Lessons #307 and 308
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Israel’s Shared Blessings (1 Cor 10:1-4)
1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
In our last study, we indicated that the overall theme of 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 is concerned not with the entire history of Israel before the Lord sent them into exile but with the specific experiences of the Israelites of the Exodus generation under the leadership of Moses. Furthermore, we stated that the experiences of the Israelites given in 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 can be understood as consisting of blessings and judgment. However, we indicate that our present section of study, that is, 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, is concerned with Israel’s shared blessings under the leadership of Moses. Consequently, we stated that the message of this section we believe the Holy Spirit wants us to convey to you is that You should under the right spiritual leadership enjoy God’s blessing through Jesus Christ. We stated also that we will expound on this message by focusing on three blessings a believer should enjoy in this life through Jesus Christ. The three blessings we are going to consider sum up the totality of God’s goodness to us on this planet. In other words, the blessings we are to consider are comprehensive that if we receive them, we need nothing more in this life. They are the ultimate blessings that a believer can enjoy on this planet. If a believer enjoys these blessings through Christ on this planet that certainly would indicate that such a believer will be eternally rewarded. We indicated that ignorance would keep a believer from enjoying God’s blessings on this planet. So, we spent some time considering the doctrine of ignorance.
We considered the doctrine of ignorance because of the sentence of 1 Corinthians 10:1 I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers. Literally, the Greek reads not I wish you to be ignorant, brothers. Recall, we stated in our last study that the greatest threat that any believer or any human, for that matter, faces regarding enjoyment of blessings of God on this planet and beyond is ignorance. So, it is not surprising that the apostle used a strong negative in the Greek (ou) that is used as an objective negative, denying the reality of alleged fact. Hence, the apostle asserts strongly what he did not desire or want about the Corinthians and so all believers.
The word “want” used in the sentence I do not want is translated from a Greek verb (thelō) that may mean “to take pleasure” or “to delight” in something as Apostle Paul used it to describe those involved in false humility and worship of angels in Colossians 2:18:
Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions.
That meaning notwithstanding, the Greek verb is used in our passage of 1 Corinthians 10:1 in the sense of “to desire,” that is, to want something strongly. The thing apostle wants strongly is for the Corinthians to know something although he expressed his desire negatively. This is probably to emphasize his concern about the danger of ignorance in the spiritual life.
Anyway, the apostle states I do not want you to be ignorant. The expression “to be ignorant” is translated from a Greek verb (agnoeō) that may mean “to fail to understand” that is, “not to understand” as it is used to describe the inability of the disciples to comprehend what the Lord Jesus said about His betrayal into the hands of men as, we read in Luke 9:45:
But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.
The word may mean “to be unaware” as the word is used in Romans 1:13:
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.
The word may mean “to be uninformed” as in 2 Corinthians 1:8:
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 10:1, the sense of the word is “to be lacking in knowledge about something,” that is, “to be uninformed about something.” Apostle Paul does not want the Corinthians to be uniformed about something that will affect their spiritual progress. As we have indicated, although the apostle used the negative statement, I do not want you to be ignorant what he meant is that there is something he wants them to know.
Apostle Paul was concerned not with every human being in Corinth but with those who are believers in Christ regardless of whether they were Jews or Gentiles. Therefore, he addressed those who were his concern with the word brothers. The word “brothers” is translated from a Greek word (adelphos) that has several meanings in the Greek. It could mean brother in the sense of a male person from the same mother as the reference person. It is in this sense that the word is used by the apostle to reference those from the same mother as Jesus in His humanity in 1 Corinthians 9:5:
Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?
The word may mean “a neighbor” as that is the sense of the Greek word in Jesus’ teaching regarding forgiveness of the one who wrongs us in Luke 17:3:
So watch yourselves. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.
The Greek word may refer to a fellow country man or a compatriot as Apostle Peter used the word to describe the onlookers after he healed a crippled man, as stated in Acts 3:17:
“Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders.
