Numbers 21:1-35
21:1 Having been denied access through Edom, the children of Israel were redirected another way. Here we find that along their redirected journey they again meet resistance.
21:2 Luckily, the children of Israel have their spiritual-defenses up. "God, if you will indeed deliver me, I will fulfill Your will." Wow. Stunning. Nothing in life will take you further than belief and follow-through in that statement. There is power in that prayer. That prayer is power.
21:3 And the Lord listened to the voice... We have His full attention. Through that prayer, invite God in to bring Hormah, destruction, to your opposition. To that which holds you back.
We must understand the nature of our God. He is patient and gentle and kind... until someone or something mistreats one of His children. And then we see His power and passion in a whole new light. We know that God never brings destruction upon the innocent, Genesis 18. He sure as sunbeams come through windows brings destruction upon the evil, though.
21:4 As the children of Israel are making their way around Edom, instead of through, they become discouraged. Faith must be sustained, remembered, maintained. Faith is as dynamic as the journey of life is; we always need to work to keep them in sync as they grow and change and become presented with new circumstances.
21:5-6 God sends fiery serpents to the people who continue to blame Him ungraciously. The symbol in this is that when we allow ourselves to fester in fear and anger and selfishness, we invite toxin into our lives and bodies. Allowing fear and anger and selfishness to consume us is to invite in fiery serpents. We allow ourselves to be bit and poisoned and spiritually killed.
God wants them (and us) to know that we are never going to accomplish anything from within a pit of serpents.
21:7 Recognizing that they are making their situation worse not better with their wailing, the people go to Moses. They actually recognize their sin. They actually recognize that the root of their discontent was born of their neglect of their relationship with God.
Moses prays for the people. Pray for yourself in similar circumstances. God is always going to pull you back in when you request His rescue.
21:8-9 God understands that we need constant reaffirmation. He instructs Moses to build a serpent and place it on a pole... everyone who looks at it will be healed of the toxin they allowed inside of themselves. The significance of this is that by looking the true source of our torment in the face, we never displace our anger.
Because whatever made you sick was not God. So if you want to rail against something, make a literal or a figurative reminder of the object which deserves the railing. That object could be weak faith, selfishness, unkindness... whatever it is that might have torn you apart... it definitely was not God.
There is healing when we fix our eyes on God, and sometimes we are only able to fix our eyes on Him when we identify the source of our toxin. God says, identify it... place it on a pole! Stop confusing Me with it.
21:10-20 The journey of the children of Israel is able to be tracked in these verses. All progress is made in faith. Notice that whenever the children of Israel are complaining, they're also idle. Life continues on but they don't. Once they cleared the toxin out, they make progress toward their destination.
21:21-31 Because of God and their faith, the children of Israel easily push through resistance. They bypass roadblocks and blast their opposition into dust.
21:33-35 Even when kings, powerful and wealthy men, go against the children of Israel God says: "Do not fear him, for I have delivered him into your hand, with all his people and his land...". Every oppressor is defeated. Pray to God. Walk with God. He's going to deliver all the power you need into your hand.
God says: I am going to give you the power to defeat the king. And all his people. And all his land. From the very beginning God takes care of the entire process. His power is not impromptu. His ability is not makeshift. He has is all figured out, every tiny detail.
God says: Do not fear. He tells us over and over and over and over again. When we reside in Him, we have no opposition. In God, what looks like opposition is just a thin piece of paper we easily tear through.
