Fiery Serpents

At times the hope of the children of Israel to enter the promised land must have appeared almost futile to them. It had been full forty years since they had come into the wilderness from Egypt, and according to God's own words it was time for them to enter Canaan. But the land of Edom stood between them and the entrance into Canaan; the king of Edom forbade them passage through his land, and the Lord forbade them to fight. It meant that they had to circumvent the whole of the land of Edom, an...