The Lilly Pond

Look and Live

There is a passage in the book of Numbers (chapter 21) where the Children of Israel were complaining (again!) and pining for their old way of life. God apparently got pretty frustrated with them and sent venomous snakes among them that bit the people, and the people died. The Israelites began to confess their sins against God and prayed for relief.

God told Moses to put a venomous snake up high on a pole where everyone could see it. God said when the people were bitten, they were to look at the snake on the pole and they would live. So Moses obeyed. And when the people were bitten, they looked up at the snake on the pole and they lived.

This is a beautiful metaphor for Christ's death on the cross. He said in 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 whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life" Again in John 12:32 "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." The technique is simple. Look and live. Isaiah 45:22 God tells us to "Look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else."

What does it mean to look to God and live?

First it means that we have to turn in His direction and go His way. It requires a change of mind, an act of our will. We don't just pass by and bump into God accidentally. We aren't just walking along and tripping over Him. We must make a conscious effort to turn and look at Him. This is deliberate on our part. Joshua 24:15 -- "...choose you this day whom ye will serve... but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord."

Next, we realize that turning toward something requires turning away from something else. We are turning away from the human ideas of what will work for us. Of what we think will save us. You can't have it both ways. God's ways don't always make sense. (A snake on a pole?) But all the salve and ointment and surgery and chanting and praying or whatever they were trying was not working to save the Israelites.  Proverbs 14:15 -- "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."

The last thought I want to point out is that to look at the snake, the Children of Israel had to look up. When I think about looking to God, I think about looking up. When I am looking up, I can no longer see the things down by my feet, or even around my waist or even at my shoulders. I can't easily see who is standing next to me. My focus is on God. And as I focus on Him, other people and things in my life lose their focus and significance. II Samuel 22:31 "As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried: He is a shield to all them that trust in Him."

The chorus of one of my favorite hymns says:

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace."

Lillian

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