The Sunday Conversation |with Pastor Luke Okoro | 03. 04. 2022
Exodus 14 ; 16:2-3; Numbers 14:22-23;
1Corinthians 10:1-10.
“Righteousness exalts a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people”. Proverbs 14: 34.
“Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see , and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said , We will not walk therein” . Jeremiah 6:16.
The purpose of God in taking out the children of Israel from Egypt was to give all of them freedom. It would have been unthinkable to imagine that the children of Israel would doubt the capacity of God to deliver them wholly from Egypt, not even when they saw all that happened in Egypt before Pharaoh could hastily allow them to go. Paul writing to the Church in Corinth captured the experience thus:
“Moreover brethren, I would not that ye be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the Red Sea, and were baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, And did all eat the same spiritual meat, And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of the same spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
But with many of them God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil , as they also lusted”. 1 Corinthians 10:1-6.
Sin is indeed a reproach to any people, and to any nation. Whereas God had purposed to make them a cynosure, a stand out people, a people of great heritage from day one, the children of Israel limited God . They delayed their wholesome deliverance. They agreed with the devil to doubt their God . Sin reproached them before God. They did not hide their unbelief, their double standards and their unwillingness to yield to the supreme authority of God over them , as many believers also do today, making plan B in matters that demand absolute loyalty to God only. The children of Israel refused to walk in the good way, to follow the old good path. Like Rehoboam they foolishly followed their own machinations. The inventions of man’s heart can really be deceptive. How often have you followed the machinations of your heart as the children of Israel?
Their murmurings, their complains, their aberrant distrust and plain insubordination showed in reality that they preferred to slave away their lives and future in Egypt to freedom in a settled own Homeland.
Shortly after their departure, they queried Moses why he bothered to bring them out when he could not provide water, food and fruits for them. They demanded to have been left to suffer in Egypt with abundance of food and fruits and water rather than suffer hunger and thirst in the journey to their Homeland. This is the sad reality of men who are not tired of sin and satan in their lives. Even when they have openly confessed Jesus and are baptised as these Israelites were baptised unto Moses, they nonetheless live reckless , and do little to contend for the faith. Jude verse 3.
“And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word we did tell in Egypt, saying ; Let us alone, that we might serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians , than that we should die in the wilderness’ Exodus 14:11-12.
When the issue of water was resolved, they had another thing to complain about.
They had little patience for God and His servant Moses. There are indeed many BELIEVERS who act similarly: perpetually complaining of one thing after another.
“And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:
And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died in the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots , and when we did eat bread to the full ; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness , to kill this whole assembly with hunger”. Exodus 16:2-3.
Now, we must not lose sight of the focus of the conversation: that the word of God can’t be dismissed, falsified or rendered unfulfilled by the unbelief of man. In the case of Israel God may have been exasperated with them because He showed Himself mighty on their behalf to deliver them from their bondage in Egypt. The 10 plagues that God plagued Egypt with represented a challenge to each god or goddess in Egypt. God intentionally chose those plagues to demystify the Egyptian spiritual confraternity. He used those plagues to prove to His children that the Egyptian gods were (are) powerless , and incapable of standing against Him- The I AM. It was therefore saddening to God, and even to Moses their leader that Israel couldn’t just be patient and trustful in their God. Yet, the Bible is clear on what we should do with God and His word: to believe and act accordingly in obedience. Isaiah 1:19. Jesus rebuked Thomas for his unbelief. As a child of God, your faith must not be dependent on sight. Faith believes. And those who believe are blessed. It was not therefore surprising that God returned a harsh judgement on the children of Israel. Yes, to consume all of them in the wilderness. This is the essence of this conversation. God’s WORD will always be fulfilled. Paul said, these things are written for our examples. Just as Apostle Peter challenges us by asking us what manner of people we should be if we know all these things?2Peter 3:11.
