A WAY TO ESCAPE
“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13).
For
Christians, temptation is an unpleasant, humbling, and stressful
experience. When we are tempted, we tend
to think of ourselves as weak and inferior to other believers who surely don’t
struggle with such things to the degree that we do. Afterwards, we may feel guilty or unclean
even if we have not followed the temptation and actually committed a sin. It’s not unusual, either, for believers to be
attacked in their dreams by images of themselves doing things that they would
abhor in their waking hours. They wake
up feeling like they have sinned against the Lord, and they weep and repent for
what they feel they have done.
Every
temptation that we experience is just the result of our humanness, and is, as
Paul says, “common to man.” James wrote, “… but every man is
tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” (James
1:14). Every believer
suffers temptation. Peter also addressed
the topic when he said, “Beloved, think
it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto
you…” (1 Peter 4:12). You
are not unique, you are not alone. Temptation
is part of the process of becoming more like Jesus. Even the Lord was “…led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”
(Matthew 4:1).
So,
it is apparent that we are all going
to suffer temptation. Our goal, however,
is to endure temptation and come
through it victoriously. Fortunately, we
have a great deal of help with this.
Paul tells us, “God is faithful…” The impact of this tiny phrase cannot be
overemphasized. It means that we can
place our faith in God’s many promises and know that He will perform them for
us every time. He is faithful! What He says, He will do. There is no exception. If He fails us even once then He cannot be
considered faithful.
One
of the ways in which God shows His faithfulness to us is by not allowing us to
be tempted beyond what we are able to bear.
Paul assures us that God will make a way to escape for us so that we can
bear the temptation. We can trust God
for this. If He doesn’t provide an
escape for us, then He is not faithful. I
will admit that there have been times in my life that I have not been able to
see an escape at all, and this has troubled me in the past. I have come to realize, however, that it
wasn’t that there was no escape, but that I was looking for something different
from what God was providing. There is a
way of escape that God has provided for His people every time, and it is described in scripture for us in a story that
we all know well.
There
was one event in the Old Testament that was so important that God repeatedly told
His people to remember it and to tell their children and grandchildren about it
every year. That event was Israel’s
deliverance from the bondage of Egypt and their victory over Pharaoh and his
army. God told them:
·
“…remember
that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God
brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm.” (Deuteronomy 5:15).
·
“…remember
what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 7:18).
·
“…remember
that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God redeemed
thee.” (Deuteronomy 15:15).
God
had sent His servant Moses to be a deliverer to the children of Israel who had
been placed under cruel bondage by Pharaoh, the King of Egypt. The message that God put on Moses’ heart to
give to Pharaoh was simple. He said, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me in
the wilderness.” (Exodus 7:16).
Pharaoh was unwilling to let Israel go, so God brought a series of
plagues upon Egypt to soften the King’s heart.
Pharaoh’s heart only seemed to get harder, however, until God was forced
to send one final plague.
God
told Moses that He would send an angel through all of the homes of the
Egyptians and through the homes of
the Israelites. In every home that the
angel visited all the firstborn offspring of man and cattle would die. God made a path of deliverance, however, for
His own people. He commanded the
Israelites through Moses that every Jewish household was to take a lamb that was
without blemish and slay it. They were then
told to smear some of its blood on the top and side posts of the doorways to
their houses. After that, they were to
roast the lamb and eat it with bitter herbs and unleavened bread. God told Moses, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” (Exodus 12:13). None of the Israelites died that night
because the blood of the lamb protected and redeemed them.
Though
Israel was redeemed by the blood of the lamb, they were not yet delivered from
Egypt. God had something more planned
for His people.
Pharaoh
was more than ready to let Israel go now.
Every house in Egypt had suffered at least one loss, and they were
reeling from the grief of losing their loved ones. They couldn’t get rid of Israel fast enough. “And he
[Pharaoh] called for Moses and Aaron by
night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and
the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said.” (Exodus
12:31).
