A simple way to hear from God every day

Ricky Ketchum

Mar 07, 2026

Learn from Israel’s Failures

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These things happened as examples for us, so that we will not crave evil things as they did.

1 Corinthians 10:6 (NET)

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If you’re like most Christians, you find it easier to learn from the New Testament than the Old.

That’s okay, I do too.

Yet there’s a reason God chose to preserve the Old Testament Scriptures for us even today:

God is the same God, yesterday, today, and forever.

So, how do we go about learning from these old stories?

First, remember that the information shared in the Old Testament stories -- and in the book of Acts -- is descriptive and not prescriptive.

Fancy words, which simply means they describe what did happen instead of preaching what should happen.

For example, just because King David married many women doesn’t mean that’s the best design of marriage for us to follow today. In fact, if you follow his story, there were a lot of problems that came about because of sin in his family.

Stories like that can teach us lessons if we’re sensitive to what the Holy Spirit wants to teach us.

This 1 Corinthians verse alludes to the story of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness.

They craved water in the desert (understandable) to the point that they tested God saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” (uh-oh!). In this case, God gave them grace and let water flow from a rock (Exodus 17).

Yes, God is gracious even in our failures.

But that’s no excuse to test God.

There are lots of lessons to learn from the Bible stories.

A simple way to access these lessons: before you read, pray, “Lord, what do you have to teach me today?”

— Ricky Ketchum

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV®Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright© 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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