Numbers 21:4-9 And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. …

What did you expect when you began following Jesus? He has set you free. Did you think that just because you Walk in the Way that everything of the world was just going to fade like a bad memory? It will, but not just yet.

Those who are well versed in scriptures knows what follows this scene. It is one of the pillar moments of Christ’s foreshadowing. What is about to happen is a clear sign of God’s gracious mercy, even if in this moment for Israel it does not appear that way. For Israel it is a moment of selfish malcontent. Israel has no gratitude for the meager offerings that keeps them alive.

What lesson is to be learned by us in this moment? What should we see in our own lives that might compare to this moment in time of those who had just been freed? They have no bread, they have no water and they have no love for what little that has been provided.

Do you read your daily bread? Is your heart a well spring of blessing? Do you sing God’s praises for your circumstances, no matter what that might be? I don’t think that is asking much for having been set free.

9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

This is the forerunner of Christ on the cross. Your wilderness moments are meant to bring you back to the Cross of Christ.

Psalm 69:20 Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

I was watching a pre-civil war movie last week. In it was brutality and inhumanity. The hearts of most whites and even a few slaves were pitiless. As I watched the movie none of that struck me as hard as watching the process of selling a slave, with title and deed, with history of ownership from slave ship, to owner and birth records and every trade ever made. It was in seeing that process I saw a glimpse into the attitude of some who resent proof of voters rights.

Are those feeling just? The law was written to protect their rights, yet did nothing to address the emotions that have lingered in the hearts of men and women since the end of the civil war. Laws may address wrongs but they cannot heal wounds. We write laws to address injustice and create within their bounds a weapon of reminder, of pain, or injustice, that society needed to create a law which does nothing to fix the problem, but only highlights a deeper problem without addressing the problem itself.

The law may be perfect or imperfect. The abiding in the law may be perfect or imperfect. Neither can change the problem. The sin nature of man is the problem and nothing changes that except God.

Psalm 49:20 Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.

Psalm 119:130 The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.

The Word gives light to the entrance, but they still have to enter in to be free.