Spring Up, O Well (Numbers 21:17-18)

2022-03-19

After coming out of a battle with Canaanite king Arad and seeing God’s deliverance, they were going around Edom because they were not allowed to pass through. There was no water to drink. As is customary with human nature, they complained to the Lord. They were met with the fiery serpents.

As God commanded, Moses created a bronze serpent. “And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live” (Numbers 21:8). Moses did so, and the bitten remnant was saved by looking at the bronze serpent, as the Lord promised.

Jesus recounted this story when speaking with Nicodemus. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).

What is salvation? Look to Jesus, and you will live, and be saved. We’re dying from spiritual snake venom, according to the analogy, and we need Jesus, the physician with the antidote. He died for our sins and rose from the dead.

But what happened next to the Israelites? They went from that wilderness to Oboth, to Ijeabarim, to Zared, to the far side of the Arnon, to Beer. The word “Beer” means a water well. There is no evidence that there was any water in any of those places until they got to Beer, where the Lord said, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water” (Numbers 21:16). What was their response from these extremely thirsty people?

Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it: The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their staves. (Numbers 21:17-18)

Likewise, following Jesus’ analogy, what do the people saved from the spiritual venom receive? They receive the spiritual water. This is described in the next chapter of John. “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water” (John 4:10). Later, the living water described here is explicitly identified as the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39).

The Holy Spirit is our spiritual water. One sip, and you are refreshed forever. “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13-14). The Scripture is therefore fulfilled. Sing with me, “Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it.”