Original Meaning

NUMBERS 21 RECORDS a massive breakthrough. At last, after having experienced and induced all kinds of defeats, God’s people begin to conquer territory—and they aren’t even to Canaan yet! As is usually the case in real life, their fortune does not suddenly surge up for good without some serious setbacks. But they are gaining a tangible taste of success.

Victory and venom. The Israelites backed down in the face of an armed threat from the Edomites (20:20–21). By contrast, they devote the Canaanites of Arad to the Lord for utter destruction (Hiphil of ḥrm),1 thereby fulfilling a vow that invokes divine aid by faith (21:1–3). Why do they treat the people of Arad so differently? Unlike the Edomites, these Canaanites are not their relatives, inhabit part of the land promised to Israel, attack first.

Hormah, the new name of Arad, derives from the root ḥrm and thus serves as a reminder of its demise. Ironically, it was to Hormah that the Amalekites and Canaanites had beaten the Israelites many years before when they presumptuously tried to storm the Promised Land without God (14:45). As Winston Churchill said in the House of Commons on June 10, 1941, “There is only one answer to defeat, and that is victory.”2

Rather than occupying Arad/Hormah and penetrating Canaan from the south, as the earlier plan went before the ten scouts discouraged them at Kadesh (chs. 13–14), the Israelites now prolong their journey in order to enter the Promised Land from the east. Apparently this alteration of direction responds to a shift in the military landscape of Canaan that make its eastern defenses relatively more vulnerable at this time.

With all the extra travel, the Israelites become impatient (verb qṣr + nepeš = “became short of emotion”; 21:4).3 Complaining that their appetite (nepeš) loathes (Qal of qwṣ) manna (21:5),4 they insult God as at Kibroth Hattaavah (11:6). This time instead of quail (cf. 11:31–33), he sends snakes that are fiery (root śrp), apparently in the sense that their venom feels like fire, by which he has punished people on several occasions.5 The invasion of reprehensible reptiles is like the plagues on Egypt, by which the Lord demonstrated his sovereignty over nature (Ex. 7–10). If the Israelites prefer to live in Egypt, they will die like Egyptians.

Jesus said, “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?” (Matt. 7:9–10). But the Lord has already given his people “bread from heaven” (Ex. 16:4; Neh. 9:15; John 6:31–32), which they now regard as contemptible (Num. 21:5). Perhaps some snakes will help them appreciate his bread!

When the Israelites confess their sin and call for help, God does not simply call off the serpents. Rather, he commands Moses to employ a visual antivenom (21:8), which Moses does by sculpting and displaying a snake (naḥaš) out of bronze (neḥošet; 21:9). In light of other cultures, some have suggested that this effects a kind of magic: “one combats pernicious snakes by enlisting in the cause a more powerful snake, or, to be precise, an empowered snake capable of destroying the inimical one.”6 Compare the fact that when the Philistines later captured the ark of the covenant and suffered divine plagues, they returned it to Israel with a “reparation offering” consisting of golden models of the tumors and mice/rats that had afflicted them (1 Sam. 6:3–11). It was the Philistines’ attempt to have an expiatory offering to the Lord target the evils that he had sent on them.

The bronze snake, however, is appointed by God, who alone is capable of healing his people. So although it is symbolic, it is not magical. Nor is it an offering to the Lord. Yet it does function like the Philistine models in the sense of acknowledging that a specific punishment has come from the Lord because of sin against him. Thus, to confront the serpent sculpture is to confront one’s own sin and its result. It is the spiritual equivalent of looking in the mirror. That unspoken confession is all it takes to live.

Obtaining water and land. Journeying northward, the Israelites pass Moab and then camped along the Arnon river in a desert area belonging to the Amorites, just to the north of Moabite territory (21:10–13). A quotation from the “Book of the Wars of the LORD” emphasizes that the Arnon formed the border of Moab, so the Israelites are outside Moab (Num. 21:14–15; cf. Judg. 11:18).7 This lost historical source (cf. the “Book of Jashar” in Josh. 10:13; 2 Sam. 1:18) is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible.

