This chapter brings prominently before us the familiar and beautiful ordinance of the brazen serpent—that great evangelical type. “And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, ‘Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.’” (Ver. 4, 5.)
Alas! alas! it is the same sad story over and over again—“The murmurs of the wilderness.” It was all well enough to escape out of Egypt when the terrific judgments of God were falling upon it in rapid succession. At such a moment, there was but little attraction in the flesh-pots, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic, when they stood connected with the heavy plagues sent forth from the hand of an offended God. But now, the plagues are forgotten, and the flesh-pots alone remembered. “Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full.”
What language! Man would rather sit by the flesh-pots, in a land of death and darkness, than walk with God through the wilderness and eat bread from heaven. The Lord Himself had brought His glory down into connection with the very sand of the desert, because His redeemed were there. He had come down to bear with all their provocation—to “suffer their manners in the wilderness.” All this grace and exceeding condescension might well have called forth in them a spirit of grateful and humble subjection. But no; the very earliest appearance of trial was sufficient to elicit from them the cry, “Would to God we had died in the land of Egypt!”
However, they were very speedily made to taste the bitter fruits of their murmuring spirit. “The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.” (Ver. 6.) The serpent was the _source_ of their discontent; and their condition, when bitten of the serpents, was well calculated to reveal to them the true _character_ of their discontent. If the Lord’s people will not walk happily and contentedly with Him, they must taste the power of the serpent—alas! a terrible power, in whatever way it may be experienced.
The serpents’ bite brought Israel to a sense of their sin. “Therefore the people came 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.’” (Ver. 7.)
Here, then, was the moment for divine grace to display itself. Man’s need has ever been the occasion for the display of God’s grace and mercy. The moment Israel could say, “We have sinned,” there was no further hindrance. God could act, and this was enough. When Israel murmured, the serpents’ bite was the answer: when Israel confessed, God’s grace was the answer. In the one case, the serpent was the instrument of their wretchedness; in the other, it was the instrument of their restoration and blessing. “And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Make thee a fiery serpent, 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.’” (Ver. 8.) The very image of that which had done the mischief was set up to be the channel through which divine grace might flow down, in rich abundance, to poor wounded sinners. Striking and beautiful type of Christ on the cross!
It is a very common error to view the Lord Jesus rather as the averter of God’s wrath, than as the channel of His love. That He endured the wrath of God against sin is most preciously true; but there is more than this. He has come down into this wretched world to die upon the cursed tree, in order that, by dying, He might open up the everlasting springs of the love of God to the heart of poor rebellious man. This makes a vast difference in the presentation of God’s nature and character to the sinner, which is of the very last importance. Nothing can ever bring a sinner back to a state of true happiness and holiness but his being fully established in the faith and enjoyment of the love of God. The very first effort of the serpent, when, in the garden of Eden, he assailed the creature, was, to shake his confidence in the kindness and love of God, and thus produce discontent with the place in which God had set him. Man’s fall was the result—the immediate result of his doubting the love of God: man’s recovery must flow from his belief of that love; and it is the Son of God Himself who says, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John iii. 16.)