NOTES for Числ 21:4-9
It is astonishing how clearly and well God knows us. No human being has such clarity of knowledge about himself. And the Lord naturally uses His knowledge to help us find the way to Him and see His light. Knowing the thoughts and grumbling of the children of Israel, God sends venomous serpents among them. People begin to die, but they probably do not immediately understand that the disaster is connected with their betrayal. They come to Moses as a man able to appeal to God and be heard. And the Lord offers a solution: He does not remove the serpents from His people, but moves the children of Israel to turn to Him for healing, if only by looking at the bronze serpent made by Moses. Otherwise, it would be all too easy to say that the serpents simply crawled in and then crawled away, refusing to recognize in what happened God's fatherly discipline and Love (see Prov 3:11-12, Rev 3:19).