God sends the people He is setting free through the parted waters of the sea.  The Egyptians are in hot pursuit.  God sends the waters rushing back down upon the Egyptians.  Moses records how “the Israelites saw them lying dead on the seashore” (Ex 14:30).  Let that awful sight sink in to your hearts and minds.  God sets free for a purpose.  He does not set free so that His people can then do whatever their own wisdom tells them.  Those dead Egyptians should have shown God’s chosen ones that God has something particular in mind for His people.

Paul reminds us of what we read in Exodus and Numbers: God’s chosen ones, who had seen the power of God at work for them, still preferred their own ways and wishes over the ways and wishes of God who saves, guides, provides, and who expects faith.  Faith is evidenced by obedience, doing what God has told us to do, not doing what God has told us not to do.  Obedience without love is burdensome, like chains.  The obedience that comes from love is no burden.  It can challenge, but of the sort that the faithful throw themselves into, in faith, in trust, in love for the One who promises to be with them, to deliver them and to bless.

“Whoever thinks he is standing firm had better be careful that he does not fall” (10:12).  Paul reminds us that the Israelites’ journey is a helpful, eye-opening, hopefully heart-opening reminder that the freedom God has given us comes with great responsibility on our part.  This word responsible is worth considering.  To be responsible is to be able to respond.  God speaks and we respond; our response matters, it is consequential.  God called to Adam and to Eve in the cool of the evening.  They did not respond.  Though they were responsible (they had the ability), they chose not to.  They hid away, as though they could hide from God.

I suppose I could understand if those newly-freed Israelites did not remember about Adam and Eve and what their disobedience got them.  I can’t excuse them for failing to remember, failing to comprehend, what they saw that day all along the seashore, all those dead: that awful vision.  God set His people free for a purpose.  That purpose is not so that they can then discern right, good, and blessed for themselves.  The purpose of this liberty is responsibility, for faithful obedience, not faithful disobedience.

They all passed through the parted waters.  Paul speaks of this as being baptized into Moses (10:2), the implication being that they would then listen to Moses, pattern their lives after the example he showed them, his example of faith in God.  But they didn’t.  They complained.  They rejected Moses and the God who had set them free.  They liked the freedom.  They did not care for the responsibility, at least not as God had outlined that responsibility through Moses.  They wanted to say what their responsibilities were.

Paul reminds us that all those Israelites, God’s chosen ones, ate the bread from heaven, the manna; all of them drank the drink God gave them from the rock (10:3-4).[1]  All, in other words, saw and tasted God’s blessings.  All received, gratefully, at the time, I’m sure.  Many then chose to bless themselves by their own ways and wishes, rather than devote themselves in faithful obedience to God and the way God gave for His chosen ones to live.

Paul says something staggering: “God was not pleased with most of them” (10:5).  How could He be?  His chosen ones, whom He set free, for whom He killed an entire Egyptian army, worship a golden calf statue (Ex 32:4-6): they feast and then start frolicking with one another, as though that was worship.  Well, it was their idea of worship!  God judges His people.  Three thousand died.  When the Israelites encounter the Moabites, Moabite women lead off Israelite men to frolic and worship the Moabite god (Num 25:1-2).  God judges His people.  Twenty-four thousand died.  The people grow tired of what God provided them, and grumble about the contemptible food God gave them, the manna; God sends poisonous snakes among them, and many die (Num 21:4-6).

These acts of righteous, holy judgment make the people angry, sullen, rebellious.  They want to hold Moses and Aaron responsible for all these deaths. What sort of freedom is this, anyway!?  God, however, will have them realize the responsibility is theirs.  If occasion requires, He will instruct them in awful ways.  God judges His people.  That day, nearly fifteen thousand die (Num 16:41-49).

What sort of God is this?  A God who has expectations.  What sort of freedom is this?  Freedom given by God, for God.  Our freedom is not first for us.  We enjoy it, and it is for God, for God’s glory.  The freedom God gives is a responsibility.  Those Israelites perished because they did not, they chose not to, preferred not to put God first of all and over all in their lives.  They were happy to be responsible, in their own way.

They wouldn’t have put it that way, any more than those Corinthian Christians for whom Paul had such deep concern would have put it that way.  And there are people who claim Christianity who (from our admittedly limited perspectives) do not seem to be demonstrating much that seems recognizable as even rudimentary obedience.

It’s a good thing the church doesn’t expect much.

What about God?

Paul is saying that we don’t have to be like that.  We don’t have to be like those Israelites in those times.  We can learn from and heed the example God gives us, in them.

