future would come to earth to die for our sins. He would be nailed to the cross and die in our place to save us from our sins. He has already done that for us over 2,000 years ago. John 3:14-15, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man he lifted up: That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”