1 Corinthians 10:5 But with most of them (Israelites in the Wilderness) 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 (greed) 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 murmur, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

The Holy Spirit had real purpose in having certain things that happened to the Israelites in the wilderness recorded and preserved for us, today. Some of those reasons are indicated in this passage and others are implied.

This passage starts with a declaration about the attitude of most of the Israelites in the wilderness, AND the type of actions, from God, that were prompted by those attitudes.

You would think that the Israelites would have "bent over backwards" to be pleasing to God after all that God had done for them, AND after all that God had done to their oppressors, the Egyptians.

God had delivered them from slavery, after being in bondage for some 400 years. That freedom was provided to them without any one of them having to take up arms to defeat their oppressors. That freedom was provided to them without any one of them having to give their life in battle to gain that freedom. In the process of obtaining that freedom, they received wealth greater than if they had defeated Egypt in war.

God turned what should have be their demise into one of their greatest victories, AND in the whole process, destroyed their greatest enemy.

As you recall, Israel left the land of Egypt after that fearful night of the Passover and the killing of the firstborn of man and beast, except in those households where the "blood" had been properly applied to the door posts. After being pushed out of the land by the Egyptians, God led them into what looked like a big trap.

God led them by the way of the Red Sea. They saw the sea ahead of them, but no boats, no barges or bridges to help them cross, AND behind them came the army of Egypt, who through a change of mind, wanted their slaves back.

God parted the Red Sea, and the Israelites went through on dry ground. However, when the Egyptian army started down that same path to capture them, God brought the Red Sea back around the army of Egypt and they all drown. God provided the needed water in the desert, and gave them Manna to care for their nutritional need, and these continued until they came into the promised land.

All they had to do was listen and obey, and God would do all the rest. However, as you will recall, they did not do either, listen to God or obey His words. Every step of the way, the people of Israel complained, griped and rebelled. This complaining, griping and rebelling came in spite of the fact that God had delivered them, protected them and provided for them.

BUT
They wanted something
MORE
Than God had provided!!

Sounds like typical Christians, but of course, not those at MBF.

1 Timothy 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 11 But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.

whether it is "money", "things", "prestige", "honor", "programs".., or whatever we might think we MUST have to satisfy our "desire" to be "rich"… Even if we were to get all of those things, all of those desires, collectively, will not bring the contentment we were hoping to achieve by having the "things".

As a matter of fact, each "thing" we try to acquire in order to bring satisfaction to life only compounds the desire to have more, AND the more we acquire, the greater becomes the void between where we are and the goal of satisfaction, for which we are striving.

Oh, yes!

The process of

acquiring will temporarily

divert

our attention from the

gnawing

need for contentment.

If we did happen to gain one or most of these "things", they would, like a child's toy, bring a short lived reprieve from the desperate void that we feel must be filled with "things". However, ONCE the process of acquiring is over or the new wears off our adult toys, we are left with an even greater emptiness. That process, if allowed to continue, will produce the disastrous condition described by the Holy Spirit in…

1 Timothy 6:9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

The Israelites in the wilderness, like us, didn't really know what they wanted, but whatever it was they wanted, they wanted it provided for them. Later in this lesson, we will begin the process of looking at "what" and "why" they wanted what they "thought" they wanted. It is from these strange and sometimes bizarre actions and attitudes that the recorded events are taken and are to be examples for us.

Isn't it strange? We SAY (and sometimes mean it) that we want to be pleasing to God. Yet, so very often, we, like Israel of old, strive with all our native power to do, say and think those things that are the MOST unpleasing to God.

1 Corinthians 10:5 But with most of them (Israelites in the Wilderness) 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 (greed) 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 murmur, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

In the passage before us of 1 Corinthians 10, Paul by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, presents this depraved Spiritual condition seen in the thoughts and actions of the nation of Israel in the Wilderness, and proceeds to tell us how we can avoid acting in the same manner as Israel did.

Verse 5 states the enormity of the problem.

"But with

most

of them (Israelites in the Wilderness)

God was

not well pleased,

for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness."

If the Book of Exodus were written today about MBF, would it say that "MOST" were well pleasing to God.., OR would it read pretty much as written about the Israelites?

If we are to understand the real signification of this passage, we need to see the immediate context.

1 Corinthians 10:1 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.

Wow!! What privilege!!

1. All were under the cloud
2. All passed through the Red Sea
3. All were baptized in the cloud and sea
4. All ate the same Spiritual food
5. All drank the same Spiritual drink

We know, from other Scripture, that the "Cloud" was the visible presence of God, Himself. To be in the very presence of God, and to have God personally direct every move, should have been enough to satisfy any person's greatest desires, BUT the human heart has a "default" setting to which it often reverts when condition are different, or we don't get our way.

I can't even imagine the feeling! They had just been set free from a 400 year bondage. NOW it looks like certain death or at best, they were heading back into slavery, again.

The sea was before them. If they tried to cross, they would drown. Egypt's army behind them. If they tried to escape, they would be killed. If they simply did nothing, they would become the slaves of Egypt, once again.

This was a "no-win" situation.

BUT

God is the Master of "no-win" situations,
IF

we will allow Him to do His "thing",

AND

we don't demand our "thing".

To stand and witness the sea parting would have been awesome enough, but it must have been mind boggling to walk on the "bed" of that sea as on dry ground. That was as great a miracle as parting the waters.

They watched as God caused the wheels to come off Egypt's chariots. As a result, the whole army was stopped in middle of the sea, and once the last animal and person of Israel stepped out of the sea bed, God allowed the water to return. That was a greater military victory than the mightiest of armies could have accomplished.

