If I Be Lifted Up
As the Israelites were journeying through the wilderness, they became discouraged because of the way (Num 21:4).
They then began to speak and murmur against the Lord and against Moses, their leader.
They lost their connection to the source of their supply.
They began to be moved by the circumstances of life instead of being moved by the 'life' of God through relationship with Him.
As soon as they began to murmur and complain, the Bible says a plague of fiery serpents was sent among the people (Num 21:6).
The serpents bit the people and many Israelites died.
Moses then began to pray for the people.
The Lord's response was this...
Make a fiery serpent of bronze and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he LOOKS upon it, shall live (Num 21:8).
The Bible then declares that everyone that beheld the serpent of brass lived.
What is amazing is that God was revealing Christ.
He was revealing the redemption that He had in plan for humanity.
Jesus said, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up...
" (John 3:14).
Jesus was referring to the price He would pay by dying on a cross.
The very thing that has bitten and bound humanity, Christ took upon Himself to deliver us.
We were born into this earth with a sin nature.
We had no escape.
We were bound by an evil taskmaster, satan.
But when the fullness of time was come, God became flesh.
The living Word became a man, Jesus Christ.
Jesus then took upon himself the nature of our adversary.
He took upon Himself the sin nature, and nailed it to the cross.
He has fully paid the price.
All that we must do now is LOOK, and when we do, we live.
To look upon the serpent on the pole is not a fleeting glance.
It is a God honoring and absorbing gaze.
It is a look that recognizes that this is the solution for all of humanity.
God, through Jesus' death, was stripping Satan of his power to bind humanity.
The bible says that the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1).
This 'looking' upon the cross is not just acknowledging the fact that Christ died for us, but it is realizing that because of this truth, there is now a supernatural grace resident on the inside of us that enables to walk with God in the realm of the kingdom!
They then began to speak and murmur against the Lord and against Moses, their leader.
They lost their connection to the source of their supply.
They began to be moved by the circumstances of life instead of being moved by the 'life' of God through relationship with Him.
As soon as they began to murmur and complain, the Bible says a plague of fiery serpents was sent among the people (Num 21:6).
The serpents bit the people and many Israelites died.
Moses then began to pray for the people.
The Lord's response was this...
Make a fiery serpent of bronze and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he LOOKS upon it, shall live (Num 21:8).
The Bible then declares that everyone that beheld the serpent of brass lived.
What is amazing is that God was revealing Christ.
He was revealing the redemption that He had in plan for humanity.
Jesus said, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up...
" (John 3:14).
Jesus was referring to the price He would pay by dying on a cross.
The very thing that has bitten and bound humanity, Christ took upon Himself to deliver us.
We were born into this earth with a sin nature.
We had no escape.
We were bound by an evil taskmaster, satan.
But when the fullness of time was come, God became flesh.
The living Word became a man, Jesus Christ.
Jesus then took upon himself the nature of our adversary.
He took upon Himself the sin nature, and nailed it to the cross.
He has fully paid the price.
All that we must do now is LOOK, and when we do, we live.
To look upon the serpent on the pole is not a fleeting glance.
It is a God honoring and absorbing gaze.
It is a look that recognizes that this is the solution for all of humanity.
God, through Jesus' death, was stripping Satan of his power to bind humanity.
The bible says that the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1).
This 'looking' upon the cross is not just acknowledging the fact that Christ died for us, but it is realizing that because of this truth, there is now a supernatural grace resident on the inside of us that enables to walk with God in the realm of the kingdom!
Source...