Ep. 51. Numbers 20-21 | Thirty-Eight Years Later

EPISODE 51

38 YEARS LATER: NUMBERS 20-21

We remember the Hebrews left Mt. Sinai in Numbers chapter 10 on the twentieth day of the second month in the second year after they departed from Egypt. Chapter twenty gives us the death of Aaron the High Priest, which does us little good in terms of a calendar or timeline if not for Numbers chapter 33 verses 38-39, where we learn that Aaron died on the first day of the fifth month in the fortieth year. That tells us that between the time the spies return from the Promised Land in chapter 13 and the death of Aaron in chapter 20, thirty-eight years have passed. This number is confirmed in Deuteronomy 2:14. Another way to think about this is that of the forty years the people wandered in the wilderness, the first year and three months take place from Exodus 12 through Numbers 13. Thirty-eight years pass between Numbers 14 and Numbers 20. Six months pass from Numbers 21-36, and two months time pass in the book of Deuteronomy. We only see two of the forty years in detail, while the rest are sped through with little more than a nod. The timeline isn't for everyone, so let's move on to something more substantial and more Christ-centered.

In Numbers 21, verses 4-9, we are introduced to the bronze serpent. Again, we find the people of God grumbling. Aaron died on 1-5-40, and the people mourned for a month. Now, here they are once again asking, "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 [manna]." It is the same complaint they made when they first left Egypt. The Lord, weary of the people, sent serpents to bite the people, and they began to die. This was part of God's judgment against the offenders in Numbers 14. Remember, they would all die out in the wilderness, and their kids would inherit the Promised Land.

The people asked Moses to petition the Lord to remove the serpents, but God did not see fit to honor the request. Instead, God makes a way for the people to be saved. Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a bronze pole, and any and all who were bitten need only look at the pole, and they would be made whole. They would live rather than die. (Sadly, the people would worship this snake on a pole for the next seven hundred-plus years until it was finally destroyed by King Hezekiah. Once again, this shows the people seldom gave God credit for his saving work)

It's a short six verses, and yet it contains the gospel therein. In John 3:16, we find the most famous verse in all of Scripture, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Still, people often miss the verses prior to this one, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, [a reference to the cross] that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world..." Jesus compares himself to the snake on the pole. The venom of the serpent (satan) courses through our veins in the form of sin, and there is but one way to escape the sentence of death and find life: look to the one raised up on our behalf. Jesus was raised on the cross so that all who came to him would find salvation. The life, death, and resurrection of our savior has overthrown the power of the devil.

ADDITIONAL READING: Deuteronomy 2:14; Numbers 33:38-39; John 3:14-16; 2 Kings 18:4