Lesson five is entitled rebellion against God's covenant. This is going to be a biggie. Not to say that the other rebellions haven't been significant, especially the rebellion of the 10 spies in Israel rejecting the land. That's a huge deal.
But this one, we're gonna see, it's really the 10th rebellion, is going to be the biggest. And 10 is the number of completion, perfection, totality. And so this is like the climactic rebellion of really the wilderness generation before they go into the promised land. So that's going to be the rebellion against God's covenant.
We do have another rebellion, a number nine to talk about, and some various events leading up to it. We're gonna pick up right where we left off from last lesson in chapter 20 verse 14. This whole section, chapter 20 verse 14, going all the way to the end of the book of numbers. A lot of people like to group it as like one whole section.
It's really this journey towards the promised land from Kadesh Barneas. So much of the activity has taken place in Kadesh. And now they're journeying to the plains of Moab. Right there on the border of the promised land.
I like to call it the two yard line, right there on the two yard line. All they got to do is just take the ball over into the end zone and they're winners, but they're gonna be losers, gonna be a disaster at the two yard line. So, but nevertheless, this whole section is often lumped together, this journey from Kadesh to the plains of Moab. You do have your map that I've given to you.
How you can find maps of course and many other atlas is and whatnot. And you're gonna kind of see that little journey there, okay? So on our way, there's a few little things that we wanna talk about as they approach the promised land. The first little story that we're gonna look at in chapter 20 verse 14 is that the Edomites reject Israel.
Israel wants to go through the land of Edom. In fact, we'll just read this here for you in verse 14. Chapter 20 verse 14, it says, Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom. Thus says your brother Israel.
You know all the adversity that has been following us, how our fathers went down to Egypt, how he dwelt in Egypt a long time. And the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers. And when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice, said an angel and brought us forth out of Egypt. And here we are in Kadesh, they sit on the edge of your territory.
Now let us pass through your land and it goes on to say how we're not gonna eat anything, we're not gonna drink anything, we're not gonna harm anything, or anybody. We just wanna pass through your territory here. Then Edomites come out and say, no way at all. You're not doing that.
And they bring a force with them and they intimidate the Israelites in Israelites. So who are the Edomites? Now you may or may not know that Edomites are descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob. So Esau and Jacob are brothers.
The Edomites and Israelites really are cousins, okay? That's why verse 14 says, thus says Israel, your brother. Your brother Israel is approaching you, addressing you. They're not addressing the Canaanites and these other foreigners and Gentiles.
Edom, their family, their kinsmen here, okay? Now Edom is a nickname for Esau. Edom literally means red. And Esau's got that nickname for a couple of reasons.
We talked about this in the Bible study on Genesis here, how when Esau was born, he was all like red and hairy, like a little baby Ewok or a little baby Elmo. So he's a nickname red because he looks all red and hairy when he's an infant, but also because he sold his birthright for the red stew or the red pottage food there. So he has this nickname, Edom, descendants are known as the Edomites, okay? So that's why it says your brother Israel because they're related.
So just as Esau and Jacob, Edom and Jacob were enmets with each other, you probably remember that whole story, the strife between those brothers, really now their descendants are at enmity with each other as well, okay? They're always fighting with each other, not getting along. And so here Edomites say, heck no, you're not coming through on the King's highway. And that's really all they have.
Let's go through on the King's highway. We won't depart from it to the right hand or the left hand. We're very, very focused on our journey. It's going to be fine.
And Edom challenges them and says, no, you're not going to do that. If you do, we're going to wipe you out, right? So there's some typology in this personal reflection of mine. He's not, you know, this whole time in this Bible study, we're talking about how the book of numbers is really a great spiritual application to our own lives, right?
We are also on a journey to the wilderness of life towards the promise land of heaven. So we're talking about this a whole bunch. We've received the sacraments. We've gone through the waters of the New Red Sea, that's baptism.
We received the Eucharist, which is the new manna. And God provides for us. We have trials and temptations, tribulations, all these things as we journey to the promise of heaven. All right, that's kind of the overarching theme.
