Sunday Sermons
Lest We Fall
Lest We Fall
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
“At the back of this passage there lies the over-confidence of some of the Corinthian Christians. Their point of view was, ‘We have been baptized and we are therefore one with Jesus Christ; we have partaken of the Lord's Supper and therefore we have partaken of the body and blood of Christ; we are in Christ and Christ in us; therefore we are quite safe; we can eat meat offered to idols and take no harm; there is no possible danger for us.’ By recalling the example of Israel, Paul showed that being recipients of special privileges did not guarantee one's salvation. Thus, he showed that Israel had received a ‘baptism’ and a ‘supper’ just the same as the Corinthians had; nevertheless, the greater portion of them were lost”. Yet, they thought they stood on safe ground (10:12).
10:1 “Paul appeals to the experience of the Israelites in the wilderness in confirmation of his statement concerning himself in 9:26ff and as a powerful warning to the Corinthians who may be tempted to flirt with the idolatrous practices of their neighbors. It is a real, not an imaginary peril” (Robertson p. 151). “It is possible that I may be rejected, for the Israelites were” (Vincent p. 238). “Our fathers”: In the previous chapter Paul had given an illustration from the games (9:24). “Many a Greek must have looked long and hard at some beaten athlete, sitting by himself in dejection while the victor has the applause and attention of the masses, and many a Jew must have wondered about the loss of thousands in the desert” (McGuiggan p. 132). “Were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea”: Notice the stress on the word "all" in these verses. “God included all; if any of them were excluded and did not remain included, this was due wholly to their own action” (Lenski p. 390). “All passed through the sea”: Paul agrees that the "sea" which was parted, formed walls high enough to cover the Israelites (Exodus 14:22). 1 Corinthians 10:2 “and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea”: Indicating that baptism is an immersion. “With a wall of water on each side and a cloud over them (and or behind them), the Israelites were buried from the sight of the Egyptians” (McGarvey p. 97). “Into Moses”: “As Moses was Israel's deliverer, so Christ is theirs” (Fee p. 445). “The passage of the Red Sea led Israel to fully accept Moses as their master and leader under God (Exodus 14:31)” (McGarvey p. 98). Christians are baptized into Christ (Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:27). Like our baptism, the baptism of the Israelites accomplished a deliverance from the land of bondage. “This Israelite baptism separated the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt just as Christian baptism separates one from sin” (Willis p. 317) (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; 1 Peter 3:21). “After deliverance came the question of sustenance. This was affected in the desert by means no less miraculous and symbolic” (Gr. Ex. N.T. pp. 857-858).
1 Corinthians 10:3 “and did all eat the same spiritual food”: “All received and enjoyed the identical spiritual blessing”(Lenski p. 391). “Same” is a powerful word here. No Israelite could complain that they were not given the same advantages as Joshua or Caleb (those who made it to the Promised Land). Likewise, all Christians today undergo the same baptism, they partake of the same elements, they have the same mediator, and they read from the same Bible. “Spiritual food”: This is a reference to the manna; it is called "spiritual food" because of its miraculous origin (Exodus 16; Psalm 78:25; John 6:31 “He gave them bread out of heaven to eat”.) “The manna and water were not made of spiritual stuff. They came from an invisible source: God. "Spiritual" stresses the source of the gifts, not their constituent elements” (McGuiggan p. 133). 10:4 “They were drinking”: “The imperfect tense denoting continued action--throughout their journey” (Vincent p. 239). Moses will fetch water from the rock near the beginning of their wilderness experience (Exodus 17:1-7), and also near the end. (Numbers 20:2-13). “The fact that water was twice supplied by Christ at different periods would be sufficient to suggest His continual presence” (McGarvey p. 99). “Of a spiritual rock that followed them”: “Jewish legend conceived the idea of a rock which traveled alongside the people throughout their forty year's journey. Paul does not endorse this material fancy” (F.F. Bruce p. 91). “The rock typified Christ. The rock did not follow them. The God who brings water from flinty rocks was wherever they were” (McGuiggan p. 133).Christ was the source of the water, which saved the Israelites from perishing as He is the source of supply for us today. “Christ lived already in the midst of the ancient people, and that people has perished! How can you suppose, you Christians, that you are secured from the same fate!” (Gr. Ex. N.T. p. 858).
10:5 “However, in spite of their unique position and mercies the Israelites proved unfaithful” (Erdman p. 102). “Most of them”:“In fact, with the entire generation of military age, twenty years old and upward, that came out of Egypt (apart from Caleb and Joshua). Numbers 14:20-24;28-35; Deut. 1:34-40” (F.F. Bruce p. 92). “The recipients of God's richest blessings were strewn out all over the wilderness like paper littering the countryside” (Willis p. 321). “God's displeasure; sooner or later this doom overtook nearly all the witnesses of the Exodus (Heb. 3:17). What a spectacle for the eyes of the self-satisfied Corinthians, all these bodies, full-fed with miraculous nourishment, strewing the soil of the desert!” (Gr. Ex. N.T. p. 859). “Thus he sets in motion the following section in which he will specify the reasons for Israel's failure” (Fee pp. 449-450). “The fall of the Israel of the Exodus was due to the very temptations now surrounding the Corinthian Church--to the allurements of idolatry and its attendant impurity (6ff), and to the cherishing of discontent and presumption (9f). Their fate may prove our salvation, if we lay it to heart; the present trial, manifestly is nothing new” (Gr. Ex. N.T. p. 859). This whole section presents a generation of God's people who tried to "push" the limits of God's patience. They tried to walk right on the edge of sin, and many in Corinth were presently on the same path.
