“Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.” 1 Corinthians 10:6 ESV
Reflection: what warnings from the past lives have you incorporated into your life?
One of my father-in-law’s favorite quotes is “choose well, because happiness lies in your choices”. It is a quote well worth considering and incorporating into our daily lives. There is no doubt that we have the ability throughout our lives to make some pretty big decisions that will have long lasting consequences, both for good and bad. As we mature, hopefully we improve our ability to make good choices. But did you realize that each person makes an average of over 30,000 decisions each and every day? Some of these are clearly very small, but nevertheless will have some consequence on your day. Just think about a simple decisions around your health. If your goal is to lose a few pounds, you have to decide on how much cheese to put on your sandwich, and whether to take the stairs or elevator. When you start thinking about it, almost every action we do have a decision in it. What we see, say, listen to, where we go, etc, is filled with choices.
But what about a new choice that could have a profound effect on our lives? Say you are pretty young, and see that some of your friends get good grades by cheating on exams. It can be tempting to try that. When we are young, parents and the older generation can help us learn the bigger consequence of cheating, to incorporate their life lessons into our own. So that we can avoid mistakes that others have made costing them dearly. So even if we don’t have direct knowledge, experience on a particular decision, we can still make a good decision based on past lives, past experiences. We don’t have to learn everything from our own mistakes. Now, obviously this will require that we have enough respect for the source of the advice, such as a parent, grandparent, or some other source of wisdom such as the Bible.
As Christian parents and grandparents, brothers and sisters, we also get to pass a higher level of wisdom on to other believers, and in particular to the young. Paul is putting a big warning in front of the church in Corinth about the Israelites during their time in the desert. You might be wondering, how is that relevant to the lives of the Corinthian Christians? The truth is that we all should take lessons from the past, so that we don’t make dumb mistakes. Paul tells them “I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.” 1 Corinthians 10:15 ESV, meaning, don’t be stupid; “use your head” and incorporate the wisdom in these lessons. Don’t be like defiant children.
So what happened with the Israelites?
Paul starts out by explaining that they first received great favor with God. He brought them out of slavery, out of Egypt. And then, Paul says, “For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” 1 Corinthians 10:1-4 ESV. They had God’s favor; His protection, and even were baptized in a miraculous way. But what happened? How did many of them respond to God’s favor and salvation ? “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.” 1 Corinthians 10:5-6 ESV.
God struck those down who desired evil.
Paul says we can read about them, to learn from them. To incorporate into our lives. Specifically, what they did against God was idol worship, sexual immorality, testing God, and they grumbled about their situation. We will look more at this over the next few days. The result? They did not enter the promised land, which is a huge warning to all of us. Are we as Christians taking God’s favor and salvation as given? Are we following His ways or do we desire ways of the world? Do we think God somehow is different today, than He was during the time in the desert?
Let’s learn from the past, and humble ourselves before our God.