Numbers 21:4-9. New provocations bring down new plagues upon them. We have here, 1. Their murmuring. Discouraged by the length and difficulties of the road, they not only quarrel with Moses, but speak also against God, as if his design was to destroy them instead of saving them; and, loathing of God's provision of manna, they pretend to be now famished with that light food, though so long and comfortably fed by it. Note; (1.) Many, like these, are discontented, though surrounded with mercies. (2.) The long continuance of the means of grace is apt to make them cheap in our eyes. The longer some enjoy the preaching of the Gospel, the less they value it: when it was new, their appetite was sharp; but now it is become insipid to them. God visits their sin with fiery serpents, whose bite was venomous, and the effect of it burning heat and intolerable thirst; a punishment suited to their sin. They feared that they should die where no danger was; God, therefore, will give reality to their fears, and they shall die. Thus they, who complain without cause, shall have cause to complain. (3.) When they felt the smart of the serpents, they began to lament the sin which brought them, and to beg the advocacy of Moses, whom they had so often abused. Note; (1.) It is a mercy when sufferings by sin lead us to repentance for sin. (2.) In affliction, those ministers of God will be first sought whom we have most despised.
In their sin, suffering, and method of cure, we may, as in a glass, see our own image reflected. Every man, by nature, is stung with the poison of sin by that old serpent the devil; the effects of which must be shortly fatal, unless the venom be removed. Christ Jesus is, to us, this brazen serpent, fashioned after the likeness of sinful flesh, and lifted up once on the cross, and still in the preaching of the Gospel, for the healing of the nations. No other method than this, which infinite Wisdom hath contrived, has any efficacy to remove the guilt of sin, or quiet the fears of a wounded conscience. We are commanded to look to Him; and whoever by faith, however desperate his cause appear, turns to a dying Saviour his dying eyes, shall feel his mortal pains assuaged, and the sting of death plucked from his heart. But if, neglecting or despising this salvation, the miserable sinner seeks by his own righteousness to recover, or dares not trust alone in the merit of Jesus far life and glory, then he perishes without remedy, and his sin will be his eternal ruin.