The Power of God Over Our Sin

Numbers 21:4–9 (ESV) From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against 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 worthless food.” 6 Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.

The younger generation is like it's fathers in this way: they grew impatient and thought back to Egyptian captivity as some form of "better deal." They had forgotten how life was in Egypt. They were abused and mistreated by their Egyptian captors. How often we think our sin wasn't "that bad" and almost long to go back at times.

God does not send a random judgment here either. Snakes were the sign of Egypt's imperial authority. The cobra on the head of Pharaoh is popularized in culture to this day. Snake worshp was part of the Egyptian culture. God was reminding them of what it was like in what they supposed was the "good ole days."

Another sin more subtle and yet most grievous was their disdain for the provision of God in the manna. They said, "We loathe this worthless food." It was this statement that perhaps caused God to bring such quick and swift judgment to remind them of the bitterness of Egypt. For the manna was previously described as cakes made with honey. It was savory and delicious. Remember how Numbers 11 puts it:
Numbers 11:8 (NLT) The people would go out and gather it from the ground. They made flour by grinding it with hand mills or pounding it in mortars. Then they boiled it in a pot and made it into flat cakes. These cakes tasted like pastries baked with olive oil.

It is a sad reality that for God's people, the sweetness of the Lord can sometimes grow cold to us. We neglect to realize what we have and take for granted His goodness. For that very reason, we need reminders of the curse of sin, the disgusting nature of it's effects. The Christian is quickly awakened as the Israelites are here that going backwards from Christ is NEVER a better option.

The cure God gives to Moses is to take a fiery serpent and mount it on a pole for the people to look at it. Jesus will use this symbolic act as a type of His death. There is so much teaching about the cross here. The pole symbolizes authority. To mount the serpent on it shows the authority of God over the curse of sin and death. Christ goes to the Cross as a sign that the curse of sin and death is broken. The act of crucifixion was to show the authority of Rome over those who dared oppose them. How ironic that scripture clearly portrays Pilate as weak and politically influenced in putting Christ to death. We know ultimately it was the will of the Father to put Him on that Cross. Rome may have been the actor, God was the ruler of even that moment.

It teaches us so clearly that our sin cannot overpower God's goodness and righteous love. We look to Christ and see God is victorious over the worst we have to offer.