Slices
Prepare
‘History repeats itself. Has to – No-one listens.’* Ask God to help you learn the lessons from history that he is trying to teach you.
*‘History lesson’, Steve Turner, from Nice and Nasty, Harper Collins, 1980
Bible passage
Arad destroyed
21 When the Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that Israel was coming along the road to Atharim, he attacked the Israelites and captured some of them. 2 Then Israel made this vow to the Lord: ‘If you will deliver these people into our hands, we will totally destroy their cities.’ 3 The Lord listened to Israel’s plea and gave the Canaanites over to them. They completely destroyed them and their towns; so the place was named Hormah.
The bronze snake
4 They travelled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go round Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!’
6 Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. 7 The people came to Moses and said, ‘We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people.
8 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.’ 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.
Explore
An extract from the memoirs of Pagiel, the eldest son of Okran, an Asherite: We are back at Broken Rock, Hormah (see Numbers 14:45), but things are different this time. The Israelites have learnt that our only chance of success in battle is to turn to God. God enabled the army to destroy the Canaanite towns in the region.
However, soon the people are complaining again. There is hardly anybody left of my generation who left Egypt 40 years ago, and yet, whenever there is a problem, everyone starts bewailing the fact that we left, although most of them were never there!
God’s punishment this time was to send an infestation of snakes. Nobody could move without being bitten, but with the punishment God provided mercy. He told Moses to make a bronze model of a snake and put it up on a pole. Everyone who looked at the effigy survived (v 8).
How illogical – looking at a metal object has no effect against poison! Maybe God was testing to see whether we trusted him enough to obey, even when his command seemed crazy?
Respond
We started this series thinking about Jesus Christ, our substitute, and this story points us back there again (John 3:14,15). We fall short of God’s standards, just like the Israelites, but because of Jesus’ death, we have life. Praise God!
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Job 13,14; Luke 18
Pray for Scripture Union
Pray for Scripture Union’s Local Mission Partners in their work to serve children and young people asking that God will strengthen their mission, guide their projects, and bless their efforts to reveal Jesus, responding faithfully to local needs.
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