Pictures and Belief

...whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

...whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world,

but that the world might be saved through Him.

He who believes in Him is not judged;

he who does not believe has been judged already,

because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

(John 3:15-18)

I am a long ways from clearly understanding this issue of what it really means to believe. But I am also a long ways from the complete fog that used to surround my thinking about this issue. I continually seek to delve much deeper into knowing what this means for me personally, especially since I am coming to realize that this belief that Jesus talks about is much, much more than an intellectual assent or profession. In fact, I believe that sometimes people can discover to their own amazement that they are believers in their hearts while in their minds they have strongly disagreed with Christians for many years.

Sometimes I wonder how many real believers presently are in open opposition to Christianity as compared with how many professed Christians are in reality unbelievers in their hearts. Unfortunately I am afraid that a great majority of professed Christians will be found to be living in unbelief when the tests come that will expose what is in the heart. But at the same time those tests will also reveal to others the ones who have not intellectual believed in Christianity but their heart beliefs were actually more in line with the true version of Christianity that they had never encountered before.

I have discovered over the past few years that one of the greatest problems in the church is not so much the overt sins that plague our lives that we fail to overcome, but is the misinformation about God that infiltrates our thinking, our beliefs and especially our feelings about God. Much of this misinformation comes from the transposition, misapplication and misinterpretation of most of the religious words that we use in religion. The problem is that we assume we know what all these words mean and so we feel no need to investigate what they might actually mean.

One of the reasons that I have struggled so hard to have much appreciation for John 3:16 all of my life is for these very reasons. First of all, my concept of how God viewed me and felt about me was so dark and frightening that it completely overshadowed any assertions of His love for me in this passage. My experiences with the god I thought was the God of heaven were far more influential to shape my feelings and pictures of God than mere words on paper quoted blithely by religious people. My feelings and beliefs about God were far more influenced by the abusive or legalistic ways that religious people treated me than by any real truths that might have given me a different view of God as He really is.

My experience of course, is not unique. Everyone of us has been raised up in a sinful world full of lies about God. Each of us has experienced ideas about God that are false in unique respects and so all of our ideas about Him are somewhat different from others. Some people have been raised in relatively good homes with parents and surroundings that gave them a much better picture of God than what I was raised in. Many others were raised in atmospheres that seared their minds with pictures of God much closer to demonic caricatures causing them to perceive Him as a hateful tyrant eager to inflict as much pain and fear as possible into their lives.

This is the situation that God is dealing with as He seeks to reshape every sinners opinions about Him and works to unlock all of our hearts so that He can restore us into the deep fellowship and love and intimacy with Him that we were originally created to enjoy. And I believe that, until we begin to understand reality from this perspective at least a little bit, it is going to be nearly impossible for us to properly appreciate the real meaning of these words or allow the Spirit of God to dramatically change our attitudes and relationship with Him.

For me personally I have found it very helpful to keep challenging the real meaning of the words that I am hearing or using when it comes to spiritual things in particular. What I have discovered long ago is that nearly every word that has been used in presenting religion to me has been transposed at least to some degree to mean something it was never intended to mean. Many of the words upon closer examination have been found to mean nearly the exact opposite of what I had come to assume which certainly put a massive strain on the credibility of everything I have been taught. But instead of throwing it all out the window as some have chosen to do, I have sought to look for the real truth behind these words and then tried to recreate the sentences and thoughts with the new meanings of the words as I discovered them. The longer that I do this the more exciting the concepts and pictures of God begin to emerge as a result.

I have often felt the sensation as I make continual discoveries from this process of redefinition and realignment of thoughts and concepts about God and religion, that what I am perceiving is very much like pulling apart a large puzzle that has been forced together improperly and then trying to find where the pieces really fit together correctly. It is as if the picture of God in my heart had been assembled by well-meaning but confused and misguided religious people forcing many of the pieces into places they were never designed to fit. As a result the picture that was artificially constructed in my mind of what God is like was very jumbled, distorted and even quite scary in many respects.

What I have come to realize over the past few years is that I am not alone in this terrible confusion and fear about God. Nearly everyone around me is likewise very confused and afraid of God because of their own versions of distorted ideas about God, though theirs is always somewhat different than mine. In some areas they may have better feelings toward God than I have had but in other aspects their concepts of Him are still very immature or twisted. In this respect I am actually liable to learn some very helpful or enlightening things about truth from the most unexpected sources if I am willing to not be prejudiced or dogmatic in my relationship with them.

