Manna to the Cross

The Israelites, God's chosen people are grumbling against God yet again. In Numbers 21 we come upon them grumbling about the Manna (Manna is the bread of life God rained down on them to supply them with food) and for making them wonder in the wilderness. I can understand why they were grumbling because come on, it's been close to 40 years and that's all they've eaten besides quail. How many different ways can you cook the stuff? BUT, one must remember this is from God and given as a life source. If you grumble against it you are grumbling against God. Numbers 21:5 says that they "loathe this miserable food." My study notes say that their impatience had led them to blaspheme God, reject His servant Moses and despise the bread from heaven. In fact it says that out of the several attacks upon the manna that this was the most bitter and more serious then you'd think. By rejecting the heavenly manna they were spurning God's grace. John 6:32 & 35 says, "Truly truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven . . . . . I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst."

God brought fiery serpents down upon the people and some were bitten and died. At this point their eyes were opened to their sin and they cried out for Moses to intercede for them with the Lord. Numbers 21:8 says, "Then the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live." Those who were bitten and looked at the serpent on the pole lived. Those who didn't died.

This is a foreshadowing of Christ dying on the cross for our us. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so much the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:14-16

I pray that we will continue to lift our eyes up to Jesus and keep Him forever before us. To do so even in difficult times when it feels like we have fiery serpents coming after us and biting us. Let us not allow sin to continue but once we are made aware of it, to confess it to Jesus and look to Him to forgive us as He already has. He already has because Jesus died on the cross for that sin.

I can also imagine but it's not indicated, that many who looked at the serpent on the pole and were healed probably encouraged their loved ones to do the same. It reminds me that we too have looked to the Jesus and have been healed. Now, we are responsible to help others to look to Jesus so they too can be healed and have eternal life.

Krista Jone
2.29.08