Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read 1 Corinthians 7-10:13 (quoting 10:1-13):
Warnings From Israel’s History
For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.
Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
My Understanding: The children of Israel, God’s children and chosen people, were living in slavery in Egypt for many years. God heard their cries and he sent Moses, his servant, to speak to Pharaoh and to tell him to let God’s people go. Pharaoh did not comply, so God sent plagues on Egypt. Still Pharaoh did not let God’s people go, so God sent a plague of death of the firstborn sons on all households, in Egypt, which did not have God’s sign of the blood of the covenant of salvation with his people, a symbol prefiguring Christ’s death on the cross for our sins, on their doors.
Deliverance
When God saw the blood, he passed over those families and they did not incur God’s wrath, which is a symbol of our salvation, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. The blood is a sign of our freedom from the penalty of sin and the control of (slavery to) sin over our lives, so that we can walk in fellowship with and obedience to Christ Jesus, and so we can live in God’s righteousness all our days. When God sees the blood of Christ offered up for us and for our sins as a reality in our lives, in that, by God’s grace, we have repented of our sins and we have made Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, he will pass over us, as well, and we will not have to face the ultimate penalty of sin in hell forever, but we will live forever with God.
Pharaoh then let the children of Israel go, but after he did he had second thoughts, and so he pursued them with his army. Yet, God had led his children out of Pharaoh’s grasp and he would continue to lead and protect them. He parted the sea so that the Israelites could cross the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their left and on their right. Pharaoh’s army thought they could pursue Israel through the sea, but they were wrong. Once the Israelites were all safe on shore and Pharaoh’s army was in the sea, God let the waters go back and Israel’s enemies were drowned. This, I believe, is also a symbol of our salvation. When God sets us free from the power of sin over our lives to which we were once bound as slaves, he continues to rescue us and to provide the way of escape out from under our temptations. When Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, it was not so we would return to slavery, which the Israelites at one point wanted to do, but he set us free and he conquered our foe (our former slave master) so that we would no longer be in his grasp.
Then God provided for his children everything that they needed, both physically and spiritually. They were continual recipients of his provisions and blessings. He imparted to them his leadership and protection to lead them, and he afforded his protection, as well, to follow them from behind. He arranged for them a rock from which they received water, which was a symbol prefiguring Jesus Christ as our solid Rock on whom we stand by faith. From this Rock water flows, as well - the water (Spirit) of eternal life springing up within us, giving us eternal life and new lives in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We receive this Spirit within us by faith via heart transformations through the Spirit of God in cleansing us from all sin and in empowering us to walk daily in obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. God gave his children, as well, manna from heaven, which is a symbol prefiguring Jesus Christ as the Bread of Life from heaven given to us. So, this whole story of how God led his children out of slavery into the Promised Land is a symbol of our freedom from slavery to sin and of our salvation we have received through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Yet, though God performed miracle after miracle in the lives of his children, and he demonstrated his love, mercy, grace, kindness, blessings and provisions for them over and over again, still he was not pleased with them because they did not obey him. They grumbled and complained because they were not satisfied with God’s provisions for them. They even wanted to go back to being slaves rather than to move forward into the unknown by God’s grace. They replaced God in their hearts with idols and they disobeyed his commandments over and over again. They did not honor him as their Holy God and chose to serve and worship created things instead of the creator. They slapped him in the face by forsaking the one who loved them, who gave himself for them so that they could go free, when they returned to their vomit and chose to be slaves again to sin. And, times have not changed. The same applies to us when we refuse to obey God and we go our own way.
Examples and Warnings
The children of Israel of Moses’ time serve as examples to us to “keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.” And this story serves as an example to us of God’s grace, kindness and mercy in providing for us the way of salvation from our sins and from the ultimate penalty of death (eternal separation from God and eternal punishment in hell). These things were written down for us as examples and as warnings, so that we understand all that God provided for us and so that we don’t forsake our Lord by falling into the devil’s trap again. We are not to follow men and the idols of men, but we are to follow Jesus Christ in wholehearted devotion, forsaking all other gods, our sins and the ways of this world.
We should not be involved in sexual immorality in any fashion, even in giving approval to it by our acceptance of it in our forms of entertainment, nor should we entertain it in our minds or flirt with it via unwise relationships. Nor should we commit spiritual and/or sexual and/or emotional adultery against our God and against our spouses, if we are married. We should not test the Lord in any manner by flirting with temptation or by allowing just a little “poop” in our brownies, i.e. the little bits of evil we allow our minds and hearts, to dwell on them or to consume them via the media, so that we can be entertained. We should also not ever think we have arrived spiritually to the point to where we could never be tempted by sin, or to think that we would never give in to sin’s control again, and thus return to the vomit and slavery from which we were rescued out of by God’s powerful hand in salvation. Spiritual pride comes before a sinful fall, so we must guard against pride and we must guard against falling into sin again by being watchful, praying, and by heeding God’s warnings.
Yet, God promises us that no temptation has seized us or overtaken us except what is common to man, i.e. we are all in the same boat. We are all sinners and we are all capable of falling into sin at any moment given the right opportunity. Yet, praising the Lord, God is faithful! Amen! He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear. This does not mean that we are not free to welcome those temptations or to even provide an opportunity for temptation in our own lives via unwise choices, but that, if we are listening to and are obeying our Lord, and we are not testing God by flirting with sin, he will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear in his grace and strength within us. He will provide a way of escape out from under the temptation so that we can stand up under it. This does not mean he will remove the temptation, but that he will show us the way out so that we do not give in to the temptation to sin against our Lord, if we will listen to and obey him. He has provided the way for us to be free from sin, but we have to seek him, listen to him and then obey what he shows us. If we don’t, we are on our own, and most likely we will fall.
The children of Israel took God’s salvation, grace, provisions and blessings for granted. They did not remain faithful to him, but they strayed from their pure devotion to God, because they got their eyes off of God and placed them on man and man-made idols, instead. May we, myself included here, heed these warnings, and may we not follow the examples of the Israelites. May we, instead, heed God’s voice, listen to his wise counsel, take his way out from temptation, obey him in all things, follow his leading and guidance, and then we will know his blessings.
When in The Stillness / An Original Work / September 26, 2011
When in the stillness
Of this moment,
Speak to me, Lord,
I humbly pray.
Be my desire,
Set me on fire,
Teach me to love always.
Help me to walk in
Fellowship with You,
Listening to You;
Sit at Your feet.
Whisper Your words to me,
Oh, how gently,
Guiding me in Your truth.
While we are waiting
For Your blessing,
Lord, in our hearts
Be King today.
Help us to live for
You ev’ry moment,
List’ning to what You say.
May we not stray from
Your word within us,
Help us obey You,
Lord, in all things,
Walking each moment,
Lord, in Your presence,
Our off’rings to You bring.
Help us to love You,
Lord, our master;
Be an example
Of Your love,
Helping the hurting,
Lift up the fallen,
Showing them Your great love.
Teach them to love You,
Follow You always,
Bearing their cross and
Turning from sin;
Walking in daily
Fellowship with You,
Making You Lord and King.
Song lyrics @ Public Domain
Audio, song lyrics and sheet music at:
https://sites.google.com/site/psalmshymnssongs2/home/songs/when-in-the-stillness
Song on video
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