The main purpose for Jesus coming to this earth and sharing so much with us in His teachings and relationships with people was to challenge and correct the many lies and perversions about God that have been filling our minds and hearts ever since the fall of Adam. It is Satan's work to constantly confuse and distort our ideas and feelings about God in order to cause us to believe many lies about Him. Satan does this for the main purpose of hurting the heart of God by causing His children to be afraid of Him and to hate Him. Satan is determined to deceive as many as possible in order to inflict as much pain as possible on God as well as on all those created in His image. He has been very effective in this campaign of diabolical evil and hatred, but Jesus came to undo the works of the devil and I want to be part of that restoration process.

Jesus clearly stated that the devil is a liar from the beginning and that his only purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. On the other hand, Jesus repeatedly and emphatically declared that He had come to bring real life, abundant life and life that does not include any condemnation.

I have begun to understand over the past few years that it is on this crucial point that everything else pivots. This is the core issue around which all other issues revolve and is the central focus of true belief. For years I have been seeking to understand what Jesus really meant when He so often talked about our need to believe which is highlighted in the verses above. Over the past few years it has become more and more clear to me that the real core of what it means to believe in God pivots around this central issue of how I perceive Him in my heart.

To the degree that my thinking and feelings about God involve any of the misinformation or interpretations invented by the devil, I am living in unbelief. Of course the problem is that the devil uses this nasty trick of deception so that when we believe lies about God we seldom are aware at all that what we believe is not true. Nearly everyone is quite certain that their opinions about religion and about God are the correct ones and many religious people are more focused on trying to convince or even force others to come into line with their concepts of God and reality more than in questioning their own deeply entrenched opinions about life and religion.

There is almost nothing more dangerous than a person who is quite certain they know all the truth about God or religion. That is the seed-bed from which terrorism springs up. And terrorists come in many more forms than just those who kill others and blow up buildings. The far more effective terrorists are those who force their opinions on those around them through political leverage, religious power or even sheer intimidation and force. All of these versions of attempting to convert others to our way of thinking and believing are all rooted in lies about God deeply rooted in our hearts. It matters not what our profession is or lack of it – everyone has an opinion about what God is like and that opinion is going to be reflected in the way we treat those around us.

I very clearly need much more transformation in the way that I perceive God and His feelings toward me. I know this because the impulses and reactions that I have towards others still reflect far too many misconceptions about God that are too familiar to me in my past. The very nature of the things that tempt me the most can effectively reveal to me the holes in my internal pictures of God that still need to be repaired and filled in more fully. The puzzle is far from being clear to me, but at the same time there are sections that are starting to take shape with a beauty and attractiveness that sometimes amazes me and thrills my soul.

I pray for God to continue to assemble His picture more completely in my heart and mind so that the reflection of His Spirit and disposition begins to glow out of me more appropriately. For it is only as the God of grace and truth begins to be formed more fully inside of me that my life and spirit will become effective to attract others to want to know the power that is transforming my life.

What is Really on the Pole?

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; (John 3:14)

I keep having more questions coming up in my mind each time I come back to ponder this passage. My imagination goes back to the story of the Israelites dying in agony, terror and guilt as the fiery serpents slither through the camp biting person after person. There is no place that is safe. Men, women, children – all are in constant danger and terror of the unexpected strikes of these silent terrorists. The people turn in desperation to Moses, the very one they had so recently been denouncing and for which activity the protection of God had been withdrawn. They now beg him to seek God for a solution to their terrifying circumstances.

This is very clearly an analogy of the situation we all find ourselves in with our relation to sin. However, it is not nearly so clear to us how much our danger, our pain, our discomforts are directly connected to the effects of sin in our own lives. We are very often much like the Israelites in tending to blame God and those who are trying to lead us to God for many of the problems that we are experiencing. It is almost automatic in our response to tragedies and difficulties in our lives to immediately wonder why God brought such problems into our lives instead of seeking to perceive things from heaven's perspective. We very seldom are willing to embrace the truth that, it is very often our own attitudes and choices that contribute to the situations that we find ourselves in and that prevent us from living under the covenant protection of our faithful God.

