Numbers 21

Numbers 21:1

J. The Bronze Serpent (21:122:1)21:1-3 The king of Arad lived in the southern portion of the land of promise. When he heard that the Israelites were encamped in the wilderness and were planning to invade the land, he attacked but was defeated at a place . . . called Hormah (vv. 1-3). 21:4-9 The Red Sea (v. 4) does not mean the gulf that the Israelites crossed in their escape from Egypt but the portion of the Red Sea which we know as the Gulf of Aqaba. The Way of the Red Sea, however, may be a route name; the Israelites might not have gone to the Gulf of Aqaba at this time. Once again the people complained about their living conditions, with the result that God sent fiery serpents among them. Many of the people . . . died, and many more were dying. In answer to the intercession of Moses, God commanded that a bronze serpent of brass be lifted on a pole and promised that whoever looked at the bronze serpent would be healed of the snakebite. This incident was used by the Lord Jesus to teach Nicodemus that Christ must be lifted up on a pole (the cross), so that sinners looking to Him by faith might have everlasting life (Joh_3:1-16). The serpent later became a stumbling block to the nation and was finally destroyed in the days of Hezekiah (2Ki_18:4). 21:10-20 The journeys of the children of Israel from Mount Hor to the Plains of Moab can no longer be traced exactly. However, the stops are listed in Numbers 21:10 to 22:1. The book of the wars of the LORD (v. 14) was probably a historical record of the early wars of Israel. It is no longer available. At Beer (vv. 16-18) the Lord miraculously provided water when the princes dug . . . with their staves in the arid desert. 21:21-26 When Israel came near the country of the Amorites, they sought permission to pass through but were refused. In fact, Sihon, king of the Amorites, declared war on Israel but was thoroughly defeated. This Amorite king, like Pharaoh before him, was hardened by the Lord in order that he and his people might be defeated in battle by Israel (Deu_2:30). “The iniquity of the Amorites” (Gen_15:16) was complete, and Israel was the instrument of the judgment by Jehovah. 21:27-30 The proverbial song of verses 27-30 seems to say this: Heshbon had only recently been captured from the Moabites by the Amorites. Now Heshbon has fallen to the people of Israel. If those who conquered this city of Moab have themselves been conquered, then Moab must be a third-class power. Also, this proverb is probably quoted as evidence that the land was fully in the possession of the Amorite king, Sihon, and no longer a Moabite territory. This fact was important to establish because Israel was forbidden to take any land from Moab (Deu_2:9). 21:3122:1 The exact route of the Israelites is difficult to reconstruct. It is suggested that they basically moved east from Mount Hor, then north outside the western boundary of Edom to the River Zered. They followed the Zered eastward between Edom and Moab, then north along Moab’s eastern boundary to the Arnon, then west to the King’s Highway. They conquered Sihon, King of the Amorites, then pushed north to conquer Bashan, the Kingdom of Og. Bashan was rich pastureland east of the Jordan and north of the place where Israel would cross the Jordan into the land. Having conquered Bashan, the Israelites returned to the Plains of Moab . . . and camped there across from Jericho (v. 1). These plains had been taken from Moab by the Amorites (Num_21:26), but the name of Moab lingered on.