Early Sabbath morning, God awoke me with an invitation to rise and spend time with Him. My husband and I had returned home from a long trip just a few days prior, and I had been so blessed by my husband the previous mornings, as he’d risen early to attend to the morning duties and allow me to sleep in. But now as Christ’s Spirit prompted me to rise, and Satan sought to tempt me to remain in bed, the love my husband had shown me those previous mornings inspired me to want to do the same for him in return, as I knew he needed rest. Thus my heavenly Father, His beloved Son, and my precious husband, labored together for me in love, and I was strengthened to rise and receive the blessing God had in store.
As I prayed and asked God what topic of study He had for me that morning, a simple phrase—but perhaps the most profoundly simple phrase to describe the whole of the plan of salvation—was brought to my mind. “Look and live.” The previous day as I had been reading a devotional book on the life of Christ, this phrase was used in connection with Jesus’ interview with Nicodemus, and thus God instructed me to begin my study in John chapter 3.
You Must Be Born Again
In Christ’s well-known interview with the open-hearted Pharisee, as He seeks to drive home the point that the carnal man “must be born again,” He refers him to an experience in the history of the Israelites which would have been very familiar to him.
John 3:14-15 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
In the same way, and for the same purpose, that Moses lifted up the brass serpent before the dying Israelites, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up in order to bring life to those who believe. In order to better understand Christ’s reference to this story, God directed me to study the original account in Numbers 21.
Numbers 21:1-9 “The king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the South, heard that Israel was coming on the road to Atharim. Then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. So Israel made a vow to the LORD, and said, “If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.” And the LORD listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of that place was called Hormah [Utter Destruction].
Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.” So the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.
Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”
I was first led to focus in on verse 4, where it says that “the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way.” The word discouraged could also be translated as impatient, and my King James Version actually says, “because of the way.” The souls of God’s children were becoming discouraged and impatient because of “the way.” How often do we, as God’s children, become discouraged and impatient with ourselves in our Christian walk? How often do we despair because our victory over sin is not happening fast enough? We feel like we are gaining so much intellectual knowledge, but it is not improving our daily experience…
Had the Israelites gained an intellectual knowledge of God’s love and saving power? He had rescued them from Egyptian slavery by opening the Red Sea to let them cross on dry land. If that wasn’t enough visible, tangible evidence of His love, I don’t know what could be! They had certainly received an intellectual understanding through this experience and so many others, so why then did they keep falling into discouragement? We can find the clear answer by studying verses 1-3, to understand the context of their mental struggles.
Numbers 21:1-3 “The king of Arad, the Canaanite, who dwelt in the South, heard that Israel was coming on the road to Atharim. Then he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoners. So Israel made a vow to the LORD, and said, “If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.” And the LORD listened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites, and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. So the name of that place was called Hormah [Utter Destruction].”
Who’s idea was it to “utterly destroy” these cities? The Israelites. In response to having some of their people taken as prisoners, they swore unto God that they would destroy them and their cities in return. We understand clearly from the life of God’s Son, that this is not the Spirit and faith of Christ. As Jesus labored to correct these misunderstandings, He clarified,
Matthew 5:38-48 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. […] You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. […] Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
I Peter 2:21-23 ‘For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;”
But the Israelites had been raised and taught all they knew in a pagan nation, their minds having been imprinted with the framework of relating to pagan deities through appeasement and earning merit (or punishment) according to their works. Thus they believed that God would approve of their carnal desire to take revenge on their enemies. God understood this, and had compassion and sympathy with His confused and wayward children. Thus we see Him condescending to “hearken to the voice of Israel” and meet them where they were at, allowing them to fulfill the vow they wanted to make to Him, and unfortunately, to suffer the natural consequences that would come.
In their vow we see the crux of the problem in their faulty framework. “If You will indeed deliver this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their cities.” (Num. 21:2) This language is not that of a covenant, but a contract—”If you fulfill Your part, then I’ll fulfill my part.” This has never been the relationship God desires with His people, only that they would hearken unto His voice, trust Him completely, and allow Him to bless them. But we see that they were trusting in their own strength to fulfill God’s will, not having learned from the mistake of their father Abraham. They wanted to be co-partners with God, to take control in the situation, and to have a hand in the victory—”If You do this much, we’ll do the rest!”
