*Title:* The Serpent in the Wilderness — Pastor Kyle Baldwin, September 5, 2026

Israel was close enough to see the hills of Canaan — and discouraged enough to wish they were back in Egypt. In this sermon from Numbers 21, Pastor Kyle Baldwin follows a tired, road-worn people who had fought their battles, watched the miraculous water stop at Kadesh, and seen Moses lose his temper and strike the rock instead of speaking to it, blurring God’s intended picture of Christ the Rock. When the way turned south around Edom, their souls were “much discouraged because of the way,” and the old complaint rose again: “Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread.”

Pastor Baldwin lingers over how much was packed into that complaint. To say Egypt looked better was to prefer slavery to freedom; to call the manna “light bread” was to despise the bread of heaven — angels’ food, rained down “to the full” for forty years. Drawing on Ellen White’s account, he shows that the fiery serpents were no new creation: the wilderness had always been infested with them, and God had been shielding His people the whole time. What changed is that God withdrew His restraining hand — and the moment the bites came, the people finally said the words heaven was waiting for: “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord.” Paul’s verdict hangs over the whole story: these things happened for our example, and the “church in the wilderness” is not so different from us.

God’s answer came instantly, the moment Moses prayed: a serpent of brass lifted on a pole, and everyone bitten who looked, lived. The sermon closes by turning that lifted serpent toward every discouraged heart today. God takes no pleasure in our suffering; the fire He allows is a refiner’s fire, meant to restore, not destroy. Our part is the Israelites’ part — acknowledge what we have done, stop blaming God for consequences we chose, and look. “Look and live,” Pastor Baldwin urges: gaze into the eyes of Jesus, and let God work in your life for His will and good pleasure.

*Key texts:* Numbers 21:4–9; 1 Corinthians 10:9–13; Psalm 78:24–25; Ezekiel 33:11; Hebrews 12:6; Isaiah 48:10; Malachi 3:2–3 · *Also referenced:* Ellen G. White, on the fiery serpents and God’s withdrawn protection

*Watch:* https://youtu.be/-ABXjWq4GGQ · *Listen:* https://cloud-1de12d.becdn.net/media/original/cdd016d289a31a84f94cc7d741d04548.mp3