The Foreshadow of the Bronze Snake

Many times when I'm reading the New Testament, I read passages that refer back to the scriptures, the Old Testament. This happens over and over again. I used to skip over these passages and disregard, however, if the writer is putting certain pieces of scripture into the New Testament, take note.  There is great meaning that will help you further understand or challenge you deeper.  John 3:14-15 is one of those passages, it says,  

"As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life."

Context:  In John 3:14-15 Jesus is talking to Nicodemus who came in the middle of the night to find out more information on who Jesus was.  As a respected Jewish teacher, Nicodemus new the OT inside and out.  He knew all the scriptures. So Jesus makes reference to Moses and the Israelites in Numbers 21.  The Israelites have left Egypt and just had a great victory that God gave them over the Canaanites and it wasn't long before they lost their faith in God again and started complaining about God.  This isn't the first time they've complained during their Exodus but many times before it was because they were lacking in some way like water, food, etc. This time it was just a whiny complaint and it showed their unbelief in God, so God sent poisonous snakes as punishment.  The people cried out to God, God showed them mercy and instructed Moses to make a replica of the snake and attach it to the pole, lift it up and if the Israelites just look at it they will be healed.

The John 3:14-15 passage is amazing...Jesus is revealing a significant truth to Nicodemus.  The Bronze Snake (pole) foreshadows his body.  Jesus Christ himself is the fuller meaning. The Israelites were commanded to just  look to this pole to be healed of their sickness, their venomous bite. This simple act of looking to the pole showed their belief and obedience to God. Our world is full of poison, sickness and sin.  The devastation is everywhere creeping in on us, but Christ gives us the answer to overcome the worldly sickness.  He gives us himself, on a pole (wooden cross), dying to overcome it all and if we simply look to him, our hearts are healed and we are transformed.

Christ and his crucifixion and resurrection are what we need to look to each and every day to be reminded of his loving grace and mercy to save us from evil and bring us into His holy presence.  If we can always remember that, it's amazing how we can guard our hearts and mind from the world that surrounds us and focus on the mission he has before us.

Looking to the Cross...

To Be Humbled

"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor." - James 4:10

I love the notes I read on this passage... 

Bowing in humility before the Lord means recognizing our worth comes from God alone. To be humble means leaning on his power and his guidance, and not going our own independent way. Although we do not deserve God's favor, he wants to lift us up and give us worth and dignity, despite our human shortcomings.

This is probably one of the greatest ways we can draw close to God. By simply bowing in humility, understanding that all we are is because of him. Our worth and our dignity is because of his favor. Nothing more. 

Living in his power, leaning on his guidance, humbling myself...

With God, I can

If you ever need a verse for encouragement, to pump you up, give you a rush of adrenaline, or complete confidence, it’s this verse.

Psalm 18:29 - "in your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall."

David writes Psalm 18 after 20 years of battle before he becomes King. He is thanking and praising God for deliverance from his enemies and Saul.  He gives thanks to God for past victories and for present strength.  You’d think after living that long as a fugitive from Saul, David would simply be exhausted; however, he felt God empowering him.

It’s amazing how our emotions and reactions can change if we change our attitude.  David draws upon God’s strength here.  He looks back on life with a grateful heart.  He’s not bitter that he had to flee for 20 years.  Instead, he is at peace with God for lifting him up with victory and recognizes that he can do anything; he can conquer any task as long as the Lord is his focus, his desire.

Do you have a road block in front of you? Do you feel like you are stuck?  Draw upon the Lord’s strength and realize that with God at your side, you can.  Yes it’s that simple.. With God... You can.

With Him, I can scale...

His Grace, My Weakness

2 Corinthians 12:9
...my grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.

That is God's words to the ApostlePaul after he gave him a thorn in his life. We don't know what it is. The bible never says. But whatever it was it was a major hindrance in his work and mission. (you can read about it in 2 Corinthians 12)

Most of us have heard the verse, for when I am weak, then I am strong. That phrase finishes out the passage. But these words, directly from God to one of the greatest apostles, is what struck me. "My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness."

The fact the God's power is displayed in our weakness should give us encouragement and hope. It’s not our energy, efforts or talents; it’s our dependence on God that brings about our power in our mission and every day.

We all have weaknesses. We can take pleasure in them and not be ashamed like Paul. For those weaknesses humble us, builds empathy and character, and strengthens our reliance on Christ.

As strong women (and men), we do not like to be dependent on someone, but through our weakness, we must depend in God. Only his power will make us effective for him and will help us do the work that has lasting value.

