The Bible Edge
Everyone needs an Edge, Believers can have a Bible Edge
I Corinthians 10:3
And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
In writing to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul uses an Old Testament miracle to teach a New Testament truth.
The miracle is the provision of food (meat) for the Israelites during their wilderness wanderings. They were delivered from Egypt through a series of ten miraculous plagues, they passed through the Red Sea on dry ground, now they are in the wilderness with no, or little, food items. Spiritually, God provided them food. They had manna for breakfast and quail for other meals. These food items were not natural. They did not plant and harvest barley or wheat for bread, nor did they obtain quail from their own devices or ability. God just rained these down from Heaven.
The New Testament truth is that the meat God sent to the Israelites pictured Jesus Christ. This is such an important truth that Paul stated clearly that the church at Corinth should not be ignorant of it saying: I Corinthians 10:1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; This begins a sentence that lasts for the next three verses.
Today the same could be said. We should not be ignorant of the fact that God provided physical food spiritually to the Israelites in the wilderness wanderings. Today, God also provides meat, or food, to us spiritually during our own wanderings. Someone may think, “What do you mean our wanderings?” Well, frankly, the entire Christian life is somewhat of a wilderness wandering through this life. Peter testified of this by calling those to whom he wrote “strangers and pilgrims” (I Peter 2:11). Pilgrims are traveling through to a given destination. We are pilgrims on this earth living in tabernacles. This is a Bible fact that can only be understood within the framework of spiritual understanding.
Back to this spiritual meat. We have some. Jesus talked about it in John 6:35. I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger… The Old Testament story of God’s provision of spiritual meat to those in the wilderness is a picture of God providing spiritual meat to us today. Both are spiritual miracles performed by our loving Father in Heaven.
William T. Howe, Ph.D.
Comments