Faithfully Unfaithful
Even after 40 years of miracles, human hearts still doubt, complain, and lose focus. Explore the powerful biblical account from Numbers 21—how God met Israel’s rebellion with mercy through the bronze serpent, and what that invitation to "look and live" means for our faith today.
RENEWLATEST
Stephen
11/1/20262 min read
It was the 40 th year since they had left Egypt. Many of the people who had begun the journey had already died and, they had lost Aaron too. It was very grief full event, and they mourned for 30 days. Their journey continued. The promised land seemed to be still far away. The wilderness continued to test their patience and faith. They could not yet see the light at the end of tunnel.
When the king of Arad heard that the children of Israel were approaching, he mobilized his army and attacked Israel, taking some of the men as prisoners. All these years, they spent their life in the wilderness and when they lost some of their family members as captives, it was very distressful. Then the people of Israel vowed to the Lord that if he would help them conquer the king of Arad and his people, they would completely destroy all the cities of that area.
Did the Lord not know how long this stiff-necked, murmuring and complaining people would remain loyal to the Lord. He knew very well, HE was the LORD who knew everything from the beginning to the end. What they did after few days was recorded in the very next verse. Yet the Lord heeded their request, gave victory to them and defeated the Canaanites. One good thing they did, completely destroyed the Canaanites and their cities as vowed. But what continued was a disaster.
The people were very discouraged; they began to murmur against God and to complain against Moses. “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they whined. “There is nothing to eat here, and nothing to drink, and we hate this worthless cheapest manna.”
This is the mind of you and me, humans. Always look down, focus on worldly & perishable things and forget to realize the heavenly blessings in our hands. The Israelites too did the same even after witnessing miracle after miracle in these 40 years. The Lord provided everything to them, fed them with angel’s food from heaven, made stream to flow in the desert, worn-proof dress and sandals, prepared feast in the wilderness. Above all, HE never left them and HE was with them even now. But they longed for food and water only.
When the death struck them in the form of poisonous snakes, they came to sense. They repented, confessed their sin of murmuring against God and ran to Moses, pleading to save them from the snakes. Gracious God once again forgave them because HE knew what man was.
“LOOK AND LIVE”
Lord commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent and lift it on the pole. If anyone was bitten by snake, all he needed to do was run as quickly as possible and look at the bronze serpent hanging on the pole. He would live. It was so simple to escape from the death. No need to do anything but only look at the bronze serpent lifted on the pole. The snake’s poison won’t do any harm and he can live.
Could merely looking at the bronze serpent on the pole would save me from the sure death? Was it possible to get healed without taking any medicine? Doubt could stand in the way. Choice is ours - doubt and die or look and live.
Even today, the invitation remains the same. Just simple.
The Lord has opened the way to life, just look at the cross and believe and live. Choice is ours.