1 Corinthians 10:1-13

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Rosa Simpson
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1 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 It s fairly easy for most of us, some of the time, to get a little too big for our boots. We become cocksure of ourselves. We think we can do it because of our personal CV, we reckon we know a fair wee bit when it comes to theology, we ve built up a reputation in certain quarters and, all in all, we come across as pompous and bumptious. In no time at all, if we re not careful, we can get all hyped up in our confidence that attitude isn t going to win us friends, nor is it going to do us too many favours in the long term, never mind in the short term. I can tell you, we re making a big stick for our own back! That s the mindset that Paul warns against right here in chapter 10 the danger of God s people becoming supercilious, and giving the clear impression that they know it all! Nine times out of ten, such folks are inclined to think they ve arrived when it comes to the ultimate of spirituality. Being confident is one thing, being over-confident is quite a different matter! The first is ok when it s rooted and grounded in God, the second is often seriously misplaced as it s focused on our big head and our bright ideas. The first will drive us to our knees in total dependence on the Lord, the second will only drive us over the edge as we seek to rely on our own abilities and initiative. The first declares, I can do this but only when God does it through me; the second says, I m fine, I can do it on my own, thank you very much! See the massive difference between the two outlooks on life and ministry. One sounds good, looks good, feels good, and is good the other smacks of arrogance and a brash in-your-face attitude. One I like and admire, the other is a complete turn-off doing unthinkable harm to people and churches. One attitude is profoundly beautiful and makes you smile, the other stinks and makes you want to run a mile in the opposite direction. Paul is aware that there are people in the church in Corinth who have that uppity attitude. That s why he starts the chapter off with a word of warning he tells the folks who are independent

2 mavericks that there are times when ignorance is far from bliss, and this just happens to be one of them! No matter what they say or think, it s always best to follow the Maker s instructions. Failure to do so means that something worthwhile tends to turn into a shambles and a bit of a mess. I assume most of us can identify with that, especially around the house if we re involved in DIY. Hence the stern warning! I want us to explore Paul s thinking in a few moments when we will get to the bottom of what he says; right now, though, we ll pause for a short music break. MUSIC BREAK This is where Paul excels he knows his Old Testament back to front, inside out! For the next few verses, Paul gives them a lesson on Old Testament history and the spiritual lessons to be learned from the past. If we learn from their mistakes, we re on to a real winner in the long run and, in the process, we will save ourselves an awful lot of heartache and hassle. Paul spins the wheel of time backward to a spoke of the past to the day of the Hebrews wilderness wanderings. He saw that this spoke in the cycle of history had wheeled around to touch the earth the Corinthians walked on for, as I said a minute ago, the believers at Corinth needed to learn much the same lesson as the children of Israel. Neither of them could blame their failure to follow God s way on receiving unclear instructions they just didn t read them, and they didn t listen to what he had to say; by the same token, even though they were centuries apart, both were wealthy with privileges that encouraged them to live godly lives. In verses 1-4, Paul concentrates on five of them. Actually before we look at the first one, it s worth noting that the word all is mentioned four times in as many verses in the NIV. It means exactly what it says: all! It is inclusive of all in the camp of Israel therefore, Paul s message embraces every one in the assembly in Corinth. Be they Jew, Gentile or pagan, their religious