The Greek word translated “brothers” in 1 Corinthians 10:1 may also be used to describe one who has the same beliefs with the one that uses the word, irrespective of gender, that is, the word refers to “a fellow believer.” It is in this sense of one who shares the same faith and so belongs to the Christian community, that is, a “fellow believer” that Apostle Paul used the word to describe Timothy, who was a Gentile, to the Thessalonians, because although his mother was Jewess, his father was a Greek, as stated in 1 Thessalonians 3:2:
We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God’s fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith,
It is in this same sense of those who belong to the same family of God regardless of gender and so with the same beliefs, that is, “a fellow believer” that the apostle used the Greek word in our passage of 1 Corinthian 10:1.
We, of course, indicated that the apostle in using the word brothers is concerned with believers in the local church in Corinth regardless of whether they are Jews or Gentiles. This assertion seemed to be challenged by what the apostle stated he wanted the Corinthians to know in the next clause of 1 Corinthians 10:1, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. Specifically, the phrase our forefathers gives the impression that the apostle was concerned with only Jewish members of the local church in Corinth as some have interpreted the phrase. This could not be true since the apostle used the word “brothers” to refer to all believers in Corinth regardless of the ethnicity as we may gather from the beginning of the apostle’s consideration of the problems in the local church in Corinth beginning with the problem of partisanship as we read in 1 Corinthians 1:10:
I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
After this usage of brothers to introduce those he was concerned about as being involved in division, he continued to use the word whenever he wanted to convey an important truth to the local church in Corinth as, for example, in 1 Corinthians 4:6:
Now, brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us the meaning of the saying, “Do not go beyond what is written.” Then you will not take pride in one man over against another.
The apostle did not differentiate between Jewish believers and Gentile believers in Corinth when he addressed the Corinthians regarding his application of truth to himself for their benefit. Furthermore, the apostle later in this epistle conveyed the sense that when he thinks of believers in Corinth, he considered them to be in one body of Christ as implied in 1 Corinthians 12:12–13:
12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Hence, the apostle could not have used the word “brothers” in 1 Corinthians 10:1 in a way that is a reference only to Jewish believers in the local church in Corinth. The apostle did not function as many of us Christians do today where we cannot get away from thinking of our fellow believers as different from us based on human distinctions. This was not the case for the apostle. We can see this in the way he kept referring to Gentile believers as “brothers.” He referred to Titus as his brother in 2 Corinthians 2:13:
I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-by to them and went on to Macedonia.
Bear in mind that Titus was a Gentile as stated in Galatians 2:3:
Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.
The apostle consistently thought of all believers in a local church as those who belong to the family of God in Christ and so he addressed Gentile believers consistently as his brothers. He described the Galatians as his brothers in Galatians 1:11:
I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up.
It is to the Galatians the apostle taught clearly that there is no distinction in the family of God in Christ as we read in Galatians 3:28:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Consequently, there could not have been any bifurcation in the mind of the apostle when he used the word brothers to address believers in Corinth. I am saying that the apostle did not use that word in a way to differentiate one group of believers from the others in the local church in Corinth. Anyway, we are certain the apostle did not intend to distinguish between Jewish and Gentile believers in the local church in Corinth when he used the phrase of 1 Corinthians 10:1 our forefathers although on a surface reading that seems to be what the apostle meant. However, the very word forefathers he used enables us to recognize that he was concerned with all believers in Corinth not only Jewish believers as we will demonstrate by considering the Greek word used.
The word “forefathers” is translated from a Greek word (patēr) that may mean the male parent as the immediate biological ancestor, that is, father, as it is used to describe Joseph’s relationship to Jacob in Acts 7:14:
After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all.
The word may mean “forefather, ancestor, progenitor,” that is, one from whom one is descended and generally at least several generations removed as the word is used to describe Israel’s forefathers with whom the Lord made a covenant when they came out of Egypt, as described in Hebrews 8:9:
It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.
