Category Archives: Exhortation

Jesus Didn’t Just Die For Your Sins, He Died For Your Sorrows and Your Grief

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Photo credit: Paulo Philippidis

Many of us are grown up and disciplined enough to push through life. We “grin and bear it.” We live with our silent sorrows and our groaning griefs. We hold them close in our bosom. They have become our “Precious.”

Sin—we get it, we know and confess that only the blood of Jesus washes it away. We get forgiveness, or think we  do.

But what about all those other things we bear in our weak humanity? What of our sorrows? What of our griefs? What of our physical brokenness? What of our mental brokenness? What of all the hardships which pull us down like gravity?

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;

Isaiah 53:4

Jesus didn’t just die for our sins. On that cross he bore all our griefs and sorrows. But we forget. We speak the words of the gospel so quickly and glibly, we miss the depth and height of this awful beauty.

Sin, I repent of. But I am wont to carrying all my griefs and sorrows. I have a deeply ingrained habit of lumbering through life holding on to them. It is so entrenched that I was unaware of how heavy laden I had become until I started dwelling on Isaiah 53. It didn’t dawn on me that Jesus took my sorrows and griefs upon him on that cross. He took the brokenness and misery of us all. “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:5) “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.” (Isaiah 53:10)

It will do no good to think of “the poor chap in Africa who has it so much worse.” Or to tell myself, “get up and pull it together old girl.” No no… this is not the way of a Spirit–filled, gospel loving woman. No, the answer is to take the sorrows and griefs and lay them at the feet of Jesus—deliberately, and confident in his power. This is hard for those of us who are accustomed to bearing our own burdens. But we are not left to our own strength and memory. We are those who are indwelt with the Holy Spirit. It is he who comforts us and reminds us to lay our cares upon the Lord. We do this by releasing our hold of these burdens and transferring our affections and focus onto Jesus. This requires spiritual discipline and therefore we do it over and over again in this life.

I may not be saying anything new, but we are forgetful creatures. We need constant reminding of who He is, what He has done, and who we are in light of Him.

Love The Lord Your God With All Your Mind

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Part of my essay on women and an anti–intellectual church culture published this morning over at Karis, the new women’s channel at Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.

In his book, Knowing Scripture, R.C. Sproul writes:

Countless times I have heard Christians say, “Why do I need to study doctrine or theology when all I need to know is Jesus?” My immediate reply is this: “Who is Jesus?” As soon as we begin to answer that question, we are involved in doctrine and theology.

These words have been imprinted on my mind for years…. You can read the rest here.

Gospel Partnerships When We Hold Different Distinctives

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Mez McConnell, director of 20 Schemes Ministries (an organization working with the poorest in the housing Schemes of Scotland) wrote a post titled Why Would A Baptist Want To Help Build Healthy Presbyterian Churches? He discusses how his hope and desire to build a strong gospel–centered Church in Scotland outweighs being schismatic over certain convictions. This is something I discuss in much detail in Gospel Amnesia, going into depth about what happens when Christians are strident over matters of secondary distinctives. Mez’s post inspired me to approach the subject again.

I write a lot about the gospel. But the gospel is more than just something we think about or write about. It is our way of life as Christians. It is our worldview. This means that if I’m internalizing it, it will have an effect on the decisions I make and the way I act in my every day life. Some months back we were approached by our church leaders and asked if we would pray and consider leading a community group in our home. After prayer, discussion and some ongoing training we started our community group under my husband’s leadership. As it turned out, what I thought or meant by community group was slightly different than what our leadership meant. Part of working together for the furtherance of the gospel included me understanding what my pastor’s paradigm was so that I could joyfully submit to it, even if I had a different ministry model in view. My pastor has been a wonderful model for me in gospel partnership.

