As most of you know, the New Testament is the Old Testament fulfilled (or revealed) through Christ. The Old Testament is full of types and shadows that point to the culmination of God’s plan and purpose for humanity. What is this purpose and plan that is revealed in the New Testament? Answer: To bring the people of God into perfect union with the Godhead, so that His glory will be manifested through them, a corporate body, wholly yielded to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
Our Father has shown us the growth process that we must go through in the lives of the children of Israel. I understand that most churches fail to teach this truth in it’s entirety (they speak of the good times—but leave out the fact that most growth occurred in pain, struggle, trails and temptations). In fact, have you ever wondered where the phase “growing pains” came from—well any seasoned brother or sister in the faith will testify about growing pains. It is through these growing pains that we mature. I ask you to seek the Father’s wisdom through this teaching.
1 Corinthians 10:1-12 states; “And I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,10:2 and all to Moses were baptized in the cloud, and in the sea;10:3 and all the same spiritual food did eat,10:4 and all the same spiritual drink did drink, for they were drinking of a spiritual rock following them, and the rock was the Christ;10:5 but in the most of them God was not well pleased, for they were strewn in the wilderness,10:6 and those things became types of us, for our not passionately desiring evil things, as also these did desire.10:7 Neither become ye idolaters, as certain of them, as it hath been written, `The people sat down to eat and to drink, and stood up to play;'10:8 neither may we commit whoredom, as certain of them did commit whoredom, and there fell in one day twenty-three thousand;10:9 neither may we tempt the Christ, as also certain of them did tempt, and by the serpents did perish;10:10 neither murmur ye, as also some of them did murmur, and did perish by the destroyer.10:11 And all these things as types did happen to those persons, and they were written for our admonition, to whom the end of the ages did come,10:12 so that he who is thinking to stand -- let him observe, lest he fall.”
In this passage we see that we have a witness to the fact that the children of Israel are our type that is given to admonish us. Paul states that he doesn't want the sisters and brothers in Corinth to be ignorant of the warnings, if you will, and examples that our gracious Father has given us. The Apostle Paul even goes to the extent to remind us of the activities that some of the Hebrew children did not overcome - they did not graduate from their wilderness experience. They did not enter into the promise land (Cannan Land) because of unbelief, murmuring and complaining. Dear ones, we are not called to walk in unbelief - but to walk in faith. Our example, the children of Israel, were led by the cloud by day and fire by night, they saw and experienced God's mighty hand of deliverance, they even drank from the Christ - yet they didn't believe He would continue to take them through. Why? Why the wilderness?
The question that many ask, why the wilderness? Why didn’t (doesn’t) God just automatically bring the children of Israel (the Church) to perfection without going through a wilderness? The truth of the matter is that we are all born in iniquity (Psalms 51:5) We are part of the fallen human race. Although God has revealed Himself through the work and ministry of His Son, we still have a nature that need to be perfected and aligned with God’s will - we still have our own agendas, plans, ideas, thoughts and ways that are not God’s (Isaiah 55:6-9). Understanding the children of Israel in this light, they had an Egypt mentality and nature that God had to purge prior to them receiving the inheritance and promise of Cannan Land. What is an Egypt mentality, it’s a bondage mentality of unbelief, from unbelief comes the complaining, murmuring, blaming, and accusing. It is having a victim mentality versus a victory mentality. In this light, We still have an Egypt nature and mentality that has to die and what better place for it to die than in the wilderness on our way to our promised land. Another way of stating this thought is that God has taken His people out of Egypt but Egypt needed (and need—in our case) to be taken out of them (us).
It is in the wilderness where God begins to show us how much of Egypt we still have dwelling in us. Our loving Father doesn’t reveal this nature of bondage and unbelief to discourage us, but to encourage us to continue to cry out to Him. Beloved, if you recall, it was the cry of the people that turned the Fathers heart. Exodus 2:23-25 states “...and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage...and God heard...and remembered...and looked...and had respect.” Exodus 3:7-10 also speaks of the cry that went up to the Father and how He was moved by their cries. It is the cry of deliverance that our Father yearns to hear from us (not the only cry) , deliverance not only from our physical Egypt (which represents our lives of sin before we embrace the Christ), but also, deliverance from the Egypt mentality of self-dependence rather than God-dependent. Once the deliverance has taken place (delivered from Pharaoh's bondage), understand that God will begin to lead you into the wilderness to mature you as His child - even Christ had to go through a wilderness experience.
Beloved, I leave you here for the moment. I pray that God will speak to your heart and you will receive understanding and wisdom through this teaching. I encourage you to meditate on this and embrace your wilderness experiences and know that God will not put more on you than you can bear. We will have wilderness experiences—but thanks be to God who leads us into triumph. He wants to bring us into perfection—like His begotten Son—Christ
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