The word may be used for revered, deceased persons with whom one shares beliefs or traditions, hence means “fathers, ancestors.” Thus, the word is used for generation(s) of deceased Christians in 2 Peter 3:4:
They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”
It is used for famous men of faith of the OT who are considered “ancestors” even to Gentile Christians as Abraham is considered “father” to Gentile believers in Romans 4:11:
And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 10:1, it is used with the meaning “ancestor or father” so that although it could be biologically applied to the Jews in Corinthians church, but it is used to refer to Israel as a group of religious heroes of the OT that are in a sense “ancestor” to Gentile Christians. Thus, the apostle when he used the word forefathers in 1 Corinthians 10:1, he thought of believers as being included as Abraham’s descendants through faith in Christ. The point is that when he used the word we are considering, he meant to include both Jews and Gentiles in the church of Christ as those who share in the spiritual heritage of Israel.
In any case, the apostle having stated his desire for all believers in Corinth regarding knowing some truths that should help them in the spiritual race or progress, began with stating the three blessings that sum up the totality of God’s goodness to us that are derived from God’s goodness shown to Israel under the leadership of Moses. The first blessing is the enjoyment of God’s presence that is manifested in the form of protection and guidance. It is this blessing that is conveyed in the clause of 1 Corinthians 10:1 that our forefathers were all under the cloud. The word “were” is translated from an imperfect tense of a Greek word (eimi) that here means “to be.” However, the Greek used the imperfect tense to convey that in the past, during the exodus, Israel kept on being under the cloud. It was not an experience that happened once but one that continued at the time of exodus. The use of the imperfect tense does not tell us when Israel ceased being under the cloud but left us recognizing what happened in the past. It is not like the situation that we are informed when God stopped providing manna for Israel, as recorded for us in Joshua 5:12:
The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land; there was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate of the produce of Canaan.
Thus, it is probably the case that the Holy Spirit wants us to keep imagining how Israel kept being under the cloud so we can think of whatever that implies as something that God continues to do for believers in Christ, which we said is the blessing of His presence manifested in the form of protection and guidance.
The protection and guidance conveyed in our clause that our forefathers were all under the cloud is given in the phrase under the cloud. To understand our point that this phrase conveys the concept of protection and guidance, let us briefly consider the word “cloud” as it is used in the Scripture. The first mention of cloud in the OT Scripture is after the flood judgment when God established a new relationship with humanity through Noah, symbolized by a rainbow in the clouds as we read in Genesis 9:12–17:
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” 17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
Clouds are used sparingly in a meteorological context in the Scripture. It is used this way to indicate impending rain following the showdown between Elijah and the prophets of Baal as we read in 1 Kings 18:44:
The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.”
So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’”
This aside, the dominant use of “clouds” in the Bible is figuratively. Clouds are used as symbol of transitoriness as we read in Job 7:9:
As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to the grave does not return.
The vanishing of cloud implies that cloud is no longer visible. Thus, the point of the comparison here is that when a person dies, he does not come back again to this earth. Clouds are used figuratively to convey God’s glory as in the day of Solomon’s dedication of the temple where the glory of God is portrayed in terms of cloud filling the temple as we read in 1 Kings 8:10–11:
10 When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD. 11 And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled his temple.
It is not only that the temple was filled with cloud and so conveyed God’s glory, but it also signifies the presence of God. We say this because the glory of the LORD in the context refers to the bright light that signified the presence of the Lord. Of course, we should recognize that in some other context, the glory of the Lord may refer to His attributes as in Psalm 104:31:
May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works—
In this context, the glory of the LORD refers to His power and majesty as revealed in His creation of and dominion over all living creatures. In another passage, majesty in terms of strength or power of God is related to clouds as implied in Deuteronomy 33:26:
“There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty.
