LIFT UP YOUR EYES - MILLS E. O. @ UCF
LIFT UP YOUR EYES AND FIND SALVATION - Numbers 21: 4 - 9
My immense gratitude goes to our LORD and Master Jesus for this opportunity to bring His
Word to you tonight. Help me appreciate our Executives and Leaders as well for their effort
and commitment to the Cause of Christ on UCC. Stick with us this semester and you will be
blown away by New Breed this semester.
So we are in scary, crazy and perplexing times which can and have broken the resolve and
morale of many a Ghanaian and citizen of the world to continue living. There is the strong
temptation to give up and throw in the towel but I feel strongly in my heart that this is the
time wherein we must strengthen our faith and confidence in the LORD to deliver, sustain
and nourish us in these times. All we need do is lift up our eyes and fix our gaze on Him. We
will study the people of Israel and how they failed to do this along with some untoward
repercussions that they experienced due to their unbelief. If time allows us we will look at
Hagar as well and see what we can learn from her story. Turn with me to Numbers 21:4-9
Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of
Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. 5 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 our soul loathes this worthless bread.”
6 So the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many of the
people of Israel died.7 Therefore 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.8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a
fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks
at it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a
serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
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The larger context of this passage is the journey of the children of Israel through the
wilderness on their way to the Promised Land.
Puzzlingly enough, the Lord had just given them victory over a certain Canaanite king
who marched out against them.
All of a sudden they get proud, bratty and spoilt with their tastes. They grew too big
and boujie for the manna that the LORD had been feeding them.
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They grew bitter and began to complain to Moses against God and he, Moses
himself, making baseless accusations of an attempt to murder them in the desert
away from any watching eyes.
The repercussions were severe; out of the blue snakes bit and killed numerous
Israelites. These were said to have come as a judgment from the LORD concerning
their unbelief and utter disrespect.
If it were be you, how would you feel? Hearing people you have risked everything for
in order to save, turn around and spit in your face.
I think and feel God was justified in His punishment towards them. Besides He had
just granted them victory over their enemies and this is how they chose to repay Him,
with ingratitude.
Imagine His heartbreak. This takes us back to the Garden of Eden when our
forebears fell. They shifted the blame unto God rather than apologizing for their
mistake which is what landed us in this sweet and nice predicament.
What can we glean from this passage?
Firstly, the circumstances of our lives and the whole world in general are not the
handiwork of a sadistic, malicious and capricious God who prides in our pain, hurt
and suffering.
In fact the pain of this world can traced back to us humans due to our own
stubbornness and willful disobedience of the will and plans of God for our lives.
When we dethrone God we usher sin and its entourage into our hearts and lives.
From the passage this is analogous to the people complaining about their conditions
in the desert.
They placed Egypt and its so-called pleasures above the Presence of God in their lives
and relished it on countless occasions. But this is the same Egypt wherein they served
as slaves and second class humans.
Someway somehow that place had become like Dubai for them and all God was
doing was rubbish. This shows you the deadly, caricaturizing power of sin in any
person’s life and heart.
Secondly and consequently, this sin of theirs produced death for them as did the sin
of Adam and Eve produce death for all humanity.
The serpents dealt with them painfully prompting them to turn and beg for
forgiveness.
We all can identify with this desperate group of people to some extent. Prior to and
even during our walk with God you would realize that there were times when we felt
dead and dry on the inside.
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I want you to do something, look back on those times when you felt heavy, shackled
to addictions, depression, despair; I can bet you my nice blue shoes that someway
somehow you pushed a prompting from God aside.
You either ignored His call to repentance or to abstain from that particular course of
action which eventually brought you so much pain and hardship just like these
Israelites did.
It could simply be a refusal to log off that website or reject that boy’s invitation to
come over and do the zozii.
Unfortunately, you succumbed and now the serpents of guilt, shame, depression,
addiction and even death have laid their grip and are refusing to let go.
I have news for you, all hope is not lost, because we have a God who walks with us
through the thick and thin and will never forsake. Even these rebellious Israelites kraa
he forgave them how much more you?
Again we can learn some lessons from His dealings with these asuoden children of
His. We read from the verses 8-9:
8 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole; and it shall
be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a
bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone,
when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
Here we see God heeding the desperate pleas and cries of His people. He instructs
Moses to carry out a very symbolic act which some millennia later would be fully
explained.
Moses was asked to fashion, carve, mold and hoist a bronze serpent upon a pole so
that everybody, especially the snakebite victims could look upon this statue and be
saved from the pain and anguish they were enduring.
Jesus Christ in His discourse with Nicodemus alluded to this very incident in John 3:1416 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man
be lifted up; That whosoever believeth in Him (lifts up His eyes to Jesus) should not
perish but have everlasting life. We can quote the next verse together. For God so
loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
(lift eyes unto Him) should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Jesus lets us know that He was that Serpent that was beaten, flattened, mangled,
scarred and battered before being hoisted for all to see and find salvation in.
It is by lifting up our eyes to Him that we can and will find salvation from the fiery
serpents that are tormenting us.
Lift up your eyes and find rest for your weary hearts. Lift up your eyes and find
freedom from the shackles of that addiction. Lift up your eyes and find the Loving
gaze of Jesus trained on you.
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Lift up your eyes and have your inner man being refreshed and reinvigorated with the
Wellspring of Life. Lift up your eyes and have all your worries and cares melted by the
fiery gaze of His Providence and love.
Lift up your eyes and partake of that blessed communion made available by the
sacrifice of Jesus.
LIFT UP YOUR EYES FOR REFRESHING AND COMFORT IN TRIALS
Genesis 21: 16 – 20
Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about a bowshot; for she said
to herself, “Let me not see the death of the boy.” So she sat opposite him, and lifted her voice
and wept.17 And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of
heaven, and said to her, “What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the
lad where he is. 18 Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a
great nation.”19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and
filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink. 20 So God was with the lad; and he grew
and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.
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Circumstances surrounding Ishmael and his conception. The preceding events that
precipitated this unfortunate turn of events.
Sometimes we receive the vision; we receive the promises and birth them and that
becomes our Ishmael or a received promise from God, a peculiar grace and anointing
on our lives to cause drastic change and make serious impact in the world.
But this attracts the hatred and disgust from those around us and this drains us
greatly. The persecution sometimes puts us to flight like Auntie Hagar here.
Also in our journey in life we get frustrated tired and discouraged, because the vision
is tarrying and so we need a refreshing and nourishing from God as did Elijah when he
fled Jezebel. TOD reference.
Sometimes even, for being a born again Christian you will receive opposition and
become desperate.
Let’s note something here; Hagar is the one who is recorded to have cried out to the
Lord in desperation but it is the lad Ishmael that is heard.
This means the anointing, the destiny, the gift of God’s presence, His Spirit in us will
always be heard when we cry out to God. Romans 8:26 -27 captures it so beautifully;
Likewise the Spirit also helps our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what
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the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to
the will of God.
Your gifting will speak for you and make intercession for you. The grace of God on
your life, your Ishmael, will make intercession with groanings which cannot be
uttered.
Ishmael means he hears. And so irrespective of your past before you were born again
God hears when you cry out to Him because by virtue of His Spirit in you, you are
intimately and intricately United and connected to Him, just as Ishmael was connected
to Abraham and partook of the covenant blessings.
The vision will secure the provision of God for your nourishment, refreshment and
revival. Indeed the glory and spirit within you will be revived.
The well of water is before you, go drink of it and receive your revival. Only allow the
Lord to open your eyes and you will see it to drink from it.
Look to Jesus for your refreshing and nourishment, for you will find this nowhere
else.
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