All Scripture is written by the
inspiration of God and is useful for teaching, reproaching, correcting, and
disciplining in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:17). God chose a people out of all
peoples on earth to set an example not because they were great in numbers but
because they were the fewest of all peoples (Deuteronomy 7:7). It started with
one man Abraham and down to Isaac and Jacob and the twelve tribes of Israel.
God put them under the yoke of King Pharaoh over four hundred years as told to
Abraham and delivered them on the night of the Passover and let them cross the
Red Sea on foot like a dry land. Although they were supposed to enter the land
promised to the patriarchs, they refused to obey God because they feared the
Canaanites more than God. So, they had been wondering in the wilderness forty
years until all unbelieving people perished except Caleb and Joshua. The new
generation obeyed and entered into the land led by Joshua, crossing the Jordan
River on foot. Entering into the land signifies our obedience to entering into
God’s rest, which means our continual reliance on him only. These things
happened in ancient days are exactly happening in this age as well because they
are the sample nation called by God and delivered by the blood of Christ Jesus
the Lord.
“For I do not want you to be
ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors 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 in the wilderness. 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 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 Christ, 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 culmination of the ages has come.
So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No
temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. 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 endure it.” (1 Corinthians
10:1-13)
Israel deserted the Jehovah God
so many times during the wilderness wondering. Idol worship, sexual immorality,
testing, and grumbling are the ones they have committed and received the due
punishment. Why had God dealt with them so severely? Because it is provoking
the wrath of God for the violation of the Law of God. “The wrath of God is
being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of
people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about
God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.” (Romans 1:18-19) Note
that the people of Israel have been liberated through the blood of Christ on
the night of the Passover and crossed the Red Sea. So, they are representing
the New Testament Christians who are in Christ and the Father God. And yet they
have violated the law which God forbid through Moses, which has invited the
severe punishment of God. It is two-fold, one is the preview of the Day of the
Lord and the other is the examples and warnings out of the love of the Father. God
is saying unless we repent and turn from our evil ways we would be severely
punished. No one is exempt from the wrath of God as soon as they violate the
Law of God. Take a daily life example. If we hate someone for any reason,
righteous or unrighteous, we lose peace in mind, all but touchiness, disturbance,
and even bitterness in heart. God punished the people even though they were
baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and ate the same spiritual food,
manna and drank the same spiritual drink from the rock, Christ the Lord.
“Who were they who heard and
rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he
angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished
in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his
rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter,
because of their unbelief.” (Hebrews 3:16-19)
Why do people in Christ still
violate the law of the Lord? Do they not know the words of curse spoken loudly
in the Scriptures? Yes, they do know. It’s because idolatry seduces them,
falsely promising to give something although it delivers nothing. That’s idol
whatever it is instead of God. Money may be idol if one believes it would
deliver him from all troubles of lives. Sex may be idol if one believes that it
would give meaning and joy in life. Fame, honor, recognition, children, and
even religious zeal could be idols. The enticement and temptation of idols are
so wide-spread and rampant throughout the ages and many believers fell into it.
The Lord God confirms that they forsook him and served idols since they came
out of Egypt. “And the Lord told him: ‘Listen to all that the people are saying
to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their
king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this
day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.’” (1 Samuel
8:7-8) These people experienced the mighty power of God demonstrated through
the ten plagues and witnessed the death of all the firstborns both men and
animals by the angel of death on the night of the Passover. The Sea was stopped
flowing, yielding a way, so they walked through it on foot as on the dry land. During
the wilderness wondering, they ate the food came down from heaven, manna forty
long years and drank the water gushed out of the rock. How could they then fail
to heed the words of warnings and curses and fell into idol worship? That’s
what we are. Anything coming out of the earth even the religious commitments
and devotions cannot make man be faithful to the Lord God, because there is
nothing truthful and trustworthy in our flesh.
