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Numbers 21 Bible study: Look and live
The people called the food they had "this disgusting food" (21:5). The LORD had Moses set a bronze serpent on a pole, and the bitten who looked at it lived (21:7-9). Hezekiah later broke it because Israel burned incense to it (2 Kings 18:4). And Jesus said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up" (John 3:14).
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“The LORD said to Moses, “Make a venomous snake, and set it on a pole. It shall happen that everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.””
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“The Bible says King Hezekiah broke in pieces the bronze serpent Moses had made, because Israel burned incense to it.”
Is that in Numbers 21, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
"Our soul loathes this disgusting food"
Edom had refused Israel passage (20:21), so they had to go the long way, "from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom" (21:4). "The soul of the people was very discouraged because of the journey" (21:4). Then they "spoke against God and against Moses: 'Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, there is no water, and our soul loathes this disgusting food!'" (21:5). The text says they spoke "against God" as well as against Moses, and they will soon say so themselves: "we have spoken against the LORD and against you" (21:7).
Where it leads to Jesus
As Moses lifted up the serpent
Numbers 21:9leads toJohn 3:14-15
Speaking with Nicodemus (John 3:1-2, 3:10), Jesus pointed to this chapter himself: "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" (John 3:14-15). In the wilderness, "Moses made a serpent of bronze, and set it on the pole. If a serpent had bitten any man, when he looked at the serpent of bronze, he lived" (21:9). Jesus sets the serpent lifted up beside the Son of Man lifted up, and says what it is for: that whoever believes in him should "have eternal life".
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Numbers 21
That was a taste
The rest of Numbers 21 is waiting in Favor
- An answer for the bitten
- Hormah, then "Don't fear him"
- Sihon and Og, remembered
- 14 questions as you read
- 12 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Numbers 21 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
נָחָשׁnachashsay na-KHASH
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "serpent". Strong's: "a snake". It is the word for the serpent in the garden (Genesis 3:1) and for Moses' rod when "it became a snake" (Exodus 4:3). Numbers uses it only in this chapter: the people ask the LORD to "take away the serpents" (21:7), and "Moses made a serpent of bronze" (21:9). In Hebrew that is nechash nechoshet, two words that sound alike. The same two words come back in 2 Kings 18:4: "the bronze serpent that Moses had made".
For your group
Numbers 21 Bible study questions
- 1In a wilderness where the LORD fed them manna every day (Exodus 16:35), the people called the food they had "this disgusting food" (21:5). What daily gift from God has become so ordinary to you that you've started to complain about it?
- 2The people admitted, "We have sinned", and asked the man they had spoken against to pray for them (21:7). What makes it hard to go to someone you've wronged and ask for their help or prayer?
- 3The people asked for the snakes to be taken away; the LORD gave the bitten something to look at (21:7-9). Jesus set this beside "whoever believes in him" (John 3:14-15). Where do you need to look to him this week, instead of only at what has bitten you?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Numbers 21 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Can I read Numbers 21 straight away?
Favor takes the Bible as one story, in order, so you'll reach Numbers 21 with everything that leads up to it in view. Start from Genesis, or meet Jesus first in the Gospels. You can read the text of any chapter in Favor's Look up whenever you like.
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The World English Bible, a modern, readable translation in the public domain. God's name appears as "the LORD", as in most English Bibles.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home