Lessons #313 and 314
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+ 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. +
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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.
Recall the message of this section of 1 Corinthians 10:1-4 that we have been considering is that You should under the right spiritual leadership enjoy God’s blessing through Jesus Christ. Also recall we said at the introduction of the section that its exposition will focus on three blessings a believer should enjoy in this planet through Jesus Christ in keeping with the blessings of Israel in the desert. 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. The second consists of God’s deliverance of Israel as they crossed the Red Sea on a dry land because the Lord parted the sea to enable them cross. We did not immediately consider the third blessing because, as we argued in our last study, the Holy Spirit wanted us to recognize the importance of right spiritual leadership so that He directed Apostle Paul to reference Moses before dealing with the third. Moses, as we indicated, was referenced in verse 2 primarily to convey to us the importance of spiritual leadership. Furthermore, he was introduced to warn us against not following God’s instruction since Moses did not enter the land of Canaan because of his failure of acting in a way that did not show that God is devoted to Israel or show Him to be holy. Of course, we also indicated he was introduced to remind us of the necessity of faithfulness and humility in the spiritual life. Following the introduction of Moses, the apostle continued with the third blessing of Israel. It is with this third blessing that we begin our study today.
The third blessing of Israel in the desert under the leadership of Moses is that of continual sustenance by the Lord. This sustenance is described first in terms of food in 1 Corinthians 10:3 They all ate the same spiritual food. The phrase They all refers to the people that left Egypt under Moses’ leadership. As we mentioned previously, that would include the non-Hebrew people that accompanied the Israelites as they left Egypt. Thus, the phrase they all makes no distinction. Everyone travelling under the leadership of Moses ate the same spiritual food.
What does the apostle mean in the phrase spiritual food? To answer the question, we need to consider the two words used in the phrase. The adjective “spiritual” is not to be understood merely as referring to the immaterial. This is because the word is translated from a Greek word (pneumatikos) that has to do with divine Spirit with the meaning “spiritual” and so it is used for impersonal things. For example, it is used about song believers are to sing in Ephesians 5:19:
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,
Likewise, it is used to refer to wisdom that the Holy Spirit gives in Colossians 1:9:
For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
The word is used of a person guided by the Holy Spirit as we read in Galatians 6:1:
Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.
When the word is used with a definite article in plural, it may mean “spiritual things or matters.” In our passage of 1 Corinthians 10:3, it means “spiritual” in the sense of being characterized by the Holy Spirit. Hence, there is a unique sense in which the word is used with “food” in the phrase the same spiritual food.
The word “food” is translated from a Greek word (brōma) that literally means that which is eaten, that is, food as the apostle used it to describe doctrine of demons taught by some teachers as stated in 1 Timothy 4:3:
They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.
The word may mean “nourishment of a transcendent nature” hence means “means of sustenance, food” as Jesus used it to convey that doing the will of the Father is to be taken as that which sustains Him in John 4:34:
“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 10:3, it is used in literal sense of “food” as a source of nourishment.
Having considered the words used in the phrase the same spiritual food, we can now answer the question of what the apostle meant in the phrase spiritual food. Some think that the apostle had in mind one of the elements of the Lord’s Supper since he referenced the Lord’s Supper in verses 16 and 17 of 1 Corinthians 10. It is possible but when the apostle used the phrase he was thinking of something specific the Israelites ate in the desert. Therefore, the phrase spiritual food is a reference to manna the Lord provided to Israel in the desert that was introduced first in the record of Exodus 16:4–5:
4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.”
This passage did not use the word “manna” to describe the food from heaven that God provided the Israelites, but the name is derived from the Hebrew word the Israelites used in their question regarding the first appearance of thin flakes from heaven as we read in Exodus 16:14–15:
14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. 15 When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.
The question What is it? is translated from two Hebrew words mān hûʾ. Apparently, it is from this question that the word “manna” is derived as used in Exodus 16:31–32:
31 The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. 32 Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded: ‘Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the desert when I brought you out of Egypt.’”
Manna was the food the Lord provided Israel throughout their forty years in the desert that He terminated once they entered Canaan. That manna was provided for Israel for forty years is stated in Exodus 16:35:
The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.
Its termination is confirmed 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.
We should recognize that manna was indeed the source of food for Israel in that it was not a ready-made food like the food the Lord fed Prophet Elijah, as narrated in 1 Kings 19:5–7:
5 Then he lay down under the tree and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” 6 He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. 7 The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.”
