“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.”
~ Numbers 21:8
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you like snakes? If you like snakes, what is your favorite snake? Do you know of a guy, gal or kid who has been bitten by a snake? There are poisonous snakes that if you are bitten by them, you may die. Your grandpaa has donated blood twice. One of the times that your grandpaa donated blood was for a young indigenous guy who lived in a jungle village in Bolivia who had been bitten by a poisonous snake similar to a moccasin in the United States. The guy was flown where he lived in the jungle to a hospital in Santa Cruz where he was given anti-venom shots. When the anti-venom shots did not help the young indigenous guy like the guy’s doctors were hoping – probably because it had taken too long to get the guy to the hospital in Santa Cruz, the doctors decided that they needed to replace the guy’s blood. Your grandpaa was living in Santa Cruz at this time. Your grandpaa had the kind of blood that the guy needed to get well again. Numbers 21 tells about an incident where God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, were being bitten by poisonous snakes – and they were dying. God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids were on an exodus from a place called Mount Hor on a route that would take them to the Red Sea. Moses wrote the Numbers Book to recount the wanderings of God’s especially chosen guys, gals and kids from the time that they were allowed to leave Egypt to the time – which was forty years later, when they were about to go into the land that God had told Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that their descendants or extended families would always have to live in as their very own land if . . . there were around 600,000 able bodied guys who were over twenty years old among God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids when the killer snakes incident took place on the route from Mount Hor to the Red Sea. Your grandpaa is quite sure that when this killer snake incident took place that over two million guys, gals and kids made up the Israelite people group. The Israelite people group’s guys and gals left Goshen, Egypt with as much stuff as that they could take with them. They also took with them their cows, sheep and goats on their exodus from Egypt to Canaan – the land that God told them that they would always have to live in as their very own land if . . . God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids had to travel through some very dry, hot terrain to get from Mount Hor to the Red Sea. God was already sending a special food – called manna, for His specially chosen guys, gals and kids to eat but . . . God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, missed eating bread and having water to drink so . . . what would you do if you insisted on a particular something to eat but your ma did not have what she needed to have to fix it? What would you do if your dad or ma did not have in your house what you wanted to drink? Your grandpaa is sure that you would complain a whole lot to your dad and/or ma if your dad and/or ma did not have in your house to eat what you want to eat – or if your dad and/or ma did not have in your house the kind of drink that you like to drink.
When God’s specially chosen guys and gals – while they were on the route from Mount Hor to the Red Sea, began complaining to Moses about not having any bread to eat and water to drink, God heard what His specially chosen guys and gals were saying against Moses. God knew that the complaints that His specially chosen guys and gals were saying against Moses were also against Him. To teach His specially chosen guys and gals a lesson to not complain against Moses – which had them complaining against Him, God sent poisonous snakes among them to bite them so that . . . it did not take very long at all for God’s specially chosen guys and gals to get the message that their complaining against Moses – which was also against God, had gotten God really uptight with them. This led to God’s specially chosen guys and gals going to Moses to tell Moses that they knew that what they had been doing was utterly wrong for them to do and would he please intercede for them by going to God to ask God to please take away once and for all the poisonous snakes. When God saw that His specially chosen guys and gals had learned the lesson that He was teaching them, God told Moses to do something weird. Verse 8 says, “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.”’ It did not take long for God’s specially chosen guys and gals to realize that it worked – that if they looked up at the bronze snake wrapped around a pole after having been bitten by one of the poisonous snakes that he or she would immediately become okay again. God gave His specially chosen guys and gals a tough life lesson that taught them that they needed to totally trust in Him or . . . God’s specially chosen guys and gals from that day on and even when they got to the Amorite people group’s land or the Transjordon region, took on – on the way, all the enemy people groups’ of guys, gals and kids destroying them and claiming their land areas as their lands.
A little over 1500 years after God’s specially chosen guys and gals experienced the killer snake incident on the route from Mount Hor to the Red Sea, God the Father had God the Son – Jesus, be nailed to a cross. The message that God gave to His specially chosen guys and gals – which was if they wanted to be healed after having been bitten by a snake that they were to look at the bronze snake that was wrapped around a pole, applies today for guys, gals and kids who will look figuratively at God the Son – Jesus, as He was tied and nailed to a cross and who by faith believe that God the Father has atoned them of their sins because of what God the Son – Jesus, did on a cross for them – which was to let His body suffer and die to defeat death and to let His blood flow to blot out their sins.
Numbers 21 (417)