Anyway, the fact that cloud signifies the presence of God is conveyed severally in the Scripture. When Aaron and Miriam slandered Moses’ authority, the Lord appeared to them through the cloud to manifest His presence. So, we read of the Lord coming to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam in form of a cloud as we read in Numbers 12:5:
Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward,
After the Lord finished rebuking Aaron and Miriam, He left them with Miriam experiencing the judgment of leprosy. The departure of the Lord is conveyed in terms of the lifting of the cloud as we read in Numbers 12:10:
When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam—leprous, like snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had leprosy.
In the transfiguration experience of the Lord Jesus, witnessed by Peter, James, and John, the presence of God is signified by a cloud as we read in Matthew 17:5:
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
Clouds are portrayed as serving as God’s war chariot and or His means of transportation as we read in Psalm 68:4:
Sing to God, sing praise to his name, extol him who rides on the clouds—his name is the LORD—and rejoice before him.
In the same vein, clouds are portrayed as the vehicle of the second coming of Jesus Christ as stated in Matthew 24:30:
“At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.
It is true that clouds here in Matthew conveys the vehicle of the second coming of Christ, but it also conveys Christ’s majesty and power. Clouds convey protection from the heat of the sun as we read in Isaiah 25:5:
and like the heat of the desert. You silence the uproar of foreigners; as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is stilled.
Clouds depict symbol of blessing in Isaiah 45:8:
“You heavens above, rain down righteousness; let the clouds shower it down. Let the earth open wide, let salvation spring up, let righteousness grow with it; I, the LORD, have created it.
In contrast to blessing, clouds serve as symbol of judgment in Zephaniah 1:15:
That day will be a day of wrath, a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness,
We have considered the various figurative usages of cloud in the Scripture. However, we have interpreted the phrase under the cloud in the clause of 1 Corinthians 10:1 that our forefathers were all under the cloud to mean that Israel was under God’s protection and guidance in the desert. To support this interpretation, we refer to the primary passage Apostle Paul would have had in mind when he wrote the phrase we interpreted. The passage the Holy Spirit brought to the apostle’s mind is the account of Israel’s travels in the desert beginning with the description given prior to the Lord dividing the Red Sea for Israel to pass. This passage is Exodus 13:21–22:
21 By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. 22 Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.
The phrase a pillar of cloud represents God’s presence, but it involves physical entity that Israel looked up to for directing them which way to travel. It is because Israel recognized the cloud as conveying the presence of God that whenever the cloud appears in the Tent of Meeting, Israel worshipped the Lord as we read in Exodus 33:10:
Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent.
That aside, the guidance the Lord provided Israel in their travels is conveyed in the verbal phrase of Exodus 13:21 to guide them on their way. The situation is that God led Israel in the daytime through a physical manifestation of Himself in a way that Israel could follow His lead as represented in the pillar of cloud that was continuously moving so Israel followed its movement as giving them the direction to travel. The cloud that represents God’s presence and guidance for Israel is described as the manner God determined for Israel when to travel or when not to, according to the record in Exodus 40:36–38:
36 In all the travels of the Israelites, whenever the cloud lifted from above the tabernacle, they would set out; 37 but if the cloud did not lift, they did not set out—until the day it lifted. 38 So the cloud of the LORD was over the tabernacle by day, and fire was in the cloud by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel during all their travels.
Thus, it is clear the pillar of cloud that signified the Lord’s presence with Israel was used for guidance for them not only when to travel but the route to follow since Israel marched behind the pillar of cloud, implying that the pillar of cloud was guiding them in the way to travel. But that is not all that the cloud served. The cloud served for protection of Israel from the blistering heat of the desert. It is not difficult to imagine that this was the case since we have already noted that cloud protects from heat of the sun. Anyway, we are certain that the cloud provided protection for Israel because of the declarations of the Scripture. Moses conveyed that the cloud served as a protection indirectly in Numbers 10:34:
The cloud of the LORD was over them by day when they set out from the camp.