Moving on, another potential crisis over water (cf. 20:2–13) turns into a refreshing example of divine-human cooperation when the Israelites dig a well (beʾer) at the Lord’s direction (21:16–18a). Stated in the imperative, the words “Spring up, O well!” (21:17) celebrate claiming the divine promise, as if to say: “We know you’re down there, water, so just go ahead and get on up here as God said you would!” This is only the second recorded occasion on which the Israelites sing for joy when they receive divine assistance. The previous time also had to do with water, but it was at the Red Sea, where the Lord drowned Pharaoh’s army (Ex. 14–15).

To proceed further north in order to reach the Jordan River and enter Canaan from the east, the Israelites ask to pass through the territory of Sihon, king of the Amorites. Not only does Sihon punctuate his refusal to their diplomatic request with a military response as the king of Edom had (cf. 20:20); he comes out to attack Israel (21:23) as the Canaanite king of Arad had (21:1). Like the Canaanites, the Amorites are not related to the Israelites, who have no qualms about crushing them and seizing their domain. Although this is not part of Canaan, it is the first land that the Israelites occupy (21:25, 31). In fact, it eventually becomes a permanent part of their holdings (see ch. 32).

As supported by reference to some early poetry (a ballad? or taunt song?—cf. Isa. 14:4) about Heshbon, Sihon’s capital city,8 the king had earlier extended his border to the Arnon at Moab’s expense (Num. 21:26–30). The fact that he ruled from the Arnon in the south to the Jabbok in the north when Israel defeats him and that Israel does not enter Ammonite territory (21:24; cf. Deut. 2:24–37) later becomes Jephthah’s key argument in his dispute with the king of Ammon, who claims that the Israelites have taken the area between the two rivers from his people (Judg. 11:13, 15, 19–23).

Like Sihon, King Og of the fertile region of Bashan in the northern Transjordan greets Israel with his army and suffers a similar fate (21:33–35). According to other passages, he is a giant (Deut. 3:11; Josh. 12:4) and his people are Amorites (Deut. 4:47; 31:4; Josh. 2:10; 9:10).

Bridging Contexts

ULTIMATE ANTIVENOM. By using poisonous snakes and a visual antivenom (21:8–9), the Lord shifts the emphasis of his discipline from immediate corporal punishment and rapid corporate remedy to the individual experience of faith as the means to access the divine cure for the result of sin. Those who are bitten suffer fiery pain, which impresses them that sin has consequences leading to death (cf. Rom. 6:23). If they spurn the bronze serpent as they have said “yuck!” to the manna that God provided, they will simply go on dying. But they can escape death if they accept the remedy that the Lord has provided. The choice is theirs.

In Moses’ bronze snake, the Lord simultaneously shows the Israelites their sin and his grace. “To see sin without grace is despair. To see grace without sin is arrogance. To see them in tandem is conversion.”9 The remedy is too easy, too good to be true, and defies natural laws of cause and effect. It does not make sense in human terms. That is precisely the point: By doing something that is humanly irrational, the people will show faith in the Lord’s power and promise of healing, which is their only hope.10

It is appropriate that divine remedies, such as purification offerings, a bronze serpent, and a carpenter on a cross, are “foolishness to those who are perishing” (1 Cor. 1:18) because divine grace itself does not conform to human logic. Max Lucado writes:

I’ve never been surprised by God’s judgment, but I’m still stunned by his grace.

God’s judgment has never been a problem for me. In fact, it always seemed right. Lightning bolts on Sodom. Fire on Gomorrah. Good job, God. Egyptians swallowed in the Red Sea. They had it coming. Forty years of wandering to loosen the stiff necks of the Israelites? Would’ve done it myself. Ananias and Sapphira? You bet.

Discipline is easy for me to swallow. Logical to assimilate. Manageable and appropriate.

