The beginning of Exodus presents a picture of how God’s people work and live “actively” in Egypt, yet they were dead in their own condition. Today, we still witness this picture in front of our eyes in our modern society: the conveniences, choices, and supply from the world make us think that it’s a fair trade to make a living with the modern pharaohs. In fact, we’ve acquired a taste for these things, just like the Israelites had a taste for the leeks, onions, and garlic of Egypt (Num. 11:5). But what are we trading in return? We might not realize it, but having such an overwhelmingly convenient, “instant gratification” life deprives us of the capacity of being deepened and constituted. Our values, pursuits, goals are subtly shifted and replaced by the lies and shallow realities of an easy living. And before we know it, our palates are changed, no longer hungry for the deeper things of God (Psalm 42:7, 1 Cor. 2:10, Rom. 11:33). But also like in Exodus, our way out today is no different from that of God’s chosen people: receiving a new constitution through a different diet — back to the original taste from God.
We see such an urgent call unto the way out in Paul’s New Testament writings to the believers and churches on his heart. Paul wrote as someone who had experienced and tasted salvation; one taste of this new life saved him out of his old way of living. From that day on the way to Damascus, Paul was a person who knew and served such a taste of life the way the Lord intended us to live. He also knew, however, that the opposing forces, the swirling, confusing winds and waves of modern life, are fierce (Eph. 4:14). There is a severe battle going on in which Satan’s forces “forbid” the truth, which is unto salvation, to be spoken (1 Thes. 2:16). Paul’s heart though was abundantly eager and desirous to speak face to face with the brothers (v. 17) the truth that could free them from their numb condition and cause them to see this crooked and evil generation as it is. Such serving ones like Paul are fighting, coming to us to give us the real taste that can bring us back from our sick and drowsy condition (1 Cor. 11:30). If we are sick, we need to eat the real food — the truth — that will cause us to recover and grow unto a true and deep constitution of human life.
May we taste the urgency and reality Paul is fighting for; God’s need in this age is for a people awakened from our stupor to resist the worldly current and grow in life!
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 11/2/2024, not reviewed by the speaker.)