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After Aaron's death, the people
went to Kibroth-Hataavah, and then to Zalmonah; and they murmured again,
because they were tired of their long wanderings, and of the manna which
God gave them. They forgot why it was that they wandered so many
years in the wilderness; it was for the punishment of their sin, and they
ought humbly to have submitted to it; but their hearts were still proud,
and rebellious, and unhumbled before God. God
now punished his sinful people again. He sent fiery serpents among
them; and they bit the people, and many died. God has power over all
creatures. He could bring quails to feed His people, and now He
could bring serpents to kill them. The Israelites came to Moses, and
confessed their sin, and asked him to pray for them to God. Moses
was always ready to pray for them, and God was always ready to hear his
prayers, and now He told Moses how the people must be cured of the
serpents' bites. He commanded Moses to make a serpent of brass, and
to put it upon a pole; and He said, that all who were bitten, if they
looked upon the brazen serpent, should live. The bitten Israelites
did as God said, and were cured, and went on their journey again. We
may learn a lesson from the story of the serpents. We are like the
bitten Israelites; we are all sick and perishing, not in our bodies, but
in our souls. Satan, "the old serpent," destroys the soul,
as the fiery serpents destroyed the body. We are all sinners:
all in danger of being sent to hell; but there is a way to escape.
What saved the bitten Israelites? They looked upon the serpent of
brass and lived. And what can save us? Jesus says, "Look
unto me, and be ye saved." Isaiah 45:22. He was
lifted up upon the cross, to die on it for our sins: and if we look
to Him in faith He has promised to save us, and to give us eternal
life. He Himself, when He was upon earth, said to Nicodemus,
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of
man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have eternal life." John 3:14, 15.
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