The Israelites made their food from the raw material the Lord provided in that they either baked or boiled the thin flakes they collected every day except on the Sabbath as implied in the instruction of the Lod through Moses stated in Exodus 16:23:
He said to them, “This is what the LORD commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.’”
The point we seek to make is that the Lord did not send a finished product but a source from which the Israelites were to prepare their food in any way they wanted it.
Why do I make an issue of the point that the Lord did not give Israel a finished product that may be considered bread, you may ask? It is because Apostle Paul described the food the Lord provided for Israel in the desert using the phrase of 1 Corinthians 10:3 spiritual food. The reason for this description is that the element for preparing Israel’s food came directly from God so that it is accurately described as spiritual in the sense of being associated directly with God or food that was provided in a supernatural manner. It is true that the grains we use for cereal and bread are from God, but He does not send them directly from heaven; instead, it is through the process of growing such grain that He gives them to us. Furthermore, it seems that the Holy Spirit directed the apostle not to give the indication that the Israelites ate spiritual bread because Jesus Christ described Himself as the bread from heaven as we read, for example, in, John 6:48–51:
48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. 50 But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
Hence, the Holy Spirit wanted us to think of only one true bread from heaven, the Lord Jesus. It seems that the Holy Spirit directed the apostle to use the word “food” instead of “bread” because the food Israel ate in the desert was described first as “bread of angels” in Psalm 78:24–25:
24he rained down manna for the people to eat, he gave them the grain of heaven. 25Men ate the bread of angels; he sent them all the food they could eat.
Then, the food is described as “bread of heaven” Psalm 105:40:
They asked, and he brought them quail and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
The use of the word “bread” in the two passages in Psalm gives the impression that Israelites ate bread that came from heaven. To complicate things, the Septuagint translated the word “bread” with a Greek word (artos) that Apostle Paul used later in verse 16 of 1 Corinthians 10 that is also used in Jesus’ assertion that He is the bread from heaven. The Greek word used may mean “bread” as a baked product from grain. However, the Greek word can also mean “food” as any kind of food or nourishment as that is the sense that the word is used by Apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 3:8:
nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you.
Since Apostle Paul used the Greek word that may also mean “bread” with the sense of “food” in his epistle to the Thessalonians, he knew that the word could mean food, but he did not use it in describing what the Israelites ate in the desert. Again, it is because the Holy Spirit guided him to use a word that refers to food in a general sense to avoid implying that what God sent directly to Israel in the desert is already-made food in form of bread. Interesting, the word “bread” that was used in the psalms that we cited is translated from a Hebrew word (lěḥěm) with the basic meaning of “food, staple” It is probably because baked bread was the staple food of most meals among the ancient Hebrew people that the Hebrew word idiomatically denotes “bread.” The word may mean “grain” as it is used in Isaiah 28:28:
Grain must be ground to make bread; so one does not go on threshing it forever. Though he drives the wheels of his threshing cart over it, his horses do not grind it.
The sentence of Isaiah 28:28 Grain must be ground to make bread is more literally Grain is crushed fine. Thus, it is better to recognize that what God gave Israel from heaven is food for their sustenance and not bread. There can only be one true bread from heaven, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is He, that is the living bread that if anyone eats, that is, believes in Him, would have eternal life. Anyway, my point is that the Holy Spirit directed the Apostle to use the phrase spiritual food to distinguish what Israel ate in a literal sense from the true bread of God that came down from heaven. Anyway, under the leadership of Moses God provided Israel the food called “manna” they ate for forty years in the desert.
In any case, human sustenance involves not only of food in a solid form but also liquid to quench thirst. Therefore, under the leadership of Moses, the Lord provided Israel drink. It is this that is described in the verbal phrase of 1 Corinthians 10:4 and drank the same spiritual drink.
The action of Israel is described with the word “drank” that is translated from a Greek word (pinō) that literally means “to drink,” that is, to take in liquid as it is used in the partaking of the Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:28:
A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.
The word is used in connection with a cup leading to the expression “to drink the cup” that means “to submit to a severe trial, or death” as it is used by the Lord Jesus in His response to the request of the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, as recorded in Matthew 20:22:
“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said to them. “Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?” “We can,” they answered.
The word may have the sense of “to absorb, soak up” as the word is used in imagery with the earth in Hebrews 6:7:
Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God.
It is in the sense of “to drink,” that is, to take in liquids by the mouth that the word is used in its two occurrences in our passage of 1 Corinthians 10:4.