Unfortunately, heart-breakingly, the Israelite people, as a whole, never healed from this mindset. They remained trapped in the Old Covenant framework—the covenant which they had established—”All that the Lord has said, we will do!” (Exodus 19:8) Thus, hundreds of years later, Jesus brought His appeal to Nicodemus; one whose assurance of salvation rested securely in his Israelite heritage, and his supposed good works—“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3)
Behold the Lamb
In the past few years, I have been tremendously blessed in studying the book Identity Wars, and contemplating the Biblical principles presented therein. It discusses the stark contrast between the kingdom which Satan has established, where our value is based upon our performance (skills, accomplishments, looks, possessions, etc.), and God’s eternal kingdom, where our value is based purely upon our identity as His beloved children, and there is nothing we can do to add to or take away from this value. Having both listened to the audiobook, and studied through the physical book with friends, leading studies on each chapter, I felt that I grasped the concepts quite well. Intellectually, I was totally on board. Everything made sense. I believed it was pure, Biblical truth. Yet, I still found myself continuing to struggle—frequently—with attaching my worth to my performance. A meal wouldn’t turn out as I had hoped, I was late getting out the door again, I forgot to call someone back as I’d promised, I spoke in a discouraging way to my husband… And the feeling would come over me like a flood—worthless. It would effect my mood, my tone of voice, my entire disposition, and anyone around me could notice the shift. I was not walking in the freedom of Christ. And the most irritating part was that I knew it! I knew that I should not be having this experience anymore, given what I understood intellectually about where my true worth lies! How could I teach it so easily to others, and help them escape the performance kingdom, but not be experiencing the victory myself?
One day after becoming very discouraged about this (and yes, impatient), my mind cried out to God, “What do I have to do to overcome this?!”
And with that still, small voice, He gently responded, “That is your problem…
You’re looking to yourself to overcome this. You’re trying to be freed from the performance kingdom through your own performance.
All you need to do is behold My Son, who takes away the sin of the world, and let Him change you.
Look and live.”
God showed me that I was spending more time looking at myself and all of my shortcomings than I was spending looking at Jesus, and beholding the beauty of His character. The amazing irony of trying to be freed from the performance kingdom through my own performance shocked me, and revealed the true depth to which Satan’s kingdom principles had imprinted themselves upon my psyche. I had no power in myself to change this. No power to renew or rewire my brain. But there was One whose mind had never been infiltrated with these deadly principles. Could it really be as simple as looking to Him, and receiving His life?
Who’s to Blame?
Now as God brought my mind back from my own experience to the children of Israel, I could see a clear parallel. They were certainly trapped in the performance kingdom, trying to accomplish what they thought was God’s purpose in their own strength. Though this discouraging path that they were walking was a “way” of their own devising, they thought it was God’s Way. Thus we see Who gets the blame…
Numbers 21:5 “And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.”
Ouch. I won’t ask you to raise your hand, but I’m sure many of us can relate to this experience in our Christian walk. We initially come out of Egypt rejoicing in God’s goodness, but because we continue looking to ourselves for daily victories, the journey becomes wearisome. I had a friend lately tell me that they were ready to give up. “It’s too hard, too confusing, too restrictive, too isolating. I hate to say this but I felt like I had more peace and was better off when I was just out in the world.” I think if we’re honest, many of us have been tempted with these thoughts at one point or another.
But the truth is—God is not the problem. Jesus is not the problem. The gospel is not the problem.
The problem is that we’ve been trying to live a Christian life with a mind that has not been healed from Satan’s framework. Our minds are still imprinted with Egyptian thinking. We find it impossible to delight in the law of God because we’re trying to do it in our own strength. This is why I believe most of Christianity has decided to throw away the law completely. They must do this for their own sanity! In the words of Jesus,
Matthew 9:16-17 “No one puts a piece of new cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
In Scripture our garment represents the righteousness that clothes us, to cover our sin, symbolized by nakedness. The question is whether we are clothed with the righteousness of our own works (which is as filthy rages, according to Isaiah 64:6), or the true righteousness Christ has received from His Father. Wine in Scripture represents our belief system, or what we understand to be truth, which ultimately determines the quality of our life (blood). This is why “the wine of Babylon” represents the false teaching and framework of Satan’s counterfeit kingdom. But the pure, unadulterated truth that Jesus Himself believes produces the pure, perfect life-blood flowing through His veins. If that perfect wine is poured into the framework of our unrenewed minds, we will not be able to properly assimilate the truth, and our wineskin will burst.
We must receive a new garment, a new wineskin—we must be born again. It is not an optional thing. If we sense our garment tearing, our wineskin bursting, God is not to blame. The gospel is not lacking in its power to save. “A slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36) The only question is, are we allowing the Son to free us?
The Solution
There is a very interesting end-time prophecy in Isaiah, which I believe we are beginning to see the fulfillment of today…
Isaiah 4:1 “And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, ‘We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by your name, to take away our reproach.'”