So,
the Jews left Goshen and headed south through the wilderness toward the
sea. As soon as they did so, Pharaoh’s
heart became hardened. He decided to
gather his great army, with all of its chariots and horsemen, and go after
Israel. He said, “Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”
(Exodus 14:5). You see, Pharaoh is an Old
Testament type or shadow of Satan, the prince of the power of the air. Satan placed mankind in bondage through the
original sin of Adam and Eve. God, however,
sent Jesus His Son to earth to become the Lamb of God without blemish, and to
shed His holy blood so that mankind could be redeemed from sin and death. Satan is angry with every soul that has thus
been set free, and he will come after every one of them to place them once more
under bondage to himself. We find that
after we have begun our journey with God, our enemy attacks us with all his
might. He will summon his whole army to
pursue us and defeat us if possible. He
will tempt us with lusts of various kinds, guilt over our past sins and with bad
choices that we have made. He will try
to paralyze us with fears, confuse us with indecision, and trouble us with
doubt. He will even use our loved ones
to try to turn us from the path that Christ has called us to. In all these things, however, God has
provided a way of escape so that His people might overcome! The angel of the LORD camps around those who
fear God, and he will deliver them from evil (Psalms 34:7).
“And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children
of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them;
and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the
LORD. And they said unto Moses, Because
there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the
wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of
Egypt? Is not this the word that we did
tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians,
than that we should die in the wilderness.”
(Exodus 14:10-12). This is exactly the
kind of reaction that Satan wants to see in us: fear, doubting, and a desire to
return to Egypt (or the world). The
world is not our friend. God tells us
not to conform ourselves to the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of
our minds through the Word of God. St.
John writes, “Love not the world, neither
the things that are in the world. If any
man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father,
but is of the world. And the world
passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth
for ever.” (1 John 2:15-17).
It
is not the planet that God has an
issue with, or the wonderful things that He created in the beginning. It is the aggregate
(or collection) of all things worldly that Satan has orchestrated to keep men’s
minds from God and from His heavenly Kingdom.
Politics, media, fashion, philosophy, science, education, finance, and
even religion have all been twisted in the hands of the enemy of our souls to
distract us and to lead us away from the kind of life and freedom that God has
intended for us from the beginning. The
Apostle Paul in a letter to Timothy warned that perilous times would overtake
men in the last days. He said, “…men shall be lovers of their own selves”
and “…lovers of pleasures more than
lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from
such turn away.” (2 Timothy 3:1, 2, 4, 5).
We
find that Israel was in a real fix. They
were between a rock and a hard place for sure.
The enemy was behind them, and the sea was before them. It looked like death either way. They had surely been redeemed by the Passover
Lamb; but they were still in Egypt, and, therefore, subject to its king and his
laws. They needed more than redemption
alone, they needed deliverance!
As
Christians, there are two things that we must believe that God has done for us. First, we must believe that our sins and
shortcomings have been purged, cleansed, and cast aside by the blood of Jesus
Christ, the spotless Lamb of God. We have
received redemption by the sacrifice of God’s Passover Lamb. Second, we must believe that God has delivered
us from the powers of the darkness of this world and translated us into the
Kingdom of His dear Son. In Colossians
2:6, 7 Paul writes, “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him: rooted and
built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding
therein with thanksgiving.” You
notice that Paul acknowledges the fact that the Colossians had received Christ Jesus the Lord, but his
exhortation to them was that they go beyond that and learn to walk in Him. It is no good for us to be washed in the
blood if we are going to go right back to the sins that enslaved us in the
first place. He whom the Son sets free
is free indeed!
It would seem like having our sins forgiven is
a much easier operation for God to work in us than to give us power to overcome
the world, the flesh, and the devil; but He has done both through the wonder of
His will. There was a paralytic man that
was brought to Jesus by some of his friends.
When they couldn’t bring him before Jesus because the house where the
Lord was teaching was too full, they broke up some of the roof and lowered
their friend’s couch down before Jesus.
Jesus said to the paralytic, “Man,
thy sins are forgiven thee.” (Luke 5:20).
The scribes and Pharisees that were present took offense at this. They called Jesus’ words blasphemous and said,
“Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” (verse
21). What Jesus said and did next was
profound. He said, “Whether is easier, to say,
Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up and walk? But that
ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (He said
unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and
go into thine house.” (verse 23, 24).
In many ways we are like the paralytic.