The first occurrence of the word in the verbal phrase drank the same spiritual drink is used either to present a fact that occurred with the Israelites in the desert or to summarize the event of drinking of water from a source that is mentioned in the verse. This is because the apostle used a different Greek tense (aorist) in the first usage of the word than he did in the second that we will get to shortly. The apostle is concerned not with every act of drinking of water by the Israelites in the desert but with that that comes from a unique source. It is because of the unique source that the water they drank was regarded as spiritual drink. You see, the Lord provided water to Israel in the desert so that they had water to drink. That Israel had water to drink during their travels is implied by the Lord healing an existing water source through His instruction to Moses to make it drinkable by the Israelites as described in Exodus 15:23–25:
23 When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) 24 So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What are we to drink?”
25 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the LORD made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them.
So, there should be no doubt that the Lord provided water to Israel but what the apostle described with the phrase spiritual drink is concerned with unique source that involved miraculous display of God’s power hence the water is described as spiritual drink.
To help us understand that the apostle’s use of the phrase spiritual drink is concerned with special provision of water for Israel in the desert from a unique source, the apostle provided an elaboration or explanation of what he meant by spiritual drink or his reason for describing the water from a unique source Israel drank as spiritual. We say this because the apostle began the second clause of 1 Corinthians 10:4 with the word for. The word “for” is translated from a Greek conjunction (gar) that is used here to explain or provide the basis for describing the water Israel drank from a special source as spiritual.
The reason the water Israel drank from a special source is described as spiritual is because the water was provided from a rock in a miraculous display of God’s power. It is this reason or explanation that is given in the second clause of 1 Corinthians 10:4 they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them. As we indicated previously, the word “drank” of the NIV is translated from a different Greek tense than the first usage of the Greek word translated “drank.” This second time the apostle used an Imperfect tense in the Greek so that the sentence they drank of the NIV is literally they were drinking. Hence, the apostle was probably thinking of two specific occasions in the desert that the Lord provided water to Israel miraculous through a specific rock. The first occasion reported is after Israel camped at Rephidim as narrated in Exodus 17:1–7:
1The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?” 3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” 4 Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 The LORD answered Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
The second occasion is when Israel encamped in Kadesh as described in Numbers 20:1–11:
1 In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried. 2 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. 3 They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! 4 Why did you bring the LORD’s community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? 5 Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!” 6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them. 7 The LORD said to Moses, 8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.” 9 So Moses took the staff from the LORD’s presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
Some commentators take the view that these two passages describe one event. There are so many differences in the narrative of both incidents that it does not appear that the same incident is described differently. The Israelites kept wandering in the desert so that they returned to the same general location twice and faced the same situation of lack of water. The water they drank was supplied miraculous from a specific rock that was at Horeb.
It is true that Moses was an intermediate agent of the Lord’s miracle of bringing forth water from the rock but the true source of the miracle of water coming from the rock at Horeb is the Lord Jesus Christ described in the clause of 1 Corinthians 10:4 the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. In this clause, the apostle focused on the Lord Jesus as the source of the water that Israel drank. The phrase spiritual rock conveys that the apostle was no longer thinking of the physical rock from which water poured out for Israel to quench their thirst but on the source of the water that came from the rock. It is for this reason that the apostle could speak of spiritual rock.
The word “rock” is translated from a Greek word (petra) that means “rock.” However, in the Septuagint, it is used as a name for God as in David’s song of praise after the Lord delivered him from all his enemies as recorded in 2 Samuel 22:2:
He said: “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
The word is used figuratively for describing the resistance of the One described as the Servant of God, that is, the Messiah, to every attempt to humiliate Him as described in Isaiah 50:7:
Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.
The sentence have I set my face like flint in the Septuagint reads I set my face like a solid rock. Of course, a flint is a very hard stone that in ancient times people used to make primitive tools such as knives and arrowheads. That aside, the sentence I set my face like flint is an idiom that means one is fully determined to face any situation that confronts one. Thus, the Servant of God resisted the mistreatment He received by using the smile of His face so we can say that rock is used to describe His unyielding character in the face of mistreatment. Anyway, in the NT, the Greek word means “bedrock or massive rock formations.” The word refers to a rocky ground with a thin layer of topsoil as it is used in the Lord’s parable of Sower as we read in Luke 8:6:
Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture.
The word is used to describe Christ as “a rock of offence or stumbling” as in quotation of the OT by Apostle Paul in Romans 9:33:
As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 10:4, the Greek word is used in the sense of “a large, smooth mass of rock detached from its place of origin.”
