Learning from Moses

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. (John 3:14-15)

I just noticed something here. When I look carefully at the action tense in this sentence I notice that the Son of Man must be lifted up which of course implies that He is not lifting Himself up. He needs others to lift Him up just like Moses lifted up the serpent.

So I think about the illustration of Moses to consider what may be needed in order for someone to provide this service for Jesus. What did Moses do that can serve as instruction or example for us in order to effectively accomplish this desire on the part of Jesus? Or is this saying that the Father is going to do the lifting up of Jesus? The Father is the main focus of attention in the next couple verses so does that mean that He is the one who is to lift up Jesus to draw all to Him? Are we to be involved in this lifting up activity with Him?

Of course I have heard a number of discourses on this text and there are even ministries named after this phrase. But sometimes, at least for me, the overuse of a phrase like this can easily tend to neutralize the deeper meaning of it as the activities of people involved in using it tend to lose their focus on the real meaning of it. We are very good at being initially inspired by something we read in the Bible and quickly want to plaster it on our headers and billboards and integrate it into our labels. But it is not long before it becomes little more than a good slogan very much like the legal titles of many churches today. It looks very good on the outside but when you go in it is difficult to find anyone who even thinks about their slogan or title in a meaningful way any longer. The external labels often become more important in religion than the actual internal integration of the meaning of the words.

But I now am confronted with doing myself what I am complaining that others fail to do. Since I believe that Jesus actually meant something enormously significant when He spoke these words to Nicodemus, how can I allow these words to sink much deeper into my own heart and affect my own life and relationships more effectively than the shallow applications that I observe in too many around me? What can I do to avoid just spouting off empty slogans or getting caught up in pouring forth a torrent of nice-sounding words and platitudes without having those thoughts really transform my own life?

I think about what Moses did and his relationship to God in the story that Jesus referred to here. This event occurred in a time when the children of Israel were indulging in a great deal of complaining and murmuring against leadership. It seemed to be a habitual pastime for them all throughout their wilderness wanderings. They seemed so used to thinking negatively and were so quick to view things pessimistically that it often seemed nearly impossible for them to embrace an attitude of trust and faith in their God or their leaders. Even with stupendous miracles performed right before their eyes time after time they would quickly return to a spirit of discontent and selfish whining whenever they were not comfortable or things began to get difficult.

I have to confess that I am not that far myself from resorting to complaining when things don't go my way at times. It is so easy to criticize the children of Israel in the wilderness when I read their story and wonder at their great lack of faith, but it is sometimes hard to discern that same spirit of discontent and murmuring when it shows up in my own experience. It takes the convicting Spirit of God to remind me that I am just as vulnerable as they were to act immaturely and selfishly. I can dishonor God just as quickly as they did by failing to allow God to give me heaven's perspective whenever I encounter circumstances that cause me to feel upset. And far too often I am tempted to do just that.

As I think about Moses and his attitude and his relationship with God, I am reminded of a better example for me to follow in this regard. Moses made mistakes but his relationship to God continued to draw Him back into a bond of trust in the face of enormous odds. He was said to be the most humble man who ever lived. God even said about him that he was much more than a prophet because he and God could talk face to face like intimate friends unlike anyone else on earth. Moses allowed God to so transform him that he came to know God's heart to the point he could even argue with God and win the argument sometimes.

In the story of the brazen serpent, the Israelites had once again put themselves in mortal danger because of their discontent and murmuring against God and Moses. God allowed fiery snakes to suddenly enter the encampment and begin to bite thousands of people with their deadly venom. It was a major wake-up call for the people to realize how deadly their own attitude of complaining was in their spirit and the poisonous effect that it would have on their souls as they continued to indulge in it. God was in a way giving them an external example of their internal condition the atmosphere of their spirit, so they could begin to realize how dangerous that spirit is to people whom God is trying to save.

These fiery serpents were actually already in the desert but the people had been protected from them just as they were protected from many other dangers that they were unaware of. They could see the cloud of God each day providing air-conditioning for them day and night in the desert and they could pick up and eat the manna each day that was supernaturally nourishing them, but they were unaware of many of the other ways that God was protecting them just as we too are unaware of many of the ways God protects and blesses us each day. But when they forced away God's protecting hand from their lives through their continued indulgence in rebellion and complaining God allowed them to experience the natural consequences that occur from living outside of some of His protections.