A woman in prophecy represents a church, and the number seven symbolizes completeness. All churches, worldwide, will take hold of one man, Christ. They will reject the living bread from heaven, the pure Word of God, in exchange for their own man-made teachings, and will reject the righteousness of Christ, trusting in their own “good works” for salvation. Yet they profess to be Christians, followers of Christ, to feel good about themselves and uphold their reputation. Did Jesus see this state of things at His first coming?
Matthew 15:8-9 “These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”
There is nothing new under the sun, and Jesus Himself declared that this condition would exist at His second coming as well.
Matthew 7:22-23 “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'”
Yet if we continue reading the prophecy in Isaiah 4, there is a beautiful promise for those who don’t give up on a true, consecrated Christian walk—who don’t turn back in discouragement, but allow God to finish His work of healing our minds, and writing His law (character) on our hearts.
Isaiah 4:2-4 “In that day the Branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious; and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and appealing for those of Israel who have escaped. And it shall come to pass that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy—everyone who is recorded among the living in Jerusalem. When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning,”
This may sound a bit intense from our human perspective (again, faulty framework), but let’s step back and consider what God really means. What is the spirit of judgment/burning, and how does it wash us and purge us of our sin?
Another word for judgment in Scripture is truth.
Psalm 89:14 “Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.”
John 14:16-20 “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Isaiah 6:1-8 “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!”
And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.” Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
A burning coal is touched to Isaiah’s mouth, and is said to have purged his sins, just as the Spirit of Burning is said to purge God’s children of their defects of character. This inspires Isaiah to make himself a willing vessel for the Lord. But what is the experience which brings this about?
Isaiah beholds the glory of God.
He sees the overwhelming majesty and beauty of His heavenly Father, and is struck with complete humility in His presence. He is undone by the perfection of God in contrast to His own sinfulness. Thus his iniquity is said to be burned away.
So why must we look to Christ?
John 14:7-9 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” […] He who has seen Me has seen the Father;”II Cor. 4:6 “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
How Do We See Christ?
Going back to Jesus’ discourse with Nicodemus, He said,
John 3:14 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up…”
John 12:32 “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
This “lifting up” is of course referring to His death on the cross. The way that we see Christ, and subsequently see the Father, will be strongly determined by what we understand about the reason and purpose of the cross. Our friend Kevin Mullins has written a wonderfully profound Bible study on this topic, which I’ll link here. But for the sake of this study, I’ll keep the conclusion very simple.
The cross is the ultimate revelation to our human senses of God’s unconditional love for mankind. In Christ hanging on the cross, and forgiving His enemies as they murdered Him, we see the Father.
This is why Paul said that he “determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” (I Cor. 2:2) Paul understood the importance of conveying the true meaning of the cross, and the power it would bring believers in their own experience to meditate upon it daily.
To better understand the cross, Christ referred Nicodemus to Moses and the brass serpent, so let’s return to where we left off in that story. They were forging their own way in the strength of their own righteousness, then they became discouraged, and began accusing God of bringing them out of Egypt only to let them die from lack of nourishment. (Though they acknowledged that He had given them bread, they just deemed it worthless bread…) Now we will see the results of their chosen “way” come to a climax.
Numbers 21:6 “So the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the people of Israel died.”
Did God lose His cool because of their cruel accusations? But didn’t we just read that Christ, “when He was reviled, did not revile in return” (I Pet. 2:22)? And if Christ is the express image of the Father, what is going on here?
The Hebrew word translated as “sent,” can also mean “to let go” “set free” or “loose.” The reality confirmed by scholars is that the area the Israelites were passing through at this time was known for the presence of these venomous snakes. Was it God’s will that His children were there? No. Remember, God wanted to bring them right into Canaan, but they were afraid of the very large humans dwelling there. (Because they were trusting in their own strength, thinking that they needed to physically defeat them—Notice a pattern here?) Thus God had to let them take their own “way,” wandering in the wilderness for 40 more years until they could learn to trust Him. And so, by His amazing mercy, as they passed through this dangerous wilderness area, He had been placing a hedge of protection around them to keep the snakes away. But now, as they rejected the trusting Spirit of Christ and embraced the spirit of Satan, “the accuser of the brethren” (Rev. 12:10), in hailing accusations against their loving Father, His hedge about them was broken, and the snakes were released upon them.
Ecclesiastes 10:8 “He that digs a pit shall fall into it; and whoever breaks a hedge, a serpent shall bite him.”
The Israelites chose to be released from God’s protecting hand. Though it surely pained God terribly, He gave them up to what they wanted. He allowed them to see the reality of what they were asking for.
Numbers 21:7-9 “Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD that He take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.”
II Cor. 3:12-18 “Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech—unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ.But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
