February 26 Daily Devotional

Numbers 20–21

On the southeast of Canaan, south of the Dead Sea, the Edomites were living. They were descended of Esau, Jacob’s brother; the Israelites were descended of Jacob. Thus the Edomites were closely related to the Israelites. Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom, with the request, “Thus saith thy brother Israel … Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country; we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king’s highway … until we have passed thy borders.” But the king of Edom was afraid to have such a large number of people go through his land. He drew out his army and came against Israel. Moses was not willing to make war on a people who were so closely related to his people, so he went around the land of the Edomites.

This was a long, tiresome journey across a bare wilderness and rocky plains, where hot sands burned the feet of the people. Everything looked dreary and Canaan seemed far away. The people felt tired and unhappy. They began to complain against God and 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 here; and our soul loatheth this light bread (the manna).”

Then God sent fiery serpents among the people—perhaps their color was like fire. Their bite was poisonous, so that many of the people died. At this time the people realized that they had acted wickedly in speaking against Moses and God, so they came humbly 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.” So Moses turned to the Lord and prayed as he had done so many times before. And God heard Moses’ prayer and said to him, “Make thee a fiery (brazen) serpent, and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.” And Moses made a serpent of brass and lifted it upon a pole where all could see it. And it came to pass, whoever had been bitten by a snake, when he looked up to the brazen snake, the bite did him no harm. He lived and was healed.

The brazen serpent points to Calvary. Sin has entered this world. Every man, woman and child is sinful. Salvation is offered by Christ. He was lifted up on the cross, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. We can look up to Christ, the crucified Savior. All those that look up to him in true faith will not perish, but shall have everlasting life.