1 Corinthians 10:1-5 

¹For 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. ² They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³ They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴ and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. ⁵ Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Citizenship

Immigrants who applied for Canadian citizenship should read the booklet about Canada at least 5 times. If you read through the booklet about Canada or reviewer booklet several times, you’ll easily pass the examination for Canadian citizenship. Would it make Canada citizens become responsible after passing the citizenship examination? Are you aware of your responsibilities as citizens of Canada? Responsible Canadians adhere to the Constitution and By- Laws.

Likewise, as responsible believers of Christ, we adhere to the stipulations that God requires in the Scripture. So what would you say if someone inquires, “How do you prove that the Scripture is reliable and true word of God?” Doubters cannot accept that the Scripture is love letter of God to mankind. Why?

Why? To trust that the Scripture contains the message of God to mankind, it requires the gift of faith that God gives to his children. Did you hear that?

If they claim, “We have faith in God,” but ignore the message of God in the Scripture, they deceive themselves. It is simply ignorant of what it means to have faith in God if they don’t honestly follow the Scripture. It is not sufficient to simply claim that we have faith in God. Faith that comes from God ignites joyful adherence to what the Lord prescribed for his children. Be sure you’ve received the gift of faith from God to believe and follow his prescription in the Scripture.

When we tell potential believers about the promise of eternal life in heaven through faith in Christ, we also tell them what God prescribed in the Scripture. Without faith that comes from God, they cannot accept the Scripture as basis of prescription of the Lord for his children and citizens of heaven. How could they accept what it declares in Ephesians 2:8-10? ⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Faith in God is gift from God. Faith in God is not what we can do with our human effort. If we reflect upon our innermost being, can we sense or confirm that we’ve got faith in God? Faith that comes from God affirms us without a hint of doubt that when Christ our Lord returns, he takes us into his glorious heaven.

Faith in God inspires us to actively participate in the good work or ministry which God prepared in advance for us to do while waiting for Christ to return. It is true! Each believer has distinctive ministry that God prepared in advance to do. Someone may ask, “What happens if I participate or choose not to participate?”

God judges everyone with equity. He has already prepared rewards for those who deserve it. He also decreed stipulations if we disregard him. We can learn from the experiences of the Israelites on how God disciplines his children.

The Scripture recorded how the Lord saved the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, and how he let them passed through the Red Sea on dry ground.

1.  Passed

¹For 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. ² They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

Well what did Apostle Paul imply when he mentioned that those who joined the Exodus were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea? The Israelites followed the prescriptions of God for them through Moses. Everyone who passed through the Red Sea obliged and observed godly stipulations through Moses.

When they crossed of the Red Sea, the Israelites left their suffering as slaves in Egypt. They did not know what awaited them across the Red Sea. So, they were obligated to follow the stipulations that God prescribed through Moses.

Likewise, just as the Israelites were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, Jesus Christ prescribed Christians to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Water baptism is public testimony that our old life as slaves to sin was buried with Christ; we resurrected to new life in Christ, and so, we follow the stipulations that God prescribes for his children.

If we are tempted and influenced by sin, we should seek the Holy Spirit to empower us and resist sin. The Holy Spirit produces unity not faction. When their sinful instinct prevailed, the Corinthian church had faction, division problem.

Apostle Paul addressed the problem division in Corinth; he admonished them to follow godly discipline that the Lord has prescribed for his children. He challenged them to learn from the Israelites whom the Lord saved from slavery.

God protected the Israelites who escaped from Egypt. It was recorded in the Scripture. Let’s reflect on Exodus 13:21-22 ²¹By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. ²²Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

After they passed through the sea, the Israelites were tested if they trusted the Lord. The heat of the sun in the wilderness must be hot; the Lord sent cloud as their shade. They needed light; the Lord provided pillar of fire as their guide. Will you testify of personal experience when God provided for your guidance?

Ezra

Hundred years later, Israel went into exile. Artaxerxes was King of Persia. He instructed Ezra the priest that all Israelites in Persia who volunteer to return to Jerusalem will go. He also gave Ezra silver and gold. Wonderful! Right! But, Ezra had problem of safety on their way as they travelled from Persia to Jerusalem.

Along the way, it is possible that bad elements may assault them; robbers may take their silver and gold. Ezra and the exiled Israelites prayed for safety.

It narrated in Ezra 8:21-23, ²¹There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. ²²I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, “The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.” ²³So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.

Ever since you decided to trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, what personal experience will you testify about God’s miracles and mighty power? Are you still scared of the unknown? Are you bothered by uncertainty of the future?

Someone testified: “Everyday, I am thankful and praise God that he wakes me up faithfully every morning.” Another person added, “Yeah! Me too. I don’t even use alarm clock. God wakes me up and I go to work without getting late.”