But there is much more than just that going on. It is not only our own choices that contribute to our problems and pain but the evil choices of others around us that sometimes cause immense pain and suffering in millions of lives. God does not prevent sin from affecting innocent victims for that would be undue interference and would violate His respect for freedom of choice. He does sometimes step in to protect or deflect certain conditions from taking their natural course when it will bring glory to His name. But God's ultimate purpose is to let sin be exposed for the horror that it really is so that there will never be any chance of it being repeated after the final revelation of truth and sin on the last day.

But there is a place of relative protection if we are willing to live within the terms of God's covenant with us. I know that there is a lot of confusion about covenants and most Christians have very mistaken opinions about the difference between the Old and New Covenants. They wrongly believe that all of God's previous revelations about His character and the principles of reality were swept away in the transition from the First Covenant to the Covenant that Jesus revealed. But this is total nonsense and is yet another deceptive ploy of Satan to keep people away from the protections of God's covenants.

It is true that the Old Covenant was put away because it was insufficient to provide complete salvation for sinners. But the real problem with the Old Covenant was not that God made a mistake when He set it up and had to try another one. Neither is it the case that those who lived in Old Testament times were saved differently than we are today as many teach and believe. God never changes. It is people who introduce problems into the way that they insist on relating to God due to the lies they believe about Him.

The core problem that made the former covenant unworkable for salvation was that it was partly constructed on the promises of fallen sinners responding in fear to the awesome revelation of God on Mount Sinai. This covenant got off on the wrong foot because the people promised to obey everything that God had said based on their motives of fear. Fear is never a valid foundation upon which to build our faith and relationship with God. Fear may be useful initially to get our attention about the deadly effects that sin will cause in our lives, but it is too unstable to build the genuine relationship of intimacy that is needed to secure our saving relationship with our Savior.

But God starts working with us where we are currently, and so if fear is where we insist on living then He will work with that until He can draw us beyond that to a healthier model of connection with Him. The Israelites present to us a long history of improper ways to relate to God. If we dismiss the Old Testament as irrelevant to our lives today we just doomed ourselves to repeating many of the mistakes that were so eloquently demonstrated in the lives of many who have lived before. And that is simply unacceptable when we have so much advantage to learn from the mistakes of others.

What comes to my attention this morning as I ponder this story about the deadly snakes that represent the dangers of sin and rebellion in my own life is the symbol that God chose for Moses to make in His plan to save His people. God told Moses to make a likeness of the very snakes that were bringing the most pain to these people needing relief. That means that the people were being asked to turn their attention to look at a picture of the very thing that had originally inflicted the most trauma to them and had delivered the deadly venom into their bloodstream to begin with.

I find it compelling that God did not use a more hopeful-looking symbol that would bring to the imagination something more positive, say something like a piece of fruit or some other symbol more closely linked with life instead of death. But even as I write that I realize that this is exactly what was being done by all the false religions around them in the world. There was an abundance of carvings being worshiped that represented different things associated with life, many of them quite sexual in nature. Since the most obvious things associated with new life coming into being on earth were the sex organs of humans, these had become objects of worship and all sorts of perverted activities were incorporated into the religions of the various nations of that day.

God clearly did not want His people to have any part of these false religions or the mistaken ideas about life and death that filled the minds of pagan worshipers. God never even intended for this image to become an object of worship at all. False religions always pervert the truth about God and about sin for they are all inspired by the greatest enemy of God himself. Instead, God chose to have Moses create a picture of sorts to bring to people's attention, both then and now, that we cannot be delivered from sin by ignoring the causes of our pain and suffering. It is not in suppressing the memories that cause us dysfunction and keep us triggered every time someone touches a wounded place in our heart. It is only by facing the roots of those triggers and allowing faith in a Savior to bring truth, life, hope and peace to those dark places of death deep in our own hearts and memories.

But in some way it seems a little difficult to comprehend why facing a symbol of the cause of our greatest pain would bring us the healing so needed to keep us from being fully consumed by that sin. It seems counter-intuitive. But then, many things that God does in our salvation seem counter-intuitive because our natural logic and intuition are all affected and distorted by sinful logic and twisted reasoning. Our fallen nature will never lead us to the right solution for sin no matter how much sense our ideas seem to make for us.