Life is not back-to-back "mountain top" experiences.  
Most of life is getting and preparing

our daily food, water and etc.
AND
that task doesn't always take place

at a "mountain top" experience.

I listen to the weather forecast quite often. Once in a great while, they are actually right. I have often said that it would be nice to be a weather man. After all, it is one of the few professions where you can lie day after day and get paid for it.

Well, maybe that's too hard on those poor weather men. I really don't know how they get as close as they do. The weather men do quite well in predicating the weather an hour or two in advance. At times, they get close when they predict a few days in advance. However, they are way out in "left field" when it come to predicting two years in advance.

But God made a weather

prediction

that was true

every day,

for about

40 years.

God said that every morning there would be a white substance on the ground like dew. (Dew.., that would fall under the weather category, wouldn't it?)

They could gather the white substance, called Manna, and it would provide their needed nourishment until they were in the promised land (which ended up being 40 years, no fault on God's part).

God told them that every day the Manna would be there, EXCEPT there would be no Manna on the 7^th day each week. Sure enough! For 40 years there was Manna, like dew, on the ground every day, except on the 7^th day. Once they finally got into the Promised Land, the Manna stopped, just like God said.

I don't know about you, but when I read these accounts, my mind congers up a camp-out of some scout troop on an over-night. Let's try to get a realistic picture of what was gong on here.

I'm not too good with figures, as my banker will attest. Therefore, I don't spend much time trying to figure out all these mathematical probabilities. I'm glad someone else does like to do this sort of thing.

As near as I can find out, these figures, I'm going to throw around, are pretty much in the "ballpark". If you would like, you may write them down and when you get to heaven, you can "log on" to the heavenly "internet" and check them out. These figure will help us, at least me, to have better picture of what was going on back there in the wilderness.

Those coming out of Egypt there were:

600,000 men
1,200,000 women
2,400,000 kids
4,200,000 people + some Egyptians who tagged along

Remember, for years before and about the time of Moses' birth most of the male babies were killed. Therefore, the estimation of twice as many women as men. This estimation of the kids is based on the guess that most of the men were married and had 5 children each. It works for me.

Even if there were

only

1,000,000 people (and we know that figure is low),

it would take a

LOT

of water for that little camp-out.

The source for my figures also estimated that there were at least 6,000,000 animals leaving Egypt. To try to have some concept of this vast number, let me try to draw you a word picture. My word picture may not be too pretty, but I will guarantee that my word picture will look better than a picture done in ink.

If the people left Egypt in a nice orderly fashion, which I'm quite sure didn't work out that way, then you would have convoy (if you can have a convoy of people) that would be..:

50 people side by side
100 miles long
+
150 miles of animals (if they were in the same configuration)

I'm quite sure that they did not leave in such an orderly formation, but at least this gives us some idea of the magnitude of this situation and all situations to follow.

Therefore, when this bunch got low on bread and water, you didn't run out to the nearest quick-stop. For instance (still using other's figures) on a daily basis there would be a need for..,

Manna

60 Railroad box cars for the people
140 Railroad box cars for the animals

THEN when it came to supplying this bunch with water.., well that's another matter.

Water

2000 Railroad tanker cars

That would be a train approximately 16 ½ miles long, or if you would like to look at it another way, it would be about 20 trains with 100 tanker cars each.

How would you like to

wait

at a railroad crossing for that train to pass?

Most of those figures are calculated speculation, BUT none the less, I hope it gives us a little better idea of what was going on in the wilderness. Seeing as how there were no trains running out there in the wilderness, at that time, God had to use a different means of delivering these needed goods.

Allow your mind to run over all the wonderful things that God did for this little wilderness camp-out. A few of the many acts of God on their behalf were their deliverance from Egypt, the Red Sea, etc., but concentrate on just the two areas of God's provision that happened EVERY day.

They

ALWAYS

could have enough water and food.

If there was nothing else, that should have been enough to cause them to rejoice in the Lord and trust Him for their future. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time understanding, with all that God did for them in their past, AND what He did for them on a daily basis, why they didn't trust God and praise Him all day long.

THEN

on the other hand, God

has done

some wonderful things for

us, too!

His blessing are new and bountiful EVERY day. Let's see, when was the last time I really praised Him, and how many times today have I failed to trust Him.

"But with

most 
(maybe 4,000,000+)

of them (Israelites in the Wilderness)

God was

not well pleased,

for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness."

Starting in the next lesson, we will spend some time exploring "why" the Israelites didn't trust God, AND therefore, we may find a hint as to why we fail to trust, too.

1 Corinthians 10:11 Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, on 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.

Let's review a bit. God's plan for this period of eternity, called "time", is REDEMPTION - of the human race, the earth, and all things.

There are many aspect of God's redemptive program. Four of the more obvious aspects are:

1. The Redemption of humanity
2. The Redemption of the earth from the domination of Satan
3. The Suspension of the curse of Genesis 3
4. The Conquest of ALL enemies

Each of these "four aspects" of redemption have at least 4 phases:

1. The promise
2. The sacrifice
3. The application
4. The consummation

We have seen that the written revelation from God:

1. Is"PROGRESSIVE"
2. Is "ACCUMULATIVE"
3. Must be "RIGHTLY DIVIDED"
4. Is in"COMPLETE HARMONY" with itself

If we are to live in and by God's will, we must:

1. Know what that will is
2. Know how to comply with that will
3. Be willing to submit to that will
4. Have the power to comply with that will
5. Etc.

I trust that when these next few lesson are through, these four things, about the will of God, will be a reality to you and to me. We will at least know HOW to make all four of the above a reality in our daily living.