Roadmap for the soul - Judaism, the bible and the tabernacle

As we've see in our last chapter, God has now shown Israel that 'death' is inevitable,
because of the unstoppable 'leaven of sin' (or 'disbelief').

This was demonstrated by the fact that
those who had been tainted by 'slavery' in Egypt, had to die outside the promised land.

But now, God is going to offer Israel some encouragement...
And He's going to do this in a very unique way...

He's going to afflict them with "fiery serpents".

This takes place in the book of Numbers, chapter 21,
where the people of Israel are once again complaining bitterly ---

Numbers 21:5-9 "And the people spoke against God and against Moses; "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread". (v.6) So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died. (v.7) Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord that He take away the serpents from us". So Moses prayed for the people. (v.8) Then the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live". (v.9) So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived".

Even after all that God has done (and continues to do) for them, the people of Israel have little or no faith in Him.
Clearly, 'disbelief' continues to plague Israel.
And as always, 'disbelief' leads to 'death'. 50

Thus, these "fiery serpents" have come upon Israel.

So...
"Where", you might ask, "is the 'encouragement' in this story"?

The encouragement can be found in verses 8 & 9...
There, you will note that some who were bitten "lived"...

In order to live, these people had to "look" at a 'fiery serpent on a pole'...
In other words, if they wanted to live, they basically had to ---

	Look at what they had brought upon themselves...
	Recognize that they were subject to death...
	Willingly accept what only God could provide.

And what God provides here, is essentially a 'resurrection'...
He 'resurrects' them from what would otherwise have been a sure death.

So... as you can see, there definitely is encouragement in this story...
Although Israel is still very much 'enslaved' by sin (or 'disbelief')
and therefore death is inevitable and must be experienced ---

'death' can be overcome!

Now... remember Isaac's experience on Mt. Moriah?

As we saw, his experience on Mt. Moriah hinted that both a 'death' & a 'resurrection might be experienced by his descendants, on their way to 'inherit the land'.

And sure enough, in this story, God is reiterating and illustrating that very point...
In order to truly be set free from the slavery of sin (or 'disbelief') and inherit the promised land,
Israel must experience both a 'death' and a 'resurrection'.

Unfortunately, at this stage in our story, the true means of death & resurrection
has not yet become available to Israel.

Nonetheless, Israel is soon going to try and take possession of the promised land, as our story continues...

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