'AS SOME OF THEM DID'

What did some of them do? Who were they? To answer these questions, we need to study the Word of the Lord, as it is written in I Corinthians 10: 1-12. Meditating on this passage from the Holy Bible, the Spirit of God opened my eyes to certain truths and I venture to share them here. For those who love to learn from the Bible, my blog will be helpful, I am sure.

This passage is titled ' Warnings from Israel's history'. (NIV Bible).  St.Paul talks about the wilderness journey of the people of Israel, the 'chosen generation',who were redeemed from the clutches of their cruel slavery in Egypt. They were under the direct guidance of the LORD, as revealed in v. 1-4 of the  passage cited earlier. The 'cloud' represents the 'presence' of the LORD. By that they crossed the sea,ate 'manna' and drank water gushing out of the rock. Paul stresses that the 'rock' stands for Christ, smitten for the people. The daily 'manna' represents Christ, the living bread from heaven and the water, Christ the living water. The same spring of living water is promised for the New Testament church of Christ, as the Holy Spirit, told by Jesus himself (John 6:32; 7:37,38).

Yet, only two of the Israelite adults could enter Canaan, since the LORD was not pleased with the congregation!! (I Cor 10:5).

The very next verse ,v.6,tells us that these things occurred as examples to the Christian believers, NOT to set our hearts on EVIL things as 'they did'!! 

The following few verses list out the 'evil things' that caused the loss of the 'promised land' by the Israelites. 

1. 'Do not be idolaters, as some of them were'  v.7

   We may brush this aside and think we are far from it! Any one /thing that we allow to steal the throne of Christ in our lives, is an idol so to say. The thing which dominates our mind all the time is one such. The one to whom we submit ourselves is a 'god' of our own making. Shall we heed the warning!! Christ must have the supremacy in the hearts of His children who have been bought by His precious blood and life. Nothing and no one else will be our ruler! No copying of the way of the world!

2. 'We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did' v.8

   Let the Bible define it to us, as found in Romans 1:24-27, what this means. I stand by whatever is found in the Word of God. Let us examine ourselves in the light of the infallible Word of God. 

Rom 1: 21, 22 detail that the shameful lusts, result from the people exchanging God for 'gods' of their own making. When the glory of the immortal is exchanged for 'other' things, the spiritual eyes become blinded to see the Truth as it is and deviate, and to explain the deviation away as trivial!

3. 'We should not test the Lord as some of them did' v. 9

   What is it? They challenged the faithfulness of the LORD, and tested His Words. They did not believe the Word, and disobeyed Him. The same sin which originated in the garden of Eden! Doubting the words of God led to the great FALL of humanity. When we suspect the integrity of the words of  someone, we start testing what they said. Do we not do this in our walk with Christ? Let us examine our ways and obey instead of challenging the Eternal, who loved us and gave Himself for us. He is still the God of heaven and earth, all that is seen and unseen! He deserves all our praise, worship and glory! The Christian believer has no grounds to test the Word of the Lord. When we love Jesus, we will respect what He has said!!

4. 'Do not grumble as some of them did' v.10

   How common it is for most of us, to grumble over even little things each day! When we are not satisfied with God's provision for our lives we start grumbling. Over and over again we read in the Old Testament that the Israelites 'grumbled' and it 'displeased' the LORD. It is an act of clear rebellion. We may not realise it until the Lord convicts us of this sin.

 Instead , let us thank Him for everything we receive freely from His bounty each day ; for this we are called( I Thess 5:18).  If we desire the peace of God to invade every area of our lives, we must be thankful. (Col 3:15)

The final caution served by the apostle in the passage discussed so far is ,

 'If you think you are standing firm,be careful that you don't fall' (I Cor 10: 12).

Whatever was written to the Corinthian church of Christ applies in totality to the 21st century church!! Shall we take note of this warning lest we lose the promised blessings physically and spiritually? Amen!!