Category: Devotions

The cup of blessing pertains to the cup of grape juice that we used for our Lord’s Supper. In partaking the cup, we remember the Lord’s death on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. His blood was shed for the remission of our sins. Spiritually the believer is nourished and strengthened in the partaking of the Lord’s Supper. He does so with prior self-examination, confessing his sins before God in prayer. Amen.

The Apostle Paul addresses his audience as enlightened men who understands his concern for their spiritual prosperity and he asks them to make their educated assessment of his exhortations thus far. He has exhorted them to flee idolatry, seek holiness and to yield not to the temptation of a discontented and murmuring spirit. The Israelites were chastised by God for their unbelief, idolatry and immorality. God’s instruction is plainly taught in His Word and therefore for our admonition.

God’s people are exhorted by a loving entreaty to put Him first in their lives, to put God first in their hearts, to put God first in their actions. An idol is that which displace the due honour and worship accorded to our God. All that we have and are comes from Him. By seeking other affections, we forfeit God’s blessing in our lives. The word “flee” is given as a command for habital action.

The Lord provides a way of escape for His people in every temptation. He will always provide for His people the escape route so that His people might be saved from the pitfalls of sin. Do not be alarmed when you are sorely tempted. God allows it to test you. He also provides a way out. God is faithful. He will not let you down.

Beware of self-confident. Be rather God-confident as warns the Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. The Apostle Paul warns here against self-conceit. Pride blinds the heart giving one a sense of delusion of having good one’s standing before God. The reality is that such a one has crossed the line, the boundary of God’s will and faces the chastisement of God!The verb “take heed” is a command for continual action. It literally means “to see”, “to perceive correctly”.

The examples which the Apostle Paul has given are for our learning that we may avoid the pitfalls of idolatry, immorality and rebellion against God as a result of unbelief, inordinate lusts and discontentment. The lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life are of this transient world.

The Israelites in the wilderness were constantly murmuring, dissatisfied with their present state, grumbling and complaining. Their murmurings were against God. For He brought them out of Egypt by reason of their bondage and showed them the way to the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. The murmuring of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram against Moses and Aaron is highlighted here – Numbers 16:1-3 Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men: And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown: And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD?

The Israelites in the wilderness en route to the Promised Land murmured against the LORD kindling His anger. This is the sobering account of how God’s people did not realise how God is their sufficiency. Would God do them harm? Certainly not!

Balaam could not curse Israel. How to defeat the Israelites? The evil scheme to sent in Moabite women to entice the Israelite men to commit whoredom and worship the Baal-peor, god of the Moabites. The women had to be removed from the Israelite camp and the men who were involved in the worship of Baal-peor were severely dealt with by the sword.

Moses was in the Mount communing with God when the Israelites made a golden calf for worship. It was an abomination to God. This scene described by the Apostle Paul is recorded in Exodus 32:1-6 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.