God Is Faithful

“ God is Faithful in All Circumstances of Our Lives”  I Corinthians 10:13

 

    God is faithful.  That contains a lot .  He is faithful to His Word, to His promises that He has made and to His people that He has called .  It is sometimes hard to believe this in our world of distress, problems, difficulties, temptations and fill in the blank. The beginning of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians tells us this :

  “ God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1:9  We do not always feel that this is the case.  But objectively it is so.  Nothing can change this fact. God will not void His promises to us despite our own unfaithfulness.

      In the tenth chapter we are told of the fact “..but with many of them God was not well pleased.” 10:13 Who is He talking about?  The reference is to Numbers 14:29  They were the people who murmured against the leaders and against God and God said, “ your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.”  They did not get to go over to the promised land as did Joshua and Caleb. 

      The Apostle reminds us that “ these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted.” 10:6  Going back to Numbers 11 we see the context of this.  The people were complaining and murmuring about the food they had in the desert. They did not like the manna God had made for them.  “ Who shall give us flesh to eat?  We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt..the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions and the garlic: but now is our soul dried away: there is nothing at all save this manna to look upon.”  Numbers 11:4

      As we go through this chapter of I Corinthians 10 we see God saying “ I am faithful” to you but watch out lest you fail to appropriate this word to your own soul.  Numbers 21 is refered to here when fiery serpents were sent by the LORD and the people died.  Why?  They did not live their faith.  “ They spoke against God and against Moses.” Numbers 21:5  “ The Israelites experienced redemption, baptism and God’s continuing succour.  Yet nearly all perished in the wilderness.” From I Corinthians  , Leon Morris.

       We should not presume either upon the grace of God.  These things in our faith too are not guarantees of eternal life and the promise of heaven.  Immorality in our lives according to this passage is not just an Old Testament judgment. We too are under wrath if we assume that grace will cover our sin without our belief and repentance.  There is not a guarantee of that.  This is a misunderstanding of God’s love and mercy.  What exactly ?

Exactly the areas of idolatry and fornication are mentioned by the Apostle to stay away from.  This is the example of Exodus 32:6 where the people “ made gods” . They told Aaron when Moses delayed coming down from the mount, “ Up , make us gods, which shall go before us.”  They had a molten calf to worship .

 

      Then Paul says, “ Let us not tempt Christ…” 13:9 What was this ?  Exodus tells us in 17:2,7 that they demanded water .  They were tired of the desert. They wanted to go back to Egypt.  They had forgotten how God had delivered them from the bondage of Pharaoh.  We learned a couple a weeks ago about the testing of Christ in the wilderness.  He was being tempted to give up the road of the way to the cross and turn the stones into bread.  I am sorry to say that we are too not very grateful at times for our spiritual deliverance and eternal salvation.  We are tempted to go back to the old ways of living and throw off the garments of salvation.

    There is hope.  There is a way of escape.  We know that God has provided such for us .  Jesus is the answer to our life’s disappointments and despair.  God has provided a way out for us even in the most difficult of times of our lives.  He is faithful to all His promises.  He will not let us be tested what we are not able to bear.  But with the testing there is provided an escape.  The word ekbasis remembers a mountain opening.  “ The imagery is that of an army trapped in the mountains, which escapes from an impossible situation through a pass.” I Corinthians, by Leon Morris.

 

     Nothing that is offered to us by the society or the world can take the place of our eternal salvation.  These things are but temporary and God’s salvation is eternal.  What is dragging us down?  What is causing us to look down instead of to look up? We must be encouraged only by the Word and God’s faithfulness. The promises of the culture and our society will not last.  I encourage us all to draw near to Christ through these days up to Easter for He will give us the strength to overcome our difficulties if we but yield ourselves into His hands.