“Then they traveled from Mount Hor on the road toward the Sea of Suf in order to go around the land of Edom; but the people’s tempers grew short because of the detour. The people spoke against God and against Moshe: ‘Why did you bring us up out of Egypt? To die in the desert? There’s no real food, there’s no water, and we’re sick of this miserable stuff we’re eating!'”-Numbers 21:4-5
We learned an important lesson in yesterday’s post.
We learned there will be times in our lives when God will force us to take a path or place us in a situation that seems completely nonsensical, counterproductive, or just downright irritating as all hell.
After the King of Edom refused to allow Israel to pass through his territory (which was the most preferred route because it would have taken Israel to just north of the Dead Sea where all they would have had to do was cross the Jordan from the east to go into Canaan), Israel was attacked by the King of Arad.
Since God gave Israel the victory over Arad, it would have made perfect sense for Israel to simply continue northward through the territory they had just conquered.
But if Israel had done that, they would have eventually ran straight into the fierce Philistines and that was something the Lord wasn’t going to allow to happen at any cost.
Therefore, the only remaining option left was to turn around and head down the well-travelled highway that bordered the western edge of Edom known as the Way of the Sea of Reeds (also known as YAM SUF).
This route finished at the northernmost part of the Gulf of Aqaba which was a body of water connected to the Red Sea.
Now there’s something you need to know about this route.
This rugged and hot highway was considered to be one of the MOST DIFFICULT routes Israel ever took during their wilderness journey.
Add to that the fact there seemed to be no good reason, practical or otherwise, to backtrack like this.
Especially when Israel had just achieved victory over one of their enemy nations and it was pretty obvious there was no way the nomadic army of Edom could have stopped Israel with their 600,000 man strong army from ploughing through their territory if that’s what they had wanted to do.
Edom’s earlier show of force was nothing but a bluff.
They never did attack Israel and it would have been fatal to them if they had.
Nevertheless, Moses got the message from Edom and also did not want to go to war with a group of people who were essentially blood brothers.
Therefore, Moses decided to lead the people back southward.
As a result, the people became depressed and started up again with their mumbling and grumbling.
But this time, there was a key difference in the nature of their mumbling and grumbling.
Take a look at this part of verse 5:
“The people spoke against God and against Moshe….”
The people were not rebelling against just Moses anymore but also speaking out directly against the Almighty.
It seems they had learned their lesson that to speak out against God’s chosen mediator was the same thing as speaking out against God Himself.
Therefore, now they were directing their protests towards BOTH Moses and God.
The nature of their complaining had also reached a new level of defiant boldness.
“Why did you bring us up out of Egypt? To die in the desert? There’s no real food, there’s no water, and we’re sick of this miserable stuff we’re eating!”
WOW!
The people had begun complaining about the very bread from heaven that had sustained them for so many long years.
It just couldn’t get much more worse than that.
This was a horrific display of lack of gratitude and trust in the Lord, the very One who had rescued them from bondage in Egypt.
In response to the people’s outrageous complaints, the Lord sends out poisonous serpents to bite them and many Israelites end up losing their lives.
What’s kind of ironic about this whole situation is that in spite of the great immaturity reflected in the people’s grumbling, it is clear they had also reached a certain level of spiritual maturity.
How so you ask?
We are given the answer in verse 7.
The people came to Moshe and said, “We sinned by speaking against Adonai and against you. Pray to Adonai that he rid us of these snakes.”
From this verse alone, we can immediately see three ways the people had spiritually grown.
FIRST, they instantly recognize that the serpents are a result of God’s divine judgement upon them.
SECOND, they also realize that the only way to appease God’s anger is to GO THROUGH HIS ANOINTED MEDIATOR, so that mediator will intercede on behalf of the people.
The people are finally getting it.
They now understand that Moses’ position cannot be compared to anybody else.
He is without equal and there is no such thing as multiple mediators or accessing God directly.
THIRD, the people had to come to the realization that the first necessary step to being forgiven was to REPENT.
These are the very stages we have to go through in order to be redeemed or “saved” to use church speak.
First, we must recognize our perilous spiritual condition,
Second, we must go to God’s appointed mediator.
Finally, we must SINCERELY repent and ask that our sins be forgiven.
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