As the snakes began to do their deadly work and the screams of pain from the dying began to fill the camp, the people cried out in desperation to the very leader that they had so recently bitterly complained against. Pain has a way of bringing a reality check to life if a person is willing to listen. Pain and desperation can sometimes be an open door to freedom, truth and growth, or it can simply be another chance to cycle through a pattern of taking advantage of grace and then returning to self-indulgence if the heart is not changed.

But God's grace is not only provided for those who are honest in heart but for everyone. God provides an atmosphere of forgiveness, grace and love in hopes that everyone will respond to His mercy. Not all do allow that grace to bring repentance and truth to their hearts, but some do. God is quite prodigal with His love and mercy. Moses understood this very well and was a close companion of God and a channel for His grace and healing forgiveness.

Moses' attitude and relationship with God was the model that God desired for all of His children to adopt. And that has not changed even today. Moses had a view and appreciation of God that allowed him to relate to Him in a way that God desires all of us to come to Him. But Moses also understood the reality of God's power and presence in a way that he understood the importance of careful obedience. Obedience is not like most of us think of it, a means to appease God or to earn salvation in some way. Obedience is much more like the concept of synchronization, of aligning one's self properly with a powerful force that must be respected if one is to get close to it. Obedience is like respecting the guidelines that are necessary to work effectively with high voltage electricity or to explore outer space. There are just certain principles that you know must be respected and obeyed or the consequences will inevitably be harmful or fatal. It is not a matter of earning favor but just a matter of reality and respect for cause and effects.

But with God it goes far beyond just obeying for self-preservation though that is important. We are created in God's image and are designed to only feel full fulfillment as we link our hearts and minds with the God whom we were designed to live with. We really are crafted to only fit perfectly in the presence of the God who created us for His pleasure, so the closer we come to synchronizing with Him the more real pleasure and joy we can experience. Conversely, the more we resist Him and His ways the more pain and suffering and death we will experience as a natural result.

Moses understood this more than nearly anyone else who has ever encountered God. However, just because Moses was their leader it did not naturally follow that the Israelites were willing to follow his example. God wanted them to do that just as He wants us to, but the choice always remains up to each person as to how willing they are going to be to connect closely with the God who loves them totally. When people pull away from God and choose to indulge in complaining and murmuring they place themselves in a position of vulnerability to the death-dealing attacks of God's enemy. The only way to save those in such danger is to urgently get them to turn away from their selfishness and bitterness and look to the only source of life represented by the snake on the beam.

That brass snake did not manage to get itself up on that pole so that the dying could look and receive life and healing from God. Someone had to shape that image of a snake and then attach it to the pole and lift it up high enough for everyone to see clearly. God did not just miraculously create this symbol to bring healing and hope to His children. He instructed Moses to prepare this icon and put it into place to be a channel of hope and life to those who were dying in agony as a result of their own resistance to God.

I am sure that there was a great sense of urgency that accompanied this project. There were thousands of people dying and new ones being bitten all the time. The emotional level in the camp was at a very high intensity and those working on this project felt the danger and fear all around them. Lives were being lost and many more were at stake. This was clearly a life and death situation for possibly millions of people and Moses and those who may have assisted him likely wasted no time putting together the necessary tools and supplies to prepare this bronze snake in obedience to God's instructions.

But once Moses raised up the brazen serpent it was totally up to each individual sinner dying from their own wounds to choose to look at this symbol in faith to receive life. The instruction given by God was clear and unambiguous – look and live. The alternative was also rather clear – doubt and die. Has anything really changed spiritually since then?

So what was really going on in this story that can affect our own need to look and be transformed into life? And how was Moses' involvement in this activity instructive to provide the needed image for people to receive healing life and hope? How can I, like Moses, lift up a correct picture of God that will bring real life into the lives and hearts of those who are suffering from turning their backs on God?

