Seeing the patterns of God . . .

For seventeen years, I wrote a weekly newspaper column. It was called “Parables” because God gave me insight into how much the events of this world point to spiritual truth. Through that, I realized manh things, especially His amazing oneness, His powerful hand in all that happens, both in creation and in the affairs of humanity.

It is easy to say that He designed the world that way, but I’m beginning to understand that this divine ‘dot-connecting’ goes beyond the design of a superior mind. That is, there is a cohesiveness in the created world that parallels the nature and working of God — and it is there simply because God is.

A crass illustration might be the presence of a large elephant in a small room. That huge animal affects everything in that space. If it sneezes, the entire room shakes. If it snoozes, everyone tiptoes.

Because of the working of God, an event happened in the Old Testament that points to a greater event in the years to come, an event that changed the world. This is a short episode, given only a few words, but it happened so God could use it to explain a vital truth. When He delivered His people from slavery in Egypt, they set out for the promised land, but like us, they were a rag tag group, prone to the same sins we are, particularly when life does not go the way we want:

“From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against 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.’ Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.’ So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” (Numbers 21:4–9)

Their complaining illustrates mine, grumbling when things go contrary to what I want. The fiery serpents illustrate what happens to not only the health but the lives of people who are never happy; it eventually destroys us. Moses illustrates the role of an intercessor — a person who takes pity on those who are continually out of sorts and sinful; he prays for them. And the fiery serpent on the pole illustrates what happened to Jesus.

“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” (John 3:14)

I’m not certain how far this illustration goes. Did Jesus take on the pain and affliction of a people who hated the rule of God in their lives? Certainly. What does being ‘fiery’ have to do with it? I don’t know. I just know that this barely mentioned event in the lives of God’s people pointed ahead to the work of Christ on the cross for the salvation of my sin. It also pictures human responsibility — God arranged this saving event so that we who are ‘bitten’ by sin must look at Christ on the Cross that we might live.

^^^^^^^^^^

Jesus, I’m thinking that all the events of life somehow point to You. I am oblivious to most of them, but what You reveal is so lovely, so profound, so grandly filled with Your power and grace. Of course, I don’t want to see things that are not there, but am starting to think that I’ve the opposite problem — I am oblivious to that which is there, not connecting the dots between cause and effect, between Your involvement in the world and how You are using it to say, “Wake up My child — this world is all about the glory of God!”

Finding a resting place

He makes me lie down in green pastures . . . (Psalm 23:2)

In comparing fearful and skittish sheep with my own anxieties, several issues come to mind. I just looked at the news and felt a knot in my gut over the girls who were kidnapped in Nigeria. I read about the priest who was shot without apparent reason in a small city north of here. Closer to home, I’m anxious that my husband has enough work this week to satisfy him, and that a plumber shows up today and fixes a leaky pipe. I also want to finish a quilt before a competition deadline, make some odd software work, and complete this week’s assignments for the course I’m taking. I am trusting God to keep my heart right before Him, a constant battle since beginning these studies, but those battles are an anxiety too. I need some green pastures.

Anxiety and worry are forms of fear, and have an element in them of control. That is, if I am completely trusting God and His loving care, these emotions go away because, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”

The Bible says “fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” It also says we don’t love God automatically, but love Him because he first loved us. (1 John 4:18–19) To say this in another way, if I am certain God loves me, I will not be anxious about things. Instead, when I am afraid, I will look to Him and enjoy the freedom of being fearless.

In the early days of God’s people, they had pulled out of Egypt and were in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. However, they had a problem. The people became impatient on the way and began to gripe against God and against Moses, their leader. God tolerates much, but griping is another way of expressing distrust and it raises His wrath.

They said, “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.” Then the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.

So they came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” Moses prayed and the Lord told him to make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole. Everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live. In other words, look at it and they would not die. So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live. (Numbers 21:4–9)

This seems an odd way of dealing with their sin of grumbling, but not so odd when the Apostle John uses it to illustrate why Jesus came . . .

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. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:14–17)

In other words, to be rescued from sin and to avoid eternal death, we must look at Jesus. It isn’t automatic, but requires looking. See Him lifted up on that cross, for by looking to Jesus, we are saved.

Hebrews tells me the same thing. In fighting sin or in struggles with fear and the temptation to worry or grumble, I am to consider Jesus . . .  

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. (Hebrews 12:1–3)

My fears are evidence that I’m not looking in the right direction, or trusting in the One who has so wonderfully rescued me from sin. Since fear has to do with punishment, I need to make certain my sins are confessed since unconfessed sin is often the reason I take my eyes off my Shepherd. Whenever I do that, I wander into rocky places instead of enjoying that green pasture that He promises.