Numbers 21:8

_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...

8._Make thee a fiery serpent. _Nothing would, at first sight, appear more unreasonable than that a brazen serpent should be made, the sight of which should extirpate the deadly poison; but this apparent absurdity was far better suited to render the grace of God conspicuous than as if there had been anything natural in the remedy. If the serpents had been immediately removed, they would have deemed it to be an accidental occurrence, and that the evil had vanished by natural means. If, in the aid afforded, anything had been applied, bearing an affinity to fit and appropriate remedies, then also the power and goodness of God would have been thrown into the shade. In order, therefore, that they might perceive themselves to be rescued from death by the mere grace of God alone, a mode of preservation was chosen so discordant with human reason, as to be almost a subject for laughter. At the sam...

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...

Verse Numbers 21:8. _MAKE THEE A FIERY SERPENT_] Literally, make thee a seraph. _AND PUT IT UPON A POLE_] על נס _al nes_, upon a _standard_ or _ensign_....

MAKE THEE A FIERY SERPENT - i. e. a serpent resembling in appearance the reptiles which attacked the people. The resemblance was of the essence of the symbolism (compare 1 Samuel 6:5). As the brass serpent represented the instrument of their chastisement, so the looking unto it at God’s word denoted acknowledgment of their sin, longing for deliverance from its penalty, and faith in the means appointed by God for healing. In the serpent of brass, harmless itself, but made in the image of the creature that is accursed above others Genesis 3:14, the Christian fathers rightly see a figure of Him John 3:14 who though “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners”...

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

AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES,.... Out of the cloud; or, it may be, Moses went into the sanctuary, and there prayed, and the Lord answered him from between the cherubim: MAKE THEM A FIERY SERPENT; not a real one, but the likeness of one, one that should very much resemble the fiery serpents Israel had been bitten with: AND SET IT UPON A POLE; a standard, banner, or ensign, as the word signifies; perhaps meaning one of the poles on which their ensigns were carried: the Targum of Jonathan renders it, on an high place, that so it might be seen by all in the camp: AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS, THAT EVERYONE THAT IS BITTEN, WHEN HE LOOKETH UPON IT, SHALL LIVE; which is very wonderful, that by looking to the figure of a serpent, men should be cured of the bites of real ones, and which bites were deadly; the virtue of healing could not come from the figure, but from God, who appointed it to be m...

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