Read Numbers 21:4–9
Questions from the Scripture text: From where did they journey (Numbers 21:4)? By what way? To go around where? What happened to the people in the way? Against whom did the people speak (Numbers 21:5)? Of what do they accuse them? What do they complain is missing? But what do they complain that they hate? Who sent what in Numbers 21:6? What did the fiery serpents do? With what effect? Who came to whom in Numbers 21:7? What do they say they have done? How had they sinned? Against whom? What do they now ask Moses to do? What, specifically, did they ask him to pray? Who spoke to whom in Numbers 21:8? What did He tell him to make? What did He tell him to do with it? What would people continue to suffer? What must they do in that case? For what result? What did Moses make (Numbers 21:9)? Where did he put it? What could anyone do under what circumstance? With what result?
How can entrenched sinners be forgiven and saved? Numbers 21:4–9 looks forward to the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these six verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that God shows great grace to great sinners by giving them to look to His Son for salvation.
The danger of impatience (Numbers 21:4). The problem in v4 is literally that the people “were very shortened.” It’s not so much “discouragement” (NKJV, Numbers 21:1) as “impatience.” In their impatience, their repentance (Numbers 21:2) turns back to rebellion (Numbers 21:5; cf. Numbers 20:4, Exodus 17:3). We must learn to wait on God’s timing; impatience is a source of anxiety, ingratitude, complaining, and other wickedness. Learn to trust God in His providence!
The danger of speaking against God’s servants (Numbers 21:5a). We see how speaking against God and against His servant go hand in hand in verse 5. The people recognize this in their confession of sin in Numbers 21:7. The fact of divine ordination is a major theme in this book (chapters 16–18). To speak against God’s servant among you is to speak against God Himself (e.g., 2 Kings 2:23–25). Since almighty God governs and leads us by use of mortal sinners, our own sinfulness takes advantage by directing against those mortals what is really hostility to God Himself. We may feel more justified, or less guilty, this way; but such feelings are self-deception. Let us be careful of speaking against God’s servants, when our dissatisfaction is really with God Himself.
The danger of speaking against God’s salvation (Numbers 21:5b). For at least the third time, the people respond to their deliverance from Egypt on account of their present circumstances. Complain against God’s salvation? Who would do such a thing? We mustn’t forget that His salvation includes not only the moment of justifying faith, but the whole of the life lived in union with Christ. Whenever we complain about the “hardships” (may such thinking be removed far from us!) of being a Christian, are we not doing just that? Complaining against His salvation? When we pine after sin, or wish we could live for pleasure or praise or property, or bristle at persecution that comes for His sake… aren’t all of these ways that we complain against His salvation? And, more subtly but quite applicable from the context, when we grumble at the progress that we are making in grace, isn’t that a form of complaining against His salvation?
The danger of speaking against God’s provision (Numbers 21:5c). Have you ever heard someone, staring into a full refrigerator or pantry, say, “there’s nothing to eat”? Israel do that in verse 5. They say, “there’s no food” … “and our soul loathes this worthless bread.” How can there be “no food” if they hate it?! And woe to us when we are so self-deceived as to turn up our noses at His provision, as if our preferences or ideas would be better. But whereas Israel did this with the wonderful gift of manna, we have often done it with the ways that the Lord Jesus gives to us to feed upon Himself as the bread of life.
After all these years of our lives (or all these centuries of the church’s life), we mustn’t give in to the inclinations of our flesh—lest we may bore of, or tire of or even come to the place where we find tedious, or loathsome, Word, sacrament, and prayer. Soon, then, we will be adding to God’s design for worship and plan for our sanctification. I’m afraid that in the time and place where this devotional is being written, the vast majority of “churches” have come up with their own replacements for the means by which the Bread of Life has given us to feed upon Himself. How dreadful when the plain ways of Christ are “loathsome to the souls” of the church!
The kindness of chastening providence (Numbers 21:6-7a). The sending of the fiery serpents seems like a sever judgment, but look at what it produces. Israel are brought to confess sin and plead for forgiveness. Thus, the serpents are severe judgment upon the people, and yet providential mercy to the people at the same time. For, it is better to die physically of venomous bite than to die eternally of a wicked and rebellious heart.
The kindness of self-forgetfulness in the ministry (Numbers 21:7b–c). The people have spoken against Moses and against YHWH, but now they need Moses to pray and YHWH to forgive. The Lord’s true servant must have the gentleness of character to forgive offense and even injury. “Moses prayed for the people.” When the people of God have sinned against him, they are all the more in need of his ministry. Whether a husband, a father, or an elder, spiritual leaders must be men of great patience and great prayer for those entrusted to their care. They must be slow to take offense and quick to put it entirely away.
The kindness of differently-answered prayer (Numbers 21:8-9). The people had asked for serpents to be taken away, but the Lord does not do this. Instead, He makes provision of the bronze serpent on the pole. Still, they would be bitten for their sin, but there was a God-provided forgiveness to which they could look for entirely unmerited (demerited!), unachieved deliverance. God does not facilitate sin, but He does provide forgiveness. How blessed is the answer to prayer that does not remove consequences but does turn us to Christ for forgiveness. Jesus identifies this bronze serpent as an image of saving faith (cf. John 3:14–15).
The danger of idolatrous use of God’s signs (cf. 2 Kings 18:4). God had given them the bronze serpent as a means of looking to Him for forgiveness by grace, and He had given very specific instruction for its use. But for five hundred years, they made idolatrous use of it as if it were a deity or infused with some spiritual power. To add insult to idolatry, they named it after an Egyptian deity (“Nehushtan”). It is all too easy for men to trust in the means that God has provided, using them in a superstitious manner, rather than trusting in Him to employ the means by His own grace. Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and even the way that we use Scripture or prayer, are all susceptible to our abuse. Let us never use these means of looking to Christ as if they have power of themselves apart from trusting in God Himself to employ them in almighty grace, according to His own instruction for employing them.
Against what, in your life, and in God’s work of bringing you at last into glory, are you tempted to complain? Against whom? Against Whom are you really complaining, when you do this? What is your heart attitude toward the means by which Christ has given you to feed upon Himself? How does this show up in your frequency, diligence, and delight in the use of those means?
Sample prayer: Lord, we have been impatient, and our impatience has produced a wicked, grumbling attitude toward Your providence and even toward Your means of grace. We thank You that You have given Your Son, our Lord Jesus, to be the Bread of Life for us. We are amazed that when we had sinned so greatly against You and against Him, You demonstrated Your love by giving Him and by His giving Himself for us. And we thank You for those painful consequences of sin by which You make us to feel its wickedness and hatefulness. But we thank You most of all that You have given to us to look to Him in faith and live. Grant unto us life, by that faith, and to live by that faith, we ask in Christ’s Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH449 “As When the Prophet Moses Raised”
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