Warnings
From Israel's History
[1st
Corinth. 10, 1-17]
In
this week's Bible study I will begin the 10th
chapter of the 1st
book of Corinthians. In the closing verses of chapter 9, Paul was
exhorting the early church at Corinth to “run the race in such a
way as to win the prize”, which refers to living our lives for
Christ instead of ourselves with the ultimate goal being eternal life
with Jesus in heaven forever. As the apostle Paul begins chapter 10,
he uses the fate of the first generation of Israelites who came out
of Egypt as an example of what can happen to those who don't live
their lives as such. Paul begins in verse 1, and he minces no words
with the Corinthian church and with the rest of us.
“For
I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our
forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through
the sea. They were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the
sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same
spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that
accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not
pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the
desert. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting
our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some
of them were; as it is written: 'The people sat down to eat and drink
and got up to indulge in pagan revelry'. We should not commit sexual
immorality, as some of them did – and in one day 23,000 of them
died. We should not test the Lord, as some of them did – and were
killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did – and
were killed by the destroying angel.” (1 Corinthians 10; verses 1
through 10 NIV)
In the above passage, Paul is talking about the exodus
of the Jews – descendants of the modern-day Israelis and American
Jews, among others – from Egypt where they had all been slaves to
Pharaoh. The mass escape from Egypt by the Jews is a historical fact.
Chariot wheels and the skeletons of humans and horses have been found
at the bottom of the Red Sea. The ancient Israelites were led out of
Egypt by God, who appeared in the form of a bright cloud by day and
as a pillar of fire by night (those who have Bibles can find this in
the Old Testament, beginning in the first chapter of the book of
Exodus. If you don't own one, don't worry about it, we'll cover it in
another lesson some other time). This is what Paul is referring to
when he wrote about being “baptized under Moses in the cloud and in
the sea”. He was referring to the bright cloud that guided the
Israelites, and to the parting of the Red Sea by Moses as the Jews
crossed over to the other side. But since God was displeased with
them due to their idolatry, He allowed that entire generation of Jews
to die in the desert during the 40 years of wandering, and so none of
them ever saw the promised land that God had reserved for them. Paul
then finishes with these warnings; “We should not commit sexual
immorality, as some of them did – and in one day 23,000 of them
died. We should not test the Lord, as some of them did – and were
killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did – and
were killed by the destroying angel”. In fact, if you will go
back and read Exodus, you will all see that every one of the above
things actually happened. Paul then continues beginning in Verse 11.
“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 fail! No
temptation has seized you except that which 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 you can
stand up under it. Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. I
speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. Is not the
cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the
blood of Christ? And is not the bread we break a participation in the
body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one
body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” (1 Corinthians 10;
verses 11 through 17 NIV)
The
closing part of this passage of Scripture is classic Paul in every
way. After admonishing the young Church that death is the certain
payout for a sinful pagan life, he turns right around in the next
paragraph and encourages the faithful and lifts up the church as a
whole. Paul writes, “... if
you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fail!”.
Be on your guard, he wrote, because when you think you are in good
shape spiritually, that's when the enemy will come in and attack. But
Paul then encourages the Church, writing, “No
temptation has seized you except that which is common to man”,
and again he says in the next sentence, “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 you can stand up under
it”.
So we can conclude by Paul's words that we are not to give up and we
are not to give in. If we are standing firm we do not stand alone
because we know by faith that God is with us. If we are enduring
temptation there is no shame in crying out for help, because God will
be there for us. Most important – or at least it seems so to me –
God will never, ever allow us to be tempted to sin or to be tried by
difficulty to the point that it is more than we can withstand.
Remember what Jesus said, “Never
will I leave you, and never will I forsake you”.
These words are just as true today as they were when Jesus uttered
them nearly 2,000 years ago. Jesus prophesied this as well, when He
said to His apostles, “Heaven
and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away”.
Jesus and His word will always stand through any kind of difficulty,
through any kind of illness or injury, through any bad situation, and
through any worry or despair. Jesus is the same today, tomorrow, and
forever. If you have never put Jesus in charge of your life and you
are ready to relinquish control to Him, just pray this prayer:
Dear
Lord Jesus, I am tired of trying to do things all by myself. Please
come into my heart and dwell there, and I will make you my Lord and
Savior. Please come and save my soul today, and guide me in the path
that my life should take. In your precious name I pray, amen.
And next week we'll go over the second half of chapter
ten. Shalom!
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