Bibledoorajar: Is this the right direction?

     The people now marched in a direction that would take them around Edom as God had earlier stated that they could not bother their kinfolk by going through their land. For the people, this seemed like they were going in circles and their patience wore thin and they began to grumble again. They spoke against Moses and also against God. This was after they had consecrated themselves to God for his provision against Arad and his armies. The content of the grumble had a familiar ring--"Why did you bring us up from Egypt to die in this Wilderness, for there is no food and no water, and our soul is disgusted with the insubstantial food?" By now Moses probably had it memorized. God, too, recognized this refrain and sent fiery serpents. They writhed across the ground and bit the people. Now the people needed Moses but they needed God more. Faithful Moses went to God and God told him to make himself a fiery serpent and place it on a pole or stake and it would be that anyone who was bitten by the serpents could stare at the copper Serpent and live.

This is an interesting story. The cause of the people's destruction was also their source of healing. Today, we can be subject to losing patience with our direction in life. We can feel the burning of the Old Serpent attacks. Or, we can just realize that we are getting older and therefore more limited. God has made a provision for how sin takes us all in a downward cycle. We can look upon His Son, Jesus, who, too, was placed on a pole or stake. In looking in belief, the bites of the Old Serpent are ministered too and we can be eternally healed in the long run. There is help for the woes of this life thanks to God's ability to counter the Old Serpent at every turn. Unfortunately, some folks have sight to look upon the cross but fail to do so. One lady, Fannie Crosby though blind saw the cross clearly and looked upon it often. We know that because she penned the following:

      " Tell of the cross where they nailed Him,

writhing in anguish and pain;

tell of the grave where they laid Him,

tell how He liveth again.

Love in that story so tender,

clearer than ever I see:

stay, let me weep while you whisper,

love paid the ransom for me."