Page 44 - SABBATH

The Message of the Manna

he apostle Paul speaks much about the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness
Tfor forty years. They are given as an example for the church, and their failings are
also mentioned as potential pitfalls for the saints today. Those whom Moses led out of Egypt
struggled with the same issues that the church must face and overcome if they are to enter
into the promised rest of God.
It is often underappreciated that those who have gone before us serve as examples,
both good and bad, to today’s saints. The people of Israel who followed the pillar of fire and
the cloud throughout their wilderness wanderings are referred to in scripture as “the church
in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38). Paul clearly states that the church should pay careful
attention to their failings, lest their same errors should be repeated.

I Corinthians 10:1-11
For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the
cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud
and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual
drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the
rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well-pleased; for they
were laid low in the wilderness. Now these things happened as examples for us, that
we should not crave evil things, as they also craved. And do not be idolaters, as some
of them were; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and stood up
to play." Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand
fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by
the serpents. Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the
destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written
for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Paul affirms repeatedly that the things we read about the Israelites in the Old
Testament were written for those who are a part of the current age, upon whom the ends
of the ages have come. What was the great struggle of the Israelites? It was this very issue
which we are studying. Yahweh desired for them to be loosed from the bondage to the flesh,
a bondage symbolized by the cruel taskmasters of Egypt. He desired that they should live
to follow Him obediently, putting the flesh and its desires to death.
Paul states that the Israelites were not successful in overcoming the flesh, dying to all
personal initiative and living only to accomplish the will of Yahweh, and for this reason God
was not well-pleased with the majority of them. Could Paul have any meaning other than
that the same peril exists for the church today? Is it possible that God might not be well-
pleased with the majority of the church as well?
Paul mentions specific instances of failing among these Israelites. They were a
grumbling and a murmuring people. Yahweh spoke to Moses of them in the following
manner.

Numbers 14:22-30
“Surely all the men who have seen My glory and My signs, which I performed in
Egypt and in the wilderness, yet have put Me to the test these ten times and have not