1 Corinthians 10:1-10 (NIV)
For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into 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 in the wilderness.
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 revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ, 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.
Some of the leaders and teachers in Corinth were teaching that once a person is saved, it didn’t matter what kind of life they live. They were saved, they had been received as God’s people, God now loved them, and He was not going to punish them. But Paul’s point is that there is no security in merely being a person who professes faith in Jesus. God’s people must live their lives in ways that are fitting for God’s people and avoid sin at all cost. That is not a call to legalism, but a call to recognize the simple fact that sin is destructive.
To prove his point, Paul pointed to several events that happened during the Exodus. Even though all those who came out of Egypt were figuratively baptized during their passage through the waters of the Red Sea, even though all ate manna, spiritual food that Jesus said symbolized Himself (John 6:41) , and even though they drank water from the rock that Paul identifies as Jesus, all those who were twenty years old or older when they came out of Egypt sinned in the wilderness and were punished for that sin, falling along the way, and missing out entirely on the Promised Land.
The four categories of sin that Paul identifies are given specifically to provide examples of the things that will destroy hearts and lives, even those of the people that God has saved and supported, ultimately leading to their loss and destruction.
Idolatry heads the list. Just as the Jews were not immune to turning aside to worship things other than the true God, even though they had heard his voice from Mount Sinai (Exodus 20:1, 18-19) and lived in sight of the pillar of cloud and fire, so Christians can be drawn aside, worshipping things other than God. This not only includes the false gods that were worshiped throughout the Roman Empire, but also includes elevating things like jobs, family, and pursuit of wealth or fame to first place in their lives, allowing them to usurp the position that belongs to God and God alone.
Sexual immorality, which was rampant in the highly sexualized culture of Corinth, could also lead the Christians away and cause them to be lost, just like those who died in the desert after participating in the sexualized festival to Baal (Numbers 25:1-9). Since the sex drive is so powerful in people, this kind of destructive sin must be guarded against at all times, in today’s hypersexualized culture as much as 2000 years ago.
Testing the Lord, demanding that He do things their way, destroyed many when they were on the final leg of their journey into the Promised Land. In response, God sent venomous snakes which killed many of them (Numbers 21:4-9) even though He graciously provided the bronze serpent which Moses mounted on a pole, so that all who looked at it in faith could be saved.
Finally, those who grumbled against God, rebelling in their hearts, were killed by a plague. God does not take lightly those who have received His salvation, His blessings, His grace and His provision, and then rebel against him in their hearts, or grumble when the path is hard.
Paul’s purpose here is to stop in their tracks those who were teaching or had been taught that compromising with sin was no big deal; that as long as you have been saved, you can live however you want, and it won’t have any effect on your eternal destiny. From Paul’s perspective, the testimony of the Scriptures clearly tells a completely different story.
Father, far too many Christians today are ignorant of Your history with the Jewish people as taught in the historical record of the Old Testament. Others have been taught that those lessons don’t apply; that the rules or Your character somehow changed between the Old Testament and the New. But Your own testimony of Yourself is that you are eternal and do not change (Malachi 3:6). It is clear that taking Your salvation for granted and living as pagans do while claiming to be Your people is a terrible form of blasphemy that must be punished. Forgive us, Lord, for forgetting or ignoring the lessons of history to our own hurt. Help us to live our lives in ways that glorify You all day, every day, all the rest of our lives. Amen.