I. Introduction
Have you
ever been in a situation where you know you shouldn’t be doing something, yet
you go ahead and do it anyways? Or how about the situation where you were
warned not to do something, but you still went ahead and did it anyways? Often, after doing the activity, we normally
reflect back on it and ask ourselves, “Now, why did I just do that? What was I
thinking?” There are a multiple answers to these questions but it pretty much
boils down to us thinking that we are capable of doing what we were going to
do—we think we are invincible. We think that we are free from danger, able to
do whatever we please.
This is
the same problem that the Corinthian believers struggled with. They thought
they were “super Christians” who were able to go and do anything they wanted to
do. They would justify their activity by saying that it wasn’t a temptation for
them. The problem which Paul is addressing in chapter 10 is not merely eating
meat or any other food sacrificed to a pagan god which he is addressing in
chapters 8-11, but the problem was that they were eating this food as part of a
cultic meal which Paul argues is a form of idolatry.
Paul
proves this point in the argument by using negative examples from Israel’s
wilderness wandering. He uses 5 general examples and then 4 more specific
examples. The Corinthian believers knew the Old Testament well; therefore they
knew the story of Israel’s wilderness wandering. Yet, even though they knew the
story, they continued to do the same sin that the Israelites committed. They
were not learning from the warning which was directly before their eyes. This
is why Paul starts off this passage in verse 1 saying, “For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers….” You
see, the Corinthian believers knew the story, but did not learn from their example;
therefore Paul reminds them of the Israelite’s story 9 times in these 14
verses.
II. General
Examples from Israel’s Wilderness Wandering vv 1-6
Paul begins by reminding them of
5 “all” statements. And these statements were all blessings received by the
Israelites. They were all acts of God’s provision for Israel—showing them over
and over again that He is a faithful God.
The
first “all” statement is in vs 1”Our
forefathers were all under the cloud…” This refers to Exodus 13 and 14 when
God’s presence was in the cloud that either went before or after the Israelites
by day and the pillar of fire by night. This was before and after Israel crossed
the Red Sea on dry ground representing God leading the Corinthian’s forefathers
the whole time—never once did God abandon them to be on their own.
The
second “all” statement Paul references is in vs 1 also saying, “that they all passed through the sea.”
Surely this should be a familiar reference to us from Exodus 14. This event
took place after the Exodus from Egypt and it refers to God’s miraculous
deliverance of Israel by dividing the waters of the Read Sea and allowing them
to cross safely on dry ground. And when all the Israelites were safely on the
other side with Pharaoh’s army still in the middle of the sea, God allowed the
waters to flow back together, drowning the whole army. Once again, God showed
His faithfulness to them.
The
third “all” statement is found in verse 2 “They
were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” Here Paul is
referencing the two events that we have already talked about—the presence of
God in the cloud and the Red Sea crossing—except this time Paul calls these
events a type of “baptism” which Israel underwent. Paul is not saying that we
should now baptize into the name of Moses instead of the Trinity—Moses is mentioned
because he is the leader of the Israelites appointed by Go. And in the book of
Hebrews the author shows that Jesus has been found of greater honor than Moses.
So here Paul is already pointing to Christ—the Red Sea crossing was an act of
provision by God to the Israelites to show His faithfulness to them as they
entered the desert. This is foreshadowing when Jesus Christ entered into the
water to be baptized and then He was immediately brought into the desert.
The
fourth “all” statement is in verse 3, “They
all ate the same spiritual food.” This is in reference to God providing
manna for the Israelites in Exodus 16. Paul calls it “spiritual food” not because it was filled with the Spirit making it
“different”—rather it highlights the miraculous or supernatural origin of the
food. It was spiritual because it came from God, our heavenly Father.
The last
“all” statement which Paul reminds the Corinthian believers about is found in
verse 4, “and they all drank the same
spiritual drink.” In the NIV it does not translate the word “all” in this
verse from the original language, I don’t know why, but believe me—it is there.
This is in reference to God’s gracious provision of water in Exodus 17 at
Horeb. The Israelites were grumbling against Moses because there was no water.
Therefore Moses hits the rock and God miraculously allows water to flow from
the rock for all the Israelites to enjoy.
These
five 5 events which Paul lists were all blessings received by all of Israel.
