Today’s meditation is based on Matthew 3:17, “A voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the one I love. I am very pleased with him."” (ERV)
God the Father testified about His Son Jesus, that He was pleased with Him. Jesus was thirty years old when He began His public ministry. At the commencement of His ministry as Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan and came out of the water, this was the declaration that was made by God the Father. For the first thirty years, the life that Jesus led with His family, at the temple and in society was authenticated by God the Father on that day.
The question we need to ask ourselves is whether the lives that we lead is pleasing to God in the family, in society and in the church as well. We live in times when this aspect is neglected, and people chose to lead lives that vary from place to place. There is a certain lifestyle at home and a different one for society, and another one for the church. We must examine ourselves to check if our lives too are pleasing to God just as the life of Jesus was to God the Father. Many have a faulty understanding that because we live in this period of grace, that God will overlook and forgive all our sins, and we can live any way we want to.
Let us study the bible to see those things that God was not pleased with, and thereby we can try to set out lives in order to be those that will please the Lord.
The people God was not pleased with
We read in 1 Corinthians 10:5, “But with most of them God was not well pleased:” (DRB)
This is the testimony about a certain group of people (the Israelites), most of whom God was not pleased with. These are the words recorded in the New Testament, and are written for us as examples and warnings. Many were the wonders that God had performed for them, and these people had been recipients of God’s bounteous blessings, but in spite of this their lives were displeasing to God.
The bondage breaker
The Israelites were in cruel bondage to the Egyptians for many hundreds of years.
We read about this in Deuteronomy 26:6-8, “And the Egyptians afflicted us, and persecuted us, laying on us most grievous burdens: And we cried to the Lord God of our fathers: who heard us, and looked down upon our affliction, and labor, and distress: And brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand, and a stretched out arm, with great terror, with signs and wonders:” (DRB)
The Israelites were oppressed and enslaved by the Egyptians for more than four hundred years, and had gruesome burdens placed on them. In those times of utter distress, the people called out to God to help them. As they called on the Lord, the Lord gave heed to their cries. God saw their affliction, hard labor, distress, and had compassion on them. The Lord intervened to perform mighty signs and wonders with His powerful and outstretched arm. God brought the Israelites out of slavery when they were unable to help themselves in any way.
For all those hardships and difficulties that we face, other people cannot help us overcome all of them. However, when we call on the Lord, He is ever willing to come to our rescue and to deliver us from all our troubles. We worship a living God, and when we call on Him, He will answer us.
The slavery of the Israelites is an example of the slavery to sin that people are bound in today. There are many who are so entangled with sin that they are unable to free themselves from its clutches. We come across many people who seem to have it all, and have the appearance of being happy on the outside, but oftentimes there is some sort of hidden vacuum inside of them. They are gripped with unwarranted fears of the future.
Jesus came to set us free
Just like the people of Israel, if you call on the Lord sincerely, you can be sure that He will deliver you from all the sins and curses that you are bound with. This God did by sending His Son Jesus into the world who shed His own precious blood on the cross to save us from our sins.
We read about this in Galatians 1:4, “Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present wicked world, according to the will of God and our Father:” (DRB)
Jesus came down and graciously bore all our sins on Himself, so that we can be set free from the bondage of sin and every curse. Those who believe in the Lord Jesus will be set free from all their enslavements to sin. If you are burdened in your heart with the weight of sin, pray to the Lord Jesus and ask Him to be the Lord of your life, and to deliver you from all your sins. Only Jesus can redeem you because He is the only one who died and rose again from the dead. Jesus can set you free, and the bible calls this the gift of salvation. Those who have been set free are now on this journey towards the Promised Land which is heaven.
As the people of Israel journeyed from Egypt towards the land of Canaan which was the Promised Land, the first obstacle they encountered was the Red Sea. The Egyptians had been terrorized by the mighty hand of God and let go of the people of Israel. However, as the Israelites journeyed on towards the wilderness, the King of Egypt decided to pursue the Israelites whom He wanted under His control again.
The Lord will make a way
Whenever the Lord delivers us from our sinful bondages, Satan will most certainly hound us to enslave us all over again.
As the Israelites were caught between the Red Sea ahead of them, and Pharaoh’s army in pursuit of them these are the words of Moses to the Israelites.
We read in Exodus 14:13, Moses answered, "Don't be afraid! Stand your ground, and you will see what the LORD will do to save you today; you will never see these Egyptians again. (GNB)
Moses was in the same predicament all the Israelites were in, but Moses was courageous and spoke words of comfort to the people who were filled with fear. He encouraged them to stand and see the deliverance that God would bring about. In a most amazing way the Lord parted the Red Sea, and as the waters stood as a wall on either side, the Lord made a way in between for the Israelites to pass on safely to the other side. As the Egyptian army pursued them, assuming that they too could pass through, they were in for a shock when the same waters that made way for the Israelites surged back to drown the entire army who had enslaved the Israelites for many long years.
The waters of baptism
This experience of the Israelites is likened to another experience the bible talks about in the New Testament.
We read in 1 Corinthians 10:2, “And they all had baptism from Moses in the cloud and in the sea;” (BBE)
Once the people of Israel crossed over to the other side, there was no way Pharaoh or his armies, the enemies of Israel could ever subdue them.
