The Israelites are closer to the promised land than ever before. The Lord swore in Chapter 14 that no one aged twenty and up, who had witnessed His great works in Egypt and in the wilderness, would enter the promised land---with the exception of Joshua and Caleb. This was due to the refusal of the people to move on into Canaan to begin taking the land upon command of the Lord. Because of their refusal, they've remained in the wilderness for an additional thirty-eight years (having already been free of Egypt for two years when the Lord told them it was time to move ahead into the promised land) while the faithless generation dies out. Here in Numbers 21 the majority of the people are of the newer generation but still we find them making the same complaints against the Lord that the older generation made.
"They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom." (Numbers 21:4a) You'll recall that the king of Edom refused to allow them to use the quicker route through his territory. This forced them to take the long way. Impatient with the delay, they begin to grumble in the same way the older generation did. "But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and Moses and said, '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!'" (Numbers 21:4b-5) They accuse the Lord and Moses of having bad intentions toward them (bringing them into the wilderness to die) and they murmur about the manna (a nutritionally complete food provided freely by the Lord) that they are still eating day in and day out. On the one hand we can understand that the manna has become monotonous; human beings crave variety and new experiences. However, they could have been enjoying the good foods of the rich land of Canaan for thirty-eight years now if their elders hadn't sinned against the Lord. The days of eating manna would by this time have been only a distant memory if their elders had had the faith to go up and take the land.
For the record, I believe no other group of people on the earth would have done any better in the wilderness than the Israelites. I can't point a finger at them and think that I (a Gentile) or my ancestors or our current generation would have behaved any differently. In fact, I feel that the pagan tribes of the earth would have fared far worse in the wilderness than Israel did because the pagans served gods who didn't exist and who were incapable of performing signs and wonders, much less of providing manna to sustain them. Any other group would likely have perished long before Numbers 21, either by starvation or by turning on each other or by being attacked by enemy tribes. The Lord was Israel's protector and provider in the wilderness; no heathen peoples could have said the same.
Because the Lord has been Israel's protector and provider, He finds the ongoing complaints and assaults against His character very grievous. The Israelites of our current chapter have had the privilege of witnessing things no other people had ever witnessed. God has interacted with them in ways He had never interacted with anyone else. He has proven He is a personal God who cares about them individually and as a group. He has manifested His power and glory in their sight time and time again. You and I have never seen the cloud of His glory come down and rest on Mount Sinai or on the tabernacle and you and I have never heard His voice that is so thunderous that it shakes the ground. We haven't been led across the wilderness by a pillar of cloud in the daytime and by a pillar of fire at night. We can't say we've ever witnessed Him parting the Red Sea. We can't say we have been provided with free manna that just appears on the ground each morning. But the Israelites could say those things. This is why their complaints in the wilderness are more grievous to the heart of God than the complaints you and I make in our daily lives. Don't get me wrong; complaining against the Lord in any era is a sin of ungratefulness. But we need to stop and consider why the Lord dealt so harshly with Israel's complaints. It's because they saw and heard and experienced the Lord in ways which no other people ever saw and heard and experienced. As the Lord Jesus pointed out many centuries later, a person who knows little about the Lord can only be expected to live by what little they know. But a person who knows a lot about the Lord is expected to live by higher standards. The one who knows a lot about the Lord should trust the Lord a lot and should obey the Lord a lot. "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." (Luke 12:48b) This verse is often summed up as, "To whom much is given, much is required." The Lord has given much of Himself to the Israelites by this point in the Old Testament. They ought to automatically trust and obey Him by now.
The Lord could have sentenced the new generation to another forty years in the wilderness and another forty years of eating daily manna. Instead He gets the attention of the entire group by sending something into their midst which causes intense physical discomfort. Nothing gets our attention quicker than bodily suffering. "Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died." (Numbers 21:6) Many scholars over the ages have debated what type of snakes these were. They've debated whether they were literal snakes at all. We won't delve into any of that at this time. Our focus will be upon the reason the snakes came and the effect the snakes had on the people.
The snakes came as discipline for faithlessness and ungratefulness. The snakes also came as a method of removing from the community more of the elders who rebelled against the Lord in Chapter 14. He said the faithless generation would not enter the promised land, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb. We are told "many Israelites died" from the snake bites and I feel that many or all who died were of the faithless generation.
What effect does this have on the survivors? They humble themselves and come to to Moses (whom they've maligned with their words) for help. In doing this they're admitting that they wronged Moses and that they need Moses to act as an intercessor for them with the Lord. Also they confess their sin and repent of it. In doing this they're admitting that the Lord cares about them and does have their best interests at heart. They're admitting that they need Him and that He is the source of all things good, including their healing. "The people came to Moses and said, 'We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.'" (Numbers 21:7a)
"So Moses prayed for the people." (Numbers 21:7b) Moses isn't a perfect man. He's made mistakes along the way, and one mistake in particular in Numbers 20 that will keep him from the promised land. But Moses displays a heart like Christ's every time he prays for the people. Ever since Moses led them out of Egypt they've complained against him and accused him of wanting them to die. They've questioned whether he was really called by God to lead them or whether he promoted himself to this office. They've even---on at least one occasion for certain---wanted to stone him to death. But time and time again Moses obeys these words which Christ will speak approximately 1400 to 1500 years later: "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be the children of your father in heaven." (Matthew 5:44-45a)
In tomorrow's passage the Lord tells Moses what he and the people must do to put an end to the current distress. It will take more time than we have in today's study to discuss the object known as the bronze snake and its significance and its later destruction.
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