Journeying through this sin-filled and broken world can feel as if life is being leached away, leaving you searching for the source of loss but never finding it. The physical, mental, and spiritual toll is often difficult to express as suffering can dress itself up in many forms – anguish, depression, exhaustion, anxiety, grief.
We search desperately for something to stop the bleeding, but what’s offered only leaves us dissatisfied, disappointed and still empty. We know we won’t last long at this rate—we are headed straight for burnout and hopelessness. So, we complain, all along forgetting (or perhaps ignoring) that the cure has been with us the entire time: Jesus. Our thoughts betray the lie we’ve started to believe—that we’ve been abandoned and left with no hope of survival.
It’s reminiscent of the events found in Numbers 21. Although the Israelites were miraculously saved by the hand of God, their faith quickly failed, and they began to complain about the lack of physical provision, believing that what took place was only done so they could die—believing that their deliverance had only brought them closer to death.
In response, God sent poisonous serpents among the people and many died. However, we have a gracious God, a loving Father, who disciplines those He loves. When we repent from our faithlessness and self-sufficiency, God is there to save us. Therefore, He instructed or told Moses to make a bronze serpent, place it on a pole, and declare that all who would look upon it would be saved.
This imagery is used in John 3 when Jesus explains to Nicodemus, a curious Pharisee, the need to be born again and the necessity for the Son of Man, Jesus, to ascend into heaven.
He says to him: “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.”
In the same way that God said those who were bitten and looked upon the serpent would be saved, we who look to Jesus and believe in His saving power may also have eternal life. The heart of God is, and always has been, to save His people from the depravity of this world and to lead them to find satisfaction and overwhelming joy in life with Him—a perfect, generous, and kind Father. Just as He saved the Israelites from their unbelief in the wilderness and saved both the Israelites and Gentiles in their encounters with Jesus, He is saving us now. He has made a way where there was no way and given us life.
So when it feels like life has been sucked right out of you by the cares of this world, we can gaze upon Jesus. As we do, finding all we need in Him, we can remember the lines of a song:
You left the throne and chose the cross
Laid down Your life to rescue us
The Savior then, the Savior now
Here in this room tonight, He is
But even death was not the end
You conquered hell, so I could live
Resurrecting then, resurrecting now
Resurrecting then, resurrecting now
(“I’ve Witnessed It” by Passion and Melodie Malon)