I recall as a child hearing the expression, "the taller or bigger they are, the harder they fall." Typically, it was short guy bragging about how he could beat a taller or bigger person. The expression has also been used to describe buildings falling. Some seem to modify it to address the fall of value of stocks. In such a case I would I would modify it to say, "The higher they go the harder and lower is the fall." This is very true in moral issues. The list of public personalities that have fallen in disgrace is endless, and it continues to grow. At the writing of this commentary the latest victim was golfing great Tiger Woods. His fall, and that of others, however was not overnight. This phenomenon is not new. And, it is perhaps the major them of this week's lesson.
The author of our lesson says that the Israelites didn't fall into sin overnight. It was a step-by-step process. Indeed, Sister White agrees with his assessment, she says,
"It was when the Israelites were in a condition of outward ease and security that they were led into sin. . . . They neglected prayer and cherished a spirit of self-confidence. . . . A long preparatory process, unknown to the world, goes on in the heart before the Christian commits open sin. The mind does not come down at once from purity and holiness to depravity, corruption, and crime. It takes time to degrade those formed in the image of God to the brutal or the satanic. By beholding we become changed. By the indulgence of impure thoughts man can so educate his mind that sin which he once loathed will become pleasant to him."—Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 459.
Rightfully concerned about the church today, the author asks, "What about us as a church today? Are we letting down our guard regarding things that could, ever so slightly, allow us to become hardened to what will lead us into Satan's traps? What role does the issue of standards play in this important area? How can standards help protect us against this slow and steady move toward apostasy and ruin? Or can they at all? Or, if they can help us, how should they be applied?"
Can we fall as the Israelites fell? Can knowing that something is wrong stop us from engaging in it? The Israelites knew the law. God through Moses had given it to them. This, however, did not stop them from indulging in Sin. So, again the question is: Are we in the same danger? Will knowing the standards prevent us from falling?
Paul seems to think so. In 1 Corinthians 10: 1 – 14 he warns the brethren,
1Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
2And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;
3And did all eat the same spiritual meat;
4And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
5But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
6Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
7Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
8Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.
9Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
10Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
11Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
12Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
13There 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.
14Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
The passage gives us a warning and a promise. We are not immune. We can fall as the Israelites did, but if we stand in faith God gives us a way out of temptation. This is our only way out of Sin and idolatry.
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Raul Diaz
www.wolfsoath.com