The gospel when held firmly at center, can bring all sorts of people together to work in love and harmony even when they hold different convictions. Mez is a Reformed Baptist working with Presbyterians to bring the light of the gospel in Scotland. There are many organizations and groups who do beautiful work for God’s kingdom even though individual members may have different convictions regarding different issues ranging from baptism, church polity, church liturgy, etc. etc. As I said in Gospel Amnesia, it’s not that we have to let go of all our traditions, distinctives or convictions, it’s that we are to hold them with humility. When we respect each other, when we give deference to one another, when we resist the temptation to take things personally, the love and unity of the gospel binds us together. We push back the kingdom of darkness through gospel unity. The like–mindedness that you find throughout the New Testament does not mean that we all think the same exact way about the same exact things. It is not, as the ESV study Bible says, an “intellectual uniformity,” rather we are to have a “cooperative spirit, with a focus on the glory of God.”

Paul is not afraid of differing convictions as long as there is unity in the gospel and in pressing forward, “striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.”

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Philippians 3:12–16

I used to be a very strident woman. I refuse to swing to the other extreme of being loosey–goosey about everything. In all these things what the Holy Spirit has been teaching me is that he is in charge of where I am theologically and he is in charge of where he has other folks. My job is to push back the kingdom of darkness by using the gifts and talents he has given me, working side by side in gospel unity with those he brings me into partnership with. This includes all my writing partnerships also. Discussions about our differences can be fruitful, and sweet and edifying, when we interact with grace and a deep gospel love for one another.

Desire and Submission

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Like most women I have my seasons. There are times when my husband and I hum along, we show our love and affection, he leads our home, I’m responsive, helping, encouraging, and when tension rises, I submit joyfully and peaceably. Usually it’s with, “honey, do what you think is right for us.”

Then just as surely as the moon follows the sun come the other seasons. We start lurching, he may not be leading (at least in my eyes), I’m stumbling all over the place—and instead of responding with a peaceable spirit and a soft answer I turn into the clamorous woman of Proverbs—no more submission there.

I was freed to have a warmer, Christ–like submission toward my husband, when I was able to identify more clearly what was coming between me and the hurt and pride that would stop me from submitting to him. What was coming between us were my unmet desires and expectations. I am called by Ephesians 5 to submit to my husband. Submission is a heart orientation. When you look at the totality of Ephesians you stand back in awe of all that Christ has done for his Bride the Church. Then in Ephesians 5:

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

When you are awestruck by Christ’s humility, his gentle, peaceable and quiet spirit, and his submission to the Father, and then the Holy Spirit turns to you in the words of Eph. 5.22–24 and says do this, how can the words of Phil. 2:4–8 fail to come to mind?

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

—Phil. 2:4–8

So this submission orientation I am to have toward my husband is all about being like Jesus. I fail at it, but Jesus knows that. It doesn’t surprise him. I don’t disgust him. He reminds me that all the times I fail at having a submissive heart orientation toward my husband, were paid for on the cross, just like every single one of my other sins.

We are convicted that when Scripture says in Gen. 3:16, “Your desire shall be for your husband,” it means I desire my husband, and this desire leads to expectations that no earthly husband can meet. Because we see the curse this way, we are learning to better understand ourselves and understand why we break down at times. We understand what leads to my lack of submissive heart orientation toward him. It has helped me to be clear when I fail and I am better able to say things like: “honey, I’m not trying to control your schedule, I’m just really needy right now.”

There is no perfect marriage on earth, and Jesus knows that. Even his Bride (the Church) sins against him. He knew that too and he loved Her and saved Her anyway. And one day we will be with him.

Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Eph. 5:25–27

For a fantastic message on love and submission and Ephesians 5 check out this talk by Dr. D.A. Carson Family: Husbands and Wives, Love and Submission, Christ and the Church

 

Weakness is the Way

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I have been best friends with weakness lately. It has chosen me, I have not chosen it. God has seen fit to send much of it, in a variety of forms, my way. I, on the other hand, have coveted and panted for strength.

This book trailer (Crossway) of J.I. Packer’s new book Weakness Is The Way: Life with Christ Our Strength was floating all around the internet yesterday. And because I resonated with it, I thought it may also encourage you.