To say that the cloud was over Israel is to say that they were protected from the punishing heat of the desert. This point is also conveyed using the word “covering” by the psalmist, according to Psalm 105:39:
He spread out a cloud as a covering, and a fire to give light at night.
Here, the cloud is described as a protective covering for Israel. This could only refer to the protection from the excessive heat of the desert. Thus, the Lord graciously provided Israel protection as they marched through the desert or during their wanderings in the desert.
Be that as it may, the clause of 1 Corinthians 10:1 that our forefathers were all under the cloud enables us to state that the first blessing of Israel in the desert under the leadership of Moses consists of God’s presence with them evident in His guidance and protection. You recall that the message directed to you as a believer is that You should under the right spiritual leadership enjoy God’s blessing through Jesus Christ. The implication is that every believer under the right spiritual leadership should enjoy the same first blessing of Israel in the desert under the leadership of Moses. Thus, we apply to you the first blessing of Israel in the desert under Moses’ leadership.
Israel enjoyed God’s presence among them so should you. God has promised His presence to believers. God promised Israel, and by implication every believer, of His continued presence as we read in Deuteronomy 31:6:
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
In the context of Deuteronomy, the promise he will never leave you nor forsake you is to be understood to mean that God would not fail to help Israel as He promised, nor will He abandon them. If God helps Israel always and never abandons them that imply His continued presence with them. The promise of God’s presence that includes helping of His people is given through Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 41:10:
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
This same promise of God’s continued presence is found in the words of Prophet Haggai to the Israelites who returned from exile, as we read in Haggai 1:13:
Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, gave this message of the LORD to the people: “I am with you,” declares the LORD.
Again, the sentence I am with you is a declaration of God’s continued presence with His covenant people. If you are a believer in Christ, you are a member of God’s new covenant and so the promise of God’s continued presence given to Israel is applicable to you. That aside, the Lord Jesus Christ assured the church of His continued presence within it as we read in Matthew 28:20:
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The sentence I am with you always is a declaration of Lord Jesus’ presence with the church and so by implication that every believer would have His continued presence. Someone may say that the promise is to the church only and not to the individual. That is incorrect. The church of Christ consists of individuals who would enjoy His continued presence. This truth is confirmed by the assurance of Jesus’ continued presence He gave to His disciples in John 14:18:
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
When the Lord Jesus said I will not leave you as orphans He means that He would not leave His disciples alone without anyone to care about them since an orphan general refers to one left alone in that both parents are not around to help care for such an individual. Hence, when the Lord Jesus promised that He will not leave His disciples, and so believers, as orphans, it is His way of assuring us of His continued presence. Of course, prior to this promise, the Lord had promised to believers the continued presence of the Holy Spirit in John 14:16–17:
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
The presence of the Holy Spirit implies that as a believer He can empower you to be a witness for Christ, as we read in Acts 1:8:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Anyway, you should recognize that you, as a believer in Christ, have the continued presence of God in your life. Recognition of this truth should help you be conscious of how you conduct yourself and to keep from being afraid of whatever circumstances you face.
The next thing Israel under the leadership of Moses enjoyed in the desert as part of God’s first blessing is God’s guidance as we have already noted. His guidance is also available to you as believer in Christ. We can demonstrate this statement in two ways. First, the promise of God’s guidance is given to the psalmist in Psalm 32:8:
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.
The words “instruct,” “teach,” and “counsel” are words that are concerned with guidance. Thus, the Lord promised the psalmist His guidance. Since the Scripture is given for your benefit as a believer then you can claim this promise to mean that God promised His guidance to you. He will show you the way to live your life as a believer and how to do things that are pleasing to Him. Second, the Lord’s promise of guidance through the Holy Spirit to believers under persecution or situation that challenges their faith, is given in Luke 12:11–12:
11 “When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
Teaching a believer what to say under the condition we mentioned is tantamount to providing guidance to the believer. Hence, you, as a believer in Christ, should be assured of God’s guidance in difficult circumstances of your life.