3 upbringing doesn t matter, their ethnicity doesn t enter into the equation either; if they know Jesus as Lord and Saviour, every single one of them is under the one umbrella of grace. That was true back then, it s no less true today! The first privilege was supernatural guidance. We read in verse 1 that our forefathers were all under the cloud. The cloud that Paul refers to is mentioned in Exodus 13:21 it was the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night that led them in their journey to the Promised Land. Twenty-four hours a day they could look up and see either the cloud or the fire and know whether God wanted them to move to the right or to the left, stop and pitch their tents or pull up the stakes and go. For them it was no guessing game following God s guidance by day or night was as simple as opening their eyes. The second privilege was supernatural deliverance for we read at the end of verse 1 that they all passed through the sea. We have the historical account of that amazing event in Exodus 14 when the people walked across the Red Sea to the other side. A miracle, indeed! As the punters say, they went from A to B via the Red Sea! Every physical law dictates they all should have drowned, yet, because of divine intervention, not even their feet got wet! The third privilege was supernatural leadership, that s hinted at in verse 2 where we read: They were all baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. I think it s important for us to realise that Moses didn t hold the biggest outdoor baptismal service in history! It wasn t quite like that at all! The Greek word carries the idea of identifying with something else. In Paul s day if you wanted to have a garment dyed a different colour, you would take it to a merchant who would baptise it for you that is, he would dip it in a liquid to totally change its identity. That s the thought here in verse 2 for the Israelites had been spiritually dipped into a union with God, Moses, and Moses leadership. We see in Exodus 14:31 how they reacted and responded to his godly guidance for we read: And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the

4 Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant. The fourth privilege was supernatural food. We read in verse 3 that they all ate the same spiritual food. That was the manna that God supplied for them for forty years, six days a week, so that they never once went hungry. As sure as day follows night the manna was there for them six mornings out of seven! And on the missing day, they got a double helping the day before. That was the most dependable meal service they ever had it was service with a divine smile! We read all about this superb provision in Exodus 16:4-36. It s interesting to note that Paul labels the food as spiritual when he talks about it in verse 3; in other words, he implies that it was to be a means of grace to God s people. This heavenly food was not only physically nourishing for the children of Israel, it was also a symbol of the body of Christ, which would be broken for them at Calvary to restore their perishing souls (I believe we have echoes of that truth in Luke 22:19 and Isaiah 53:5). The fifth privilege easily follows on from the last one, it is the privilege of supernatural drink, we read in verse 4, they drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. This is a superb example of the preincarnate presence of Jesus Christ, a theophany, as the theologians call it. Even before Jesus took on human flesh, he had his hand in the affairs of his people in this case, he was generously providing them with all the water they needed. Read the story for yourself in Exodus 17:1-7. It s another one of those gripping accounts of the liberality of God, a God who meets his people at the point of their need. The point of all these affirmations is to recount the privileges of Israel during her early days in the Old Testament era. To a man they were spectacularly blessed. Well blessed. They had more than they needed! These were the prime assets of her liberation from bondage in Egypt, they were five tangible tokens of God s hand upon them in deliverance.

5 The problem was, as we ll see after the break, they didn t value God s blessing the way they should have done, they didn t see it as a token of his love and kindness, they failed to appreciate what God was doing among them. MUSIC BREAK In spite of all the wonderful ways that God had blessed them, we read some haunting words in verse 5: Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. Sad words. True story. The whole thing went pear shaped in the sweltering desert heat. The end result was a generation was buried in the sands, with only two outstanding survivors: Joshua and Caleb. The rest of their bronzed bodies were strewn across the wilderness floor out of so many, only two emerged with their heads held high. Two men who valued and appreciated the good hand of God Joshua and Caleb. The whole scenario should be a salutary lesson to them and us! That s what Paul hopes for in this chapter, that s the principal reason why he s going down this particular route. We read in verse 11: these things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfilment of the ages has come. In other words, the man s a fool if he doesn t get the message; he s a bigger fool, if he doesn t pay attention to the message. Paul gives them a handful of clear, concise directives in these verses. Number one, he tells them not to crave evil things, and that s in verse 6: Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. The preacher goes about this the right way he starts off small, his first salvo involves an attitude, a craving, a hankering for evil. The Israelites had been overexposed to supernatural benefits and blessings, yet they lacked the proper response. They didn t know how to handle it. They were out of their depth. The story is a sad one, you can read it in Numbers 11:4-6. In spite of all the good things the Lord did for them, they were a bunch of ungrateful and dissatisfied customers.

