ODJ: where are you looking?


May 24, 2013 

READ: Numbers 21:4-9 

Then the Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!” (v.8).


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Saulo was 16 when he drove the getaway car for a robbery that ended in murder. Now 32, Saulo says, “I remember sitting in the county jail, and it really sunk in:‘Wow, I’m not going home,’ and [I] realised what I did. I didn’t want to live. I couldn’t believe what I did.”


Today Saulo leads the chapel’s praise band in prison and is studying to be a minister. He doesn’t think he deserves parole, saying, “We did horrible things. . . . We deprived people of loved ones, of ever seeing them again.” Whether or not Saulo ever again experiences his freedom as a citizen, he has learned to accept the freedom of forgiveness in Jesus.



I haven’t committed murder, but I know the crushing guilt that comes from doing evil. Like Saulo, I can’t believe what I did, and I wonder, How could God ever forgive me? When I bury myself under mounds of remorse, I’ve learned that the first step to digging out is to get over myself. Do I really think that my sin is stronger than God’s grace? Do I suppose that my sin has a higher value than the death of God’s Son?



The second thing I do is focus all my attention on Jesus. He said that “as Moses lifted up the bronze snake . . . so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). The Israelites who had been bitten by the snakes were healed, as long as they looked at the snake (Numbers 21:8-9). They simply had to look. Some may have looked for selfish reasons, some may have had their doubts, but all who looked were healed.



Are you groaning under a load of guilt? Repent and then forget about yourself. Fix your eyes on Jesus.—Mike Wittmer