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.