Numbers 21 records an interesting part of the Israelites’ journey through the wilderness to the promised land. It seems that they grew impatient and started grumbling against God. Well, God doesn’t like to hear people grumble, especially against him, so he sent venomous snakes that bit the people, and many of them died.

At this point the people came to Moses, admitted their sin, and asked him to pray that the Lord would take the snakes away. So, Moses prayed for the people.

Then the Lord told Moses to make a snake and put it up on a pole. Whoever would get bitten could then come and look at it and live. So, Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

There are some lessons to be learned from this incident.

First, God doesn’t like complaining. The Bible warns us about this time after time, yet many Christians seem to make grumbling their hobby! Do your best not to grumble and complain, because God reserves the right to punish those who do so.

A second lesson to learn is the need to repent. Once we realize that we have sinned, we need to confess that sin to God and repent. Jesus says not once, but twice, in Luke 13:1-5 that those who refuse to repent will perish.

Third, we need to understand that the Lord is willing to offer forgiveness for those who do repent. Just as he made provisions for the Israelites in Numbers 21, God made it possible for everyone in the world to be forgiven when he sent his Son Jesus to die for the sins of the world.

Jesus refers to this episode when he says in John 3:14-15, “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” Here Jesus is predicting the sacrificial death that he would die on the cross to pay for the sins of mankind.

In a way, we are all snakebit, because, as Rom.3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” But when we place our trust in the crucified Jesus, God takes away our sins and removes from us the penalty of those sins. Rom.6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”