Numbers 21:4, commentary and pictures

Israel journeyed from Mount Hor back toward the Red Sea to go around Edom after Edom refused them passage, a long detour through hot, barren, thirsty country that wearied them. Their souls grew discouraged because of the way, and that discouragement was wicked unbelief and rebellion fed by dwelling on hardship and forgetting God's constant merciful care. God does not take every hardship from His people's path, but leaves the hard way and brings them into strait places to prove them and teach them to trust Him as their unseen Helper. When they spoke against God and Moses and murmured over bread and water He had already given, He withdrew His restraining hand and let the fiery serpents whose deadly sting He had long held back bite them so that many died. When they repented He set the bronze serpent on a pole, and all who looked in obedient faith lived, not by any virtue in the brass but by God's power, teaching trust and obedience to His appointed way.

The Discouraging Journey

Israel journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom because Edom refused them passage, and the enforced detour was long and difficult. The route lay through a hot, sandy valley without shade or vegetation, and weariness and thirst left the soul of the people much discouraged because of the way. That hardship followed their own earlier murmuring at Kadesh, which had brought about the detour, yet instead of remembering God's care and being grateful that their sin had been punished lightly, they blamed God and Moses for their troubles.

He who led them had desolated Egypt to free them from bondage and had undertaken as their Redeemer to lead and guide them in goodness and mercy and love. He does not remove all difficulties and trials and hardships from the pathway of His people, but leaves the hard way and brings them into strait, hard places to prove them and teach them to put their trust in Him as the unseen, invisible God and mighty Helper. He proved them in this way to see whether they had learned submission and would look to Him and trust Him in strait places, and this came shortly after He had given them a wonderful victory over enemies in answer to prayer. By test and trial He sought to correct their selfishness so they could receive the rich blessings He had in store and take their place as His representative, pure, holy, intelligent people revealing His character.

Their discouragement because of the way was wicked unbelief, perversity, rebellion, selfishness, and continual murmuring. It was fed by dwelling on the hardships and weakening faith and patience by repeated attention to them, by imagining evils and dwelling on dangers not experienced, by magnifying the trials sent to prove them, and by losing sight of God's merciful and wonderful dealings and advantages and dishonoring Him by unbelief. They failed to value and appreciate His care, having become so accustomed to the pillar of cloud covering them as a canopy by day and as fire by night, and to bread from heaven, that they treated it as a common thing. They forgot that the only-begotten Son of God, One equal with God, was accompanying them as the Angel going before them and had done wondrous things for them in all their journeyings notwithstanding their perversity and rebellion and murmuring.

Their discouragement broke into speaking against God and against Moses, charging that they had been brought out of Egypt to die in the wilderness and wishing themselves back in Egypt. They complained unreasonably that they had no bread and no water, which was false, for God had given them both by miracles of mercy. With that complaint they loathed the manna as light bread, and complained of being killed with hunger.

Judgment and Deliverance

The way around Edom lay through a wilderness infested with poisonous, venomous serpents whose sting brought deadly danger, as well as dangerous wild beasts. All the while Christ Himself was leading by cloud and fire and constantly guarding them, evening their path so that their feet did not swell and by continual miracle subduing and restraining the serpents and beasts. The angel was constantly guiding and protecting them, saving them from a thousand dangers they did not realize, holding evils in check and forbidding the poisonous serpents to touch them or enter the camp. God's restraining hand held back their destruction until the people provoked Him by stubbornness, impenitence, transgression, and repeated murmuring and complaints.

When they murmured God withdrew His restraint and permitted the fiery serpents to bite them, so that many were bitten and died. They are called fiery because the bite produced painful inflammation and speedy death. The affliction had no natural cure. It was sent as a bitter lesson to make them remember God's care and realize how much they would have suffered without His merciful encompassing preservation from affliction and death, and to make them realize that His power had been protecting them from dangers all along.

When the people repented, confessed their guilt, and asked Moses to pray, God provided a way to live. The bronze, or brazen, serpent was raised on a pole, so that everyone bitten had to look at it in faith to be healed. Preservation by that remedy depended not on chance or any virtue in the bronze serpent, but on God's power and wisdom. It had no natural connection to the disease and could not be explained by human reasoning, and the people were to trust that God was with them and that those who obeyed His will were under His protection. Those who trusted God's instruction and obeyed by looking lived, while those who stopped to argue died, teaching obedience to God's direction and trust in His protection without murmuring.

As Israel looked and lived, so in the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation the uplifted Saviour will be presented to people in all lands and in all places so that all who look may live. The experience stands as a warning against complaining and tempting Christ, calling God's people not to dishonor Him by unbelief but to submit without murmuring.