This line from Packer cut and captivated me: “God doesn’t allow us to stay with the idea that we are strong, oh we may have that idea, but the Lord is going to disabuse us, one way or another, and it will be good for us and it will give glory to him.”—J.I. Packer

 

Living with Autoimmune Diseases, the Glory of Jesus Through Suffering

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Photo Credit: Carolyn

Nine years ago I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, an autoimmune disease. Now it looks like I’m on the verge of another diagnosis. I visit a specialist next week to confirm. This will be the second. I am in pain all day, every day.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16–18

My pain rarely feels “light” or “momentary.” I know in my head that Saint Paul was no Stoic. But when I read these verses and when I meditate upon them, I want to shout at him: “What’s wrong with you? How do you not lose heart? Didn’t you feel the pain of the lashes, and the shipwrecks, and the beatings? How can you be so unmoved?!” That’s when I have to stop, get a hold of myself and re–read this passage, carefully, and in light of the next two chapters.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want this physical suffering to drive me to holiness, to drive me to the Cross, to drive me to see the glory of Jesus through the pain. The reason Paul can say “we do not lose heart” is because he was looking at eternal things, not the transient things. What was this eternal thing he was looking at? Jesus? Yes, always, but that doesn’t give the whole picture. Remember God created us as eternal beings. Paul was meditating on the infinite future of his eternal self—the self which he saw being renewed day by day! This is astounding! Which one of us is so confident that we can say without batting an eyelash, and without worrying that we will look prideful, that our inward self is being renewed day by day?

There are two ways we can do this to the glory of God. First, as Christians it is an objective truth that we are being conformed to the image of Christ every day. So on one level, Paul is stating a truism. His inner self was being pruned and shaped and changed into the image of Jesus, every day. Two, he knew and sensed that God was working on his inner self every day. Paul saw with spiritual eyes. He discerned life with spiritual eyes. So for Paul, the affliction and the hardships were vehicles to the weight of glory he is preparing to receive in eternity. Paul is not saying afflictions in themselves are good—afflictions looked at with spiritual eternal eyes, however, can be seen for what they are: “light” and “momentary.” Sufferings are a crucible which burns off the dross of our souls so we are better able to see Jesus as he is as we become more like him. Astoundingly glorious!

Pastor Tim Keller has said, “God shows himself, who he is, supremely through the Cross, through suffering… if you want to understand what God’s power looks like, look at the Cross…. where was the power of God strong enough to defeat sin, death and decay? At the Cross through weakness and suffering.” God has triumphed! Jesus reigns! But this didn’t happen through the kind of “power struggle” we humans understand. God destroyed sin, the cause of all suffering and decay in this world not by a zap from his scepter but by condescending to become a full human being, to walk the earth and experience true suffering, pain, hardships, betrayals, temptations, afflictions and through the foolishness and weakness of the Cross. God has a way of turning everything on its head. Even God’s wisdom is confounding to the human mind.

I oscillate between accepting my physical sufferings and grousing against the providence I have been given. I’m tired of the oscillations, I want Paul’s spiritual eyes. I want to stop feeling and seeing my physical pain on the human plane of “woe is me.” I want that pain to burn off the ugliness in my soul so that I can better see the glory of Jesus here in this life in preparation of the eternal weight of glory waiting for me in the new creation. I will dance without pain, I will lift up children without pain, I will carry the treasures of man into the new Jerusalem without pain.

Why It Doesn’t Help to Chastise Mothers, or Any Woman, to Read Her Bible More

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Andy Naselli quoted Martyn Lloyd–Jones and D.A. Carson saying that in the season of very young children it is difficult for mothers to have the time for Bible study or other serious reading. Andy got some friendly push–back and responded with a follow–up post. All of this got me to thinking, especially since one of my passions is to encourage women to pursue God by loving him with all their minds.

