“Spiritual parallels involve using everyday events, ancient stories, or natural laws to understand deeper spiritual truths. These metaphors help translate complex, unseen concepts into relatable word pictures, allowing individuals to connect with their faith or personal philosophy in a more practical way.”

As a simple layman I have often found myself wondering about spiritual parallels and if the truth be known, that is not an accurate statement. First of all, let’s take a look at the I guess you would say theological rendering of exactly what is it that I’m trying to do here. Well here is the textbook explanation.

The church terminology for relating ancient biblical texts to modern situations is called biblical application or contextualization. This process is deeply rooted in hermeneutics, which is the study of interpreting and bridging the gap between the original biblical world and our lives today.  

My explanation and what I’m trying to do is simple, I’m just trying to bring the scripture verses that are today’s subject into a context that we can understand relates to our daily living today. Now both of these explanations are kind of long winded and worthy, but I hope you can kinda get the gist of where we’re going. One of the study groups that I am involved with are in the midst of a biblical study of the book of Exodus. Just a couple of days ago, we begin looking at chapter 13 in the book of Exodus. I read a statement that simply said. “the wilderness journey is ultimate biblical blueprint for the modern Christian life, representing the crucial transition phase between initial salvation and the ultimate spiritual maturity.” As we read and study the Bible I think the goal for most of us is to gain some spiritual maturity. There are some who believe that in chapter 13 of Exodus we find a transitional period. A a road map of the wilderness journey shows us how it can be compared to a transitional state. Egypt represents a past life of sin and Canaan presents the promised land of spiritual abundance. The wilderness is in between and that’s where God transformed slaves into citizens of his kingdom. Now you can always find folks that are going to say this journey through the wilderness was the result of quite a few mistakes, but it was not a mistake. It was kind of a divine classroom. And Deuteronomy 8:2 we know that God led Israel into the wilderness to humble them and test what was in their hearts mirroring how modern trials expose believers true belief. Have you felt your belief tested from some of the trials we face in this world today? It’s interesting to know that God did not take the Israelites the short coastal route because they were not ready for war. What we get from this is that God often delays a believers’s blessings and ultimate calling to protect them from the battles they cannot yet handle. God didn’t forget his people, not at all. The first thing he did was provide them with provisions. He gave them Manna as a daily bread which Israel could not hoard. It rotted when kept overnight, so this forced a total reliance on God for their daily bread, parallel to Jesus, instructions to pray for our daily bread and learn to trust God one day at a time. In one of the key events while they were there in the desert when thirst threatened, God brought water from rock, now the apostle Paul explicitly states in first Corinthians 10:4 that this rock was Christ representing the spiritual refreshment available to believers in this dry environment. We find ourselves today in an environment where people thirst for the truth they thirst for peace and the place we seem to turn last is to Jesus Christ, where we will be refreshed and protected.

There is a lot of attention focused on Moses and Aaron as they led the people through the wilderness. But God didn’t leave them wandering without some direction. They followed the cloud and they only moved when the cloud moved and stayed when it stayed. From this, we can draw the parallel of having the discipline of waiting on the Holy Spirit’s timing rather than forcing our personal agendas. An interesting note is that the Tabernacle was placed at the center the of the 12 tribes which faced the tabernacle, this was a visual anchor which taught Israel that worship in the presence of God must remain a literal centerpiece of daily life. What is the center piece of our daily life without getting into a lot of details can we just simply ask, what would Jesus do, then we can ask ourselves did we do that? One question that everybody that has studied exodus always asked themselves how in the world could an 11 day journey take 40 years? It’s not really a very difficult question to answer and parallels a lot of what’s going on in our world today. It took that long simply because a generation refused to trust God’s promises. This should be a warning to us today. Those of the Christian faith, we must consider this… that a lack faith can stall spiritual growth and will delay our ultimate destiny.

Thank you for being in “the Pew” this week. Remember, that to wander aimlessly in this world today does not have to be your lot in life. Come out of that desert of sin and go to the rock where the water not only will quench your thirst, but will make you new again.

Life is Good

jk