The original problem started when humans embraced lies about God from the accuser of God. Ever since then our internal perceptions about God have been skewed and darkened by these lies. The whole purpose of everything God has done since that time has been to restore us to a proper perception of Him. It is only in changing our mind and our feelings about God that we can ever be restored and recovered from the damaging, death-producing effects of the lies about Him that have permeated our planet ever since sin was introduced. It is our ignorance and fears about God that lie at the root of our rebellion, our murmuring and our selfishness.

To know God – the real truth about Him, not the religious versions that distort His image – to really appreciate the passion of God's love for us will always call forth an irrepressible reaction of gratitude, praise and worship. When we choose to look past our pain, our lies and our preconceptions about God that have darkened our hearts and see the love of God best displayed by the One who is lifted up on the cross, we will expose ourselves to the life-giving presence of the only source of healing and hope there is for us.

Moses was God's servant who obeyed God's directions to represent Jesus on the pole as a serpent. But Jesus demonstrated in His own death the natural consequences of what happens when we reject our true source of life. Jesus experienced the pain and torture that sin always produces as it takes away the life that God has given to us. Jesus demonstrated all of this for one main purpose – to show us that sin is no match for the forgiveness and love and passion of God to save us.

I find it interesting to realize that it was not a great man after God's heart or even a prophet who lifted up Jesus for all men to be drawn to Him but it was religious and pagan sinners who finally accomplished that task. I wonder what that twist of irony has for me learn, what implications that may hold for my understanding?

Moses tapped in to the passion of God and it showed quite clearly in many of his encounters both with God and with the people he was leading. Moses was used by God to demonstrate to the world a taste of how much God loved them despite their rebellion and resentment. Yes, there were many times that the people had to suffer the consequences of their rebellion and had to learn harsh lessons of reality, but time and again they were given another chance to change their thinking and to repent of the lies about God that so filled their minds and hearts. Their history is a long, sad one of continued backsliding and fault-finding, but I have little room to criticize.

I too see similar patterns in my own heart. I find myself all to ready to jump to negative conclusions about other people's motives. It is all to easy for me to find fault and judge those who are trying to lead God's people today. It is still very easy for me to want things to always work out for my benefit instead of seeking to perceive things from God's viewpoint and trust Him when things are going badly. I am in constant danger of murmuring and complaining just as the children of Israel did so much in that desert.

I pray for healing from this terrible curse of bitterness and habitual negative thinking. I see God accomplishing that healing in me but I also know how easy it is to slip back into that pattern. It is all too familiar to me and I have to guard against it constantly. I need to respond in obedience to the convictions of the Spirit when I am warned that I am falling into that trap again. I certainly do not want to have to be disciplined at the level that was brought on those suffering from deadly snake bites. I want to learn from their mistakes and not have to fully repeat them to get the point.

What I do want to learn is how to follow the example of Moses in cooperating with God in the healing of His people. I want to emulate the humility of Moses, the faith of Moses, the hunger of Moses to see God's glory and the patience of Moses in dealing with others who are slow to change their hearts about God. I am a very long ways from having enough of that spirit but I pray for God to transform me, to make me a channel of love and grace and joy. I want to be a helper in lifting up Jesus, to share the real truth about God and to invite people to look at the real God and live. I want to be a man who can be called a friend of God, a person who pursues the heart and face of God relentlessly and with passion. I want to reflect the face of God as seen in the life and spirit of Jesus, the perfect reflection of the heart of the Father.

Intermediary or Revelator

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

I am now looking at the center of one of the reasons that I am studying the book of John. For all of my life and for many around me this verse has been so memorized and quoted that it has caused many people to become calloused to its real meaning. I determined several years ago to confront this problem, at least in my own life, by spending much time in inductive Bible study to explore more thoroughly the surrounding context of this verse in order to revive the true power contained in these words. Part of that necessarily involved becoming much more deeply acquainted with everything that surrounds and supports this verse so that it is not left isolated as just a religious icon or relic.