The rock in the miracle of providing water for Israel in the desert is described using the word spiritual because of the interpretation the apostle was about to give the rock from which water rushed out for Israel to drink. The apostle not only described the rock at Horeb associated with miracle of provision of water for Israel with the word spiritual but also with the word accompanied in the NIV of 1 Corinthians 10:4.
The word “accompanied” is translated from a Greek word (akoloutheō) that literally means to move behind someone in the same direction hence means “to follow, come after” as in the instruction of the Lord Jesus to Peter and John regarding locating the place He and they were to eat the Passover as recorded in Luke 22:10:
He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters.
The word may mean “to accompany” or “go along with” as it is used to indicate the disciples of Lord Jesus followed Him to His hometown, as stated in Mark 6:1:
Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples.
The word may be used figuratively to mean “to be a disciple” as in the instruction of the Lord Jesus to Matthew to become His disciple as we read in Matthew 9:9:
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 10:4, the word is used in sense of to move behind someone in the same direction, that is, “to travel behind” or “to come after.” This meaning should alert the reader that the apostle was no longer referring to a physical rock at Horeb since rock is incapable of travel or going after someone. In fact, there was no time that we have a narrative of the rock following the Israelites, but they returned to the same location after a long period of their first stay at that place of the miracle of provision of water from the rock. The narrative in Exodus indicates that what followed the Israelites as they traveled from Egypt is the cloud or the pillar of fire that symbolized the presence of the Lord with Israel, as we read in Exodus 13:21:
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.
This aside, it is probably the case that when the apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:4 the spiritual rock that accompanied them he was thinking of a Jewish tradition that says that the rock that provided water for Israel traveled with them as the cloud did.
In any case, there was a specific rock that was at Horeb that the apostle had in mind because he used the phrase of 1 Corinthians 10:4 that rock or literally the rock since the apostle used a definite article the in the Greek to refer to the well-known rock in the narrative of the miracle of provision of water for Israel in the desert. We say that this is a well-known rock because in the first reference to the rock, we are simply informed that it is at Horeb as stated in Exodus 17:6:
I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.
The second reference to the miracle of water issuing from the rock, the rock was not described as being at Horeb but simply as the rock as we read in Numbers 20:8:
“Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”
Hence, the rock is well-known in the narrative of the blessing of water the Lord provided for Israel in the desert.
The Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul wants us to recognize that God was really the source of the miracle of water coming from the rock as in the phrase of 1 Corinthians 10:4 from the spiritual rock. To be sure we understand that God was the source of the miracle of water pouring forth from the rock at Horeb, the Holy Spirit in no uncertain terms tells us through the apostle that it was Jesus Christ that was the source of the miracle as we read in the last clause of 1 Corinthians 10:4 and that rock was Christ. The apostle did not mean that sn inanimate object was Christ but that is a way to tell us that He was responsible for the miracle of water gushing out from the rock when Moses did what God instructed him although as we have said, the apostle could be thinking of the Jewish tradition of a traveling rock or well of water. Anyhow, this identification of Christ as being behind the miracle of provision of water from the rock to the Israelites helps us to be certain that the One who accompanied the Israelites as they traveled from Egypt and throughout their stay in the desert is the pre-incarnate Son of God. He is the One that was described as the Lord that went ahead of the Israelites. Furthermore, the clause and that rock was Christ conveys to us that Jesus Christ is the source of the blessing of sustenance the Israelites received under the leadership of Moses. This assertion enables us to recognize how we tied the enjoyment of blessing of the Israelites in the desert to Jesus Christ hence the message of 1 Corinthians 10:1-4 which is that You should under the right spiritual leadership enjoy God’s blessing through Jesus Christ.
Be that as it may, we asserted that the third blessing of Israel in the desert under the leadership of Moses is that of sustenance. In keeping with the application of the blessing of Israel to us believers, we should consider the sustenance that we should receive through the Lord Jesus Christ under the right spiritual leadership. The sustenance we receive is first spiritual and then physical.
Spiritual sustenance has been provided for believers in that we are assured we have everything necessary to thrive in our faith as that is implied in 2 Peter 1:3:
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Some scholars connect the word life with the word godliness by indicating that it is a hendiadys so that the meaning would be “a life of godliness.” The implication is that Peter is concerned primarily with our spiritual life and its provisions. While this is possible it is best to see that the apostle as concerned with both our physical existence and our spiritual existence since the Scripture bears out this in that God is concerned for our physical sustenance as well as our spiritual sustenance. Apostle Peter was certainly concerned with the spiritual sustenance of believers that are to be provided through those who are over them spiritually as implied in the instruction to the elders he gave in 1 Peter 5:1–3:
1To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.