We are burdened down with sins, yes, but we are also paralyzed in a spiritual
sense. We cannot do the things that God
would have us to do, or live the kind of life that God would have us to
live. By His great grace God has not
only forgiven our sins, but He has given us power to become His sons and
daughters and put on the likeness of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. “And
immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and
departed to his own house, glorifying God.
And they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with
fear, saying, We have seen strange things to day.” (verses 25, 26).
Going
back to the story of Israel and the plight they were in, we find Moses speaking
faith to this people who were truly paralyzed with fear and doubt because of
where they found themselves. Moses told
them, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see
the salvation of the LORD, which He will shew to you today: for the Egyptians
whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever. The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall
hold your peace.” (Exodus 14:13, 14).
When we find ourselves in difficult circumstances, it is not a time for
us to act out of fear and retreat.
Instead, we need to stand still and wait to see God work. If He has spoken His will to us, He will
perform it. His salvation is
complete! If He has said, “Let us pass
over to the other side,” He will lead us safely over regardless of the ferocity
of the storms that we may encounter on the way.
The enemies that we face today we will not have to face again if we
allow the LORD to fight for us. After
all, the battle is not ours, but God’s.
“…and this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith.” (1 John 5:4).
“And the LORD said unto Moses,
Wherefore criest thou unto Me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go
forward: but lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and
divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst
of the sea.” (Exodus 14:15, 16). It is essential that God’s children always be
determined to go forward. Backwards is
not an option. There is nothing in Egypt
for us but bondage and death. Even when
we can’t see the path forward, we must trust the Lord and walk by faith. In writing to the Philippian Church, Paul
said, “…this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are
behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13, 14).
This
is the way of escape that God has promised to His children. It is through the sea! The sea signifies the way of death, but it
also is the way of resurrection life.
Without God’s intervention, they would have all drowned, but God made a
way for them to pass through death and yet not die. We see in this story a picture of Christian
baptism. We are submerged in the water
as if we are being buried in death, but then we are raised from the water as if
we are raised from the dead. This is
also a picture of the cross of Christ.
Jesus was nailed to the cross and left to die, but God raised Him from
the dead to live forevermore. There is a
principle at work here that Jesus taught very plainly, but many were too deaf
to hear. He said, “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life
for My sake shall find it.” (Matthew 10:39; Luke 17:33; John 12:25). We cannot experience real life without
learning to die to self! If Israel was
to survive and escape Egypt once and for all, they had to pass from death to
life through the Red Sea.
God
has provided just such an escape for us also.
Baptism is the thing that delivers us from sin and from the world. It is a public declaration that we have
renounced our past life in the flesh and have embraced our new life in the
Spirit. “Therefore we are buried with Him [Christ] by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead
by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the
likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” (Romans 6:4-6). In baptism, we are crucified with Christ and
then raised with Him as well. We regard
our old man (our former life outside of Christ) as dead to sin, but alive to
God through Christ. This is why Paul
said to the Galatians, “But God forbid
that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the
world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” (Galatians 6:14).
Something
else that God did for His people was to send a pillar of cloud to lead them
through the wilderness during the daytime, and a pillar of fire that lit their
way during the nighttime (see Exodus 13:21, 22). This is reminiscent of the Holy Spirit in our
lives that leads us in the ways that God would have us to go, and provides direction
and light for us in dark and confusing times.
This pillar of cloud and fire also moved behind the Israelites to shield
them and keep the Egyptians from destroying them until they had passed over the
Red Sea. (See Zechariah 2:5).
Moses
did as the LORD directed him and stretched his rod over the sea. All that night, a strong east wind dried the
sea bed and divided the waters so that the children of Israel could cross on
dry land. When every Israelite had
crossed over safely, the Egyptians tried to pursue them through the sea. It was then that God told Moses to again pass
his rod over the sea, and the waters would return to their place and destroy
the Egyptians. “And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen,
and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained
not so much as one of them.” (Exodus 14:28).
God
is faithful! He will provide a way of
escape for His people if they will choose to take it. He has divided the sea for us just as surely
as He did for His people long ago.
Psalms 23 speaks of the “valley of
the shadow of death” and how we can walk through it and fear no evil. This is the path that God has assigned for
us, but it is the “shadow” of death
and not death itself. We are crucified
with Christ, nevertheless, we live! It
is no longer we who live, however, but Christ who lives in us!
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