I had once seen a different explanation. God was mad at the jews for not leaving the desert to fight a bunch of giants for their land, like He told them to do. God decided it was the elder generation holding the able bodied in check; they had been wandering the desert too long. God sent a plague of poisonous snakes to bite the old folks and wipe them out. But the snakes weren’t picky about who they bit, and young people were dying.
Moses lodged a complaint to God. God told them to enter the land of giants and get wood from a certain kind of tree, then carve it into a staff with 2 snakes facing each other. The staff would drive the snakes back into the desert and cure any bitten youngster that the staff touched.
The staff cured illness and drove away death. Now, why all the task lists? God did that a lot. Couldn’t He have just driven the snakes away and cured the poisoned via His will? And why didn’t the snakes obey His orders and only bite the elders?
You can start your car in a garage and sit there listening to the radio. Then you won’t have to wait 5 months.
Whew.. that was a tough read. Yes, that is different than the story I heard. I heard it on a podcast called Mysterious Universe. They were discussing Dead Sea Scroll translations.