6 In spite of the tough times they endured in Egypt, they re now wearing rose tinted spectacles and they want to go back! Doesn t make an awful lot of sense, but sometimes perspectives are blurred when we fail to toe God s party line. Paul s second directive is in verse 7 where he warns them not to be idolatrous. We read his explicit comment when he says to them: do not be idolaters! Again he bases it on the experience of those folks away back then, for he tells them what is quoted from Exodus 32:6 which reads: The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry. Nothing could be plainer than that! Chuck Swindoll defines an idol as anything that seizes the adoration that belongs to God. It can be a parent, a child, a spouse, a friend, a reputation, a goal it can be anything that comes first in your life or mine, anything or anyone that takes God s seat on the throne of our hearts! Paul s third directive is found in verse 8 where he tells them not to become immoral. We read: we should not commit sexual immorality. Paul pulls no punches on this issue for he knows what s going on in Corinth. Apart from anything else, the idea here is to not become immoral, it suggests a process. It begins with an evil attitude, it continues with a substitution of other things in God s place, and results in immorality anything in our lives that is inconsistent with purity. It s the kind of thing that has happened before for Paul gives the scary example of the Israelites when 23,000 of them died in one day. That frightening incident is briefly recorded for us in Numbers 25:1, 2. The bottom line, God is holy, and he expects us to embrace a life of holiness as well. Anything less than that is a slur on his character, anything else brings disrepute on his unsullied and untarnished name. Paul s fourth directive is outlined in verse 9: We should not test the Lord, as some of them did and were killed by snakes. I think the message there is relatively easy for us to ascertain, we must not try the Lord. The people questioned the character of God when they

7 spilt cold water on his faithfulness in caring for them and meeting their every need. They posed the big question: Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? God was not well pleased and so that paid the price for their crass stupidity. They pushed their luck too far, they overstepped the mark, they began to take him for granted, and you can t do that with God. You can t treat him as though he were your neighbour next door! It s extremely serious when we provoke a response from a patient God. Paul s fifth directive is recorded for us in verse 10 where we read: And do not grumble, as some of them did and were killed by the destroying angel. In other words, Paul says, do not grumble! The fact is, when the Israelites didn t get what they wanted, they kicked up a stink, they complained bitterly and relentlessly. They were acting like spoilt children and started throwing their toys from their pram that s how bad it was! They paid an incredibly heavy price because they failed to say thank you to the Lord, because they allowed their heart to rule their head discontentment gets you nowhere. For them the only place it took them was six feet under! You can see what Paul s doing he has given them a number of real life examples to challenge them to get their act together and to, hopefully, stimulate them to get on the right track for the Lord. His punchline comes in verse 12 with a powerful reminder: hey, folks, don t get too cocksure, don t get too big for your boots! Remember, the higher you go, the harder and further you fall! That s something we all need to take on board for the ego tells us one thing, but God s word tells me something different at the end of the day, humility of heart and mind is the best virtue for us to adopt. Paul rounds this section off with a wonderful verse that gives us enormous assurance in the tough times of life. He reminds us that, when the trials and temptations come, there s nothing strange or startling about them, what happens to us is nothing new it could be happening to the person sitting in front of us in church next Sunday. Every one of us will be tempted in one way or another.

8 A powerful expression follows that jerk back to reality when he says that God is faithful. It doesn t matter what assaults us, the Lord is always there, we can always depend on him. He s standing beside us. The good news is, he also provides a way out, an escape route when we emerge from the temptation or trial, our lives are richer and our faith is stronger. Depending on our attitude, we ll be better people! God knows what he s doing. He allows these things to happen in our lives and, don t forget, he doesn t make the back for the burden, according to verse 13, he makes the burden for the back! Look folks, even in issues like this, God hasn t lost the personal touch and, whatever happens, he has the uncanny ability of bringing the best of times from the worst of times. I m sure we ve all heard God speak to us from today s study quite a section, full of challenge, and yet, God s the one who is able to see us through. Think big thoughts about him, not me!

18. The examples not to follow

18. The examples not to follow October 7, 2018 Let s review what we learned previously: In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul established two principles. First, an idol is really nothing, and it was fine for the Corinthian