Scriptures Class Paper

My parents wanted me to post this. Hmm...well, here it is.


God had blessed Israel, delivered them from slavery, led them through the sea, fed them with bread from heaven, and quenched their thirst with water from the rock. “For I want you to know, brothers, 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 drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” (1 Corinthians 10:1). Despite of all the blessings God had showered upon them, Israel turned and did not fear God, but man. “They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.” (Psalm 106:21-22). They forsook the commandment of God, and turned away from the good land the Lord was giving to them. “Then they despised the pleasant land, having no faith in His promise” (Psalm 106:24). “Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness” (1 Corinthians 10:5). They had sinned against God. “Thus they became unclean by their acts, and played the whore in their deeds.” (Psalm 106:39)


The Lord said to Moses “Your children [Israel] shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years and you shall know my displeasure. I, the Lord, have spoken.” (Numbers 14:33-34). Thus Israel, God’s chosen people, wandered in the wilderness, smitten by God and afflicted. Suffering and in anguish they cried out to the Lord “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”. Silence met their ears. God seemed silent.


Yet the Lord had not forsaken them. “Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry.” (Psalm 106:44). He was teaching, correcting, and guiding His chosen ones. “Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.” (Deuteronomy 8:5). He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and repented of his anger. “For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.” (Psalm 106:45). In remembrance of His covenant, He sent His firstborn Son into the world to suffer in the wilderness and to die. As all firstborns were to be redeemed with the blood of a lamb, so the blood of this spotless Lamb redeemed all those born to man.


God has delivered us from the slavery of sin, led us through waters of baptism, the quenching waters of the rock, and fed us with manna from heaven. Yet, we have turned out on God. We, like Israel, have sinned, and in trial and temptation, we wander this earthly wilderness. “We and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness”. (Psalm 106:6). In our despair, we cry out “Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations”! (Psalm 106:47a). But do not despair. Has God forgot His people? No, the Lord will not abandon you. “God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13b) He will turn evil into good, although in this earth, we may not understand at the time. This wandering is only passing; it is only a journey to the promised land. And still, despite our failings, He remembers His covenant and continually feeds us with the body and blood of Christ, manna from heaven. “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16). He strengthens us through the preaching of His Word, teaching us that man does not live on bread alone. “And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3) For without the Word of God, the bread and wine of the Eucharist is nothing. Through trial and temptation, Christ is teaching us to look to Him for our every need of body and soul.


So do not despair in this wilderness, Christ has given all for us, and is guiding us to a good land, a land that flows with the waters of baptism, a land of wheat of the Word of God, a land of the honey of the Gospel, a land in which you will ear the Bread of Life without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land built on the Chief Cornerstone. “For the Lord your God is bringing you to a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will ear bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of those hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.” (Deuteronomy 8:7-10) Though is way be long, we are in the Lord’s hands. Let us rejoice when we are persecuted that we are counted as one with Christ. For we suffer with Him in order that we might be glorified with Him. “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18)


For whom have we to fear if God is on our side? Who shall harm us? As Christ suffered, died, and was raised from the dead, so we through Christ suffer, will die, and will be raised to the glory of God the Father. So what then can hurt us? “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)

In our suffering let us say with Israel “Blessed by the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting!” And let all say “AMEN! PRAISE THE LORD!” (Psalm 106: 48)