Paul has given some old testament events which have a lot of significance in today’s Christian life. Sometimes the believers think that they are eligible to enter into the kingdom of God by living their earthly lifestyle.
They must go through the events of Israel’s journey in the wilderness. We should not judge everything by our own knowledge and skills but we must evaluate everything with the word of God which will enlighten us to understand the right way to live and act.
Paul reminds the Corinthians that they must know what happened to the Jewish who left Egypt under the guidance of Moses. The deliverance from Egyptian bondage was a remarkable incident in the history of Israel.
The Lord miraculously delivered them and guided them by a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. Paul remembered the event of the Red Sea crossing which was led by the mighty hand of God and the Israelites were able to escape from the hands of Egyptians.
All of them were moved into the wilderness and they experienced divine deliverance and protection from the Lord. The Israelites accepted Moses as their leader who was appointed by the Lord. Moses was assigned to lead the children of God into the promised land.
So, all the Jews acknowledged Moses’s leadership, and they were identified with him. And Moses guided them into the promised land according to the instructions of God. Here, the term ‘under the cloud’ refers to the presence of God and the term ‘passed through the sea’ signifies the separation from Egypt.
After crossing the Red Sea the Israelites needed food to survive but as they came suddenly to a new place without any preparation, the Lord has given them Manna to eat from heaven. The food was given to the children of Israel in a supernatural way.
Throughout the journey, in the wilderness, the Lord has provided water from the very beginning for their drinking. In such a wilderness getting water is not easy but the Lord was with them so he has provided them the fresh water to drink, otherwise, they would have died from thrust.
When the Lord had called them and took them out from Egypt, he was their guider and provider, and protector. But in spite of getting everything, most of the Israelites were not satisfied with what they have received from the Lord. As a result, the Lord was also not pleased with their behaviors.
When they were in Egypt and sought God’s deliverance from the Egyptians. As an answer to their prayer the Lord remembered them and redeemed them from Egypt. But most of them were not satisfied in the wilderness and they complained often to Moses.
They were brought out to be in one heart to walk with the Lord as they were a chosen nation of God. Those Jews were physically free from Egypt but their hearts were there. As a result, their bodies were found in the wilderness. Among the warriors, only Caleb and Joshua reached into the promised land and the rest were unable to enter due to their evil hearts.
This incident was given to us as an example for us to avoid worldly pleasures while God calls us. We should separate ourselves from the world spiritually so that we can please God.
The Lord hates those who worship the idols and from the life of the Israelites, we can see that when Moses went to Mount Sinai at that time the children of Israel worshipped the Golden Calf and they had a feast followed by it which made the Lord angry.
The children of God must live a holy life and they must worship only one God that is Jesus. If the Christians worship any idols like the Israelites then they also will see the wrath of God.
The children of Israel disobeyed the word of God by following Balam who misguided them and the sons of Israel intermarried with the daughters of Moab. As a result of disobedience on that day, twenty-three thousand Jews were killed.
We should learn from them and we should not commit sexual immorality which will give us dire consequences. We should take it seriously because the Lord is not so far from us and he is watching all of our activities that is why we must be careful in our every action and speech because if we speak against the Lord and if we violate his commandments then obviously we will also be destroyed by those Jews.
Every believer of Jesus Christ must be disciplined in their lives so that they can please God. If we think that we are right in our own perspectives then we will make a big mistake and it will lead us into eternal punishment. The way to heaven is not easy but the Lord said that he will not test us with what we cannot bear.
He knows all our strengths and weaknesses and according to that he will test us and he will also make a way out for us. The new believers who receive Jesus and when they read the scriptures they might get afraid that it is not for them to receive Jesus because they are weak in faith and they cannot obey all of His commandments.
But Jesus says he knows us and he will be with us and he will protect us from all kinds of evils. Through these writings, Paul encouraged the Christians of Corinth to be sincere and careful in their Christian life and this message should be applied in our today’s life also.