As I spend time pondering, questioning, probing, praying and listening for ideas and inspirations from this passage I am feeling more connected with some of what is present here. But I still want much more heart-understanding and involvement in really knowing God, in believing in God the way that Jesus intended for us when He first spoke these words to Nicodemus. So I continue to probe and explore and question and seek to see and experience God's face in these verses and to feel more intently His presence in my own heart and mind.

One thing that drew my attention this morning is something that may potentially raise hackles in some people's minds but that I find helpful and enlightening. It is carefully examining the identity of the pronouns in this verse and pondering the implications of alternatives. This method exploded my understanding of the parable of the debtor in Matthew 18 and turned the typical interpretations about that story completely on their heads. Now I see something along the same line in this verse for the first time.

To me it now seems more evident that the real subject of this verse is God the Father. If this is so – and it seems rather apparent at this point – then it also would follow that the Him that is used later in the verse is referring to the Father quite more so than to the Son, although it does not exclude the Son. In other words, Jesus is telling me that I need to not only believe in the Son of God who was lifted up on the cross to reveal the truth about His Father as mentioned in the last two verses, but that I need to go all the way and really believe in the Father Himself – whatever that involves. This core belief that needs to become pervasive in my heart and mind will itself become the passport and protection that I need in order to not perish when I face the full revelation of God's glory in the Judgment.

That means that every one of the pronouns in this verse refer primarily to the Father. It is God the Father who gave His Son to this world as a gift. It is God the Father who I am to believe in so that I shall not perish. It is believing in God the Father who did not send His Son into the world to judge the world (v. 17) and it is believing in both the Son and the Father that keeps me from being judged or condemned (v. 18).

Yes, it is clear in verse 17 that the world is saved through the Son. But I am reminded that the primary purpose of the Son was to reveal the truth about God the Father, not to present an alternative to Him. This subtle but very destructive idea of a difference between the Father and the Son that has crept into and infiltrated all of Christianity – and every other religion for that matter in to some extent – that the Father God is less loving and more dangerous than the Son of God is a pure invention of the accuser of God, Satan himself. It is a most pernicious evil and a diabolical idea that has caused us to distort nearly every doctrine that we hold about God and about religion. It has kept my own heart in chains of fear for all of my life and I am only recently learning the truth about how God feels about me. As my heart perceives this truth more clearly I am seeing that truth seep into the various places where this lie has distorted my ideas about religion and about all of reality.

Due to the massive distortions in the Dark Ages of the original beliefs and messages about God that the early church enjoyed, we now find ourselves in our day deeply immersed in many false assumptions about God that we don't even question because we don't know there is anything wrong with them. Religion has hijacked doctrines and supplanted a true perception and knowledge of God with many false but very subtle ideas that sound correct, righteous and logical and that permeates nearly everything we believe. It has only been in the last few years that I even became aware of this situation and have been forced ever since to challenge everything I believe up to this point in the light of fresh revelations about the real truth about the Father.

Jesus was not sent to this earth as a sweeter God than the Father in order to form some kind of intermediary go-between to set up an arrangement for us to be saved in heaven while appeasing an angry Father so we can live closer to Him. But that very essence of thought is what fills the minds and hearts and beliefs of most Christians today. I have been discovering that this lie about the Father has kept my own heart at a great distance from Him until it was unmasked and shown to be the lie that it really is a few years ago. Ever since then I have been on a journey of seeking to know the real truth about God and even more importantly to have that truth transform my own heart, attitude, disposition and spirit as well as to reshape and reform my intellectual concepts about what is true and what is false.

So as I learn more about what is really meant by Jesus' many comments about believing, I am also prompted to challenge my own beliefs about the Father as well as about Jesus Himself. Because again, the main purpose that I now see for Jesus coming to this earth in the first place was to radically challenge our assumptions about God and how we think He feels toward us and how He relates to us. It was because of the millions of lies about God that had saturated religion in Jesus' day that God sent His Son into the world to expose and shatter those lies and paradigms. But Satan has used religion yet again to accomplish very similar results by distorting very revelation of God in Christ that was meant to undo those lies. So once again there is great need of a reforming of our opinions and ideas about what God is like, our beliefs about both the Father and the Son this time.