Well, as you see in various instances, sometimes people, even family members, will oppose us on our journey, right? They're going to be friends, family, strangers, whatever it might be. The worst, of course, is family or friends. They oppose us.
We're trying to go towards the promise land of heaven and they say no, you can't do this and they in our way and they're an obstacle to us. And we need to do really what Israel does here and not just go around them, right? Sometimes you just need to walk around them and they need to go a different path as we try to get to heaven, okay? There will be people that stand in our way.
Sometimes we just need to walk around them. As we're going to see later on, sometimes we do need to defend ourselves. But in this journey, there will be guaranteed, there will be people who stand in our way. And we're going to have to deal with that in different ways.
Sometimes we walk around them. So I think that's really, at least for me personally, I think that's really interesting thought and reflection here on this overarching theme, okay? So Edom says no way they go a different route. And here we discover in chapter 20 verse 22 and following that Aaron dies, Aaron dies specifically in verse 28.
But there's this whole scene here where he's 123 years old, by the way. We know that from chapter 33 verse 39. He is, it's been 40 years since they left Egypt and we know that because in Exodus chapter seven verse seven, it says that Aaron was 83 years old. So you do the basic math.
It's been 40 years, which I find significant because this whole book of numbers is 40 years in the wilderness. So too then has Aaron been in the wilderness since they left Exodus for 40 years. And remember 40 is that number of purification of trial tribulation from all earthly desires and loves and how his earthly life is done, right? It's, and he's not able to go into the promised land because of what we saw at the beginning of chapter 20 when he and Moses, they struck that rock twice and we discussed all of that at the end of last lesson.
So here he dies, but it's very public because he's stripped of his robes, his vestments, and they're given to his son, Eleazar. Now, Eleazar becomes the new high priest. And really, you know, that touches upon a lot of what's going on here because these later chapters in the book of numbers is really all about the second version of things, right? Now, Eleazar is the successor of Aaron and the second generation is now replacing the first generation.
Now, we're going to see in the next lesson how Joshua is going to become the successor of Moses. So it's really like the first generation, the Exodus generation, leadership and people are passing away. They're moving on. They're dying out and the new generation of leaders and people are coming into the land.
That's kind of what's going on here. And really, Aaron marks the first moment of all of that. Of course, gradually, this whole wilderness generation has been growing up while their parents have died. So that certainly hasn't happened as well.
So Aaron dies. Eleazar is made high priest and then the people will mourn for 30 days because it's a pretty big deal. Aaron, the first high priest has been there all along and now he is passing away. And it's very visual, again, as I've been saying.
The whole concept that you're going to die in the wilderness and the leadership is going to die in the wilderness as well. That's a pretty scary thing to have happen right before your eyes. All right. So after Aaron passes away, you've got in chapter 21 verses 1 through 3 a very, very short episode of how some Canaanites come up to fight Israel.
Initially, they are successful in their first little skirmish and Israel swears about to eliminate them if God gives them victory, which of course it happens. The Israelites have victory and they defeat these Canaanites and take possession of their city. This is very, very quick and very, very brief, but it's important because it foreshadows what's going to happen later on when they get into the land and how God will give them victory at every single battle, so long as they're obedient. So I have a little quote here for you from when your commentaries that says, the capture of the city takes on special significance.
It is the first fruits of the victory over the Canaanites and it comes prior to the long trek to Moab. I really like that quote here because I like the concept of these the first fruits of the victory over the Canaanites. Now, this isn't the first time Israel has had victory over enemies and we'll talk, in fact, down below in the Roman numeral four, we'll talk more about some other victories against kings of Cihon and Og. There's more victories to come.
They've had victories in the past with Joshua and the Malikites, but the significance here is they're fighting Canaanites now. They're going to have victory, even though the first generation was scaredy cats and they just didn't want to go in to fight the land and want to go back to Egypt. God will give them victory. Okay.
And that again touches upon so much of the spiritual theology we've been looking at before, is God will give you victory over your spiritual enemies. He will take care of you and especially when you apply this to the spiritual life, he'll give you victory over your vices. He'll give you victory over your sins if you are faithful to him. So more to say about that when we get to chapter 21, so hang tight.
