“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.” (1 Corinthians 10:1-6)
Consider the blessings that the people of
Israel received from God. Think about
the amazing miracles that they witnessed:
the plagues by which they were released from slavery; the splitting of
the Red Sea; the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire that guided them out of
Egypt and toward the Promised Land; the miraculous provision of water, manna,
and quail. These are just a few of the
spectacular things God did for them to demonstrate His love for them and His
power in their lives.
But despite the miraculous provision of God,
they wandered away from Him, giving themselves to idolatry, immorality, and
unfaithfulness to the Lord. As marvelous
as those miracles were, they did not guarantee their spiritual growth and
faithfulness.
God has also provided us with spectacular
miracles: the amazing love of the cross;
the marvelous examples of grace in the lives of people we know, including the
grace to save a wretch like you; and the personalized work in your life in
miraculous ways. These are God’s
blessings of love for us. They
demonstrate how much He cares for us and they are illustrations of His power in
our lives.
But they are not guarantees of our spiritual
growth and faithfulness. The challenge
to us is to look at the example of the Jews and recognize the danger, even when
God has blessed us so marvelously. Then,
to make a choice to keep setting our hearts on God and not on evil.
His, by Grace,
Steve
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