Progressive Belief

If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? (John 3:12)

Here is another verse that seems to elude me somewhat. I have never been satisfied with feeling that I know what Jesus is talking about here. In looking at His previous comments I do not see clearly what He is referring to as “earthly things”.

But one thing that I do see in this verse is evidence of a principle that might be called progressive faith or something along that line. If I understand this right, it looks like Jesus is saying that some level of belief must be engaged in or embraced as a prerequisite for being able to embrace another kind of faith. In this instance, basic earthly truths need to be in place in the mind and heart before heavenly truths will ever have a place to take root and grow.

I desire to understand this much better. Maybe it is earthly belief that I need here, whatever that is. I repeatedly feel challenged to enter into a deeper level of belief in God than I currently maintain. But very often I feel like I am peering into a fog bank where at best I can only make out dim shapes of what might be ahead. Occasionally there seems to be clear rays of light that illuminate a few things in the fog and darkness, but other times it seems more mysterious or even confusing.

I suppose part of this is simply the nature of faith itself. God wants to cultivate a spirit of trust in Him to move forward into the unknown without first being sure of what it is that I am learning. This is always the tension between the mind and the heart. The mind wants to know things before moving forward. This is a natural reaction of self-protection, of wanting to be in control. But God intends to train the heart which many times to me feels counter-intuitive to the common sense of the mind.

This passage reminds me of Romans 8 where those who are the children of God are described as being led by the Spirit of God. Here I see that the Spirit is like wind that produces evidence of its presence sometimes but gives no clue as to where it is coming from or going. That is very troublesome for the intellectual mind part of me that wants to live in a factual, formula rooted reality. Religion as I have known it insists on knowing where truth has come from and being able to string together proof texts and logic to display that. It also wants to know the purpose of truth and just where it is taking us. This is a very big stumbling block for many people who insist on a religion that must be provable and need concrete texts and arguments to support everything they do or believe in. I know, I was raised largely in such an environment.

But this business of allowing the heart to take the lead and keep my logic in a supporting role instead of in control is cause for consternation many times. It feels dangerous and I hear inner warnings that I could easily be misled into heresies if I don't keep my intellect firmly at the controls. I do realize that intellect and factual truth cannot be ignored while giving free reign to my emotions. But that is not really the problem despite all the accusations and concerns of those whose religion is mostly legal based. Jesus here is clearly challenging all of us to go far beyond our comfort zone, to release the stranglehold of our paradigms and to radically lurch forward into the fog while not knowing clearly where we will end up. This is the inner sensation that I have when reading this passage sometimes.

Where in all of this is the earthly things that Jesus is talking about? And does He even mention heavenly things at all in this passage or is that precluded by the presence of too much unbelief in the first phase? It almost seems that the things He talks about after this verse are more clear than what comes before it. Again, I don't feel that I understand all of this very well.

I have to trust God to reveal Himself to me in these verses as I always need to. I came here to find a deeper belief and perception of God, to come to know His heart a little better, to give Him opportunities to speak through these words and His Spirit to both my mind and my heart in ways I have never heard or experienced before. But ultimately I have to trust Him to reveal Himself to me. It is impossible to find out God by searching for Him. God is not subject to discovery simply by intellectual aggressiveness in spite of the assumption of millions of people. God can only be truly known by allowing Him to reveal Himself to us as He choses to do so.

So I await His self-revelation to me at a deeper level than ever known before by my own heart. I wait for His Spirit to reveal to me what Jesus meant when He referred to earthly truths preceding an ability to perceive heavenly truths. I want to live in connection with Him and to cultivate an atmosphere that will be conducive to allowing Him more freedom to disclose Himself to me effectively. I want to be able to move past my current confusion, fog and darkness into clearer light, humility and true love.

Choosing Birth

Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" (John 3:4)

Yesterday I heard someone talk about this and they pointed out something that I had never thought of before. Nicodemus was obviously a good Jew and as most Jews believed, the way you were counted as a person in God's kingdom was by virtue of your ancestry. Therefore, when Jesus started talking about the kingdom of God, automatically any good Jew would instantly assume that they were already in it because of their birth to a Jewish mother.