In our day, the most objective means of God’s guidance is through the Scripture as we can infer from Psalm 119:105:
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
The psalmist in this declaration indicates that God’s word provides guidance for his life. In this passage “lamp” is used figurative for “guidance.” The word “feet” is not to be understood in a literal sense although it is true that feet are used when a person walks, but here foot is used as a figure of speech known as synecdoche by which a part is put for the whole so that here the foot is used for the total person. Therefore, the clause your word is a lamp to my feet means that the word of God provides guidance to the life of the psalmist. Anyway, the point is that the Scripture is the most objective way of God’s guidance for us today as implied in what the Holy Spirit stated through Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16–17:
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
The words “teaching”, “rebuking,” and “correcting” are words that speak to guidance. So, the Scripture is given to us for guidance. If the scripture is a means of guidance, then it is necessary for the believer to be under the right spiritual leadership to be taught the word of God so that by applying it the believer will receive the blessing of God’s guidance. Anyway, there are other ways God had guided believers. For example, He guided them through the casting of lots as we read of the early church using this means to determine the replacement of Judas Iscariot, as we read in Acts 1:26:
Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.
Reliance on the casting of lot as a mean of guidance from God is based on the understanding that God is in total control of everything including the outcome of rolling a dice as we may gather from Proverbs 16:33:
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.
God may guide through dreams as was the case with the guidance regarding preserving the baby Jesus from Herod’s attempt to kill Him by instructing Joseph to flee to Egypt and instructing him when it was safe to return as we read in Matthew 2:19–20:
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
Guidance when facing two good choices may be obtained through peace that God gives as the arbiter of the choices the person faces as implied in Colossians 3:15:
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
We have mentioned briefly some of the other ways God provides guidance, but He also provides guidance through circumstances although often it requires a person to understand God’s word to be able to interpret circumstances of life as a means of God’s guidance. The point is that we should be careful of limiting the means God provides guidance, considering He used physical cloud to provide guidance to Israel regarding their travels.
Another thing Israel enjoyed as part of God’s first blessing to them under the leadership of Moses while in the desert is His protection. You also can enjoy His protection as part of your blessing when you are under the right spiritual leadership where you get proper teaching of the word of God. You can enjoy both physical and spiritual protections from the Lord as they are promised to believers. Physical protection is the focus of the promise of Psalm 121:5–6:
5 The LORD watches over you— the LORD is your shade at your right hand; 6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
Although the words “sun” and “moon” are used in verse 6, we should understand these words to convey that God protects the believer day and night. It is physical protection from disaster that the psalmist believed God would provide for him, as stated in Psalm 57:1:
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.
It is physical protection that is the concern of the declaration of Proverbs 14:26:
He who fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.
Physical protection of the Lord is for those who love Him and obey His word as implied in Proverbs 2:7–8:
7 He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, 8for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.
Shield is a figure of protection and defense so that protection of the Lord is for those who live in obedience to His word as conveyed in the words “upright,” “blameless,” and “faithful.” That aside, spiritual protection is available to the believer as per the priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus as recorded in John 17:11–12:
11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
It is spiritual protection of the Lord that is promised in the sense of protection from Satan and by implication from all his agents as stated in 2 Thessalonians 3:3:
But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
No doubt, the Lord will protect the believer from Satan, but spiritual protection requires the believer be armed with God’s armor for spiritual warfare as in Ephesians 6:11–12:
11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
In any event, we have considered the first blessing of Israel under the leadership of Moses that you should enjoy as a believer in keeping with the message we have stated. This message again is that You should under the right spiritual leadership enjoy God’s blessing through Jesus Christ. The first blessing is the enjoyment of God’s presence that is manifested in form of protection and guidance.
04/09//21