Shepherding of believers certainly involves nurturing them spiritually through the teaching of the word of God. It is not that a shepherd of the church of Christ is not concerned with physical needs of those he shepherds, but his greater concern is with their spiritual nourishment as he probably could not do much about their physical sustenance, especially as the believers are responsible for taking care of their shepherds in form of supporting them as apostle had indicated in the ninth chapter of 1 Corinthians. That shepherds or overseers of a local church of Christ are primarily concerned with spiritual sustenance is illustrated by what Apostle Paul stated of doing to the Thessalonians as we read in 1 Thessalonians 2:7–12:
7 but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. 8 We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. 9 Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. 10 You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. 11 For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, 12 encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
Apostle Paul indicated that part of nurturing or caring for the Thessalonians involves encouraging and urging them to live lives worthy of God. Thus, he provided them spiritual nourishment for their spiritual sustenance. We, of course, should not forget that the reason the Lord of the church gave spiritual gifts of communication of God’s word to certain men is to nourish or sustain believers spiritually as stated in Ephesians 4:11–13:
11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Because believers are to be sustained by proper teaching of the word of God, we should ensure that we are under the right kind of spiritual leadership. The right kind of spiritual leadership will teach the whole realm of truth without mincing words or holding back because of not wanting to offend people. On the other hand, the wrong spiritual leadership wants to dance to the whims or likes of believers so that they would teach only what the congregation wants to hear or what they desire that would please them. It is not surprising that the Holy Spirit tells us that in the last days such teachers will exist, as we read in 2 Timothy 4:3–4:
3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
My point is that if you only want those who would teach what you want to hear, you are allying yourself with wrong spiritual leadership. Consequently, you will not receive the spiritual nourishment that you need to thrive on this planet. Furthermore, your lack of spiritual nourishment may affect your physical nourishment in that the Lord may withhold His material blessings on you or you may have abundance of material things, but He denies you the ability to enjoy them as Solomon complained as one of the things that he found incomprehensible in Ecclesiastes 6:2:
God gives a man wealth, possessions and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires, but God does not enable him to enjoy them, and a stranger enjoys them instead. This is meaningless, a grievous evil.
Anyway, we should recognize that the Lord has also provided physical sustenance for the believer as part of His blessing. There are at least two ways to demonstrate that the Lord is committed to the sustenance of the believer. The first is from declarations in psalm. The testimony of the psalmist at old age indicates that God takes care of those who seek to please Him as stated in Psalm 37:25:
I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.
The righteous here does not mean one that is perfect but the believer who lives in obedience to God’s word and so is faithful to God. The psalmist from his past experience has observed the Lord’s sustenance of the righteous including his children. Such testimony speaks to God’s commitment towards the sustenance of the believer. Another declaration of the psalmist that supports that God is committed to the sustenance of the believer is in Psalm 104:27–28:
27These all look to you to give them their food at the proper time. 28 When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things.
The psalmist indicates that every living creature looks to God for food which He provides at the appropriate time. God does so because He is committed to provide sustenance for all creatures on this planet. So, if that is the case, we are certain that He is committed to provide sustenance to believers in Christ.
A second way to demonstrate that God is committed to the sustenance of believers is through the command against worrying regarding the believer’s sustenance as stated in Matthew 6:31–34:
31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
The conjunction So that begins verse 31 is used in an inferential sense. In effect, it is because of what was stated in the preceding verses that the Lord gives the command that follows. The preceding verses convey that God clothes grass, so if He did that He will certainly provide sustenance for the believer. It is because God is committed to providing the believer’s sustenance that there is a prohibition against worrying. The Lord would not have commanded us not to worry about our food and clothing if God is not committed to provide believers’ sustenance. However, we should note that the requirement on the part of believers is to seek to be under God’s rule implying that we seek to do what He requires. To know what God requires of believers necessitates believers being taught God’s word. Thus, we get back to the importance of spiritual leadership in the enjoyment of God’s blessing. Hence the message of this section: You should under the right spiritual leadership enjoy God’s blessing through Jesus Christ. Here is what we have studied in this passage in a nutshell. If you are under the right spiritual leadership, you should enjoy God’s presence that is implies you are guided and protected. Such blessing will imply that you will live a life that pleases God. You will enjoy God’s deliverances. You will enjoy His physical and spiritual sustenance on this planet. If You enjoy all three blessing that would guarantee that You will be eternally rewarded. So, strive to be under the right spiritual leadership.
04/30//21