21:3 delivered up the Canaanites. A large tribe of Canaanites living in Arad, in the southern reaches of the promised land, were the first to be encountered by the Israelites as they began the wars of conquest. The attack by the Canaanites was unprovoked, and resulted in their defeat by the Israelites and the destruction of their cities. They next would have to face the Amorites and Moabites as they were trying to bypass the land of Edom.

21:8 he looketh upon it. Although this is only one of at least forty miracles during the exodus and wilderness wanderings, it is especially important as a prophecy of the coming work of Christ on the cross. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,” said Jesus, “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). Sin, symbolized by the serpent, must be put to death, as it were. This death must be appropriated in faith as his own deserved death by the sinner, if he would live. Just so, Jesus Christ was made “to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21).