Monday 18th 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?
Probably because it is not just a snake on a pole. It represents something far more dangerous than vipers in a desert. To appreciate this we need to think about snakes and serpents in scripture. One of the first serpents we encounter deceives humanity into doubting God’s goodness (Genesis 3), just as they doubt His goodness here in the wilderness (v5). Pharoah, ruler of Egypt, had control over the serpents when Moses first encountered him (Exodus 7). It is no coincidence that the sign Moses was given to convince him to return to Egypt was a staff that turned into a snake (Exodus 4). Moses needed to know that God was really in charge of the serpents before he returned to the place where serpents rule.
Throughout the Torah we see, again and again, that the punishment fits the crime. The grumbling and complaining and doubting of God’ goodness is an expression of their longing for Egypt, the place in the control of, and controlled by, the serpent. The punishment therefore was to be bitten by serpents and feel the burning pain of their venom. It is what they truly longed for and worshiped. The serpent embodied the evil rejection of God in favour of ease and comfort. So the people were handed over to the serpent’s power. They were already under it anyway.
Why a snake on a pole?