But God’s grace? Anything but.11

Moses’ bronze snake was preserved for centuries until King Hezekiah destroyed it because the Israelites had made it an object of worship (2 Kings 18:4). Although it was gone, it was not forgotten. One night Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:14–15). Thus Jesus identified himself as the ultimate antidote to the “snakebite” of mortality that results from sin (cf. Rom. 5:12–17). By looking at him, lifted up and dying for our sin, we see the depth of our fall, the fate we deserve, and the magnitude of his mercy. “The simple equation endures: the cure for snakes is a snake; the cure for human life is one man’s life; the cure for death is death. Nothing less will do.”12

It is deeply disturbing that Jesus identified himself with Moses’ snake, which symbolized sin and death. We would much prefer to think of him as the innocent “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The “snake” idea is even more repulsive when we remember the Genesis story of how a satanic serpent introduced sin and death into the world by instigating the disobedience of Eve and Adam (Gen. 3; cf. Rev. 12:9). However, rather than gently backing off the identification of Christ with sin, Paul jarringly rams it home: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21; emphasis supplied).

Imagine that! In a sense, Christ became sin! He bore every evil passion and selfish degradation of the billions of people who have ever inhabited our planet. With that overwhelming deluge of misery collected upon Him and identified with Him as if He were the personification of all evil, He gave Himself up for destruction in order to wipe out all sin and all of its consequences.13

“He was not content to take our nature upon him; he took our iniquity upon him as well. He was not only ‘made flesh’ in the womb of Mary; he was ‘made sin’ on the cross of Calvary.”14 He allowed himself to be identified with evil so that by dying he might destroy the sting of death (cf. 1 Cor. 15:56; Heb. 2:14) and so that by looking we might live. Scott Peck profoundly expresses the power of this kind of “tough love”:

I cannot be any more specific about the methodology of love than to quote these words of an old priest who spent many years in the battle: “There are dozens of ways to deal with evil and several ways to conquer it. All of them are facets of the truth that the only ultimate way to conquer evil is to let it be smothered within a willing, living human being. When it is absorbed there like blood in a sponge or a spear into one’s heart, it loses its power and goes no further.”

The healing of evil—scientifically or otherwise—can be accomplished only by the love of individuals. A willing sacrifice is required. . . . I do not know how this occurs. But I know that it does. . . . Whenever this happens there is a slight shift in the balance of power in the world.15

Basic training. At the beginning of Israel’s history as an independent nation, the Lord employed several strategies to turn his people into a winning team. (1) He showed that he was a winner. By defeating Egypt (Ex. 7–14), he showed the Israelites that if they were on his team, they would be winners too.

(2) In simple, basic ways regarding practical matters such as food, water, and physical security, God emphasized the foundational principle that winning comes through trust in him.

(3) The Lord tested his people over their basic lessons by giving them opportunities to demonstrate what they have learned (e.g., Ex. 15:25—at Marah “he tested them”).

(4) When the Israelites flunked a test, God repeated it until they could pass. Thus, they encountered lack of potable water at Marah (Ex. 15:23), Rephidim (17:1), Kadesh (Num. 20:2), and on the Red Sea road detour around Edom (21:5). Each time they faithlessly grumbled. Finally at Beer16 they trusted the Lord (21:16–18). At Kadesh they refused to go with God into Canaan and then tried to take it by themselves, as a result of which they were beaten as far as Hormah (ch. 14). Decades later they came back to Kadesh (20:1; see comments on ch. 20) and were tested by an attack from the king of Arad, which became Hormah, but this time they relied on God and won (21:1–3).

After a series of tragedies in Numbers 20, chapter 21 shows what a transition from losing to winning looks like. After faith and victory against the king of Arad (21:1–3), there is a major relapse on the Red Sea road around Edom (21:4–5), which calls for discipline (snakes) and grace (21:6–9). So the transition to winning is bumpy. The next time there is a crisis, however, it turns into a positive experience worth celebrating when the Israelites find water at Beer (21:16–18).

Once they have passed their long “basic training,” which should have lasted a fraction of the time, the Israelites are on a roll. Not coincidentally, it is soon after their triumph at the well that the Israelites win the lands of kings Sihon and Og (21:21–35). When they can trust the Lord to provide their daily needs, they are ready to trust him in battle. When they dig for his gift in a desert land, they are on the way toward receiving a Promised Land of their own.