It is only by believing in the methods and words of God that we can experience true freedom. And that will always force us outside our normal box, beyond our own comfort zone. It is only there that we will ever find true life and deliverance from the helpless condition we find ourselves in. God will never work with our natural reasoning and assist us in our ideas of how to be saved. He generally always presents options to us that make us uncomfortable and require us to choose to trust in His ways that seem to contradict many things we have figured out in our own minds. This is partly due to the fact that when sin entered this world our minds and hearts became separated in their internal integration and from God, and so we have to trust God to show us the way back to life instead of being able to find it for ourselves.

I understand the theology that teaches that the serpent represented Jesus “becoming sin for us”. But at the same time I sense a danger in embracing the assumptions and implications of what many people believe when this statement is made. It is very easy to use this logic to reinforce all sorts of false ideas about an offended, angry Deity up in heaven needing to be appeased by a gentle, loving, submissive Jesus being tortured and crucified in our place here on earth. This is the belief of millions of people but is also the core of the massive system of lies produced by false religion. There are elements of truth in these teachings which make them all the more difficult to expose. But the error in them can be just as fatal to our souls as the poison of the fiery serpents was to the bodies of the ancient Israelites.

I have been led by the Spirit over the past few years to challenge many false assumptions about God as I have discovered more clearly the real truths about God that expose so many false teachings. As I compare the teachings I grew up with, along with many being circulated in the world today against the real truths about God revealed in the life and words of Jesus, I find so many inconsistencies that must not be ignored if I want to really grow in the truth. But what I am also finding is that the more revelations about God's true character and the true nature of different pieces of the puzzle are analyzed in the clearer light of Jesus' life and teachings I find that the doctrines, teachings and Bible stories all fit together much better when viewed in the light of the real gospel.

I am still seeking to understand more clearly how this bronze serpent represented Jesus on the cross without becoming entangled with false ideas of Him trying to appease an angry God or some other notion of justice. Yet I am also aware of many statements in Scripture and other writings that seem to reinforce some of these notions about salvation. It is not simplistic and easy to unmask the lies about God that He has been seeking to unravel for millenia. The whole great controversy between Christ and Satan will not be fully revealed and made plain until the final day of revelation and judgment. But God does desire each of us to be moving in the direction of truth instead of remaining stuck in false ideas about Him without challenging them.

One thing that does jump out at me when I think about God's choice of symbol for Moses to make was that it would be very clear to all the surrounding nations and religions that Israel was not trying to imitate the example of other religions in worshiping a symbol of life. It was very clear that this image represented the very thing that was bringing the most pain and death into their lives. This placed it in stark contrast with most other images used in popular religions.

And maybe that is why I feel reluctant to buy into the typical explanations for this symbol that I have heard in the past. Maybe part of the mistakes of our typical reasoning about this involves a subconscious association with making Jesus out to be the source of our pain. After all, if we carefully consider what our logical mind will do with these symbols below our level of consciousness, we might have to realize that at some deeper level our hearts may believe that God really is the source of our problems and pain instead of sin itself.

This thinking is in fact the core of the whole battle for our minds. The arch-deceiver is ever seeking to associate God in our minds as being the core problem in our lives. If we could somehow figure out how to live successfully without having God interfering with our plans and our search for life we feel that we just might be better off. Many people feel this way openly and many more believe it in their hearts but are too afraid to admit it openly. But at its core, the seed of sinful logic and reasoning that infects every one of us causes us to believe at some level that God is at least part of our problem and this leads to mistaken notions that infiltrate our philosophies and our religions in many and various ways.

Think about it for a few minutes. Put yourself in the place of a person who has just been bitten by a poisonous snake and is suffering extreme bodily pain as the poison seeps into the bloodstream of your body. The chemical reaction inside of you is like fire surging through your veins and arteries and the pain is overwhelming. You know that after a period of intense and unimaginable agony and extreme torture you are going to lose your life altogether. There is no known cure for this situation.

Then someone comes along and informs you that the leader that you had the least amount of faith in and had been loudly denouncing and complaining about over the past few days and weeks has erected a symbol of the snakes that have caused you all this pain. That is enough to add insult to injury. Just what you need, you think to yourself. Now we not only suffer from extreme agony from these deadly snake-bites but now they are erecting images of the very things that are causing all the problems around here. What does he expect you to do, break the law of God and worship this image of a snake? Is he trying to get you into even more trouble with God than you already feel you are in?

