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Ring of Truth provides 366 daily ‘proofs’ that the Bible is consistent throughout from Genesis to Revelation, and relevant for our lives today!
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Numbers 21:8
The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it upon a pole, anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”
Had Moses lost his mind or had God?
What possible good could a bronze snake be? God told them not to make graven images of anything on earth, and certainly not to bow down to them or worship them (see Exodus 20:4) - so what on earth was going on here?
What had the people done? Once more they had spoken out against Moses, the Lord’s anointed, and against God Himself - “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” (manna & quails) (Numbers 21:5) Aren’t we fickle? We love things to go well all the time and if they don’t, how quick we are to complain - even if the fault can be traced back to our own disobedience, greed or foolishness.
Remember that these were the same people who had been grumbling to the Lord for having been held slaves and captives in Egypt. These were the same people who had seen the mighty deliverance of the parting of the Red Sea. These were the same people for whom God had provided quails, manna and water, and would you believe it - the same people who refused to go into the Promised Land.
It was their choice to stay out of the Promised Land and in the wilderness. Not only that, God had just given them a tremendous victory over the Canaanites. But that was all in the past. Aaron and Miriam had both died. What was God going to do for them now?
The people still needed to learn that God is not a genie of the lamp. He is Holy, Holy, Holy. He is totally separate and the Sovereign Almighty God who had shown immeasurable love and compassion to them - all that He received in return was stubborn disobedience and grumbling selfishness. Snakes came against the people, and bit them so that they died. Just like Pharaoh, the people came to Moses yet again and asked him to pray so that the snakes would go away.
God did something different this time. God provided the antidote but it took faith to receive the cure. Moses made the snake and put it on a pole, which was sufficient for all - BUT only those who looked, lived.
I wonder how many died because it was illogical, un-‘God-like’, too simple or too humbling.
Yet God had set a precedent. Thousands of years later, God would repeat the principle for all mankind - His Son, Jesus, the Messiah, would also be lifted up so that all those who looked to Him would be saved.
It may seem illogical, too simple or too humbling to accept - but it is still God’s only way for us to be forgiven and to live.
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