Introduction

 

Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan to spy out the Land. They returned with a glowing report of the agricultural excellence of the land but finished with a gloomy report of the giants that lived in the land and the strength of the fortified cities and inhabitants. Ten of the spies recommended returning to Egypt because (Numb. 14:2-4), “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us” (Num. 13:31). Two of the spies showed their faith in God and advised, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it" (Num. 13:30).

Sadly, and tragically, the people accepted the word of the unbelieving spies and refused to go in. God sentenced them, to forty years of wandering in the Wilderness of Paran. Only the two believing spies, Joshua and Caleb, and those under twenty years of age at the time survived to eventually enter the Promised Land (Numb. 14:26-35).

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​The Wilderness Wandering

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Several notable events took place during the Wilderness Wandering.

 

The Rebellion of Korah – Numbers 16:1-35.

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Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and On rose before Moses, with two hundred and fifty chosen leaders of the congregation, and said “You have gone  far  enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?”

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But Moses was Jehovah’s chosen leader (Num. 16:28) and the ground that was under them split open, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah with their possessions. They and all that belonged to them went down alive to Sheol (the grave, ; and the earth closed over them, and they perished. Fire came forth from Jehovah and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering incense.

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The people grumbled against Moses and Aaron, blaming them for the deaths. God became angry with them and sent a plague that killed 14,700 of them, but the rest of the company were saved when Aaron took fire from the altar and put it in his sensor and made atonement for them (Num 16:41-50).

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The War with Canaanite King of Arad – Numbers 21:1-3.

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The Canaanite king of Arad heard that the Israelites were coming and fought against them, taking some of them captive. When Israel made a vow to the Lord promising to destroy the cities of the land if God would deliver the Canaanites into their hand. He heard them and they destroyed them and their cities.

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The Bronze Snake – Numbers 21:4-9.

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Israel left Mt. Hor and journeyed around Moab (They went around Edom because Edom had refused to allow them to travel through their land (Numbers 20:14-22). Albert Barnes writes:

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Their course lay down the Arabah; until, a few hours north of Akaba (Ezion-Geber) the Wady Ithm opened to them a gap in the hostile mountains, allowed them to turn to their left, and to march northward toward Moab Deuteronomy 2:3. They were thus for some days (see Numbers 22:1 note) in the Arabah, a mountain plain of loose sand, gravel, and detritus of granite, which though sprinkled with low shrubs, especially near the mouths of the wadys and the courses of the winter-torrents, furnishes extremely little food or water, and is often troubles and-storms from the shore of the gulf. So, Moses writes, “…the people became impatient because of the journey” (Num. 21:4-5).

 

The American Standard Version of 1901 translates the word translated, impatient, here, better, translating it, much discouraged.

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Moses writes:

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 The people spoke against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.”

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Brown-Driver-Briggs defines the word translated, miserable, in the NASU, as “contemptible, worthless.” Remember, Jehovah sent this food, not Moses (Ex. 16:11-14). So, He was angry when the people complained, calling it, “compatible and worthless.” To punish them for their complaint, “The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died” (Num 21:6). The people confessed their sin in speaking against God and Moses and asked Moses to “intercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us” (Num 21:6).

 

God told Moses to make a “fiery” serpent and put it on a poll. If a snake-bite victim looked up at the bronze snake that Moses made, he would be healed.

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Jesus would use this as a type of His crucifixion. As Jesus talked with Nicodemus He said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). After saying this, He spoke twenty-five of the most well-known, important, and misunderstood words ever spoken, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

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Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up…” This is a reference to His crucifixion when He would be “lifted up” on the cross of Calvary. He gives the purpose of the crucifixion, “…so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”

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Jesus does not say that believing in Him was all that was necessary for salvation from sins. He merely states the reason for His being “lifted up” – “that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Consider two facts here:

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1.          Had Jesus not been lifted up on that cross, salvation from sins would have been impossible.

2.          One who does not believe in Jesus Christ cannot be saved.

3.          Those who looked upon the serpent were healed.

4.          One must do more than simply believing in Jesus’ power to save just as Israel had to do more than just believing the healing power of the serpent!

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Must one do anything else to be saved? Yes! but one would have to look elsewhere in the scriptures to learn what else one must do in addition to believing. We will investigate the most important question, “What must I do to be saved,” in a later article. Join us then or contact us soon.

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For now, consider one important fact. When Moses erected the serpent in the wilderness, the people had to more than simply believe the bronze serpent could heal them, they had to look upon the serpent! So, in His statement, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up…” He implies that more was necessary than simply believing!

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Please join us as we continue our discussion of the nation from whom Christ would come.