PLEASING GOD WELL…LESSONS FROM THE ISRAELITES – PART ONE

This is your Friend and Minister, Dr. Joshua Uhiara, bringing you healing word from the Master, a program of the Master’s Vessel Ministry which lets you know that Jesus loves you as you are, but loves you so much that He will not leave you as you are.

I welcome you, friends, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, I will be sharing with you, another in our series, Pleasing God well. But today, we will be talking about, “Pleasing God well”, with the subtitle, “Lessons from the Israelites”. The scripture is taken from 1 Corinthians 10:1-13.

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. 5 But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. 7 And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” 8 Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; 9 nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; 10 nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

PRAYER:
Thank You, Father, for Your Word, now. We commit this time into Your hands, and ask that Your Spirit would direct us, that Your Spirit would speak to us…in the Name of Jesus. Amen!

Pleasing God, we said earlier, is the surest way of attracting His blessings. And if you have the ambition to please God – that is the noblest ambition. Our text is the account of the experiences the Israelites had with God, specifically their deliverance from the Egyptian bondage, and their wilderness journey. There are lessons from these experiences that are pertinent to those who have the ambition to please God well, especially when you consider verse 5a, the first part of verse 5, that says, but with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Since our ambition is to see that God is well pleased with us, this year and beyond, the lessons from Israel’s painful experiences will serve us well: if we pay serious attention to them.

Let’s consider the following:
• Privileged experiences of the Israelites. And that is found in verses 1 to 4 of our text – 1 Corinthians 10: Privileged experiences that Israel had.
• Preventable blunders of the Israelites, and that is from verse 5 to 11: Preventable blunders of the Israelites. And thirdly,
• Principles for pleasing God well. And that is from verse 10 to 13.

Let’s take the first one:

The Privileged Experiences of the Israelites

There are four of them, in verses 1 – 4 of our text. The first one is going under the cloud: verses 1 and 2; the second one is, passing through the Red Sea – also verses 1 and 2; the third one, eating the spiritual food; and, the fourth one is, drinking the spiritual drink: verse 4.

The Israelites were privileged to have enviable spiritual and temporal experiences with God through Moses, their leader or their intermediary. The unique experiences started with their miraculous deliverance from Egypt, and continued throughout their Wilderness Journey. They experienced the tangible presence of God, and His miraculous provisions of their physical and spiritual needs.

One, they were under the cloud. This was symbolic of the protective presence of God. The cloud protected them, not only from the advancing Egyptian Army…(if you read Exodus 14:19-20, where God placed the cloud behind the children of Israel, in front of the Egyptians, to slow them down; and then of course, light from the Israelites to advance). So He slowed their enemies down, and whereas His people Israel were advancing. And, one lesson there is that, if you come close to God, if you desire to please God, He has a way of slowing your enemies down, and giving you mobility to move forward. So, the cloud did not only slow their enemies down, the cloud also protected them from the deadly heat of the desert. In other words, God gave them miraculous air-conditioning.
When they were trapped by the Red Sea, pinned between the rock and the hard, place as it were, with no place of escape, no way of escape, God miraculously parted the Red Sea so they could walk through.

That which provided them safety turned out to be the doom of their enemies, the Armies of Israel. For we read in Exodus, we find in Exodus 14:21-31, that the Egyptians, trying to do what the Israelites did, perished in the Red Sea. None of them came out of it alive. This is how Hebrews 11:29 summarizes it:

Hebrews 11:29

1 By faith they{that is, the Israelites] passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned.
They tried to do what the Israelites did. But the Israelites did what they did by faith. So this reminds us that with God, victory, blessings, success are not by trial, but by trusting God.

Two, hungry Israelites ate miraculous food. That is verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 10. This food is described as bread of heaven or angels’ food. In fact in Psalms 78:24-25.
Psalms 78:24-25

24 Had rained down manna on them to eat,
And given them of the bread of heaven.
25 Men ate angels’ food;
He sent them food to the full.

That is Psalms 78:24-25. They ate miraculous food – manna, described as angels’ food: bread from heaven.

Number three, Thirsty Israelites drank and kept drinking from the miraculous water from the rock. And that is in verse 4 of 1 Corinthians 10.
Besides the physical rock, there was a mysterious Spiritual Rock that followed them. And the scripture, says that that rock was Christ. It was this rock, Christ, that actually supplied them the water they drank.

Very quickly, by way of application: First, every Christian has experienced the greatest miracle of God – the forgiveness of infinite offenses committed against an infinite God. This forgiveness culminates in the impartation of life, the life of God, to the dead spirit of the sinner. And this miracle is known as regeneration, or the New Birth.

Every Christian – every true believer – has experienced this miracle. Secondly, every Christian has come under the canopy or umbrella of the protective presence of God against the whiles of the enemy – the devil.
Thirdly, every Christian has eaten the Bread of Life that takes away the hunger for all other inferior sources of satisfaction that can never satisfy. That’s what the scripture says: John 6:35, 58. Jesus is that Bread of Life,
And fourthly, every Christian has drunk from the ever present waters of life springing up from Christ: the Rock of Ages.

Friend, Jesus produces what you are looking for in these other sources that would never satisfy. Christ is the answer. Why don’t you come to Him?

Let us pray

PRAYER:
Thank You, Father. I give You praise, for this time. How we pray, Lord, that those who have heard my voice today as they yield themselves to Him You would satisfy every longing of their hearts…in Jesus Name. Amen!