"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life."
John 3:14, ESV
Nicodemus came to see Jesus.
Nicodemus - a Pharisee and leader of the Jews.
He shouldn't have come.
He shouldn't have met with Him.
He shouldn't have even wanted to.
But there he was - wrapped in dark skies of evening, sitting with Jesus, asking Him questions.
"How can a man be born when he is old (vs 4)?"
"How can these things be (vs 9)?"
"...as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness," Jesus responds, "So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life (vs 14)."
Jesus is referencing Numbers 21:4-9. It would have been a story that a Pharisee and Jewish leader like Nicodemus would have known well - straight from the scrolls of Hebraic History. I often pause here and allow my heart to be encouraged by the fact that Jesus knew Nicodemus so well, He knew exactly how to speak to him in a way that he could understand - explaining New Testament Truth with Old Testament examples.
In Numbers 21, Israel had traveled around the land of Edom and become impatient. They spoke out against God and his anointed leader, Moses.
“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 worthless food (Vs 6).”
In response to their complaints, Jesus sends fiery serpents among them. They bite the people of Israel and many die. The people than come to Moses, acknowledge their mistake, and beg him to pray to the Lord on their behalf.
“We have sinned," they cry. "For we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us (vs 7).”
Moses agrees and, in the place of prayer, God tells him to make a fiery serpent out of bronze and set it on a pole. Anyone who is bitten must look up at the pole and, "when he sees it, he shall live (vs 8)."
Did you catch that?
When he sees it, HE SHALL LIVE.
So, Moses obeys and makes the serpent, sets it on a pole in the camp, and from that day on, anyone who was bitten would "look at the bronze serpent and LIVE (vs 9)."
The lesson in this for Nicodemus?
When we look to Jesus, we find LIFE.
Remember John the Baptist's words to His followers about Jesus in John 1?
"Behold - LOOK AND SEE - the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the World."
LOOK AND SEE....JESUS IS LIFE.
You can search the whole world.
You can set your gaze on every form of worldly pleasure and false hope of rescue.
You can fix your eyes on a man, a politician, a spouse, a job, a dream vacation - and assume they are/it is the answer.
But you will ALWAYS end up void of the very thing that can ONLY be found by looking to Jesus...
And that is LIFE - Abundant and Eternal.
"For the wages of sin is death... (Rom. 3)"
"Take it away," we cry.
"...But the gift of God is eternal life..."
"Look up and live," He responds.
LOOK AT JESUS AND LIVE.
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