They all experienced these blessings which were God’s gracious acts of mercy
being extended to the Israelites to show that He is faithful and He always will
be faithful. But as we continue on in this passage, we read in verse 5-6, “Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most
of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. These things occurred
as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.”
You see, God was not pleased
with most of them because they had their hearts set on evil things—mainly
idolatry. But in reality, God was not pleased with all of the Israelites except
two of them. Only 2 Israelites—Joshua and Caleb—did not have their bodies
scattered over the desert. These were the only two people out of all of the Israelites
who entered into the land that was promised to Abraham in Genesis 12. All but 2
Israelites paid a terrible price for assuming that they were free from
spiritual danger—that price was having their bodies scattered throughout the
desert.
What a
warning this must have been to the Corinthian believers! They were justifying
their sinful actions by thinking that they were “super Christians” who were ready
for anything that came their way. The Corinthian believers did not think that
participating in cultic meals was bad, therefore they went ahead and did it,
not even knowing they were being idolatrous.
People
of God, this is true of us today. We take God’s blessings and provision for
granted; therefore we end up just like the Israelites and the Corinthians. We
think we are “super Christians” who are free from spiritual danger because we
have gone to church on Sunday all our life, we have gone to Sunday School and
Catechism our whole life and attended youth group on a regular basis.
Therefore, since we have done all these “super Christian” things, we think we
can do whatever we want, but we can’t. Following Christ is not a list of rules
of do’s and don’ts. Rather, it is about loving God with all our heart, soul,
and mind and loving our neighbor as our self. If we aren’t doing this, the sin
of idolatry easily creeps into our lives. Idolatry will destroy us and our
relationship with God and our relationship with others.
Paul is
making known these 5 blessings of God’s provision to the Israelites so that the
Corinthian believers can learn from them in order to change their behavior. Now
we have these words of Paul, we have the story of the Israelites in the
wilderness, but what will we do with these words of warning? Will we learn from
their story and not fall into idolatry as they did? Or will we ignore the
warning which is given to us? It is a choice that we have to make every single day.
III. Specific
Examples from Israel’s Wilderness Wandering vv 7-11
Paul
continues warning the Corinthian believers by showing them 4 more examples from
Israel’s wilderness wandering in verses 7-11. This time they are not general
examples, but they are specific examples which he includes a command as well.
The
first example that Paul uses is in verse 7, He begins with the command “Do not be idolaters” and then displays
the example by quoting Exodus 32:6 “The
people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry”.
Exodus 32 is the golden calf incident. Moses is on Mt. Sinai and the people are
getting anxious waiting his return. They become impatient and say to Aaron, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As
for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has
happened to him.” Therefore Aaron collected gold from the people and formed
the golden calf. They began sacrificing offerings to this calf, eating,
drinking and participating in sexual relations with one another or pagan
revelry.
Meanwhile, Moses comes down from
the mountain and sees what the people of God were doing. He burns with anger
and throws the two tablets of the Law on the ground and they break into pieces.
And the consequence for their disobedience was that three thousand of them died
that day.
However, it is important to know
that the Israelites were acting with piety here—they didn’t know they were
doing anything wrong. Everything they saw in the world around them suggested
that God would find such idol worshiping both acceptable and pleasing. They
were trying their best to give Him honor and glory, but they did not know that
they were compromising His uniqueness and His character. For surely our God is
higher, greater and much different than all other gods back then and in our
world today. It is important that Paul uses this quote from the Old Testament
because he connects idolatry, eating, drinking and sexual immorality all
together. These were the same problems that the Corinthian believers were
struggling with!
Paul’s
second example and command is in verse 8, “We
should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day
twenty-three thousand of them died…” This example is from Numbers 25 when
Israel was in the plains of Moab. The men of Israel began having sexual
relations with the Moabite women as well as making sacrifices to their gods.
Therefore all of Israel began to worship the Moabite God—Baal of Peor. And
because of their idolatry, the Lord’s anger burned against them. The Lord
commanded Moses this, “Take all the
leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the
LORD, so that the Lord’s fierce anger may turn away from Israel.” This was
their consequence—twenty-three thousand Israelites died in one day.