10:6 “As examples for us”: “These events are examples to us, warning us” (Nor). “So that we would not crave evil things”:“To keep us from setting our hearts on evil things” (Fee p. 452). “Instead of rejoicing in the spiritual blessings which God extended to them they constantly lusted after evil things” (Lenski p. 396). “They were tired, they said, of manna day after day (Numbers 11:4), and they lusted after meat, flesh to eat. Was eating meat so important that they would insult and tempt God? (Numbers 11:4-5) Should men recently rescued from age-old slavery and on their way to freedom whine over the loss of flesh to eat? Do you think the Corinthians should have been listening?” (McGuiggan p. 134). 10:7 “Lit., stop becoming idolaters, implying that some of them had already begun to be” (Robertson pp.152-153). Paul fixes his attention, not on the construction of the calf, but on the "feast" which attended the worship of it. The Corinthians were not arguing for the right to construct or worship idols, rather simply for the right to attend the feasts in the various idol temples. In response, Paul cites the worship of the golden calf, and labels as "idolatry" the feast that attended its worship. The eating and drinking in presence and or honor of the idol was "idolatry" as well. “The eating of the cultic meal constituted idolatry just as it did at Corinth. Although neither the Israelites nor the Corinthians considered their conduct to be idolatrous, both were guilty of it” (Willis p. 323). 10:8 “Fornication”: Continued to be a very real temptation for the Corinthians (6:9, 12-18), and in our culture as well, although in our modern culture and even at times among professed Christians, fornication is no longer seen as being that big of deal. To many, sex prior to marriage is a kind of American experience or right of passage. “Twenty three thousand fell in one day”: Numbers 25:1ff. Any questions about how God feels about fornication? The specific event of fornication cited, was the result of the Israelites attending an "idol feast", in which they "ate and bowed down to their gods" (Numbers 25:2). 23,000 Israelites died in one day, and the whole thing started when the people of God accepted an invitation to attend a feast dedicated to the worship of a specific god. (Numbers 25:2 “For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods”), and this is exactly the "liberty" that some Corinthians are claiming. 10:9 “Try the Lord”: “To see how far His patience will stretch or question if He means what He says” (F.F. Bruce p. 92). “To tempt out, tempt thoroughly; try to the utmost” (Vincent p. 240). “To try thoroughly, to the utmost--as though one would see how far God's indulgence will go” (Gr. Ex. N.T. p. 860). “The continual practice of things which are questionable may become the occasion of our presuming too far upon the forbearance of God, of our attempting to see how far we can go without falling, or of testing God, to learn how far He will let us go without punishment or reproof. Indulgence in some forms of amusement, not in themselves sinful, and in practices which other persons regard as harmless, may make us discontented with our lives of more rigid morality, until continued dissatisfaction deepens into disloyalty and ends in actual defiance of God”. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that I can commit this sin, because God will always forgive me. “Many a man trades on the mercy of God. At the back of his mind there is the idea, ‘It will be all right; God will forgive’. It is at his peril that a man forgets that there is a holiness as well as there is a love of God” (Barclay p. 99). “Destroyed by the serpents”: The event cited in Numbers 21:4-6 reveals that the Israelites were simply wanting to have better food (21:5), yet God still considered this a "test" of His patience and mercy. We can "test" God, or try His patience by pressing for our "rights". Dissatisfaction with what God has given us is trying the Lord!
10:10 “Nor grumble”: “Don't complain” (Beck). “You must stop grumbling” (Wms). Complaining was a frequent problem in the wilderness (Exodus 15:24; 16:2ff; 17:3; Numbers 11:1; 14:2ff; 16:11,41; Deuteronomy 1:27; Psalm 106:25). “People murmur when they think that justice has not been given to their claim, when they believe that they have been deprived of their legitimate rights. Complaining to God because of His restrictions over our conduct implies that we know better what we need that He does; it charges God will placing unnecessary restrictions on our freedom” (Willis p. 327). “Whining Israel moaned about how tough the road to freedom was, and they moaned about missing the food they were used to. Back in Egypt they had this and that, how come they had to give up so much? And would it surprise us if we knew that the Corinthians were feeling the same sense of loss? Things couldn't be the same now. There were old haunts they couldn't go, old friends with whom they couldn't now associate, old and pleasurable practices now forbidden to them. They could sympathize with the Israelites even if God couldn't”(McGuiggan p. 135).
10:11 “These things”: All the events just cited. “As an example”: “Are illustrations of the way in which God works” (Phi). “What happened to the Israelites is not exceptional by any means; it will in its way happen to God's people every time they turn away from Him” (Lenski p. 401). “They were written for our instruction”: “Thus indicating their divinely ordained reason for being in Scripture. In this sentence one captures a sense of Paul's view that both the historical events and the inscripturated narrative are not simply history or isolated texts in Scripture; rather, behind all these things lies the eternal purposes of the living God, who knows the end from the beginning” (Fee p. 458). “And God said: ‘Write that down! I want the Corinthians to read that in years to come. And I want them to get the message. I will not be trifled with or insulted’” (McGuiggan p. 135). “Whom the ends of the ages have come”: The Corinthians were living in a time when all the past purposes of God expressed in the O.T. were realizing their fulfillment (Mark 1:15; Luke 10:23; 24:25; Acts 3:24). A time period when prophecy and fulfillment had met. “Hence the Christian is justified in considering himself as the terminus to which all the earlier developments of revelation point. Christianity is the goal and end of all earlier revelations, and no new one follows it” (Willis p. 330). God still feels the same way about fornication, idolatry and grumbling. The good news is that such is written for our learning and that God is doing everything He can to see to it that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past.
Mark Dunagan/Beaverton Church of Christ/503-644-9017
www.beavertonchurchofchrist.net/mdunagan@easystreet.com