But right after this, War of the Canaanites, we have the ninth wilderness rebellion. This is the famous story of the serpents and the bronze serpent and Jesus will actually reference this as well. So let's read these verses here and then unpack it and see what's going on when Jesus refers to it in John chapter 3. What's the typology going on here?
All right. So after they fight the Canaanites in verse 4, chapter 21 verse 4, they set out by the way of the Red Sea to go around the land of Eden because as we just discussed, the Edomites would not let them pass through so they got to go the long way around now. So they go around the land of Eden and the people became impatient along the way and the people spoke against God and against Moses, why have you brought us up out of the land, out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water and we loathe this worthless food.
Talk about the manna. And you want to do a face pong. Come on. What is wrong with you guys?
What is wrong with the Israelites here? Again, they're murmuring for lack of food and lack of water. And yet again, they are despising the manna. We talk about this a couple of lessons back, right?
When they began to rebel against God's gift of the manna to reject the manna is to reject what the manna symbolizes, which is the promised land that flows with milk and honey. And more than that, it is communion with God within the promised land. So rejecting the manna is a really, really big deal. And so on the one hand, you're like, oh my goodness, why won't you learn?
Why are you committing the same sins over and over again? But I have to remind you, remember, we are Israel. We also commit the same sins over and over again. We go to confession and we turn to God in contrition for the same sins over and over again.
We have our own vices on our own weaknesses that we are meant to overcome against spiritual battle with the help of the Holy Spirit and grace. This all of this is so applicable to us. So don't forget when you want to bang your head against the wall, when you're committing the same sins, I like to say, bang it against them here, because this is a reflection of our own souls as well. Now, having said that, I have one more little application to this whole frustrating scene.
And that is by and large, this is the whole second generation that is sinning. Okay. We're getting really, really close to the board of the promised land. We don't know the exact numbers, but I would say the majority of the first generation has passed away.
And the majority of these people are what we call the wilderness generation. They either were very, very young when they came out of Egypt or they were born along the way. So it's really the second generation committing this rebellion and the sin and murmuring against the man, rejecting the man, whining and complaining about there's no food in the water, et cetera. So you might be able to say, okay, well, it's not the same people committing the same sins, but on the other hand, what's so interesting about this is that the children are committing the same sins as their parents.
And that is very shocking as well, because in our own lives so often unless we're really, really lucky, our children can kind of fall into our bad habits as well. You know, if you've got, oh man, if you could fill on the blank, you know, if you've got a parent who has a problem with X, Y, or Z thing, that happens, it becomes generational. Alcohol is a typical thing that happens. Abuse is another thing that happens.
Anger and patience, bad tempers, whatever. There's all kinds of examples here where the second generation commits the same sins as the previous generation, the first generation. That happens with us too. You know, so clearly there's something going on here where the first generation is not teaching the second generation of what to do and what not to do.
And that is going to be very, very important when we get to down the line here. We'll talk about the 10th and final rebellion on how the second generation commits basically the same horrendous, horrific crime of idolatry and debauchery that the first generation did at Mount Sinai. So I think that is really important. Even though it's the second generation, maybe they weren't the ones whining about the man before, but they're committing the same sins as their parents and we are guilty of that as well, I would say.
Okay? All right, so here they are murmuring for want to food and water. And then so God will turn around and he'll send, let's see here, verse 6, then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people so that the sons of Israel died. All right, so this is significant because these fiery serpents here, the serpent is the classic image of Satan, right?
You go back to Genesis chapter 3, Satan takes the form of a serpent in that narrative to really cause Adam and Eve to rebel against God. So there's the connection with rebellion all the time. But here these serpents are basically like this, like a visual of Satan coming to bite them to have to punish them for their sinfulness because the wages of sin is death, as Paul will say in Romans, the wages of sin is death. And so if you're sinning against God, you're kind of bitten by Satan and you're going to die.
So it's a very potent, very powerful image here of what Satan is doing to the Israelites. Okay? All right, so these fiery serpents literally they're called the Seraph and pluralists of the Seraphim. But it's really interesting, I do have a footnote from your Catholic introduction to the Old Testament.