Twenty-three thousand of them died because our God is a jealous God and His
glory and honor will be shared with no one! He alone gets all the glory and all
the praise for everything that is done. Paul once again makes the connection
between idolatry, sexual immorality and food sacrifices. And again, this was
directed right at the Corinthian believer’s problem!
Paul’s
third example is in verse 9, “We should not
test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes.” This Old Testament allusion is from Numbers
21. The Israelites were getting impatient with being in the desert for so long.
They spoke against God and against Moses saying, “Why have you brought us up out of the Egypt to die in the desert? There
is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” God
responded by sending venomous snakes which killed many Israelites, but those
who looked to the bronze snake placed on a pole were healed. By them speaking
out against God, they were testing God for His provision and guidance while in
the desert. The Corinthian believers were also testing Christ by participating
in cultic meals because they though they were free to do so. They were abusing
their freedom which Christ had given to them. Our God grants us freedom and
expects us not to abuse this gracious gift of freedom that we have.
Paul
uses one last example and command to the Corinthians in verse 10, “And do not grumble, as some of them did—and
were killed by the destroying angel.” This reference is hard to determine
which specific event it is referring too—partially because the Israelites
complained on multiple occasions while in the desert. Numbers 14 or 16 are the
best possibility because they Israelites were grumbling to Moses and God for
being in the desert—they said that they would rather be in slavery again. They
basically said that they were far better off without God and without Moses.
This relates to the Corinthian believers because, if you read this whole letter
of 1 Corinthians, there was an awful lot of grumbling by the Corinthian
believers to Paul, which is ultimately grumbling against God.
And in
verse 11 Paul reminds us and the Corinthian believers once again that “These things happened to them as examples
and were written down as warnings for us…” These examples were all examples
which the Corinthian believers knew about, but they ignored these ancient words
and went ahead to participate in cultic meals, sexual immorality and idolatry.
IV. Paul’s
Conclusion: Application to the Corinthian Church vv 12-14
Paul
concludes this portion of his argument in verses 12-14 by giving two warnings
and a comfort which are all directly related to the Corinthian believer’s
problem of idolatry.
The
first warning in verse 12 is, “So, if you
think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” The
Corinthian believers naively believed they were “super Christians” who could
boldly attend cultic meals without falling into the sin of idolatry. They
thought it was plain innocence participating in a worldly sacrifice to a pagan
god, but really their minds were blind to the sin of idolatry that was
infiltrating into their lives. Paul is warning them that even though they think
they are standing firm in their faith and Christian walk—they need to be
careful, so that they don’t fall into temptation. These are wise words of
warning even for us today. We are saved by the grace of God through Jesus’ death
on the cross and His triumph over death by being resurrected from the grave,
yet we think we can behave however we want too. We use God’s grace as a license
to sin. We should not go on sinning and living in an unrighteous manner. We
need to proclaim this grace to all we come into contact with through our words,
through our thoughts, through our actions and through our deeds.
Throughout
this whole passage, Paul has given multiple warnings for the Corinthians which
produce harsh judgment. There seems to be no comfort whatsoever that is until
verse 13. “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.” The Corinthian
believer’s temptations and our temptations are not uncommon to each of us here.
We all face these temptations, therefore when one of us has overcome a
temptation or a struggle—we need to follow their example, we need to learn from
them and we need to seek their wisdom on what they did to overcome their sin.
This is what the body of Christ is for—to hold each other accountable and to
encourage each other in our faith journey.
Ultimately we know that faithful is
our God. Even when Israel was unfaithful, our God remained faithful to them.
Even when the Corinthian believers were unfaithful, our God remained faithful
to them. And even when we are unfaithful, our God is still faithful and will
continually remain faithful to those who call on His name in time of weakness
and temptation. His faithfulness will provide for us a way out when we call on
His name.
And lastly
in verse 14 Paul concludes with a sharp command, “Therefore, my dear friends (because of what you have just learned and
because of these warnings from Israel), you must continually flee idolatry each
day of your life.”
V. Application To
Believers Today in the 21st Century
This
last warning from Paul to the Corinthian believers is still a warning and
command for believers today. As we have read earlier, the Heidelberg Catechism
defines idolatry as this: “Idolatry is having or inventing something in which
one trusts in place of or along side of the only true God, who has revealed
Himself in His Word.”
