1Cor 10:1-12, “For I want you to know, 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. 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. 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." We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”
Last week, we saw how sexual immorality and idolatry can prevent us from entering into the land of God’s promises to us. Here are three other dangers to avoid when we really want to succeed.
Let us tempt not the Lord:
We sin by ignorance, weakness (“The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak”) or arrogant temptation. In the last category, the sinner sins by daring God to react: « I have decided to do this; and I know You are against it but I am not afraid of You; I will still go ahead with it. In any case, I know You won’t strike me; the stories of Ananias and Sapphirah, Achan, Korah, Dathan and others are just fables.” (See Acts 5, Joshua 7 and Numbers 16)
On the Mount of Temptation, quoting a verse from Deuteronomy 6, Jesus told the devil who was asking Him to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple that: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." In other words, it is not because preservation in danger is divinely pledged that I shall create danger, either to put the promised security skeptically to the proof, or wantonly demand a display of it.
In the anecdote to which the apostle Paul is referring, it is said that after winning a great victory at Hormah, the children of Israel set out from Mount Hor by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; then, they became impatient on the way and spoke against God and against Moses, saying: "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food." (Numbers 21:1-5) By the way, the loathed worthless food was the manna: the food that was supernaturally falling from heaven for them! The Bible says that the wrath of God was triggered; He sent fiery serpents among them, many were bitten and died on that occasion.
The apostle Paul writes that they desired evil. Have you started getting impatient about that promise that is taking too long to be fulfilled? Are you tired of wandering in the desert and going around in circles and have you already started regretting your past life? Do you have enough of the fact that your life is still not resembling what God had promised to you? Be careful because you are the risk of speaking against God and His anointed, thus attracting fiery serpents into your life for your own doom. Beware of the danger: come back to your senses!
Let us grumble or murmur not:
God almost wiped the whole nation of Israel away so many times just because of murmurs. Whenever we grumble, we say that what God has just done or told us is not fair. Therefore, we are only submitting because He is bigger than us; if not, we would have given Him a piece of our mind. We must serve the Lord with joy and diligence, acknowledging that He best knows what He does and trusting Him.
Let us disobey not:
“…Those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4:6)
To disobey is to refuse to do what the authority has required from us. This authority can be God Himself, a big brother, a parent or a grand-parent, an ecclesiastic, a boss etc… We must always obey unless what is required from us is in clear contradiction with the Word of God. Indeed, since every authority comes from God, they receive the mandate, the delegation of power to act, from Him. Thus, refusing to submit to them is refusing to submit to God: it is rebellion. And in the Bible, rebellion and witchcraft go hand in hand (see 1Samuel 15).
When God has asked you to do something, whatever mouth it comes from, -the authority, a friend or even a child- just do it. If a child speaks to you and you don’t listen whereas he was not speaking on his own but by the Spirit of God, you would not have despised the kid but the Holy Ghost. Remember the posting ‘‘Surprise, surprise’’? Be careful not to be surprised because you won’t even be able to say, ‘‘I did not know.’’ Indeed, Jesus said His sheep hear His voice, know it and follow Him. Who then are you the sheep if you cannot recognize the Good Shepherd’s voice? He also said that those who truly want to do the will of God shall always know whether those who talk to them speak on their own or if they speak on God’s behalf. If you fail to recognize the Voice beyond the voice, ask yourself what will you really want to do; is it God’s or yours?
In order to obtain what He promised us at the beginning of the year, God will ask us to do or not to do certain things. We will certainly not understand all of them; but if we sanctify the Lord in our hearts and bodies, if we make sure we do not miss or lose any of His words and if we obey Him with joy and without murmurs, we will not fail to get to our destination. God is not unjust so as to overlook our work and the love that we have shown for His name… For when He made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, He swore by Himself, saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. (Hebrews 6:10, 13-15)
May God bless you!
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