November 7, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Numbers and 1 Corinthians? Here’s today’s reading:
Numbers 21 (NIV)
Arad Destroyed
1 When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked the Israelites and captured some of them. 2 Then Israel made this vow to the Lord: “If you will deliver these people into our hands, we will totally destroy their cities.”……Continue Reading
I am very glad there are no fiery serpents around every time I complain! I do find it strange that God had Moses make the bronze serpent as a reminder of what can happen and the power of God. I read that bronze stands for judgement and we know serpents usually for evil so it represents the evil they had done being judged. However, whenever I read this it feels a bit like an idol situation. I never assume I understand why God chooses to handle situations they way He does but we can be sure He had a reason for handling this one this way.
Numbers 21
I wonder just who the Israelites thought was saving them. And yet, they still manage to complain. Sounds like me many times a day.
Numbers 21
I hope we all learn form these passages that before we complain about things, we turn to God and see what He has to solve the situation we find ourselves in. But here God teaches them a lesson and they immediately get the point…ok, maybe we shouldn’t have complained. It is interesting that He has Moses construct the bronze snake and the cure is in the same form as the instrument of death. But it gave the people a choice to be healed and they had to believe in order to look. It is also an interesting picture of the work of Jesus….all who look to Him for salvation will be saved. And as they travel and com across those who come to oppose them, God grants them victory. If only the people just let them pass, they would have been saved. It just shows how silly it is to come against God and His people…when His people are following His direction and His ways.
”Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.“
Numbers 21:8-9 NKJV
This made me think of a model of the simplicity of faith and belief. They just needed to look at the bronze snake. Now we look to Jesus and His death on the cross. Do we believe He heals and saves us? Many refuse to even look.
Numbers 21