WE NEXT hear of Israel’s encounter with king Arad the Canaanite. Israel had sent no request to him as they had to the king of Edom, but Arad, when he heard of their approach went out and fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. Israel met with the same treatment from both Edom and the Canaanite. The world has ever been contrary to those whom God is leading through it to their heavenly land.
Israel vowed unto the Lord, sang, “If Thou wilt indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.” God was gracious and delivered up the Canaanites so that they utterly destroyed them and their cities.
But the occasion of victory is often a time of great danger; and so it was with Israel. As they journeyed from mount Hor by way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom, “the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way.”
We know that the generation that came out of Egypt had for the most part all died in the wilderness so that those we read about here were a new generation. Perhaps had they gone into the land before this they might have said, “We are different to our fathers; we would not have spoken or acted as they did.” But now the children are put to the test, and their entry into the wilderness again only brings out that they are in themselves the very same people in the fortieth year as at the first.
God’s mercies are lost upon a people with no faith. Would not the victory God had just given them over Arad the Canaanite be sufficient proof that He would not let them die in the wilderness? And yet we read that “The people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? How often had they murmured against Moses; now they murmur against God.
In Numbers 11 The people had said, We remember the flesh pots of Egypt, and our soul is dried away because there is nothing at all but this manna before our eyes. The psalmist calls the manna “angels’ food” (Psalm 78), but here the people show their extreme ingratitude and dislike for the things of God by saying, “our soul loatheth this light bread.” They would admit it was good but they “loathed” it.
This tells, does it not, that no matter how refined or educated, the natural heart dislikes Christ. He is the true Bread which came down from heaven, of which the manna in the wilderness is but a type. Yet the Jews’ hatred of Christ went far beyond Israel’s “loathing” the manna in the wilderness; they despised and crucified that blessed One who came down from heaven. It was different circumstances but the same fallen nature telling itself out in wickedness and rebellion against God and His Son.
Surely these things are written for our learning for our hearts when left to themselves are no better. God’s answer to Israel’s sin was the brazen serpent. The bite of the fiery serpent taught Israel that the poison was in their blood and that there was nothing for them but death. The serpent lifted up tells us that God’s provision for our state of death is in the death of another, who was made the very thing that has bitten us. So the Lord Jesus, the Son of man was lifted up upon the cross, made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)). God got rid of our sinful nature on the cross. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:14,1514And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:14‑15).
ML-02/24/1974