God demonstrated all kinds of miracles , signs and wonders before the children of Israel. Yet they were not bothered. They were only interested in food and water: things that perish with usage. We have also insisted here that the believer must have little regard for material things, things ethereal. Jesus told His disciples that the life of a man doesn’t sum up in the abundance of his material existence. Luke 12:15. We must strive to live above the mundane, the perishables and the vanities of life. Jesus asked: what it will profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?. Certainly, nothing in exchange at all. The children of Israel were just too carnal and ordinary to appreciate what God was trying to make of them — a stand out people among the nations of the world. That generation failed God. And they paid sorely for it.
“But as truly as I live , all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.
Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times , and have not hearkened to my voice;
Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:
But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and had followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it. Numbers 14:21-24.
Yes, the earth is full of God’s glory when the WORD of God is fulfilled as in this case wherein all the children of Israel from age twenty years and above, who saw God’s mighty works , signs and wonders, indeed outstanding miracles in Egypt, but refused to honor Him in the wilderness, were deliberately wiped out of existence by God Himself. The Bible says that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. Every reasonable human being must strive to escape that scenario where he or she has to contend with God in judgement. That generation of the children of Israel was not smart. Only Caleb and Joshua were. And they were rewarded with generational heritage for their children and children’s children. What a gladdening experience to have a father as wise and as spiritually discerning as Caleb and Joshua. What about you? I am working hard at it God helping me!
It was a twist of fate that those children whose parents thought would die out of hunger and thirst in the wilderness, were the very persons that God said would inherit the Promised Land. What the fathers feared didn’t happen. The anger behind their fears consumed them because the devil allowed them to see their God as feeble and incapable of standing up for them when it mattered most. But God can always be faithful even when all men are liars. JESUS is LORD!
” For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war , which came out of Egypt , were consumed , because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: unto whom the LORD sware that he would not show them the land , which the LORD sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
And their children, whom he raised up in their stead, them he Joshua circumcised: for they were not circumcised, because they had not circumcised them by the way’ – Joshua 5:6-7.
God was so clinical in fulfilling His Word regarding these stubborn sons of Jacob, that He allowed snakes to bite them to death. But the bronze serpent came to their rescue. Even so Jesus rescues us from our sins when we look unto Him.
At another time he consumed Korah and his gang when they challenged Moses and his authority. He caved the earth to consume them.
“And the LORD spake unto Moses saying, Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan and Abiram… And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the LORD hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind. If these men die the common death…then the LORD hath not sent me…
And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertaineth unto Korah and all their goods. They, and all that appertaineth to them, went down alive into the pit and the earth closed upon them: and they perished from among the congregation. ..And there came out a fire from the LORD, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense” Numbers 16:23-35.
When people become guilty of sin, even their offerings of incense, prayers and. praises which ordinarily should move God become vexacious unto Him, a mere noise making. That was what happened to Korah and his group. Their incense perished with them. God doesn’t respect anybody. He is a just and righteous God.
He pursues His WORD to fulfil it. The rebellious will always be judged. I have seen it happen in contemporary times. Nearly three decades ago, some youth, upwardly mobile young people rose up against the leadership of the church we attended then. They were against the change in the Pastorate. They denied the church their tithes, became irregular in fellowship and were unduly stubborn to the leadership. Down the line those of them who didn’t repent died, backslided or became shadows of what they used to be. Their leader who was then a chief executive officer of a flourishing finance house, had the firm bankrupted and his entire family wiped out by a certain disease. Before he died,, he had already left the church with his family. God’s word will always be fulfilled. That is why it has INTEGRITY.
The church is not a place for ‘Aluta continua’ . I once told my children that they should leave any place of worship that doesn’t meet their spiritual need, instead of agitating because God does not permit that in His church. That was what these men failed to realize. Korah and his men also knew it but they chose to trouble their families. Sad.
(To be continued).
Happy Sunday.
•Pastor Okoro, a revivalist and marriage counselor, can be reached on:
08051000462.
April 3, 2022.