There is no doubt that there are intellectually lazy women, whether they are single, married, or with children makes no difference. Just like there are intellectually lazy men. There are countless of Christians who are lukewarm—unmoved to purse the Scriptures. In the comments to Andy’s post there were many responses about how important our Bibles are, how moms can’t afford to not strengthen themselves in the Word of God, how it’s all too easy for young women to give themselves a pass on not reading their Bibles but waste their time on Facebook, etc. etc. I agree. If a woman (or a man for that matter–although details may differ) has time to be on Facebook, research whatever the faddish diet of the day is, spend time on Pinterest and pour over which veggie combination works best to detox the kidneys, then please at least be honest that your issue isn’t that you don’t have time to read the Word of God.

See, I can write these things all day long. I can pour on the semi–sarcastic remarks and spread chastisement on my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ nice and thick—like cream cheese frosting on carrot cake.

I have lived a life of heavy chastisement. Chastisement is one of the chief ways of discipline the Middle Eastern culture uses in raising children. That is how I was raised. I have chastised my children to excess, especially my oldest. I have chastised sisters in Christ for all sorts of things. I have chastised my husband. And I have been drawn to writers, teachers, and pastors whose tone is chastising, in order to spur me on to be more “godly.” Chastisement was the law of my tongue.

Psalm 103:8–14 says:

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame, he remember that we are dust.

Does the Bible speak about the Lord disciplining us like sons, sometimes chastising us and rebuking us? Yes absolutely it does. But that is not the complete character of our God. We do not serve Allah, the angry God who punishes man. We serve a Triune God whose general and special revelation of himself should give us a wider, deeper and more complex understanding of his nature. He is the kind of God that came down and became a man. A flesh and blood man. He didn’t sit up in heaven and chastise his people until they got their act together. This is what God did for us:

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:3–6

Jesus bore the chastisement that was ours. Our iniquities were laid on him. Friend do you see that we all deserved the biggest chastisement from the hand of God and instead our heavenly compassionate Father took it upon himself, he took all the verbal beatings. Jesus took all the chastisement of the whole world. Remember that next time you want to chastise someone.

How does the gospel help us sort these things out? How do we filter chastisement through the gospel?

First and foremost, if there is a rebuke that is truly required, let that be done with the love of Christ. As Paul says, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:1–2) So stronger brothers and sisters have as their aim the restoration of their brethren through a spirit of gentleness and on their guard for temptation. Bearing one another’s burdens fulfills the law of Christ.

I have chastised women for not reading their Bibles. I don’t think it ever went anywhere. It surely didn’t bear any righteous fruit, not that I can tell. It’s obvious that I can’t motivate anyone by chastising them. How does that help them see the love of Jesus and inspire them to learn more about him? I don’t want to chastise women for not reading their Bibles. And if I ever do it again,  I pray it is only because I have a personal relationship with someone and I can do so from a humble and gentle spirit. It is a matter of wisdom and seeking the Lord.

Dear sisters if you are faithful in pursuing God with all your mind, remember that it is by the grace of Christ. Remember when you miss your devotions or your reading time or your study time and have compassion on your sisters in Christ. Come alongside and encourage, exhort, rebuke those you know well with a gentle and humble spirit. Pray. Pray for those whom you are concerned about. Pray that they see the glory of Jesus. Pray that the Holy Spirit will awaken their desires and priorities to thirst and hunger after the living God. This is the gospel way. Open your mouth with wisdom and let the teaching of kindness by on your tongue.

One last thought: This is an area that requires wisdom and diligence from pastors. Pastors, may I gently exhort you as my brothers in Christ to encourage and exhort the women in your congregation to not only read their Bibles but to chase after God in order to love him with all their heart, with all their soul and with all their mind? Being mindful to be shepherds who speak with intelligence, temperance and kindness, encourage the women in your church to pursue a vibrant life of the mind. And let that pursuit be more than just books on how to be a better wife and mother, as important as those things are. After all, the goal of God in the soul of Christian men and women is to conform us to the image of Christ. Bless you for your faithfulness!