Idolatry
is not limited to trusting in something else in place of the only true God, but
it is also placing our trust in something along side of the only true God. This
is a danger for us in our society and culture that we live in today. And we
often use our knowledge and our faith to justify placing things above or along
side of the only true God. We are very skilled at finding a way to trust in
contemporary gods along side of or in place of the only true God.
One of
the main idols that can haunt many of us is money. The dollar in America is
known as the “almighty buck”. Money speaks loudly in America and many
Christians fall into this trap as well. Money is powerful. We know money as
almighty sometimes even more than we know our own almighty God. And it is very
ironic that money is something that we place our trust because on our currency
in America there are four words that reveal this irony “IN GOD WE TRUST.” Every
time we look at our money, these four words should remind us of the only place
that our trust should be directed.
A second
idol is our job or our vocation. In this church, there have been many who have
fallen on hard times in the past few years or even still because of lack of
work, losing jobs and then not being able to find any work. We idolize our work
because it brings us power, because it brings us prestige and because it brings
us money. We justify working long hours because we need the money in order to
pay the bills. When we work long hours, we lose quality time with our children
and our spouses. And most importantly we lose time with the one who provided us
with employment—our faithful God. We are busy at work; therefore we turn down
opportunities to serve at church to advance the kingdom of God.
A third
idol in today’s society is sports. We obsess over sports, especially in West
Michigan—whether we are a participant or a spectator—at any level of
sports—younger kids, middle and high school, collegiate or professional. We can
rattle off statistics from past years of players or teams, yet we can’t seem to
remember anything about last weeks sermon or even our morning devotions. As
spectators we will skip worship time on Sunday to watch the game being played.
We will make committee meetings shorter so that we may get home to watch the
game. People of God, the point is, is that we will sacrifice almost anything
simply to watch a game being played.
And as
participants—we will not let anything stop us from playing—worship time, youth
group, Sunday school, catechism, committee meetings, mission trips and the list
goes on and on. When we skip these opportunities to grow and strengthen our
faith; we are telling God that something is more important than Him. We are
placing something along side of or above the one true God.
A fourth
idol is pop culture—music, movies, TV shows, Facebook, Twitter or anything that
is involved in popular culture. We indulge in non-sanctifying movies, TV shows
or music thinking that it won’t affect us. We cuss and swear on Twitter and
Facebook. We “like” and “favorite” postings that are completely unbiblical and
ungodly. We need to examine what we watch, what we hear, what we post and what
we say in order that what we believe matches how we behave.
VI. Conclusion
People
of God, Paul is telling us that the Gospel of Jesus Christ assumes that we will
still be in the world, but we don’t have to be of this world. And Paul is not
telling us to hide away like a hermit either. This passage is a wake up call to
be careful not to fall into the sin of idolatry as the Israelites and the
Corinthian believers did. We are in just as much danger as they are, so when
you think you are standing firm, be careful people of God, be careful that you
don’t fall!
People of God, I stand before
you as a young man who has idolized the above listed things. I have not always
been faithful to my God. But I know with absolute certainty that my God has
always been faithful to me and I know that He will always be faithful to me.
So
please, hear this: Our God is a faithful God. He has experienced the same
temptations as we have and far more than we can ever imagine. He is the only
God that should receive all our trust. And if He doesn’t receive all of our
trust, then we have an idol in our life that we need to get rid of.
People of God, maybe today you
find yourself being unfaithful to God. Maybe you have been in a place of
unfaithfulness for a while now. Maybe there is something in your life that you
have placed either above God or along side of God.
Whatever place you find yourself
in today, these nine examples are warnings for us; these are warnings from
Israel’s history that were written to the Corinthians and now they are written
to us. We have these examples written long ago, ancient words written long ago
for us even today. These are examples of their idolatry and they are a warning for
us not to fall into idolatry.
And the good news in this
passage is that 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. And
when you are tempted, He will provide a way out, so that you can stand up under
it.
And people of God, if you have
an idol in your life, turn to God, seek Him. Ask Him for a clean heart. His grace
will be extended to you. His faithfulness will draw you back to being faithful
to Him again. He will provide a way out, so that you may stand up under it.
Amen.
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