For every believer who has accepted the Lord Jesus as their savior, the next step of obedience is to take baptism. One is not baptized to become a member of a church or to fulfill some tradition, but this is a covenant that is made with God in good conscience. This step of baptism is to symbolize that we are set free from all the bondages to sin and its enslavement in our lives.
There are many who have a misunderstanding about baptism, and hence are confused. The experience of the Israelites through the Red Sea is likened to baptism, just to impress on us that once we are set free by the Lord, that Satan has no power to pursue us and destroy us.
Baptism unites us with Christ
We read in Galatians 3:27, “You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself.” (GNB)
Baptism draws us into a union with Christ so that we are clothed with Christ. When we are saved we are redeemed from sins, but in baptism with are made one with Christ. Jesus Himself took this step of baptism when he began His ministry at the age of thirty. While many sinners repented of their sins and stood in line to be baptized by John the Baptist, Jesus too stood in that same line and took baptism. Jesus humbled Himself to be baptized, so that all righteousness could be fulfilled in Him. The Lord Jesus wanted all of us sinners to be numbered with the saints, and therefore He willingly took our place, and humbled Himself even unto death, taking on Himself the disgrace of all of our sins. If the Lord is speaking to you do not delay, but obey the Lord and enter into this covenant of baptism.
If we read the Acts of the Apostles, whenever, the people heard the word and believed the next thing they did was to be baptized.
They all had the same experiences
We further read in 1 Corinthians 10:3-4, “All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from the spiritual rock that went with them, and that rock was Christ.” (GW)
There are three words I wish to highlight in the verse above verse, spiritual food, spiritual drink and spiritual rock. These signify the body and the blood of Jesus Christ. The church of God has been instructed to remember the death of Jesus in communion, because only through the death of Jesus we received forgiveness of sins, salvation and victory over death. That is why in communion we partake of the bread which symbolized the broken body of Christ, and the wine which symbolizes the shed blood of Christ. Those who have accepted the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, are baptized and take part in communion are doing the good thing which is a blessing to them.
God was not pleased with most of them
We read in 1 Corinthians 10:5, “Yet God was not pleased with most of them” (TPT)
In spite of all that they received, God was still not pleased with most of them which might be a shock to us. The question that we should ask ourselves is, ‘Is my life pleasing to God?’ We should also introspect to see if there are those things in our lives that are not acceptable to the Lord.
There are many teaching that justify sinful behavior, stating that Jesus has done it all for us and that there is no need for us to do anything more. No wonder then that there is a disparity in the way people live in their personal life, family life, in society and in church. God’s will is that our lives should be consistent, and if there are failings, we must do what we should to set them right before God. For example there are some who appear to be gentle to those outside, but are extremely angry at home with their family members. Let us be reminded that God is not pleased with such dichotomy in our lives. The testimony that we receive outside should be the same we receive at home.
The reason God was displeased with them
We read in 1 Corinthians 10:6, “And these things that happened are examples for us. These examples should stop us from wanting evil things like those people did.” (ERV)
There are so many things that captivate us on this journey of faith, let me explain this to you.
All through that arduous journey through the wilderness, the Israelites were provided with manna from heaven every single day for forty years. As they ate of it they were strengthened by it, but over a period of time they got a distaste for it.
We read about this in Numbers 11:6, “But now our strength is gone. There is nothing at all to eat--nothing but this manna day after day!"” (GNB)
There are many even today who have gotten bored, though they have received the word of God regularly, and have begun to treat God’s word with contempt. They don’t even want to carry the bible to church. It is a good discipline to have our own personal bible, and to follow the bible as the word is being preached or taught. It is God’s will that we should have a good understanding of His word.
Oftentimes there are those who use captivating titles, just to get the attention of the audience. These will include controversial topics like, ‘Is it necessary to pray?’, ‘Should women cover their head?’, ‘Can one wear footwear inside a church?’, or ‘Are we allowed to dance in church?’ Instead of concentrating on those teachings that are necessary, so many are busy preaching on unnecessary topics just to get a huge audience to listen to them.
The blessings of God’s word
Sadly, so many are fed up of hearing of the word of God, and have started treating it with disdain. The question we must ask ourselves is, ‘Do we have a real desire to receive the word of God?’
In Isaiah 66:2 we read, “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” (ESV)
The Prophet Isaiah says that God will look with favor on someone who is humble, and trembles at His word. We must have a proper understanding about the treasure that we have in our hands, namely the word of God. In order to understand this a reading of Psalm 119 in its entirety, which is one of the longest psalms is a good exercise. We live in times where God’s word is taken for granted, and people don’t even bother to flip through the pages of the bible when a message is being shared.
We read in Psalm 119:11, “I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”(ESV)
Only the word of God that is hidden in our hearts can keep us from sinning against God.
Also we read in Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path.” (GW)
God’s word alone guides us aright, and prevents us from faltering in our ways.
We also read in Psalm 119:165, “There is lasting peace for those who love your teachings. Nothing can make those people stumble.” (GW)
It is simply because we do not have time to read and meditate on the word of God, and do not value it that we are not able to lead lives that are pleasing to God. We do not read God’s word out of compulsion, but joyfully and eagerly. Remember that the reading and meditating helps us understand who God is, and all that He has accomplished for us. May we treasure the word of God, and love His teachings, so we can have lasting peace, and be those who stand firm in our faith.
Rev. F. Andrew Dixon
www.goodnewsfriends.net
Transcribed by: Sis. Esther Collins