I really thought this was interesting and I have to confess, I didn't know it before reading it here. There's a lot of studies on angelology and demonology and all this kind of stuff. I thought this was so fascinating for you. So I put it in your footnote.
It says that, well, these fiery serpents are called the Seraph or Seraphim. This may be the origin, your commentary will say of the later Christian tradition that Satan was one of the angels known as the Seraphim. So you've got nine choirs of angels, the top choir, the choir that's closest to God is the Seraphim. They're like burning, they're like burning with God's love and burning with God's grace.
They're so close to God, they're on fire, right? So well, here you've got these fiery serpents biting the people because of their sin. And so tradition says, hey, this might be one of the reasons, well, this might be an illusion to Satan being a fallen angel from the choir of the Seraphim. I think that's really, really interesting there.
So I just wanted to put that as a footnote for sure to make that connection for you. So these serpents bite the people for the rebelliousness. And so they, of course, as we've seen over and over again, the pattern is they repent. Even not the perfect contrition, but they sure as heck don't want to die, right?
So they turn to Moses and they say, we have sinned. We have spoken against the Lord and against you. Because remember, they're complaining about the food and the water and they're loathing the man at that is rebelling against God. That's what I was saying.
So they say, you know, help take the serpents away from us. So Moses prayed for the people as the pattern goes. And the Lord says, make a fiery serpent, set it up as a sign. And everyone who has bitten when he sees it shall live.
So Moses made a bronze serpent, bronze kind of echoing the fire look. You can imagine how that would look in the sunlight there. I mean, the bronze serpent kind of looks like it's on fire when the sun hits it. And set it up as a sign.
And if the serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and he would live. And this is so, so interesting. And it's a fascinating antidote to their poison, right? To the poison of being bitten.
To look at this bronze serpent, it looks like it's on fire, presumably to repent, right? To mourn the fact that you rebelled against God. Then you would be healed. That's really, really interesting here how he does this.
Now, I want to actually take you to the book of wisdom. The book of wisdom, wisdom literature is just all fantastic here. But in the book of wisdom, it comments on this, it comments on a lot of the events of the Exodus. And I want to take you to chapter 16, it's references in your notes.
And it talks about how the fiery serpent was the source of healing. So let's see here, chapter 16 verse 5. For when the terrible rage of wild beasts came upon your people, they were being destroyed by the bites of a writing serpent's. And your wrath did not continue to the end.
They were troubled for a little while as a warning and received a token of deliverance to remind them of your laws command. For he who turned toward it was saved, not by what he saw, but by you, the Savior of it all. And by, that's so awesome by the way. So they turned to this bronze serpent's and they were saved, not by the serpent itself, but by God himself, who is the Savior of all.
It's God who saves them when they turn to look at the serpent, God saves them, not the serpent itself. That's really interesting. Okay, verse 8. And by this also you convinced our enemies that it is you who deliver from every evil, for they were killed by the bites of locust and flies, and no healing was found for them, because they deserved to be punished by such things.
But your sons were not conquered, even by the teeth of venomous serpents. For your mercy came to their help and healed them. To remind them of your oracles, they were bitten, and they were quickly delivered, lest they should fall into deep forgetfulness and become unresponsive to your kindness. For neither earb nor poldist occurred them, but it was your word, O Lord, which heals all men.
I love that. That's really beautiful here, this commentary in the book of wisdom, on what's going on here, how they're saved by God, and these serpents are a warning, and they're meant to teach Israel, as are all of these plagues and punishments are meant to teach Israel to repent. Okay, that's the goal for it all, right? Now, what's interesting with this is that Jesus himself references this story, and applies it to himself in John chapter 3.
He's talking to Nicodemists, and so you've got to read the whole section. It's really, really beautiful. This whole section of his engagement, his discussion with Nicodemists, and in the middle of it, he says that he himself is the bronze serpent. In John chapter 3 verse 14 and 15, he says, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in him may have eternal life.
And this confused people because I don't get it, Jesus. I thought the serpent was a symbol of Satan and a symbol of sin. Like how is it that you, Jesus, equate yourself to the serpent, which means sin, right? In death, I don't understand what's going on here.