But you are told that the only hope for you, according to this leader that you have distrusted and have been criticizing for some time, is for you to look at this snake on a pole. He claims that God told him that anyone who would just look at this metal snake would be healed and become freed from the poison in their bodies. You are urged to do the unreasonable, to defy all sense and logic and to perform some pilgrimage of insanity while your body is wrenching in pain and your mind is wracked with fear and guilt.

Everything you are being asked to do seems backwards from common sense. It is ludicrous to think that just looking at an image will somehow bring supernatural intervention and healing into your body. And what about all the mental agony and guilt you are feeling as your body is quickly dying? You are realizing that most people now believe that it was your complaining and fault-finding of Moses and the other leaders that brought all of these horrid snakes into the camp to start with. Now you are feeling the potential wrath of everyone around you as you are viewed as the primary cause for all of this pain and suffering by those who did not participate in your rebellion.

So now you not only have the life-sucking poison destroying your body but you are also feeling the shame and guilt and condemnation of being guilty for bringing this on to not only yourself but all of your family and friends as well. The poison of the snakes is being paralleled by the poison of fear, shame and guilt in your conscience. You need more than just physical healing as desperate as you need that. You also need a change of heart and a reconciliation with those you have been condemning and blaming for all the problems that have been taking place. And to top it off you are quickly running out of time for your life is quickly slipping away by the minute in extreme torture.

But you do have a choice. That choice is to admit your helplessness and your guilty condition and to follow the directions given you to receive this life asserted to be within your reach. But no one can make you choose to do what seems so absurd as looking at an image of a poisonous snake. No one has ever heard of such a bizarre idea but then, what is your alternatives? You can either stick with your pride and refuse to let go of your animosity against the leaders and continue to blame God for all of this pain and suffering, or you can humble yourself and admit that you really are the cause for what is happening in and around you and obey the leaders and the God whom you have been reviling for so long. The choice is all yours.

This really does alert me to various truths that I have been learning over the past few years. Some are in relationship to my tension with various leadership roles in my life. One of the most important ones as I mentioned previously was my need to face head-on the roots of my fears and pain instead of suppressing or hiding from them. I see this principle in this illustration of the need to look at the snake instead of following the natural repulsion to turn away from anything resembling the causes of our greatest fears and pains.

We can only be truly freed from our painful past when we allow God to accompany us back to terrible memories and to revisit them in the light of new truth about God while having His presence with us. As many people are starting to find out today, when we allow God's presence to take us into our past and confront the monsters that live in our memories, the light of God's love and truth about both us and about Him suddenly disarm the powerful forces that have held us hostage for so many years. Nothing can withstand the light of God's truth in Jesus, and when we choose to face our deadly serpent monsters and allow God's Spirit to expose their true nature, we will suddenly discover that our prisons will collapse and our pain will vanish never to torture us again. The serpents will then become as harmless as the metal serpent on the pole. It only serves to be a reminder of God's deliverance in our lives, not a threat from which to hide.

As I think even more about this analogy of the serpent on the pole, I also realize that from a distance through the eyes of pain and lies about God, that Jesus may look more like the source of our problems than like our solution. But as we choose to face what appears to be the source of our problems and pain and begin to experience more and more healing, upon closer examination we discover that what is on that beam is not really a serpent after all but is the Son of God dying from the poison of our sins in order to change our minds about the Father. It is not unlike the encounter John had in the book of Revelation when he was told that there was a lion in the area. But when he turned to look at it what in fact he saw was a lamb that looked like it had been slain and that represented Jesus.

What I have been discovering is along that same line. The closer I get to really understanding the what's and why's of what really happened at the cross I begin to perceive things dramatically differently than what has been portrayed to me in the past. Instead of seeing a substitute sacrifice to mediate and appease the tension between me and an angry Father, I am seeing much more clearly a heart of infinite forgiveness, compassion and love that is seeking to change my feelings and opinions and heart-beliefs about God, not trying to change God's ideas or feelings about me.

Lifting Up Jesus

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 keep thinking about this lifting up activity. What really gets my attention is the fact that in the first case it was a special man of God who lifted up the serpent on the pole but in the last case it was only violent sinners who hated Jesus who lifted Him up on the cross. This juxtaposition seems to raise a lot of questions as to what is really involved in this idea of lifting up Jesus in order for Him to draw all unto Himself.