Contemporary Significance

MOTIVATION TO BECOME a winning team. J. C. Maxwell and J. Dornan point out: “To really become motivated to succeed, people need to believe they can win.”17 This is a process that takes time and mentoring.

John, like many of us, got a taste for winning when he was just a kid. He says,

Growing up, I idolized my brother Larry, who is two and a half years older than I am. . . . Larry has always been a great leader and an excellent athlete. And whenever we played basketball, football, or baseball with the kids in the neighborhood, Larry was a captain.

A lot of times when they picked teams, I would be one of the last picked, because I was younger and smaller than most of the kids. But as I got older, Larry began picking me more, and that always made me feel good, not only because it meant my brother cared about me, but because I knew that when Larry picked me, I was going to be on the winning team. You see, Larry was a fierce competitor, and he didn’t like losing. He always played to win, and he usually did. Together we put quite a few wins under our belts, and I came to expect victory when I played with my brother.18

Making a winner out of a younger brother is simple compared to mentoring a group of people who are already confirmed, experienced losers, who don’t even know what true winning is, and who want rewards without cooperating. Any leader faced with such a challenge, whether in a classroom, a church congregation, or another kind of organization, can pick up some useful tips from the way God managed to turn Israel into a winning team.

As in ancient times, a successful attitude is still crucial for success. Maxwell and Dornan compare what happens when people sense victory versus when they sense defeat:19

When People Sense Victory	When People Sense Defeat
They sacrifice to succeed. They look for ways to win. They become energized. They follow the game plan. They help other team members.	They give as little as possible. They look for excuses. They become tired. They forsake the game plan. They hurt others.

For an example of contrast between the two attitudes, consider Jesus’ disciples. After undergoing basic training by participating in ministry, they experienced one of the most breathtaking transformations from a sense of defeat to one of victory ever recorded in history. When Jesus was betrayed, tried, and lifted up on the cross “as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert” (John 3:14), his followers fled in various directions and cowered in fear (Matt. 26:56; John 20:19), one publicly denied him (Matt. 26:69–74), and others moaned in despair, saying, “we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21). But when Christ strode from the grave and showed that he had conquered death to become the remedy of life for all humanity, those who believed in him were energized, united in mission, and willing to endure any hardship and pain as they carried the good news to the uttermost parts of the earth as he had commissioned them to do (Matt. 28; Luke 24; John 20–21; book of Acts).

Christ’s victory is also for his modern disciples. When we truly sense that because Christ has already won, we who believe in him are all winners together, we too become energized, follow the game plan, and sacrifice rather than make up excuses. We too give generously, encourage rather than criticize, and assist others rather than vying with them to see who can become the greatest.

Notice that Maxwell and Dornan speak of a “game plan” and “team members” (see above). We do not obtain success for ourselves merely as isolated individuals. As it was in the days of Moses and of Peter, James, and John, discipleship necessarily involves a corporate component: To follow God is to participate in a winning team.

Like the victorious Israelites, we can come together to a refreshing “well,” a source of life that God has given to sustain us through the “desert.” At Jacob’s well, Jesus promised a Samaritan woman: “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst” (John 4:13–14). At the final climax of the festival of Booths, when people were thinking about literal water for the coming agricultural year,20 Jesus invited them: “‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive” (John 7:37–39; cf. Rev. 21:6; 22:17).

Now here is something to sing about! “Spring up, O well!” Those who are willing to receive the refreshing gift of God’s Spirit are ready for any battles with evil that may come on the way to their Promised Land. Trust in God to receive the cleansing empowerment of his Spirit is basic. We cannot go on without this experience. If we are still in “basic training,” we will likely find ourselves repeatedly coming back to the same testing points from various angles until we learn to give up on our own strength and wisdom and to rely on God.

Even when we are on a roll, smaller challenges prepare for greater ones and our trust needs constant renewal. John Donne (born 1572) understood submission to the discipline of faith when he wrote:

Batter my heart, three person’d God; for, you

As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;

That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow mee, and bend

Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.21