Well, it's actually really, really incredible because Jesus is the bronze serpent that's raised up in the new covenant, because Jesus comes through his incarnation, right? Jesus becomes flesh. He comes in the likeness of sinful flesh, the sinful humanity that we deal with, and to defeat the serpent and to defeat sin and to heal the snake bite of sin that we all deal with, and we all suffer from, he puts it up all on the cross. In the incarnation, and also the crucifixion, Jesus puts to death Satan, sin, and death.
That's what's going on here. Right? And in fact, Saint Paul will say in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, a very famous line, Paul says, for our sake, God made Jesus, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Really, the line here, commentators will say that when it says he made Jesus to be sin, he's referring to the sin offering, right?
Which is really interesting. Jesus is the sin offering. He knew no sin, he's a perfect sacrifice, he's a perfect, holy, spotless victim, he is the sin offering to do what? To conquer sin.
So when we look upon Christ and on the crucifix, right, on the keys crucified there, we look upon him with faith and with repentance, we are healed from the snake bite of sin. We are brought back to new life because he, Jesus, crucified and defeated Satan, sin, and death on the cross, taking again the likeness of human flesh and then restoring it and healing it. That's what's happening here. When we look to the cross, we see the healing, the antidote to our own, to our own death sentence, okay?
I hope you're tracking with me here because that's what Jesus is talking about. He's going to be elevated on the cross and defeat Satan, okay? All right, so hopefully that makes sense for you now. Now the story goes on.
I want to share with you something really important, a couple things more about the bronze serpent. Unfortunately, Israel, as prone to sin as they are and as prone to idolatry as they are, they once upon a time or many, many years later, I should say, they began to worship it. So in the reign of King Hezekiah, many, many, many, many years later, in Second Kings chapter 18, it tells the story of how King Hezekiah, he is a reformer king, a human Josiah that Hezekiah is a reformer king, is trying to make things right. Well, it turns out they were worshiping this bronze serpent.
You're like, oh man, come on guys, but they're worshiping the bronze serpent and so Hezekiah destroys it. So a lot of people wonder, whatever happened to this bronze serpent did it go into the ark of the covenant, did it stand the temple, was it kind of packaged up and the attic? You know what happened? Well, eventually it was destroyed because it became a source of idolatry.
And that brings me to an apologetics point. I don't do a whole lot of apologetics in these Bible studies, although when it comes up appropriately, I like to focus on it because clearly, when God says to Moses, make a bronze serpent, make a graven image, that is not a problem. Making religious images or graven images is not in itself a bad thing and it is not broadly forbidden by the first commandment. Making an image is only a problem when it becomes a source of idolatry.
So let me just read this quote here from your commentary. It says, here we have further evidence, in addition to the golden cherubim above the ark, that the first commandment of the decalogue was not an absolute prohibition of all graven images. In the case of the bronze serpent, the graven image is directly commanded by God and is more over a necessary, visible, material instrument of divine salvation and grace, something that later theology would come to refer to as a sacramental. That's a really great quote here.
And I would even say that God commanded even the cherubim to be constructed. So God commands with the bronze serpent, and then I have another in your foot note, you can see the catechism references as well in paragraph 2130. But you take a look at that for yourself. God commands this to happen.
God commands these graven images to be made. So clearly, it is okay to have an image, a statue, a painting, whatever it might be. In terms of apologetics defending the Catholic practice of having images of saints, we human beings have images, photographs, paintings, whatever it might be of our loved ones. And so it's very, very logical to say that we have images or paintings or whatever of our loved ones in the faith, right, whether it's Stompel II or Pajrpi or Mother Tree, so the Saints of the 20th century or Saints that go back, you know, 1500 years, whatever it might be.
So the image itself is not the problem. When it becomes idolatrous, then yes, that's the problem, as Hezekiah destroyed it, they're in Second Kings chapter 18. So I just wanted to kind of make that point before I move on here that it's okay to have an image of a saint. It's okay to have an image of Jesus Christ because of the incarnation, really that's the reason Christ, God becomes flesh.
And so to see the face of Jesus is to see the face of God. So obviously there's a lot more that can be said about that. But I definitely wanted to make sure I made that point.