After Aaron died on Mount Hor, Moses and the rest of the Israelites set out past Edom and decimated another nation, even though it wasn’t what God had wanted in the first place. Then, they bitterly gripe at Moses and the Lord Jesus, so He sends out all sorts of snakes 🐍 but then they pray to God that He’d heal them, and Moses makes a bronze serpent per His instructions. This should be a boring premise, like how most of the Law of Moses had been written (I still stand by the belief there wasn’t much worth mentioning in Leviticus), but the fact Jesus referenced this in John 3:14 as a prelude to how He’d arrive in this life and die and rise again for all our sins is HUGE. This passage is found in pages 91-92 of the NKJV Bible I have for this four-translation project, page 117 of the NASB Bible (Old Testament), page 186 of my VOICE copy, and pages 189-190 of my Amplified Bible (Classic Edition) copy.
I’ll be the first to admit I don’t often take into consideration the food I have, and indeed, the Israelites complained about Moses supposedly making them live on too little… but they had a lot of wealth, and they’ve needed to detox from Canaanite content that they had embraced in Egypt (for again, Canaan had a very strong influence over Egypt, and Canaan was extremely wicked, hence why God said what He had said in Genesis 15:16 about the iniquity of the Amorites being incomplete at Abraham’s time, several hundred years before Joshua’s leading the Israelites to take Canaan), and all of us can go that route if we’re foolish enough. I just got a dozen tacos 🌮 at Taco Bell again 😋 and I wish I could eat that many tacos every three days 😂😂😂😂😂 but my insides won’t like me very much if I eat Taco Bell two or three times a week, and neither will my bank account, not to mention my family and whoever would help me with rent due to inflation and unfair housing costs. At least, though, despite me having to use something in my fee-free overdraft allowance and several dozen bucks in my savings, I may be able to restore it all and pay my SRP bill in the next few days.
The “herem” of devoting entire populations to God so He’d defeat them occurs here in Numbers, and multiple times in Joshua some months after this victory, but God never wanted war with others, and He doesn’t delight in anyone’s death (Ezekiel 18:32), so neither should we. For His heart’s always been about restoration (2 Peter 3:9) and salvation (1 Timothy 2:4). While we can’t mention only this in the churches or anywhere else (for there’s a reason there’s so much content in the Bible), this is why God’s love should be celebrated for others. It’s too bad there’s not many who share in my affinity for justice and hope in this regard, though. Yet funnily enough, simultaneous worldwide conflict, most of it being related to each other, has occurred twice before, and often, many people across the earth think war is necessary, but I think Jesus allowed it to happen because someone believed it would be a good idea to revive an economy they believed to be going to the crapper by means of petty fighting and blaming minourities. I don’t need to explain how this is repeating itself here, though. And they claim their “dear leader” is against selfish combat? The dude tried to destroy Iran, believing them to have missiles and hostages, and this time, they didn’t make the first move against the U.S. I don’t agree with the Iranian system, though, which should be obvious to everyone with common sense, but I guess the Church would rather… attack a population because they hadn’t sent missionaries to these people! 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 It’s a shame Jesus can’t seem to win…
The Hebrew for Numbers 21:6 about the snakes 🐍 reads “seraphim,” which literally means “fiery snakes” 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 and since Moses had made a bronze serpent to have those who look at it be healed instantly, this was foreshadowing to Jesus’ sacrifice for all mankind, especially those who’d later receive Him (1 Timothy 4:10). That’s why I’d love to get to many different unreached peoples to present this to them, but if anyone in some other country has access to the Internet and can translate this to their language, they don’t need to leave their home to receive Jesus 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 I do pray they can be safe from all sorts of things that would derail them, though. Indeed, this is easily one of the best Scripture passages so far, and easily in my top 5-15 favourite Bible stories. Though I think the bronze Moses used to make the serpent had been from what they’d stored up from Abraham’s escapade with Lot in Genesis 13… the wealth had been passed down by several generations by this time. And I bet Eleazar was under 20 when the first census had been taken in chapter 1 here, since he didn’t die until after the events of Joshua unfolded (Joshua 24:33).
I have work in just two hours, and I’m not in my uniform right now, so I’ll get dressed before I leave my apartment to clock in there, and I’ll probably look longingly at a bunch of lovely photos from multiple places I had taken screenshots of in Google Maps 😅😅 because I want to vacation in French Polynesia 🇵🇫 one day 😩😩😩😩😩😩😩 indeed, I have the post-vacation blues, and it’s unfortunate I can’t travel even to a different part of Arizona often 😭😭😭😭😭 I do want to be debt-free, though. I’m not sure what that’ll look like, and I want more good news to happen, too, so I pray I can endure another shift full of bad moments I imagine would be proof I can’t really go anywhere even with a higher wage, and that I can secure a second job albeit a temporary one, probably. I need to keep things fresh for my job, since I’ve worked there for several years, now, and am starting to find everything frustrating so that I’d rather never go back. I want peace, but nothing in retail is safe… I do want to show some of my coworkers what I had screenshotted during last week’s vacation, though. Yet I don’t want to settle for less… it’s a shame avoiding that often requires you to sell your soul to the devil, though. But at least every follower of Jesus is safe from that 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰😇😇😇😇😇😇😇 so I pray I can be safe today.
In Christ,
Ron Outland
Ron And His Stories 