Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 9:24—10:5
Daily Lectionary: Job 1:1-22; John 1:1-18
All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:2-4)
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. For some reason a lot of people seem to think that people in the Old Testament had a different faith and were saved in a different way than we are now. How wrong! The people of the Old Testament were saved by Christ just as we are saved by Christ. The difference is that where we celebrate the events in Christ's life as His work of salvation, the Israelites lived through events that foreshadowed or pointed ahead to those saving events.
For example, the Israelites were baptized into Moses in the cloud and sea. That was their deliverance from slavery. In the same way Christ was baptized for sinners in the Jordan and from His side on Calvary the stream of water flows into the font of His church in which you were baptized into Christ.
They all ate the same spiritual food, which was the manna and God's Word. Just so, Jesus gave His body and blood as an everlasting and saving meal for the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. They drank of the spiritual Rock—as we heard in Monday's reflection—just as we now drink of Christ's blood which flowed from His side.
The gifts, which the Lord gave the children of Israel, pointed to Christ, their future Savior. The Word and Sacraments which we now enjoy deliver that same Jesus, who has come and done His saving work and now bestows it upon us in His holy gifts.
Your faith is the faith of Moses…and Noah and David and Isaiah and all the rest of the Old Testament saints. That's because both they and you believe in the One Promised Savior. That's Jesus whose coming was foretold in the Old Testament, witnessed in the New Testament, and still saves us today. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
The God of Abr'ham praise, Whose all sufficient grace Shall guide me all my pilgrim days In all my ways. He deigns to call me friend; He calls Himself my God. And He shall save me to the end Through Jesus' blood. (LSB 798:3)