Numbers 21:5, commentary and pictures

Discouraged on the detour around Edom, Israel spoke against God and against Moses as if they had been brought out of Egypt to die, and called the heavenly manna light bread that their souls loathed. The charge of having no bread and no water was false, for bread, water, protection and strength had been supplied continually, but a perverted appetite resented God's healthful restriction and craved the indulgences of Egypt. Their murmuring was rebellious ingratitude and unbelief that treated constant divine care as common and forgot the unseen Guide who had held back the dangers of the wilderness. God therefore withdrew His restraining hand and let the fiery serpents, whose bite brought inflammation and certain death, enter the camp until suffering led the people to confess their sin. In mercy He appointed healing through the bronze serpent lifted on a pole, which saved all who looked in repentant faith though it had no power in itself, even as sinners now live by looking to Christ lifted on the cross.

Wilderness Journey and Complaint

The complaint arose on the march from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom, when the souls of the people were much discouraged because of the way and God had brought them into strait places to prove them. In that discouragement they spoke against God and against Moses in perversity and rebellion, murmuring and complaining rather than trusting the unseen invisible Helper who leaves difficulties and hardships in the path to teach trust. They had come to treat His constant care as a common thing, no longer considering the pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night nor the covering cloud and fire that sheltered them. Their charge was that they had been brought up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness.

That speaking against God and against Moses accused both of bringing Israel out to perish, and it revealed unbelief, rebellion, discontent and distrust. Their protest that there was no bread and neither was there any water was false, for both had been supplied continually by daily miracles of mercy. Water and bread had been given miraculously, along with protection and strength for the journey, so the claim of utter lack carried murmuring to extremes in falsehood. To complain in this way was ingratitude that overlooked merciful care and found fault even with God's gifts.

The light bread they said their soul loathed was the manna, bread from heaven, even angels' food, given continually as a gift from heaven and provided in abundance for their needs. Though fed with that bread from heaven they grew disgusted with it and despised it as loathsome, resenting the wilderness journey and the food God provided. Their loathing came from a perverted and distorted appetite, not from lack of sustenance, for God had not given food that could not sustain them. He had restricted their diet for their good, but they resented His provision and longed for the foods and meat they had indulged in Egypt, preferring what they remembered from there.

Ingratitude Provokes Serpent Judgment

Their speaking against God and against Moses was sin marked by perversity and rebellion, by selfishness and discontent, by distrust, ingratitude and hard-hearted unbelief. In wicked unbelief and continual murmuring they magnified the trials sent to prove them and lost sight of God's merciful and wonderful dealings and of their own advantages, dishonoring Him by unbelief. Their continual distrust and murmuring displeased God, for their words revealed unbelief and rebellion against Him.

They had come to treat God's constant care as a common thing, no longer considering the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. They failed to put their trust in Him as the unseen, invisible God who is their Helper, even though He does not remove all difficulties and trials and hardships but leaves difficulties and hardships in the path of His children to teach trust in the invisible God as mighty Helper. They did not stop to think how much He was saving them from and how many evils He was holding in check.

The only begotten Son of God, One equal with God, was accompanying them and had done wondrous things for them, with angels from heaven constantly protecting them through the journey, and the angel of the Lord constantly guiding and guarding them. By His own power He had hitherto held in check the reptiles and beasts so they had not hurt Israel, forbidding the poisonous serpents to touch them, restraining the wild beasts of the forest, and saving them from a thousand dangers of the wilderness, a care they did not know. The wilderness was infested with poisonous serpents all around them, yet Israel had been continually protected from them by miracle.

Because of their discontent and complaint God withdrew His restraining hand and no longer restrained the fiery serpents, permitting them to do what they would have done all along the way if He had not restrained them. They entered the camp and bit the people, and this speaking brought upon them the judgment of fiery serpents so that much people of Israel died. They are called fiery because their bite produced painful inflammation and speedy, certain death, with rapid death and no human cure.

The Lord permitted the serpents to distress them so they would recognize the dangers from which He had preserved them, and the death they had complained of came upon them. The suffering and dying from the bites brought them to their senses to confess that speaking against the Lord and Moses was sin and guilt. When God withdrew His protection and they were bitten, then they understood and acknowledged God, repented, and asked Moses to pray for them.

Bronze Serpent Healing and Application

Even after the biting began, mercy did not leave the bitten to perish but opened a way of rescue through a bronze serpent lifted up on a pole. All who had been bitten lived if they looked to it, and that looking meant obedience and trust, repentance and faith. There was no healing power in the bronze itself, and the appointed remedy had no natural connection to the disease and lay beyond human reasoning, so that healing came wholly from God's power and wisdom in appointing it. The rescue therefore required faith in God's provision rather than confidence in the object lifted up.

As the bitten were to look and live, so souls in danger now must look to Jesus Christ upon the cross of Calvary and live. The view of the lifted Saviour is to be kept bright and clear, with nothing allowed to intercept it. He will be presented to people everywhere in the time of trouble, so that all who look to Him may live. Satan meanwhile institutes everything possible to divert attention away from Christ and heaven in order to keep men from looking.

The miracle that saved the dying from the bites also spoke beyond Israel, giving the surrounding nations further evidence of God's power and that He was with Israel. The whole course of restraint followed by judgment illustrates God's protective restraint and the danger of persistent rebellion, for He held back the fiery serpents from the camp until continual murmuring and complaint provoked Him. Rescue and judgment together thus made His care and authority manifest.

The rejection of the provided food pictures church members who lose desire for the bread of heaven, the spiritual food God provides, because selfish unholy desires draw them toward other things. It shows how a perverted and distorted appetite can make wholesome food seem undesirable. That murmuring stands as an example of tempting Christ, and the tempting was followed by destruction. The words about loathing this light bread, which was angels' food, are the complaint of the murmurers of old, not a plain word of the Redeemer to be quoted as authority, and to mix that murmuring with Christ's words perverts Scripture and handles His word without sacredness.