Grace and power,

Forsaken

I'd like you all to meet Melissa. You've heard much about her before if you remember reading our Courageous post about her.  I'm in a bible study right now with Melissa and find her mind and faith fascinating, so I asked her to guest blog for us a few times and she said Yes!  Her words of wisdom are going to be such a gift to us all, especially this piece on "Forsaken."  Thank you Melissa for preparing our hearts for this Easter.

There is something that has grabbed my attention as never before as I’ve been experiencing this Holy Week.  I know it is directly related to the season of life that I am currently in.  God has invitedme to a season of resting in Him.  I believe God calls it obedience, a great book I’ve read a couple times calls it Spiritual Whitespace, a lot of people have called it my season of “wilderness”, but the extrovert in me just calls it loneliness.  My life journey has taken a dramatic change of scenery.  It’s been a great change of pace, but I don’t have nearly the same interaction with people that I was used to and that has taken some time to adjust to.  But it was these feelings of my loneliness that made me stop in my tracks and look at the loneliness of Jesus in a completely fresh way. 

 

Last Sunday we celebrated Palm Sunday. This was the day of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey.  People treated Him as a king, throwing their cloaks and palm branches on the ground for him and his donkey. This was a big deal.  It’s recorded in all four gospels and that’s pretty rare! (Matthew 21:1-17; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-40; John 12:12-19) As Jesus rode into Jerusalem, presenting himself as their Messiah, the people were praising him and hailing him: “Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” (Which, by the way, was the fulfillment to Zechariah’s prophecy in Zechariah 9:9.) And in just a few days’ time, when Jesus doesn’t meet their exact expectations of what they thought a Messiah and King would do, these cries change from ‘Hosanna’ to ‘Crucify him.’  Talk about a shift!

 

Just a year earlier there was a mob of 5,000 men plus women and kids that flocked to him to hear him teach and now, in the Garden of Gethsemane his disciples, his friends, can’t even stay awake to pray with him and keep watch.  THAT is a dramatic change.  But that’s not what struck me.  A promise that some days I repeat over and over to myself and cling to with white knuckles is found in Deuteronomy 31:6. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you." Straight from God’s mouth to my heart.  He will never leave me and never forsake me.  In everything I’ve been through, God was there and whispers ever so lovingly, ‘I was with you through it all.’ He was. He still is. Here’s what hit me: those words could not comfort Jesus. Those words were not true for Jesus.

In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus asked God three times for the cup (of God’s wrath and judgment) to be removed.  If it couldn’t be removed, then; God’s will be done.  It was really at this point that Jesus had made his decision, made up his mind knowing that the plan of salvation for all people was contingent on whether or not he suffered this brutal death on the cross.  And because of His great love for us, He did. This was THE PLAN, even though Jesus really didn’t want to do it.  Was it the physical pain? Was it the beating and scourging He knew was coming, is that what he was agonizing over?  Something tells me it was more than that.  

Throughout the gospels we read of Jesus’ intimacy with His Father. As a young boy, he stayed behind in the temple when his family left Jerusalem so he could be about his Father’s business (Luke 2:41-52).  Mark 1:35 tells us Jesus got up early, when it was still dark out to spend time in prayer with His Father.  After a crazy day He takes a break from His friends to be with God (Mark 6:45).  The relationship between God the Father and Jesus the Son is a very intimate one.  In Gethsemane Jesus cries out to God and calls Him ‘Abba’, which is like us crying out, ‘Daddy.’  But as Jesus hung on the cross, God poured out His wrath on him and he became sin for us even though He knew no sin himself (2 Corinthians 5:21). He bore our transgressions and our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5) and our sins in His body on the cross (1 Peter2:24).  Jesus cries out: “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” Jesus cries out God, not Father.  (This is the only time he does not call God, ‘Father’ in the gospels.) Jesus has been rejected by the people He came to save, he was denied, betrayed and ignored by his closest friends. This is a lot of relational and emotional pain, almost too much for one to bear.  But then he is forsaken by God, a spiritual pain that cannot be imagined. What does Jesus do in light of this?  He yields His spirit.  He dies.  For one time and one time only in all of eternity, God the Father turned away from Jesus the Son.  Their relationship is severed. God tears His face from Jesus and the sin that has been laid on him.  At the moment of Jesus’ death, the curtain that hung in the temple separating the presence of God, His Shekinah glory, from His people is torn in half, from top to bottom (Matthew 27:50-51).  Jesus’ torn body, his severed relationship with His Father and His death on the cross made it possible for every man, woman and child to enter into God’s presence, His eternal presence that is promised to “never leave us or forsake us.” 

So as I walk through Good Friday, I will walk in remembrance of the pain and grief that Jesus willingly took on for me. I will lift up praises and prayers of thanksgiving that out of a deep love for me, Jesus was forsaken and left alone for a brief moment  so I could rest in the promise that He will never leave me or forsake me.