AFTER the death of Aaron at Mount Hor, the Children of Israel again took up their journeyings. Since the king of Edom had refused them passage through his land, they had to make a long circuit in order to reach Canaan. This they did, going southward almost to the Red Sea again; then, circling eastward and northward, they passed along the east border of the land of Edom until they came to the border of Moab. On the way; King Arad, who dwelt in the south border of Canaan came out against them and took some of them prisoners. Then Israel vowed to the Lord. that they would utterly destroy those cities if He would deliver the people into their hand. The Lord hearkened and delivered up these Canaanites, and Israel utterly destroyed them and their cities.
Perhaps they were flushed with this victory; at any rate another fall came soon after it. There is danger connected with victory, whether in temporal things or in spiritual, for through victory man is pretty sure to be exalted, and then the Lord has to bring him low. A “proud heart” is sin, God tells us; and “a proud look” is abomination unto Him; and a haughty spirit goes before a fall.” Let us seek to walk in lowliness before Him that we may not be abased.
The next thing we read after Israel’s victory over King Arad the Canaanite is that they were much discouraged because of the way, and they spoke against God and against Moses. They seemed to forget the victory that God had given them so short a time before; they loathed the bread, they said there was no water, and they asked why they had been brought out of Egypt to die, in the wilderness.
Many times the Lord had borne with patience their oft-repeated complaints; now He sent fiery serpents among them which bit them; and many of the people died. It was a fearful thing to have those deadly creatures creeping in and among them; and on every hand, dead and dying surrounding the living. Those still unbitten did not know what moment the deadly fangs would strike into them, and the fatal poison fill their veins. But thus face to face with a sudden and terrible death, they were humbled and brought low enough. They went 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.” And the Lord told him to make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and He said that everyone who was bitten should live when he looked upon this fiery serpent. And Moses made a serpent of brass and put it on a pole; and every serpent-bitten one, who looked upon the serpent of brass, was healed of his deadly bite.
This incident of wilderness history furnishes an illustration for the most wonderful event in all the annals of history. It is what the Lord Jesus uses in connection with His own lifting up 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.”
I would like to ask my young readers a few questions. What was it that bit the children of Israel? You will readily answer, “serpents.” What was lifted up on a pole for them to look upon? Again you will answer without difficulty, “A serpent of brass.” Now tell me why those poor, bitten people should be called upon to look upon the very thing that caused their death? Can anyone give the answer? Let us look for a moment at that of which the serpent on the pole was a type, or illustration, and we will then have the key to this question. Jesus, lifted on the cross, was made sin for us.
We all are born in sin; the fatal poison courses in our veins, as it were; and it will bring that unending “second death” if we are not healed. Sin has bitten us, but if we look upon the Son of man lifted up and made sin, we will live. “There is life in a look at the crucified One.” Oh, what grace, what mercy! Will you not, my reader, look and live? You will get a life that is eternal—a life that has its source in the Son of God—a life that is fraught with richest blessing for all eternity.
Do you now understand why the serpent-bitten Israelite looked at the serpent on the pole, and lived? A bite would kill—a look would heal. Ah! the One who “knew no sin” was “made sin,” and man who is a sinner, and must therefore come under the judgment of sin death—may look upon that blessed One and live. The look of faith sets him free, for the lifted up One has suffered for his sins, and now he is delivered from the judgment of sin.
Dear, unsaved reader, LOOK and LIVE!
ML 09/04/1904