Protecting Ourselves from a Bitter Spirit

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Photo Credit: Andrew Kuznetsov

When you do what you believe is the good and right thing in life, but God gives you hard providences in return; bitterness is the most human and natural state to slip into. This bitterness can lead to other spiritual, physical, mental and emotional states, like depression, isolation, revenge or even apostasy.

Although most readers of this blog know I try to stay away from didactic writing and an “I’m further along on the sanctification spectrum than you so I can lecture you…” attitude, I have fought long and hard wars against bitterness and I sincerely want to share what little insight and grace I believe I have received from the Lord. So here goes:

If we recognize we have a bitter spirit (no matter how we ended up with it) there are a few things we can do:

1. We confess and repent of it to our Savior. We have a redeemer who was tempted in every way that we are tempted. He knows what it’s like to be tempted to be bitter, and yet he was without sin. Do we really imagine that Jesus when he walked this earth was not tempted to be bitter about the way he was treated, spoken of, or killed? Do we imagine that his human family who were a bunch of sinners like us didn’t mistreat him? Can we not imagine that in his 33 years he must have experienced many occasions which would have tempted him toward bitterness? He was tempted and he overcame. He resisted bitterness in our place.

2. It is profoundly helpful to meditate on the humility of Jesus. He “made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:7–8). Part of bitterness is believing you deserve better than what you received. Do we really think we deserve anything good? Jesus certainly deserved better than what he got on Earth, and yet he responded in love, and not in bitterness. When we receive hard providences there are really only two ways to go: Pout and get bitter about it, or remember the humility of Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to use that as a tool to soften our hearts toward God and man. We have hard hearts, but as Christians we have the Holy Spirit who is working in us a heart of flesh—a soft and tender heart toward God and our fellow man.

3. Take appropriate practical earthly actions in response to the hard providence. Don’t bury things in your heart. This is a protection against a bitter spirit. Hard providences come in many forms. There are xn situations that bring discomfort, difficulty, and disappointment, and we need wisdom to navigate these. Sometimes people sin against us and hurt us in bad ways. Dealing with these circumstances with grace doesn’t just mean passivity. If the situation can lead to bodily harm of any kind then we go to the authorities whom God has set up to punish evildoers. If a friend gossiped about you then you can confront the friend and seek a healthy God–honoring way to solve the problem. The response needs to be appropriate to the cause. If you decide to cover it with love, then cover it with love. Don’t pretend you are covering it with love while burying it in your heart and then spitting it in someone’s face later on.

If after prayer and seeking the Lord, the only reasonable and peaceful response you can think of is to separate from the circumstance or person who is being a source to your bitterness then do it. Don’t drag it out. The graceful response may be silently walking away from a person or situation, turning the situation over to the Lord, and asking the Savior to keep your heart from bitterness and moving on.

There are many causes for bitterness in this life. We live in a broken world among broken mankind. There are none righteous, no, not one. But we have a rescuer who came to save this broken world. He loves this broken world. He loves broken me and broken you. He loves us even when we hurt each other. He teaches us through grace and longsuffering how to stop lashing out, how to stop feeling sorry for ourselves, how to stop being envious, wrathful, vengeful, selfish, stubborn, spiteful, unfair, covetous, slothful, greedy, unjust, and how to stop hiding sins. Go to the cross. Meditate on the cross. See there what your great and awesome God has done for you through his humility. And then plead for the grace to walk away from your bitter spirit. Leave your bitter spirit on the cross where it was nailed. Let it die. Let it die.

Here Comes Pedophilia and Why The Church Should Care

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In a small blog post over at TGC, Joe Carter discusses an article from The Guardian in his 60 Second Summary: Pedophilia: Bringing Dark Desires to Life. Over at World magazine, journalist Andrée Seu Peterson discusses that same Guardian piece in Culture Creep. Yesterday, Wendy Alsup, with courage and love for the Church wrote Gospel Testimony Amidst Abuse in Our Own Backyard while Jen Wilkin published To Be a Sin–Bearer, an excellent article about bearing each others sins. Why are these pieces important? And why should we care?

