Numbers 21:7

_THEREFORE THE PEOPLE CAME TO MOSES, AND SAID, WE HAVE SINNED, FOR WE HAVE SPOKEN AGAINST THE LORD, AND AGAINST THEE; PRAY UNTO THE LORD, THAT HE TAKE AWAY THE SERPENTS FROM US. AND MOSES PRAYED FOR THE PEOPLE._ We have sinned. The severity of the scourge and the appalling extent of mortality brought them to a sense of sin; and through the intercessions of Moses, which they implored, they were miraculously healed. He was directed to make the figure of a serpent in brass, to be elevated on a pole or standard, that it might be seen at the extremities of the camp, and that every bitten Israelite who looked to it might be healed. This special method of cure was designed, in the first instance, to show that it was the efficacy of God's power and grace, not the effect of nature or art; and hence, an external sign was chosen, on the ground that the image of the pestiferous animal could not be...

4-9 The children of Israel were wearied by a long march round the land of Edom. They speak discontentedly of what God had done for them, and distrustfully of what he would do. What will they be pleased with, whom manna will not please? Let not the contempt which some cast on the word of God, make us value it less. It is the bread of life, substantial bread, and will nourish those who by faith feed upon it, to eternal life, whoever may call it light bread. We see the righteous judgment God brought upon them for murmuring. He sent fiery serpents among them, which bit or stung many to death. It is to be feared that they would not have owned the sin, if they had not felt the smart; but they relent under the rod. And God made a wonderful provision for their relief. The Jews themselves say it was not the sight of the brazen serpent that cured; but in looking up to it, they looked up to God as...

EXPOSITION THE FIERY SERPENTS (Numbers 21:4). NUMBERS 21:4 THEY JOURNEYED FROM MOUNT HOR. It appears from comparison of Numbers 33:38 and Numbers 20:29 that their departure was not earlier than the beginning of the sixth month of the fortieth year. This season would be one of the hottest and most trying for marching. BY THE WAY OF THE RED SEA, _i.e; _down the Arabah, towards Ezion-geber, at the head of the Elanitic Gulf. Septuagint, ὁδὸν ἐπὶ θά_. _Not far from this place they would reach the

THEREFORE THE PEOPLE CAME TO MOSES, AND SAID, WE HAVE SINNED,.... Being bitten with serpents, and some having died, the rest were frightened, and came and made an humble acknowledgment of their sins to Moses: FOR WE HAVE SPOKEN AGAINST THE LORD, AND AGAINST THEE; murmuring at their being brought out of Egypt, and because they had no better provision in the wilderness; concluding they should die there for want, and never enter into the land of Canaan, of which evils they were now sensible, and confessed them: PRAY UNTO THE LORD THAT HE TAKE AWAY THE SERPENTS FROM US; or "the serpent" c, in the singular, which is put for the plural, as it often is; or the plague of the serpent, as the Targum of Jonathan, that it might cease, and they be no more distressed by them: they were sensible they came from God, and that none could remove them but him; and knowing that Moses was powerful in prayer...

Numbers 21:1. _And when king Arad the Canaanite, which dwelt in the south, heard tell that Israel came by the way of the spies; then he fought against Israel, and took some of them prisoners. And Israel vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities. And the LORD hearkened to the voice of Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites; and they utterly destroyed them and their cities: and he called the name of the place Hormah. And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way._ They were not allowed to go through the land of Edom, they had therefore to turn round, and go right away from the land where they one day hoped to dwell, and the road was a particularly trying one, over hot and burning sand

CHAPTER 21 Murmuring and Conquest _ 1. Opposition of King Arad (Numbers 21:1)_ 2. Murmuring and the fiery serpents (Numbers 21:4) 3. The serpent of brass (Numbers 21:8) 4. Journeying and singing again (Numbers 21:10) 5. Sihon and Og (Numbers 21:21) The first victory is here recorded. The Lord delivered Canaanites into the hands of Israel, and according to their vow they utterly destroyed them and their cities. But in spite of this victory the people became again discouraged because of the w

THE FIERY SERPENTS. This incident is alluded to by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:9. The serpents are described as fiery by reason of the inflammation caused by their bite. The means whereby the injury they inflicted was remedied was perhaps originally an instance of sympathetic magic inverted (like the cure of a dog's bite by a hair of the dog), though in antiquity serpents were widely credited with healing virtues in general, and were by the Greeks associated with Asclepius. The writer of Nu. naturally assigns the cure of the snake-bite not to magic but to Yahweh (_cf._ Wis_16:5; Wis_16:7). It is held by several scholars that the present story is mainly an æ tiological legend (p. 134) to explain the practice of the serpent-worship recorded in 2 Kings 18:4. By our Lord the uplifting of the brazen

_The bronze serpent_. God did not at once take away the plague. Each individual received healing only when he performed an act of faith, by looking at the serpent. An early Jewish writer says that it was not the serpent that brought the Israelites healing, but the fact that they -lifted up their eyes and directed their heart towards their heavenly Father." This is one of the most familiar and famous of Biblical narratives, owing to our Lord's reference to it, in John 3:14, as typical of the -lifting up" of the Son of Man. The close connexion between the plague and the instrument of healing is, to the Christian, symbolical of the fact that -Him who knew no sin he [God] made to be sin on our behalf" (2 Corinthians 5:21). It was traditionally believed that the bronze serpent which Moses erected was the same

_NUMBERS 21:4_. New provocations bring down new plagues upon them. We have here, 1. Their murmuring. Discouraged by the length and difficulties of the road, they not only quarrel with Moses, but speak also against God, as if his design was to destroy them instead of saving them; and, loathing of God's provision of manna, they pretend to be now famished with that light food, though so long and comfortably fed by it. _Note;_ (1.) Many, like these, are discontented, though surrounded with mercies. (2.) The long continuance of the means of grace is apt to make them cheap in our eyes. The longer some enjoy the preaching of the Gospel, the less they value it: when it was new, their appetite was sharp; but now it is become insipid to them. God visits their sin with fiery serpents, whose bite was venomous, and the effect of it burning heat and intolerable thirst; a punishment suited to the

F. INCIDENT OF THE BRASS SERPENT vv. 4-9 TEXT Numbers 21:4. And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. 5. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loathed this light bread. 6. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of Israel died. 7. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us, And Moses prayed for the people. 8. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that i