So when Jesus asserts that one must be born again to see or enter into the kingdom of God, Nicodemus' mind began to mull over the impossibility of a grown person trying to successfully achieve this requirement once again. In his mind, he was already part of the kingdom of God because he was born to a good Jewish mother. But here was Jesus claiming that this assumed requirement had to be done yet again.

This is where it starts to become evident that Jesus is revealing the end of the era where God's chosen people were centered in the Jewish nation as a race. The time was quickly approaching when the Jews would fully reject God's covenant with them and God was already preparing an alternative group of people to be his chosen representatives on earth. This new group of people would be those who not only were born in the normal human way in water from their mother's womb but would also go through a similar experience of being birthed by the Holy Spirit in ways that paralleled that of their first birth.

But unlike their first birth, this time their birth would be a result of their own choice to cooperate with God's desires and plans for their life. When they were born of the flesh from their earthly mother's they had no choice in the matter. But to be born a second time into the real kingdom of God each individual must surrender themselves to be drawn into the very womb of God, to enter into intimacy with God's heart and to allow heaven to enter into their heart in ways very different from the life they had experienced up to this point.

What is also interesting to me in regards to this comment by Nicodemus is that what he was asserting as impossible was in fact exactly what Jesus Himself had done. Jesus had by His own choice and unlike any other human, actually chosen to enter into His earthly mother's womb in order to be born of flesh. If Nicodemus had realized the truth about who Jesus really was he would have realized to his amazement that the One in front of him had actually already done what he was saying seemed impossible. Jesus had entered into His mother's womb, and while it was not a second time of birth for Him as a human it was a Spirit entity being born again as a being of flesh.

While this is not possible for us humans to replicate or follow as an example, we can choose to do something very similar. We are already born of flesh but need to be born of the Spirit. Jesus was already a Spirit but chose to be born again as a fleshly being. In so doing He entered into a new state which had origins in both the Spirit and the flesh. What He is saying is that we too must make a choice to be born a second time in order to become something very similar to what He is, a human being that is also born of God's Spirit, something of a dual identity.

In doing this we embrace the identity of this new creation that Jesus pioneered. Jesus in a sense started a new breed of beings by His incarnation and He desires us to join Him in this new race of saved humans who will spend eternity with Him and with the rest of heaven enjoying His presence. It is our privilege to accept His invitation to be born into Christ so that we can spend eternity being ravished by His love for us.

This is highlighted in verse 15 where He declares that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. When we choose to allow God to rebirth us through surrender to His Spirit in our hearts, we will be born into Christ and become a new creature along the order that Jesus is by virtue of His dual identity. Being in Christ brings with it the presence of eternal life which is the very essence of Jesus Himself. As we enter into this new dimension of existence and grow up into Christ, our eternal life will be a light that will shine ever more brightly from our hearts and lives attracting others to join us in Christ.

No longer is being born into a certain race of humans a requirement for being one of God's chosen people. Neither is it a membership in some particular denomination or political affiliation. God's kingdom is a heart-based kingdom that is only recognized by those who have chosen to let God birth them into it by His Spirit. They do not need to be Jews or any other human race to be part of God's kingdom but they do have to experience what it means to be “in Christ”.

And according to these words of Jesus to Nicodemus, an important requisite for being in Christ is a choice to believe in Him. The real meaning of those words is still something I continue to explore, to ponder, to meditate on and to pursue in my own heart and spirit. I have spent years puzzled by these words and wondering just what this belief really involves and it is slowly becoming more clear to me. But it is also the growing passion of my heart to believe in this God who is revealing the real truth about His beauty, His truth and His glory to me which induces faith within me to trust Him even more.

I continue to marinate in this passage, partly because I want my own heart to be filled with new revelations about God that fill these words of Jesus. I want to believe much deeper, to believe not only facts about God that impress my left brain but to believe in God's trustworthiness, compassion and love that I am only just beginning to perceive with my right brain and my heart. I want both my intellect and my emotions to be deeply involved in my belief. I have a growing intensity of desire to experience this new birth every day even deeper than before. I want to know the joy of eternal life here and now and to become a better reflector of that light to attract others to Him.