I Don't Mind If You Stare.

“I don’t see how…”

In our frailty, we often wonder how our situations are going to be resolved. Like Job, we may spend our days and weeks utterly perplexed at the calamities that have come upon us.

What should we do? In this past Sunday’s sermon Pastor Sam reminded us of what to do when our trials threaten to plunge us into doubt, despair, or depression: “Let us look on the face of Jesus, the resurrected King in the kingdom of God.”

After church on Sunday I was able to speak with a gentleman for a few minutes. He had gone through severe trials in his life, and God rescued him (even as “well-meaning Christians” were asserting that this man’s case was hopeless). The man recalled the story of the ancient Israelites who were afflicted with snakes as they wandered through the wilderness. In the narrative, Moses was directed by God to cast a bronze serpent on  a pole, then God told Moses to instruct the people to look upon the icon if they had been bitten. Those who focused their attention on the icon were healed. (see Numbers 21:8-9)

The gentleman I was speaking with said, “Now, if something bites me, the first thing I’m going to do is look down to see what bit me, or look down at the bite. It takes serious re-training to look up instead of looking down! I’m not there yet, but I’m trying.”

Today, I ask that we reflect on our great God by looking upon the face of Jesus. This Jesus, whose sacrifice on the cross had been prophetically shown in the wilderness icon thousands of years prior, has promised us life and peace if we look to Him.

We may not see how our circumstances will change. That’s okay. God never told us to look at our circumstances anyway.

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert [on a pole], so must [so it is necessary that] the Son of Man be lifted up [on the cross], in order that everyone who believes in Him [who cleaves to Him, trusts Him, and relies on Him] may not perish, but have eternal life and [actually] live forever! (John 3:14-15, Amplified Bible)

Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us, looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2, Amplified Bible)