They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? We detest this bread! The people's complaints take a new shape: not just restlessness but outright hostility toward God. They want to return to Egypt. They're starting to rewrite their history. Egypt becomes desirable when the wilderness gets hard. And then the snakes come. Venomous snakes. The people die. And they finally see the connection: their sin brought the snakes. Their rebellion invited the serpents. I know people who've lived in denial about the consequences of their choices for years. Then suddenly the snakes arrive. Illness shows up. Relationships collapse. Jobs end. And sometimes it takes the arrival of snakes to make people see: my choices did this. My rebellion invited this. There's a harsh mercy in that. It's an invitation to repentance. Not because God is vindictive but because seeing the connection between sin and consequence is the only thing that wakes us up.
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