Preaching & Teaching Biblically

Bible Text: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 | Preacher: Pastor Mike Hale | Series: 1 Corinthians

My priority is to teach the word of God accurately and comprehensively, so
that you might know what it says, what it means by what it says, and how that is to be applied to your life.

In our Scripture today, Paul begins with a history lesson, recalling the Exodus of Israel from Egypt, after God had sent 10 plagues to free Israel from bondage.

Read verses 1-4… Paul uses several interesting expressions here: under the cloud, passed through the sea, baptized into Moses, spiritual food and drink, and a spiritual rock that followed them.

Exodus 13:21 tells us that God’s presence was manifested to Israel in the desert in the form of a pillar of cloud during the day and a pillar of fire during the night.

And it was by God’s power that Israel was able to cross the Red Sea, for God opened it up and held back the waters, until all the Israelites had passed through, and then God closed it up and drowned the Egyptian army that was chasing them.

The people were said to be baptized into Moses, i.e., they acknowledged Moses as God’s appointed leader or head over them, and so they followed him; just as Christians are said to be baptized into Christ, in that we believe and receive Him, acknowledging Him as God’s One and Only Son, being both Savior and Lord (Romans 6:1-10), and as the head of the Church, all Christians.

In verse 4, Paul says that all the Israelites “ate of the same spiritual food and drank of the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.”

The Jews had a legend that said the rock Moses struck to bring forth water followed them throughout the desert wanderings to provide water; but Paul makes it clear that rock [petros – large stone or boulder] which followed them was Christ [petra – a massive outcropping of rock, like a mountain or cliff].

Think about it, Jesus is called (Psalm 95:1), “the Rock of our Salvation,” and He is (Jeremiah 17:13), “the spring of living water,” and (John 4:10, 14) He “gives us living water,” and whoever “drinks this water will never thirst,” for he will have “eternal life.”

Paul is saying that the presence of the Christ/Messiah, God the Son, was with the Israelites in the desert, protecting and providing for them.

Read verses 5-10… Paul is telling us that most of the Israelites in the desert did not please God. Even though they had the blessings of God and His presence, providing for them food and drink, they were disobedient and fell into sin, causing many of them to die.

Paul says that their sinfulness and its consequences is to be an example to us so we do not set our hearts on evil things, here expressed as idolatry, immorality, challenging God, and grumbling or complaining.

Corinth was built around idol worship – it was a city with many pagan temples; in fact the temple to Aphrodite [the goddess of love, beauty and sexual pleasure] had some 1,000 temple prostitutes.

Some of the Corinthians who had come to Christ were now falling back into idolatry – Paul warns them (v. 7), “as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in pagan revelry [NASB stood up to play – meaning to caress, i.e., sexual relations].

Paul is reminding them of what Israel did while Moses was up onto the mountain with the LORD, receiving the Ten Commandments (Exodus 32:1-10).
1Corinthians 10:8 says Israel’s immorality resulted in the death of 23,000 (Exodus 32:19-29, 33-35).

Were these Israelites really trying to honor God by worshipping a golden calf, displaying such pagan and immoral behavior? Idolatry was the first commandment given by God to Moses (Exodus 20:3), “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Idolatry was abhorrent and detestable to God, for it is a sin of the heart when we put anything in the seat of worship besides God.

Many churches today practice various forms of idolatry and immorality through false doctrine, pagan ceremonies and godless practices, e.g., secular music and pagan bands, prochoice or pro-abortion agendas, by condoning same-sex marriages and allowing unmarried couples who are sexually active to actually participate in the life of the Church, unhindered and undisciplined.

1Corinthians 10:9 recaps the event in Numbers 21, after God provided manna to eat and water to drink, the people complained and tried God’s patience (vv. 5-9). God then sent fiery serpents and many Israelites died; but when anyone was bitten, if they looked to the bronze snake on a pole, he would live, just as all those who look to Christ on the Cross will be saved (John 3:14-18).

1Corinthians 10:10 speaks of the destroyer (the same as the passover angel) coming against grumblers (Numbers 16), after God had brought judgement against some men who rebelled against Moses and Aaron; the people complained about God’s justice, and God killed 14,700 of them with a plague.

God doesn’t take kindly to those who express disdain for His authority and justice, let alone His precepts and His preeminence.

1Corinthians 10:11-13… This all has been written down to warn us against trying and testing God’s patience and provision, as if we were somehow equal to God or able to stand in His presence and correct Him.

We must not let pride get in the way, and we must understand that God may very well try and test us, but never to do evil; in fact in Matthew 6:13 we are to pray, “do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” God assures us that in every situation we are more than conquerors, when we accept the provision of God’s Word, acknowledging and applying its wisdom and power to our life (see Joshua 1:8; Proverbs 3:5-6).