Punon.

Part 2. — The Soul’s Recovery.
“They departed from Zalmonah, and pitched in Punon.”— Numbers 33:4242And they departed from Zalmonah, and pitched in Punon. (Numbers 33:42).
THE history of the soul’s declension is very sad, but the history of its recovery is full of gladness. The four stages of the soul’s moral down-grade are discouragement, doubt, decline, and death. The four grand steps in its upgrade are repentance toward God, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom is received the reconciliation, and growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
This great salvation was unknown in past ages, so that we need not expect to see it typified to the full; but some of the elements of the soul’s recovery shine out beautifully amid the darkness of Punon. The moment the people show repentance in turning toward the LORD, the moral darkness is passing, and for them
DAWN
is at hand. Full of compassion, Moses intercedes with the LORD for His people. But He does not take the serpents away, He has a higher salvation in store. It is dawn for the soul that calls upon the name of the Lord. The day of salvation is near. Thus it was with David when he said, “I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD.” So likewise for the crucifiers of Jesus, when pricked in their hearts they cried, “Men—brethren, what shall we do?” And the darkness was passing for the would-be suicide when he uttered, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” The soul is about to recover its true balance and start upon the up-grade because its faith and hope is in God.
As Moses prayed to the LORD, swift as the seraphim with the live coal from off the altar came the divine answer, “Make thee a seraph [the literal word which means a burning fiery one] 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.” Blessed be God for His definite.
DECLARATION.
The gospel of God is concise, plain, and vital. It stands in crisp contrast to every human substitute which is verbose, complex, and dead, because the fact that the creature is under the dominion of sin and Satan, and thus corrupt and lifeless, is ignored. From such turn away. Yet God uses redeemed humanity to communicate His word. “We announce unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled unto us their children, in that he has raised up Jesus.” Yes, JESUS is the sum and substance of God’s declarations, whether He be pleased to speak by an object-lesson, by type, in parable, by metaphor, or by the incisive “words of truth.” The Word of God is living and operative; being also Spirit-applied it appeals to the awakened conscience and understanding of the creature. So it is written, “Hear, and your soul shall live.” “If any man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” As soon as Moses received his instructions from Jehovah he was not slow to give effect to them. Let us therefore suppose that we see him walking eastward amongst the camp of Judah, and pausing at the tent of the grandson of Hur. Reclining before it he might see a bronzed artisan, his intelligent face overcast with a scowl of displeasure.
“Arise, Bezaleel! the LORD has commanded me, and I have come to thee to make a serpent of brass. Fashion it speedily, for there is no time to be lost, it is a matter of life and death.” Moses, his tender heart ever ready to sympathize, asks, “Bezaleel, what aileth thee, for thou lookest troubled?”
“Trouble enough, my lord, the camp is full of groans, wailing, and death; everything is wrong. Alas! even now the wife of my bosom lieth lifeless within, bitten by a fiery serpent.”
“Hast thou that fatal serpent?”
“Yea, for I crushed its head in anger.”
“Bring it hither.”
Bezaleel, accustomed to obey the lawgiver, hastened into the tent and quickly appeared holding the slimy reptile by the tail, and with a look of disgust threw it on the ground.
“Bezaleel, let this snake serve thee for a model. Cast a seraph in brass and fix it on a pole, for so hath the Loup commanded. Have it ready for me against the time of the evening oblation when I will return here for it.” Soon as the prophet departed. Bezaleel muttered to himself, “Better far is work than inaction, for I feel miserable.” Then he seized a mattock, dug a pit in the ground, and kindling a fervent fire therein went in search of his crucible. In it he found some of the bronze from which he had cast the rings for the great altar, the tent pins, and the sockets for the pillars of the court of the tabernacle. Placing the crucible in the furnace he set to work diligently, and before the ninth hour had fashioned such a striking model of a burnished serpent that it looked like a wriggling thing of life. As he was fastening it upon a staff of acacia wood, Moses arrived.
“Is the serpent ready?”
“Here it is, my lord. In making it I have felt greatly helped.”
“Thou hast fashioned it skillfully, the LORD reward thee, O Bezaleel.”
“It is for any who are bitten of serpents and dying to look upon and live.”
“How? Impossible! Thou hast misunderstood. Do not deceive thy servant.”
“Jehovah hath spoken. These are His very words, ‘And it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.’”
A sneer settles upon the face of Bezaleel, and the same instant he uttered a deep groan, for, swift as lightning, a serpent had glided through the tent and struck its envenomed fang into his heel. The strong man was paralyzed.
In accents of tenderest pity and urgent entreaty Moses cries, “Look, Bezaleel! Look at this seraph and thou shalt live. Oh, look now! Look! There is life at this moment for thee, for the LORD path said, and He cannot lie, Every one that is bitten, when he looketh on it, shall live.’”
But the cool reasoner, the self-confident agnostic, turning away his head with an incredulous smile, expires in his last spasm, and his spirit returns to give its account to God who gave it. He too had “despised the pleasant land,” and so his carcass fell in the wilderness. “True and righteous are his judgments.” But Moses, shouldering the divine ensign of healing and life, goes upon his way of mercy, and as he goes he cries, “Look and live! Lo! every one that is bitten! look at the brazen serpent! Look and live!” And all through the camp, from tent to tent, he proclaims the divine
DELIVERANCE.
Moses in his day was a model evangelist. He made the message plain. He preached in the spirit of certainty, and the simple belief of his message brought assurance and life to the soul. The dead lived, the rebel was pardoned, and the praise of Jehovah filled the heart.
Thanks be to God that in these lukewarm times, when many are like dumb dogs that cannot bark, there are still many warm-hearted Philips who are ready to “preach Christ,” those who are full of matter when they open the Book at Isaiah 53 to preach therefrom JESUS. All the more need, while myriads perish, to heed the command to the latter-day servant, “Do the work of an evangelist... preach the Word.” As Moses preached many Israelites believed, and as they looked—men, women, and children, nobles and slaves—at the uplifted serpent, their healing took place upon the spot.
They lived, and praised the God of their salvation. As each felt within themselves that they were healed they took up the prophet’s evangel, beseeching, coaxing, and entreating every one that was bitten to look at the serpent of brass and live. Then, side by side with those who refused in their unbelief to look and live, choosing rather to die, arose the joyful song, “Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things; and blessed be his glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; amen! and amen!”
“The serpent ‘lifted up’
Could life and healing give,
So JESUS on the cross
Once died that we might live;
For ‘whosoever will believe
Shall everlasting life receive.’
‘Not to condemn the world’
The ‘Man of Sorrows’ came;
But that the world might have
Salvation through His name:
For ‘whosoever will believe
Shall everlasting life receive!’”
T. R. D.