Pam's Perambulation

Don’t Worship Idols

10 Friends, I want to remind you that all of our ancestors walked under the cloud and went through the sea. ² This was like being baptised and becoming followers of Moses. ³ All of them also ate the same spiritual food ⁴ and drank the same spiritual drink, which flowed from the spiritual rock that followed them. That rock was Christ. ⁵ But most of them did not please God. So they died, and their bodies were scattered all over the desert.

⁶ What happened to them is a warning to keep us from wanting to do the same evil things. ⁷ They worshipped idols, just as the Scriptures say, “The people sat down to eat and drink. Then they got up to dance around.” So don’t worship idols. ⁸ Some of those people did shameful things, and in a single day about twenty-three thousand of them died. Don’t do shameful things as they did. ⁹ And don’t try to test Christ, as some of them did and were later bitten by poisonous snakes. ¹⁰ Don’t even grumble, as some of them did and were killed by the destroying angel. ¹¹ These things happened to them as a warning to us. All this was written in the Scriptures to teach us who live in these last days.

¹² Even if you think you can stand up to temptation, be careful not to fall. ¹³ You are tempted in the same way that everyone else is tempted. But God can be trusted not to let you be tempted too much, and he will show you how to escape from your temptations.

The advice here refers to the people’s wanderings in the desert from Exodus 13:21-22, 14:22-29, 16:35, 17:6 and 32:6; and Numbers 20:11, 14:29-30, 11:4, 25:1-18 and 16:41-49. 

They were happy to eat the food and drink the water God provided – but were not quite so happy to live his ways.  They wanted what God offered them, but they also still wanted things their own way, to be able to behave how they wanted.  They listened to the moaning of others, began to think how badly off they were and joined in the moaning.  They forgot all God had done for them, and turned to other gods.  They complained all along, forgetting what they had been rescued from.

The price they had to pay for that was never reaching the Promised Land.

This makes me wonder, do I forget what God has done for me?  Do I moan and complain?  Do I turn to the idols of an easy life?

Or do I remember all that God has done, and give thanks?

There are all manner of temptations, that become our idols if we let them.  Lent is about finding the strength to walk from those temptations, and do the things that we know are what God asks of us.

So, if God is the one we depend on, do we turn to him?  Or away from him?

Do we act for him?  Or against him?

Lord,

you provide me with so much,

all that I need.

May I never forget that,

never turn from you,

not look for easy answers,

but depend on you.

~ by pamjw on February 27, 2013.

Posted in bible, faith, God, Lectionary, lent, Religion, theology
Tags: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, Exodus, idols, manna