Most Christians tend to assume that the phrase “lifting up Jesus” means to talk about Him and His life and their suppositions about salvation and religion. I am not wanting to argue with those suppositions though they do make me wonder sometimes how truly relevant some of them are to what Jesus intended to convey here. But what does interest me more at this point is what might be implied by the fact that the people who in fact did lift up Jesus were the last ones we might expect to have motives of wanting to further Jesus' ministry on this earth. The very ones that ended up fulfilling these words of Jesus to Nicodemus and became the agents of helping God to reveal His astounding love to the whole universe were the same people who were the most opposed to doing just that.

It is sad that it is so often the religious people of this world that do the most to obscure the truth about religion and salvation. It is not so much that they set out originally to figure out ways to distort truth and manufacture lies about God. It is just that over time they allow pride and selfishness and resistance to revelations about God that contradict their preconceived opinions to shape their choices and activities to the point where they become enemies of God without ever realizing that is what they have become. While still believing and insisting that they are God's true representatives on earth they actually become agents and channels of His arch-rival, Satan.

And yet through all of this God still accomplishes His purposes even through those who end up working the hardest against them. This is part of God's amazing ability to use anything, good or bad, to work out eventually for the good of those who love Him and are called by Him. (Romans 8:28) All are called by God to embrace and be changed by His love, but not all allow that love to transform their heart and have His love reflected back to Him. But those who choose to love Him in response to His revelations of love to them come into the position where He can work all things together for their good.

But what about these people who clearly were not in that position but were still utilized by God to be the agents most directly involved in revealing the truth about Him to the world? How is it that the children of Abraham who hated Jesus the most along with the pagan authorities opposed to God became the counterparts of Moses in helping to lift up Jesus to the world? And when we today claim to lift up Jesus so that all might be attracted to Him, which group do we think we identify with the most – the example of Moses lifting up the serpent or the example of violent protagonists trying to destroy the One who came to demonstrate God's passionate love for mankind?

I really doubt that very many people believe they want to be associated with the reputation of the priests, rulers and Romans who crucified Jesus. Most Christians especially would much prefer to be seen as followers of Moses in exercising compassion and concern by following the instructions of God in order to provide relief and salvation to the suffering and dying around them. But remember that the priests, rulers and elders who had Jesus crucified felt even more strongly than we do and that they were more likely to be identified with Moses than most people today believe in him. These were the people who knew the writings of Moses backwards and forwards and had dedicated much of their life to obeying and explaining the teachings of Moses. Yet their immersion in religion and their knowledge of all the truths presented in the writings of Moses had little effect in helping them to see the truth about Jesus as the Son of God when He spoke to them directly.

I believe there is far more danger than most of us ever realize in being steeped in knowledge about religion. I am not implying that anyone should be willingly ignorant of religion and spiritual things, but having a knowledge of truth is clearly not an antidote to avoiding sin or a misunderstanding of God. Our condition today is so close to the condition of those in Jesus day that it would do us well to seek God to convict us by His Spirit to perceive how we may be more like those who crucified Jesus than the prophet who cooperated with God in the healing of ancient Israel.

But I still ponder this strange idea that the very thing needed to display the truth about Jesus and about God most clearly to the world was accomplished through the assistance of the ones most opposed to that very revelation. Now that I think of it, it is even more bizarre than that. God actually set up circumstances whereby His own worst enemy, Satan himself was used to accomplish the purposes of God in breaking open the container that contained the sweet perfume of heaven for all the universe to inhale. Ironically it was not those who understood the truth about God the most like Moses who provided this service for Him but it was the whole array of wicked powers both in the supernatural realm and on the human level who worked together to expose the very essence of life that they were so dedicated to obscuring.

As I think about these things I begin to wonder if I am not looking at a choice God is offering me. Maybe I can choose which way I am going to lift up Jesus. Sometimes I may inadvertently lift up Jesus by my own sinful choices that expose not only the ugliness of my own sinful nature but the incredible grace, forgiveness and mercy of God. But I could also choose to cooperate with God like Moses in lifting up Jesus in different ways that will enable others to more clearly see the real truth about God and become receivers of the life that always flows from such exposure.

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live." And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived. (Numbers 21:8-9)

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. 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 3:14-16)

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.