Tuesday 19th September
Read Numbers 21:4-9
“They travelled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go round Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against 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!’
6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 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.’ So Moses prayed for the people.
8 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.” (NIVUK)
Why a snake on a pole?
Perhaps because squarely confronting one’s own sin, looking directly at it, repenting and confessing, is the only safe way to life. The people recognised the snakes amongst them, the pain and death they brought, as a just judgment and acknowledged their sin (v7). They must look at what they had followed, and the mere act of looking, by faith, will restore them. There is no magic, there is only confession. There are no formulas, there is only repentance.
God provided a path to life through repentance and confession but the temptation is always there to substitute faith for magic. The bronze snake itself became a snare for the people because our hearts long for deception. People chose to worship it rather than the God who simply wanted them to trust His goodness and live accordingly. The bronze snake itself ultimately had to be destroyed by Hezekiah. Hezekiah… “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)” (2 Kings 18:3-4) (NIVUK). The very name, Nehushtan, became a formula (literally an amalgamation of the Hebrew for ‘bronze’ and ‘snake’), a substitute god, like the golden calf before it. We are so easily deceived.
“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:8-9) (NIVUK)
Why a snake on a pole?
