1 Corinthians 10:11

1 Corinthians 10:11

Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Paul is summing up what he was saying about the sins of the Israelites, particularly during their exodus from Egypt.  It also pretty well describes what the Bible is all about – outside of the foretelling of Jesus, of course.

God has caused men to write the books of the Bible to let us know the history of the universe and His people and to let us know the conduct He expects of us.  The Israelites were no different than you and I (where have I heard that before......) and while this is a generalized statement and doesn’t stand true for all, the Israelites would get into trouble and call upon God to bail them out, over and over again.  Then they would praise Him for a bit, but sooner or later many of them would turn away from Him and disobey Him.  They turned to idols, they groused because things weren’t going the way they thought they should.  Moses was gone too long, so they gathered their gold together and made a calf to worship!  Having something to eat everyday wasn’t enough, even though they but had to pick it up off the ground, they wanted meat.  They were never satisfied with what God was providing.

In the Bible there are many good examples of serving God and many examples of how not to serve Him.  Most of this could be written about the world and many Christians today.  We haven’t changed, Satan is still our adversary and he will do all within him power to direct us away from God.  It can be little things, manna wasn’t meat – and often starts with that as he slyly turns us away – or massive things, Pharaoh’s Army was descending on them and they were pressed up against the Red Sea.  Anything will serve his purpose to disrupt our lives.

I sometimes wonder about what would be written about me in my life in Christ; unfortunately not all that much different than the Israelites.  I think of the old saw “Maybe you were created to be a good example of what not to do.”  I hope that doesn’t apply to me (although it does seem to at times.)  It is up to us to be good examples, not poor ones, for those around us.  It really is our choice, albeit a difficult one sometimes. 

~ From the Columbia River Gorgeous