{"id":176318,"date":"2023-09-19T04:40:18","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T09:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/?p=176318"},"modified":"2023-09-18T06:53:02","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T11:53:02","slug":"47-v-wilderness-12-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/19\/47-v-wilderness-12-a\/","title":{"rendered":"47.v. &#8220;Wilderness&#8221; &#8211;  12.a.  &#8220;When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and sought God earnestly&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"verseid:4.21.7\"><b>Num 21:7-9<\/b>\u00a0<\/a><\/span>\u00a0And the people came to Moses and said, \u201cWe have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.\u201d So Moses prayed for the people.\u00a0And the LORD said to Moses, \u201cMake a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.\u201d\u00a0So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"verseid:19.78.34\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Psalms 78:34<\/b><\/span><\/a><b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and sought God earnestly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"verseid:9.12.19\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>1 Samuel 12:19<\/b><\/span><\/a><b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0And all the people said to Samuel, \u201cPray for your servants to the LORD your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"verseid:2.32.30\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Exodus 32:30<\/b><\/span><\/a><b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0The next day Moses said to the people, \u201cYou have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"verseid:43.3.14\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>John 3:14-15<\/b><\/span><\/a><b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,\u00a0\u00a0that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"verseid:43.12.32\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>John 12:32<\/b><\/span><\/a><b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"verseid:23.45.22\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Isaiah 45:22<\/b><\/span><\/a><b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cTurn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p2\">\u201cTheir quick recognition of its source and purpose, and their swift repentance, are to be put to their credit. It is well for us when we interpret for ourselves God\u2019s judgments, and need no Moses to urge us to humble ourselves before Him.\u201d (Maclaren)<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Even among miracles, this was unusual. There was no immediate logical connection between merely looking at a serpent on a pole and living, or refusing to look and dying. But God commanded that such an unusual thing \u2013 even a foolish thing \u2013 be used to bring salvation to Israel. Jesus referred to this remarkable event in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.blueletterbible.org\/search\/preSearch.cfm?Criteria=John+3.14-15&amp;t=NKJV\"><span class=\"s2\">John 3:14-15<\/span><\/a>:\u00a0And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.\u00a0Jesus clearly said there is a similarity between what Moses did here and what Jesus did on the cross. The people were saved not by\u00a0doing\u00a0anything, but by simply\u00a0looking\u00a0to the bronze serpent. They had to trust that something that seemed to be as foolish as looking at a serpent on a pole was enough to save them. It is likely that some in Israel perished because they thought it was too simple, too foolish to simply look and live. The saving power represented by the serpent could not be exhausted. There was no limit to the number of those who could look and live. Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.\u00a0We might be willing to\u00a0do\u00a0a hundred things to earn our salvation, but God commands us to only trust in Him \u2013 to look to Him. (Guzik)<\/p>\n<p>Without seeing a need to repent &#8211; people don&#8217;t. There is a growing blindness in the world that sees no need for repentance. Sin is just a word religious people use to believe in a fake god that does not exist. Being bitten by a snake with death a certain outcome might give motivation to repent as you see others dying from their lack of repentance and trust in looking at the bronze snake on the pole to save them. Those who did not repent died because of their hardened heart. Though they could see others dying and others living, they gave no thought to belief in what Moses had said to them and they perished for this stubbornness.<\/p>\n<p>Oh that we would see the sinfulness of our sin and the greatness of God&#8217;s holiness that would cause us to live out our days with eagerness to know our sin and repent from it for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Num 21:7-9\u00a0\u00a0And the people came to Moses and said, \u201cWe have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.\u201d So Moses prayed for the people.\u00a0And the LORD said to Moses, \u201cMake a fiery serpent and set it on a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/2023\/09\/19\/47-v-wilderness-12-a\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;47.v. &#8220;Wilderness&#8221; &#8211;  12.a.  &#8220;When he killed them, they sought him; they repented and sought God earnestly&#8221;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5417,17328,8453,6566,17327,2798,3863,17322,76,1388,17324,796,219,559,4342,6006,468,17323,4923,17326,2287,8635,4517,14346,6616,17325,17329],"class_list":["post-176318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers","tag-aaron","tag-all-people-to-myself","tag-atonement","tag-be-saved","tag-believes-in-him-may-have-eternal-life","tag-die","tag-earnestly","tag-fiery-serpent","tag-god","tag-i-am-god","tag-killed-them","tag-lord","tag-moses","tag-prayed","tag-repented","tag-serpents","tag-servants","tag-set-on-a-pole","tag-shall-live","tag-sinned-a-great-sin","tag-sins","tag-son-of-man-be-lifted-up","tag-sought-him","tag-spoken-against","tag-there-is-no-other","tag-this-evil","tag-trun-to-me"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176318"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176322,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176318\/revisions\/176322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}