Because judgement starts in the household of God (1 Peter 4:17). Because the Church is not immune from sin. And if the Church and people in the Church do not form the vanguard on this, our children will suffer dearly. Our testimony for the gospel will be meaningless. We can tsk–tsk our surrounding culture, but if we don’t show by our actions that we mean business about the sins of pedophilia and the abuse of children, then we have no hope and no objective truth to give to our culture when it cries for help. And one day our culture will cry in anguish and ask: Where were you with the hope of the gospel when this was all coming down, when pedophilia was creeping into the mainstream?

There are philosophical issues to be discussed and those will come, but now is the time to open our mouths with unflinching truth and grace. And like Gandalf we stake our staff on the bridge and cry at the Darkness: You shall not pass! Rise up O Church, rise up and defend the oppressed, the abused, the young and the weak. Rise up O Church and be a sin–bearer.

The Proto–Crucifixion and the Christian

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Photo Credit: Chadica

Sitting in church on Sunday morning (listening to a sermon on Matthew 4:5–7) I formed a term I would like to explore. I don’t know if anyone else out there has used the term proto–crucifixion, I haven’t researched it. But if you will give me a few minutes, I would like to share with you a glorious glimpse into the Word of God. A fresh seeing, as Piper would say.

The book of Exodus starts off with Israel in Egypt and in slavery. The Lord God brings them out with might and power. By Exodus 17, they are traveling from the wilderness of Sin to camp at Rephidim, where there was no water. It is here they start “quarreling” with Moses and “test[ing] the Lord.” Exodus 17 is a beautiful symbol–laden chapter showing a sinful and rebellious people trying their innocent rescuer/redeemer and condemning him to death and then striking him.

Moses uses the word “test” meaning to try as in a trial, to stand in judgment over. God then asks him to pass before the people with his staff (a symbol of judgment) taking the elders with him. The elders representing the jury.

And the LORD said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. Exodus 17:5–6

Here we see God standing before the elders (jury) and before the people prepared to receive their judgment. He stands before them, not as judge, leader, or other authority, but as the accused. He stands on the rock, and instructs Moses to strike the rock. Moses strikes the rock and water flows out. It is this scene I am calling the proto–crucifixion. The symbolism and the glory of it all is breathtaking. Here is God, their creator and redeemer. He brings them out to a desert and instead of trusting him because of who he says he is and his past actions, they doubt. They quarrel. They test. They strike. When Moses strikes the rock, that is a symbol for Christ’s crucifixion, for God taking the punishment for and from a wicked people. This is why in Numbers 20:8, the second time they were in the same sort of situation, the Lord tells Moses to only speak to the rock and it will pour forth water. Why? Because Jesus was to be smote only once. The picture is glorious. He comes to rescue, they quarrel and test, he allows himself to be judged and killed by them—but only once. The son of God died once and only once. After that we speak to him, we don’t crucify him again.

I believe this proto–crucifixion is important for modern Christians to understand. First, it displays the depth and the beauty of the plan of redemption. We can meditate on this scene for weeks and milk it for all sorts of truths. Second, it should comfort us that the crucifixion was God’s plan all along. Third, it is a staggering display of grace. Although through Moses God tells Israel that they should not “test” him, he allows himself to be tested by sinful man. Although they quarrel and demand and complain. He gives them what they want—water. Fourth, we should see another nested symbolism: The people were ready to stone Moses, but God in his mercy tells Moses to strike the rock while he stands on it before the people. God takes the blow in place of Moses. We are Moses and God takes our place. He dies so that we may be saved, so that we can drink from the Rock. The proto–crucifixion should build up our faith—showing us a God who loves his people so much that he condescends to come down, takes the judgement and dies on our behalf.