Even the redeemed in Christ is
not without exception from the temptation of evil in the sinful flesh until we
are redeemed bodily, being clothed with the heavenly body of resurrection that
God made and prepared for us even before the creation of the world. Apostle
Paul describes the struggle, defeat, frustration, groaning of Christians due to
the weakness of the flesh in the Epistle to the Romans Chapter 7. “For I know
that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have
the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the
good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” (Romans
7:17-19) Even if it is true that we cannot obey God in the sinful flesh, we do
not lose heart because right at the moment we acknowledge that we are not able
to, Christ in us cleans and delivers his beloved children with the mighty power
of God. “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is
subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our
Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful
nature a slave to the law of sin. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for
those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the
Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans
7:24-8:2)
Some might say, “It is too much
to bear. How can we live if it is impossible to keep the law of God with our
best effort?” That’s the most pleasing and delightful moment that our Lord God
is expecting all of his children to come to, because we’ve been made to live in
him and with him and through him. We’re never made to live without him, not
even a single breath of life. Our God is faithfully and constantly
compassionate and merciful. Our God is not a remote and impersonal being,
leaving us like orphans. Rather, he cares and empathizes his own people like a hen
gathers her chickens under her wings. “For we do not have a high priest who is
unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted
in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” (Hebrews 4:15) He knows his
people because he made them in his image and in his likeness. He knows what we
are, what we are in need, who we are, why we are, and why we are in need. He also
knows how and when we need him and most significantly makes himself available
wherever and whenever and however we seek him. In fact, he indwells in us
forever (Hebrews 13:5). “No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and
in your heart so you may obey it.” (Deuteronomy 30:14)
Furthermore, God is kindly
assuring us that there will not be any temptation which may overtake us. “No
temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. 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 endure it.” God
disciplines his children for the growth and transformation to be more godly and
like Christ. I believe that God’s vehicle of discipline for his children is
suffering in the midst of lives. The Book of Hebrews assures that all
discipline comes upon us because God dearly loves his children (Hebrews 12:6). All
is going through sufferings, all kinds of aches, difficulties, obstacles one at
a time because all temptation is common to mankind as the Scripture says. Some
may think that they are going through the most difficult times. I suspect that
everyone who is undergoing sufferings may react with some sort of resentment
and bitterness. There is one famous saying, “Why me?” “Well, it just turns out
to your turn,” says a wise man. But when we are tempted, God will also provide
a way out so that we can endure it. What a promise! What a God we have and
trust! God so loved the world that he gave his begotten Son Jesus Christ and
whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). Jesus
Christ is our way out, overcoming the world by taking the cross of death and
being buried in a tomb and raised from the dead on the third day. So, we fix
our eyes on him who forgives our sins and transgressions and cleans and
purifies us from all unrighteousness. He is our real food and drink on which we
live his eternal life now and forevermore.
We know that Apostle Peter denied
the Lord three time on the night of Jesus’ trials and bitterly wept after he
remembered the words of the Lord. As other disciples, he did not like being
suffered and humiliated and cursed that he rebuked the Lord Jesus who spoke his
death and resurrection. Like Peter and other disciples, we are all in the same
page. Who likes suffering at all? Who welcomes pains and aches? No one. But we
can face it because our Lord Jesus went through in our place as the Son of Man.
He was most accused falsely, humiliated, ridiculed, and finally charged
untruthfully and sentenced to death like a criminal in our place. Peter wept in
misery and brokenness. However, the Risen Lord Jesus visited him on the Sea of
Galilee and reinstated him as a shepherd of God’s flock on behalf of the Lord
Jesus Christ and God the Father. I am sure that he broke his tears when Jesus
fed him with bread and fish. Finally, he understood the true Messiahship that
Christ must have gone through the crucifixion on a cross, shedding his blood,
in order to be raised from the dead, so that all may have life in him, more
abundantly. Peter is still encouraging Jesus’ followers to greatly rejoice though
for a little while we may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. This
is written in his Letter to the saints.
“Praise be to the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth
into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and
into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is
kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the
coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all
this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to
suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven
genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even
though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ
is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do
not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and
glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation
of your souls.” (1 Peter 1:3-9)
April 13, 2017
© 2015-2017 David Lee Ministries – All
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