Few questions are as important as this one: Am I okay with God? A question this serious deserves more than opinion. Eternity is too weighty to hang on guesswork or personal preference—it calls for truth that can be trusted.

One of the most popular opinions on the topic is illustrated by the story of blind men describing an elephant—each one touching a different part and giving a partial description. The point is supposed to be that all religions are grasping after the same truth. But the analogy breaks down. First, it ignores the obvious fact: there really is an elephant. Most major religions agree on at least three things—there is a God, humans are separated from Him because of evil, and some way is needed to bridge the gap. Second, the claim that “all religions are equally valid” ends up treating them as equally invalid. It is actually more presumptuous to declare from one’s own opinion that every faith is true than it is to submit to the claims of a revered text that one may be right.

The path of most religions is to treat the symptoms of our real problem. The formula usually sounds like this: Stop doing certain things—stop lying, stop stealing, stop lusting. And start doing other things—pray more, give more, serve more, try harder. But the real issue is deeper than our behavior. The reason we fail to stop or start these things is because something within us is broken.

The Bible explains the root of this problem in Genesis 3. In the garden, humanity’s first sin was not merely breaking a rule—it was believing a lie. The serpent whispered that we could be like God, deciding for ourselves what is good and evil. From that moment, pride has driven us to presume we can run life on our own terms. Ignore the rules. Follow your heart. Be your own god. That is the disease beneath every symptom.

The solution, then, cannot be a religious process of effort. If salvation depended on our works, it would only fuel our pride, as Paul says in Ephesians 2:9: “not by works, so that no one can boast.” The gospel offers something radically different: not what we do for God, but what God has done for us in Christ. This is the story of Christianity.

And to verify this, you don’t need another opinion from a fellow fallen human being. You need to hear from God Himself. What does Scripture teach?

In Numbers 21 we encounter a difficult passage where God judges the people of Israel for their rejection of the manna God had provided. The punishment for this crime was death by snake bite. The question we want to examine is whether this was fair. And if so, why did God react in this manner?

When examining any piece of literature, it can be very helpful to know the author. Who are they? What is important to them? What is their purpose for writing? In Scripture, God is shown as both just and gracious:

Isaiah 30:18 – “Therefore the LORD waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.”

Psalm 136:26: “Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.”

So, understanding this about God’s nature, we are forced to wonder what is really going on in this passage.

In Numbers 21, the people of Israel are preparing to enter the promised land after forty years of wondering. Remember, the journey would normally take 11 days (Deut 1:2). God prepared them for life in the land with a 14-month-long intensive at Mount Sinai (Numbers 10:11). For forty days the spies explored the land (Numbers 13:25). Which means the whole trip should have taken 13 – 14 months. The extra 40 years were caused by the faithlessness of the people who feared the inhabitants of the land more than they trusted God.

Trust is important to God. This is because all sin, from Adam and Eve in the garden til this very day is caused by pride and self-sufficiency. The acceptance of the first lie that we can be our own God. Faith restores what was lost in that lie. Specifically, a reliance on God.

As they head out for the promised land, they are first confronted by a southern Canaanite kingdom in the area of the Negev. This would have likely been in the area between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba. With the help of YHVH, the people are able to defeat the advancing forces.

They next came to Edom. And here they request permission to pass through, but the King of Edom refused them (Numbers 20:14-21). To avoid yet another war, the people followed a path that took them around Edom, deeper into the desert, adding miles and time to their already frustrating journey.

Understandably, the people became frustrated. But they began to direct their frustration toward God and against Moses. But notice that their official complaint was directed exclusively at Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?” And here we are given a clue about what is happening in this text. God did not appoint multiple options for leadership. He gave them one. He gave them Moses. God takes this rejection personally. Their rejection of Moses is also a rejection of Moses.

Their indictment of Moses, and therefore God was one of negligence. “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Was this true? The people had been in dire need of sustenance since leaving Egypt. There were no supply lines delivering food. Further, one million plus people could not expect to eat off the land of a desert place. They would have died without God’s provision. Their very existence was evidence of error.

But God had provided both water and food for the people. Six days a week, the people woke up to a sort of Divine Door-Dash delivery of manna. And on the sixth day, God sent enough food for two days. They are like the child who wanders into the kitchen and opens the doors to a full fridge. Shuffles around the contents. And then slams the door shut, declaring, “There’s nothing to eat here.”

The problem was not God’s provision. It was their contentment with God’s provision.

Now, in response to this accusation. God pronounces judgment. And it is a severe one. “The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died” (Numbers 21:6).

