Christian Living

Is He Lifted Up?

by Thomas Kirkpatrick
12/09/20
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“And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.” (Numbers 21:6-9)

The long journey through the wilderness to the Promised Land was often filled with the Israelite people’s grumbling. I have to stop here and admire Moses, who seldom lost his patience with the people he was in charge of in the wilderness. At this time in his life, he was over the age of eighty, and most people of that age have had enough of listening to people complain. One more thing must be said of Moses that even as his patience would slip to a short burst of anger, he never lost his faith in the promises of his God.

The Israelite people had set forth on their journey from Mount Hor to travel along the Red Sea to the land of Edom. As they traveled in the wilderness, God sent them mana and quail to sustain them on their journeys. But the people became impatient with their travels and wearied of the food God had been providing each day. Finally, their patience exhausted, their grumbling became louder as they questioned what Moses was doing. “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.” (Numbers 21:5)

I would not say that the Israelite people were soft, as they had just spent time in Egypt as slaves to the Pharaoh. I would not say that the Israelite people could not buckle up and complete the journey before them. I would say they were much like us today in that they wanted what they wanted now. They had their eye fixed upon the goal, but they did not want to invest the time it would take to accomplish it. Often we read of them as stiff-necked and obstinate bunch unwilling to walk in the will of God but in their own way.

Their impatience turned to rebellion, and rebellious people in time will face the judgment of God. Because of their disobedience, the Lord God sent fiery snakes that would bite the people, and they would die. This discipline of the Lord did its work, and the people went to Moses and confessed that they had sinned against the Lord God. Even as Moses had gone through a time of the people’s murmuring, still he went to the Lord in prayer for his people. The Lord God instructed Moses to make a fiery serpent of bronze and place it upon a standard. It is attractive to this day that the sign of a serpent wrapped around a pole is the logo of the medical profession today.

Then the Lord God instructed Moses to have the people go out to the fiery serpent on the standard and look on it, and they would be healed. Many may have thought God should have healed them, that Moses could have laid his hands upon the people, and they would have been healed. I think God wanted a demonstration of faith in His word for them to be healed. All have needs and pray for the father’s wisdom, but how many in faith prepare for His answer as we had already received? All those who were in agony of being bitten by the fiery serpent got up in their misery and went to the standard. They looked upon the fiery serpent in faith, and they were healed.

As we look at the time that Jesus walked on the earth, we must realize that He was fully God and fully man. The debate continues to go on that were His teachings literal or mystical. Perhaps His word was some of each, but I believe they were always spiritual. Jesus was God foremost, and then through the virgin birth came in the likeness of a man. God is the Creator of men, yet He never was a man. He did not know what it was like to be a man. Can you identify with the life of a worm? You know the anatomy of a worm, the nature of a worm, but can you identify with the life of a worm? There are reasons that God came in the flesh of a man, but I think one was to receive an understanding of the struggles of men. God had never humbled Himself to be as we, never had been a servant to any, and never had God allowed His creation to put Him to death. God came in our likeness to experience our life as we know and breathe it. Yet He was not tainted as we are by a sin-nature. He had a perfect human nature as in the beginning when Adam and Eve walked the earth before the fall. “But emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:7)

In the days that neared the fullness of His time, Jesus, as any man would know that His crucifixion was near, became distressed. How could He explain His feelings to His disciples without bringing discouragement upon them? How could Jesus tell them who had faithfully followed that soon He would be leaving them? Jesus is a spiritual teacher and had come to set the spirits of men free from the body of sin that engulfed them, and then spoke of a historical event that they could identify with. In the Gospel of John, we read this. “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” (John 12:32) Jesus took the fiery serpent’s image that Moses lifted up on the standard for the people to look at and believe that it would heal them and used it to foretell His crucifixion. If Jesus would be lifted up on the cross, and men would believe that He was the Lamb of God sacrificed for their sin, they would be heled.

Jesus is the one we look to for He healed the blind, the sick, and made the lame walk. Jesus endured the cross out of His love for humanity, His love for you, and only Jesus can offer forgiveness of sin because only Jesus paid the wage of sin, death. He endured the trial because of the joy set before Him. “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2) Because of the joy set before Him, we can find our joy in Him because He sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for each of us. “But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” (Luke 22:69)

My question is this, is Jesus lifted up in your life that all men may be drawn to Him? How can we lift up Jesus, who sits at the father’s right hand, who is the Most High God of all? Foremost there is the greatest way to lift Jesus up in your life, prayer. When involved in intercessory prayer, I often hear the phrase Father, I lift up this person to you. It is the act of lifting up a person to God to consider the need at the time. As we lay our burdens down at the feet of Jesus, we lift up the souls of loved ones in the greatest hour of their need. We offer them up in the sacrifice of prayer that God would grant His mercy upon them. God hears our prayers; He desires our prayers, as it is the most intimate form of fellowship as a child with their father.

When we lift others up in prayer to God, it sets off a chain reaction. It forms a community of praying believers in the faith of a family of people giving their heartfelt love in others’ concern. It is a selfless act much like Jesus’ on the cross when He asked His Father to forgive them for they knew not what they were doing. God is love, and it makes perfect sense to abide in love, reflect His love, and offer that heartfelt love to God and our neighbors. It would not only transform us but the community around us for the glory of God. “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:1-2)

When Jesus’ Spirit dwells in your life, He must be on the throne of your life. The Apostle Paul makes this point clear in his letter to the Corinthians. That when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior when Jesus comes into our lives, it must be a complete surrender to His reign that He can accomplish the work that He has eternally prepared for us to walk in. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) It is not easy, it will never be easy, but the more we surrender to Jesus and His will for our lives, the easier it will be. You have lived your life to this point; how has that worked out for you? Would it not be better if you came down from your throne and allowed Jesus to reign from there? It is His rightful place; ever since the beginning in the Garden of Eden, the throne of your heart has been His rightful place. “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16) You will see that you will become more loving, more honest, bold, courageous, and more like Jesus.

As you travel through your life, year, day, and each minute keep your eyes fixed upon Jesus. He is the goal of your salvation, and He is leading you down that narrow path to your eternal home. If you have been raised from the dead with Christ, keep your thoughts pure and fixed upon the things from above where your Lord reigns at the right hand of God the Creator. “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” (Colossians 3:1)

Thomas N Kirkpatrick

First Baptist Church of Durant, September 26, 2018