1st Corinthians 10:1-9 parallels Israel's journey through a massive wilderness with our own journey. Paul relates it to us, as Christians to warn us of the danger of not making it into the promise land. He warns of certain spiritual diseases and conditions specifically purposed to bring us to defeat and block God's will and plans for our lives:
1 For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,
2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
-Cloud - the glory cloud of God, a symbol of His presence in the wilderness the pillar of cloud - a symbol His tangible help and presence in their lives.
-Water- a picture of water baptism through the red sea- associated with it is the often great challenges which attempt to block a christian's commitment to live for Christ, and baptism symbolizes the Christian's decision to commit all to Christ. A picture of dying to ourselves and living unto Him.
*Don't assume because you know God's presence, His Holy Spirit and are baptised into Him, that you will make it into the promised land.
3 and all ate the same spiritual food,
4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.'
-Simply put: Yes, you drink of the Holy Spirit and feed on Christ for strength daily but God might not be pleased with you.
6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.
-IS not the heart full of evil? Is not our battle first with the sin of our hearts, to master our own hearts and lives before we battle external enemies and possess His blessing for our lives?
7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”
-Idols- the children of Israel though saved and delivered from the egypt a symbol of the world, really worshipped other Gods- bible says they brought symbols of the Gods of the Egyptians into the wilderness and performed their worship to these in the wilderness.
-Are we bringing the idols of the world into the church to worship them? materialism, selfish-ambition, worldliness. Is Christ a God among many other Gods in our hearts of does He stand alone, as our all consuming worship?
-'Sat down to eat, Rose up to play' Is self our idol? Me, my pleasure, my desires, my comfort, what I want, my will and my plan for my life or is it Christ, His pleasure, what He desires, His will, His plan. Do we have a passion for souls, for sanctification, for pure worship, do we make spiritual and natural sacrifices of worship and praise and repentance joyfully?
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