Numbers 21

Obj. 3. But did not Moses make the image of a brazen serpent, why then may not images be set up? Resp. That was done by God's special command (Numbers 21:8), Make a brazen serpent; and there was a special use of it, both literal and spiritual; but what, does the setting up this…

He did ill to make the vow, and worse to keep it: he became guilty of the breach of the third and sixth commandment. 11. When we speak evil of God, we take his name in vain (Numbers 21:5). They spoke against God.

Like a sullen bird that is angry, and beats herself against the cage. 3. Murmuring cannot stand with submission to God's will: murmuring is the height of impatience; it is a kind of mutiny in the soul against God (Numbers 21:5): The people spoke against God. When a cloud of sorr…

1 Corinthians 8:6. And one Lord Jesus, by whom are all things, and we by him. 1 Corinthians 10:9. Neither let us also tempt Christ as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents; compared with (Numbers 21:6). Phil. 2:5, 6. Let this mind be in you which was also in…

Objection 3. Some books of the canon of Scripture are lost, as the book of the Wars of God (Numbers 21:14), the book of the Just (Joshua 10:13), the books of Chronicles of the kings of Israel and Judah (1 Kings 14:19), and the books of certain prophets, Nathan, Gad, Iddo, Ahijah…

Reasons for investigating the origin of letters — Authors who maintain that the use of letters is antediluvian — Arguments in favor of that opinion — Whether it is probable that Adam invented letters — Jews and Mohammedans foolishly assert that letters were created by God — The…

If you look to him which hides his face from the house of Israel; if God hide his face from church and commonwealth, and yet our eyes are towards him, and we know not what to do, for our consciences, and liberty, and estates, and health, and peace, etc. But our eyes are to Chris…

If the faithful then at any time have desired that their faith might be confirmed by signs, we must not by and by follow them therein; because it was a thing very rare: as to Gideon, who being taken from the flail to govern the people, he gave two signs which he asked, to the en…

It is very comfortable and proper, to fetch similitudes from such manner of examples as this: which order Saint Paul also followed: (Galatians 4) where he records the mystery of the two sons of Abraham, and also his two wives, and afterward expounded the same. And Christ also (J…

1. In, and by its institution and erection; he made, framed, set up, and appointed that Church state, and all the worship of God therein observed. He it was who appeared to Moses in the Wilderness (Exodus 3:5; Acts 7:32, 33), and who gave them the Law on Mount Sinai (Exodus 20;…

And this the most take to be total and final, the persons that fall under it being left to the judgement of God without hope of reconciliation to the Church. Hence it is called in the Targum (Numbers 21:25; Deuteronomy 7:27) the curse, the execration of God; and by the Talmudist…

The seventh part instanced, is her eyes, which were several times mentioned before; they point at her spiritual discerning, and understanding of spiritual things, and the believing-uptaking of them; in which respect, all natural men are blind, because of their ignorance and unbe…

God has required we should sue it out, and own our Advocate, as well as confess ourselves unable to satisfy, that we might know who is our Advocate. In the type of the bronze serpent, (Numbers 21:8) And the Lord said to Moses, Make you a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole; an…

The sinner must see the unprofitableness of his unrighteousness, before he profits by Christ's righteousness. The Israelites are first stung with the fiery serpents, and then the brazen serpent is set up (Numbers 21:6-8). Ephraim is first thoroughly convinced, and then God's bow…

2. It prevents murmuring, a sin which is a degree higher than the other; murmuring is a quarreling with God, and inveighing against him. They spoke against God (Numbers 21:5); the murmurer says interpretatively, that God has not dealt well with him, and he has deserved better fr…

To set forth his healing virtue, Christ is compared in Scripture to the following: The bronze serpent (Numbers 21:9): those who were stung were cured by looking on the bronze serpent. So when the soul is stung by the old serpent, it is cured by looking to Christ.

"Let us not tempt Christ, as some of them tempted him, and were destroyed by the serpents." And this is he who led them, and brought them out of Egypt (Numbers 21:6-7), whom they tempted in the wilderness (verses 5-7). And he ascribes to himself the covenant (Hebrews 8:9): "Not…

5. Another sin which has brought us low, is the abuse of the Gospel. We are sick of Israels disease: they despised Manna, Numbers 21:5. Our soul loatheth this light bread.

Now I beheld in my dream, that they had not journeyed far, but the river and the way for a time parted, at which they were not a little sorry; yet they durst not go out of the way. Now the way from the river was rough, and their feet tender by reason of their travels; so the sou…

Reason 2: Faith has the same place in justification as the Israelites looking on the brazen serpent had in their healing (John 3:14, 15). Now they were not first healed, and then must look up to the serpent and see what it was that had healed them; but first they must look up to…

Secondly, this looking at Christ is to behold him with an eye of faith; not only to look at him as pierced by our sins, but also at this as our salvation, in which our salvation is laid up, if at all we come to be saved. This is an act of faith, to look at Christ with assurance,…

And to show that no particular man in any nation was excepted, but every mother's child included, Saint Mark setting down the same commission expresses every creature (Mark 16:15); meaning every reasonable creature. I will not here stand to discuss this question, whether the sou…

Q. 3. How prove you Jesus Christ to be truly God? A. Divers ways; first, by places of Scripture speaking of the great God Jehovah, in the Old Testament, applied to our Savior in the New, as, Numbers 21:5, 6 in 1 Corinthians 10:9; Psalm 102:24, 25 in Hebrews 1:10; Isaiah 6:2, 3,…

Q. 3. How prove you Jesus Christ to be truly God? A. Divers ways; first, by places of Scripture speaking of the great God Jehovah, in the Old Testament, applied to our Savior in the New, as, Numbers 21:5, 6. in 1 Corinthians 10:9. Psalm 102:24, 25. in Hebrews 1:10. Isaiah 6:2, 3…