God has delivered everything we need. Let us reflect on 2 Peter 1:2-3:

²Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. ³His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 

Have you discovered everything God has given us for godly life? How do you interpret the term “everything?” Does it include finances, health, stable job or relationship? How about studies or career? Pray for increase of faith in God and inspiration of his Holy Spirit always. In the Scripture, the Lord had prescribed stipulations for his children that include everything he provided for godly life.

2.  Provided

³ They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴ and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

In the wilderness, the Lord provided food and drink to the Israelites. He gave them bread from heaven called “manna.” He gave them water to drink from the rock. Their experiences were narrated in the Old Testament. The Book of Psalms recollected (at least three times) the experiences of the Israelites after they escaped from Egyptian slavery, and passed through the sea.

Together, let’s meditatively reflect on Psalm 78:13-16, ¹³God divided the sea and led them through; he made the water stand up like a wall. ¹⁴He guided them with the cloud by day and with light from the fire all night. ¹⁵He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them water as abundant as the seas; ¹⁶he brought streams out of a rocky crag and made water flow down like rivers.

Their experiences seem like great journey that anyone may dream about.

Actually, the Israelites complained that they missed their food in Egypt. As if their suffering as slaves in Egypt was more tolerable than their daily provision from the Lord; they forgot their sufferings, and many of them wanted to return to slavery.

In the wilderness, they did not labor. They gathered manna for food in the morning. They gathered quail in the evening. Everybody had provision according to their needs. Nobody had more than what others had. But they still grumbled.

Grumbling

Grumbling is human nature. Immigrants come to Canada to find a better pasture. Senior citizens of Canada have Old Age Pension; many other countries don’t have Old Age Pension. But, many immigrants missed their country of origin. And, they dream or plan of returning to their country of origin for retirement, why? Surely, they miss their relatives, friends, food, culture, or countryside way of life.

What are the spiritual similarities to such human preferences and desires?

Apostle Paul recalled that the Israelites ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. And still they were not satisfied; they complained, why?

Likewise, when we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, we don’t easily realize that God provides everything we need for godly life. Have you proven if God provides everything you need for godly life? Do worries of life bother you? Do you frequently worry about provisions? Reflect on the stipulations prescribed in

Psalm 128:1-2, ¹Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him. ²You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.

Pray for increase of faith to believe such truth and personally testify of your experience of blessings and prosperity as the fruit of your labor of obedience to the Lord. Remember that godly commands require godly effort. Keep praying for inspiration of the Holy Spirit if you sense urgency to follow his stipulations.

The Lord brought the Israelites out from their suffering as slaves in Egypt. Well, some of them were obedient to the stipulations that the Lord prescribed for them to follow through Moses. But, not everyone readily pleased the Lord.

3.  Pleased

⁵ Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

The stipulations that the Lord prescribed in the Scripture are requirements on how we can please him. The Lord won’t need suggestion from us. Therefore, anything that originated from our human effort cannot please the Lord. How could that be? How could we desire to please the Lord? Human effort cannot impress the Lord. Human inclination is evil in his eyes; human instinct is selfish not godly.

Seriously, reflect on what the Lord himself had declared in Jeremiah 17:9-10:

⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? ¹⁰“I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”

How strong do you believe that the Lord who spoke to Prophet Jeremiah is the same Jesus Christ born in human flesh? He declared in Mark 7:21-23, ²¹For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, ²²adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. ²³All these evils come from inside and defile a person.

By faith, we admit such reality; it won’t change if we try to ignore it. Apostle Paul tried his best to please God before his personal encounter with the Lord. He persecuted the church. And did you know that before the Holy Spirit came to the disciples, Apostle Peter tried also to be the savior of Christ Jesus our Savior?

Reflect on what it narrated in Matthew 16:21-23, ²¹Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. ²²Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” ²³Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

Apostle Peter wanted to save our Savior Jesus Christ from persecution of the Jewish leaders, yet, Christ saw Satan behind Peter. Most often, the devil try to manipulate our mindset using human concerns. By faith, we declare that the Lord has already delivered everything we need for a godly life. Yet in reality, we could be easily affected by assumption that we need things we don’t really know.

What is it that you are concerned about? What are things that bother you or worry about? Church attendees are concerned when the sermon is long, why? They have appointments, and they cannot wait to go out of the building.

May the Lord inspire us to personally realize what it says on 2 Peter 1:2-3:

²Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. ³His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 

Grace and peace are products of knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. As we grow intimate with him, we also experience more of his grace and peace.

We celebrate the Lord’s Supper as reminder that Christ our Lord sacrificed on the cross for us to have eternal life. His resurrection reminds us to wait for his return, but until then, pray for opportunity to proclaim his death until he comes.

May the Lord empowers us to be diligent in proclaiming his death until he comes and expect him to resurrect us and take us into his heaven forever.

><((‘> .. ><((‘> … ><(((“> tmec\2024 <“)))>< … <‘))>< .. <‘))><