Lent Day 9–Trials and Errors

Mistakes—I hate making them.  Sins—I hate committing them.  Trials—I don’t like having them.  Temptations—I don’t like facing them.  One would think that given how much I don’t like these things, I could just avoid them.  Wrong.

Experiencing all of this is part of what make us human.  The Bible tells us that in His lifetime Jesus faced these trials and temptations. 

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are– yet was without sin (Hebrews 4:15) .

How did He do that?

Aside from having a holy understanding of how God sees trials, Jesus also knew what happened to people in the history of Israel.  He knew the mistakes others had made, going all the way back to Adam.  By His trust in God, Jesus was able to avoid the errors of those in the past.

Today’s passage, 1 Corinthians 10:1-18 gives some stark examples from Israel’s history—undoubtedly a history with which Jesus was familiar.  And before the Apostle Paul penned the words by the Spirit of Christ, Jesus knew them.

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!  No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it (1 Cor 10:11-13).

This is reassuring news.  We don’t need to learn from our own mistakes.  We can learn from other people’s.  Seeing the consequences beforehand, we don’t have to resort to trial and error as a way of moving through the obstacle course of life.  We can watch those ahead of us in line. 

We can keep an eye to the past and either learn from it or repeat it.  But we cannot assume our consequences will be any different for any course of action.  Therefore, it’s a better thing to keep our eyes focused on how Jesus lived and look with faith toward the one who will provide a way out of the temptation so we can finish the race without falling.

With so many examples of people from history, let’s learn from Jesus’ wisdom and from other people’s mistakes.  It’s much better than trial and error.