If we aren’t thinking clearly, if we are reacting rather than pondering, we might end up concluding that God is mean, at least that God of the Old Testament.  Thank God for Jesus!  Let us joyfully, with joyful relief, call out to him, “Lord, Lord!”  Only, Matthew vividly remembered how Jesus said, “Not everyone who calls me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven” (7:21).  Who will, then?  Jesus answers, very clearly: “only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (7:21).  Jesus tells the parable of the ten young women waiting for the bridegroom.  Five had been negligent, irresponsible.  “‘Sir, sir!  Let us in’ they cried out.  ‘Certainly not!  I don’t know you,’ the bridegroom answered” (Mt 25:11-12).  Luke records how Jesus speaks of the narrow door:

many people will surely try to go in but will not be able.  The master of the house will get up and close the            door; then when you stand outside and begin to knock on the door and say, “Open the door for us, sir!” he            will answer you, “I don’t know where you come from!”  Then you will answer, “We ate and drank with you;              you taught in our town!”  But he will say again, “I don’t know where you come from” (Lk 13:24-27).

Now is the time to take seriously Christ’s call to a changed life.  This is a life of freedom, true freedom, a life of responsibility to God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  It is not a life you live for your sake, but for His.  This new life in Christ is from Him and for Him.  You are called to show Jesus.  Is that even possible?  On your own, probably not, but together, supported, encouraged, prayed for, hearing and receiving God’s Word, receiving the bread and the juice, yes, it is possible, even probable.  Together, in Christ, we can.  Together, under the cross, we can.  This is another reason why being part of this congregation, being frequent in attendance, being faithful in pursuing your faith, is so valuable.  Through these responsible actions, we can, together, show Christ to others.

Paul warns us against desiring evil things (10:6).  Nobody believes they desire evil things.  Where do people get a clear understanding of good and evil?  We all have truths!  Are mine the same as yours?  Beloved, when it comes to something as crucial as good and evil, we need to get to work, to get on the same page.  Let’s get these Bibles open and start reading them.  Host a Bible study.  If you haven’t made Bible reading a daily practice, I wish you would.  Read a page a day, if that’s all you can do, right now.  When you come to something hard or confusing, seek help: talk to me.  This is a way we grow together.

What we put ahead of God becomes evil.  Is God at the top of your list, in practice as well as in principle?  Consider all the things people, even those who claim to be Christians, seem to put first, all that is less than God, other than God: themselves, their own appetites, their own desires.  Their children.  Their work.  Their friends.  Surely all good!  Nobody believes they desire evil.  It takes Jesus Christ, dying in gore on the cross, to open our eyes.  I put him on that cross.  You put him on that cross.

Don’t worship idols, Paul warns (10:7).  We, thoroughly modern, sophisticated, cultured, urbane people say, “How quaint!”  Don’t give your allegiance, your devotion, your passion, your body, mind and soul, to what is not God, less than God, other than God.  Be glad for the good things you enjoy, of course.  And praise God for them.  Enjoy above all God.

Avoid sexual immorality (10:8), and we say, “Done!”  I wonder how many of you guys have a girlie poster or two up in the shop or the garage: wherever you’ve set up your Dude Zone.  Ours is a sexually immoral culture: pornography is protected speech!  No wonder: one of our largest idols is sex.  How confused we have become about sexual immorality!  The only help we have for this is the one place we refuse to turn for guidance: the Bible.

Paul urges us not to put God to the test (10:9).  Here, he seems to have in mind despising what God provides, preferring what the world offers.  Every good thing this world offers comes from God: the world can’t lay any claim to any of it!  The only things this world offers that do not come from God are rebellion, disobedience, and faithlessness.  These lead one place only: death.  Put that way, who would want such things?  The world is cunning, and dresses up rebellion to look attractive, edgy, independent.  Disobedience is made to look like freedom, faithlessness to look like intelligence.

Many claiming Christianity believe they are standing firm . . . upon a faith they have fashioned for themselves: faith that suits them.  Be careful you do not fall.  Stay alert.  Think.  Pray.  Don’t presume upon the name Christian; rely upon Christ, the Word of God.  Take seriously Christ’s call to a changed life.  Believe he will help you get there, that he provides the Holy Spirit to help you get there, that the power of the Holy Spirit, alive and at work in the true Church, provides a school for transformation.  Grieve your sins.  Hate them.  Yearn for Christ, who does not disappoint.  The temptations, the tests, will come: they are real, they hurt—some of you are going through one or more.  We all struggle.

A changed life is a journey.  “God keeps His promise” (10:13).  He provides a way through: we see it right there, before us, every time we gather here: the strength of Christ.  He isn’t on that cross, now, but he was, once.  I have this urge to take some glossy red paint and thoroughly splatter that cross with it.  Don’t worry, I won’t!  I want you to perceive it there, though, that blood.  We are not saved by self-justifying imaginations but by faith.  Faith helps us to stand firm; faith comes to us from God, by grace, in Christ.  Christ makes a changed life possible.  The cross makes a changed life crucial.  This change is not impossible.  Scripture and our own experience show us this change is certainly possible.  That doesn’t mean without difficulty.  In Christ, responsible to Christ, we will get there.  Together, we will get there.

Worthy is the lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!

                [1] See Exodus 17:1-7.