Many of us have raised at least one picky eater.  Children who refuse to eat what is set before them, pushing the plate away and folding their arms resolutely. How do you handle this type of defiance? Maybe you force them to sit at the table until their will is broken. Maybe you can send them to their bedroom without dinner. But the one thing you don’t do is say, “Go outside and play in the snake den.”

God’s response might seem incredibly cruel. Shouldn’t the punishment fit the crime?

But maybe it does. Consider two important facts:

• All sin is worthy of death: God is omnipresent. So sin is an assault on God’s holiness, on his very nature. God has a right to defend himself. So the punishment of death does match the crime. James explains the connection, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death” (1:14–15).
• God does not simply offer salvation; he is salvation. He himself is our salvation. On the way to the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus told Martha, “I am the resurrection.” The resurrection is not simply an event. It is a person. In the same way, God’s provision is not simply an event. It is a person. So to reject his provision is to reject his presence.

Commenting on this passage in 1 Corrinthians 10:6–9, Paul says, “Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. . . We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents.” So here Paul connects their rejection of the manna and our rejection of Christ, God’s “bread of life” (John 6:35). In the same way that God provided one source of sustenance in the wilderness then, he provides one source of salvation in the world today. They did not receive a menu from which to choose. They got manna.

Not surprisingly, the snake infestation sparks amazing self-awareness. Consequences are great tutors. The people immediately go to Moses and ask him to intercede, asking YHWH to remove the serpents. This is a common prayer. We want relief from the consequences of our actions. But God is interested in addressing causes, not symptoms. So, God does not take away the snakes. Instead, he offers a solution to their poisonous bites. And it was an odd one.

Being God, he could have offered any number of remedies. He could have given Moses the recipe for an anti-venom. He could have declared the serpents to be non-venomous. Instead, he tells Moses to carve a brazen serpent.

“Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” Consider how odd this statement is in light of God’s thoughts concerning carved and molded images:

You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Exodus 20:3–4

What’s going on here? Simply put, what God forbade humans to try, he has every right to accomplish. God maintains exclusive rights to the representation of his image.

Imagine what God has done here. The people had been in dire need of sustenance since leaving Egypt. There were no supply lines delivering food. Further, one million plus people could not expect to eat off the land of a desert place. They would have died without God’s provision.

Have you ever heard the phrase, beggars can’t be choosers? There are many reasons why the one giving the help must, and has the right to, choose what help is provided. When I’m in need, I rarely know what the answer really is. God gives the help he chooses. And he does not choose to offer a buffet of options. He gives only one source of provision. And to reject his provision is to reject his presence. 

Moses did as commanded. His hands, seasoned by hardship and labor, fashioned a serpent out of bronze. He raised this image high upon a pole for all to see. And it happened just as the Lord had said; whenever a fiery serpent bit any among them, they would look upon the bronze serpent and find life in their veins once more. Their faith in the divine promise, reflected in their gaze upon the bronze figure, became their salvation in the wilderness.

God gave the help he chose. And he did not choose to offer a buffet of options. If they looked, they lived. If they did not, they died. He gave only one source of provision. And to reject that provision was to reject his presence.

This has always been how God saves.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus boldly declares Himself as the way, the truth, and the life. His words resonate with the unyielding declaration of God’s singular plan of salvation. The specific path to the Father, the source of all life and truth, comes exclusively through Jesus. There are no alternative routes or shortcuts to divine reconciliation.

Similarly, Acts reaffirms this potent truth. Salvation, the ultimate rescue from sin’s deadly venom, is found in no one else but Jesus Christ. His name alone carries the power to save, just as the bronze serpent was the solitary symbol of deliverance for the Israelites. In both scenarios, the chosen instrument of salvation seems, to human wisdom, to be unconventional, even foolish. But in the wisdom of God, it is the perfect demonstration of His love and grace.

Drawing a clear parallel between the ancient event and His impending crucifixion, Jesus refers to the incident in Numbers 21. As Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. This is followed by one of the most well-known passages of Scripture in history.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
John 3:16-17

In the wilderness, as in the broader span of human history, the people of God have learned that the remedy to the venom of sin comes not from multiple options, all of which place the burden of redemption on human effort. The God who refuses to share his glory must accomplish salvation alone (Isaiah 42:8; 48:11). What God forbade humans to try, he alone has the right to accomplish. Total dependence on his plan, power and grace is the only answer. Just as the Israelites looked upon the bronze serpent to live, we too are called to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.