They All Fall Down
1 Corinthians 10:1-12
Harvard philosophy professor George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The ancient Israelites served as a history lesson for Christians at Corinth, so they would not repeat Israel’s mistakes. What happened to the Israelites was to be an “example.” The word here in Greek is tupos from which the English word “type” is derived. Its is found in verses six and eleven. It means “to strike”. If a man should strike his fist into a ball of putty, he would leave there, not his fist, but the type of it. I typed this article into the computer by striking various keys on the keyboard. What happened to the Israelites is typical or a type/antitype relationship to what goes only among Christians who fall.
Notice Paul says all of the Israelites were blessed. The term “all” is found five times in contrast to the word “many.” They received the blessings of salvation, protection, guidance, sustenance, forgiveness.
Israel: Type of Blessings
• Need for Deliverance
The children of Israel had become slaves in Egypt (Ex. 1:7-11). Their numbers grew at an alarming rate. Pharaoh feared them. So, he enslaved them to serve Egypt. While in bondage to Egypt, the Israelites cried out to God for deliverance (Ex. 2:23-25). Like the Israelites, all men were made servants to sin and in need of deliverance (Rom. 6:17).
• Sending of a Savior
Moses was raised up by God to be the deliverer of the Children of Israel (Ex. 3:10). Today, Christ is our deliverer; “even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Th. 1:10). Christ died on the cross for our deliverance.
• Baptism
In a sense all the Israelites were baptized unto Moses (1 Cor. 10:1,2). The sea represented God’s salvation of His people through the Red Sea as they crossed safely. In like manner, all sinners must be baptized to be saved from sin. As they were baptized into Moses were are baptized into Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection (Rom. 6:3-5).
• Protection
God is often portrayed at a rock of safety offering protection in the Old Testament. The word used here is petra meaning a massive rock. This shows Israelites enjoyed the protection of Christ in the wilderness.
• Guidance
The guide for the Israelites in the wilderness was God represented in the physical form of a cloud. The cloud represented God’s presence and glory among them (Ex. 14:19-22), indicating his leadership and protection. God guided them by “a pillar of cloud by day” and “a pillar of fire by night” (Ex. 13:21).
• Sustenance
A rabbinic interpretation of Numbers 21:16-18 is that a well, known as Miriam’s Well and shaped like a rock, had accompanied them, providing water wherever they went. The Lord provided them with water from a rock and food from manna and quail. Manna foreshadowed Christ (John 6:3-58) and the words He speaks. And He is able to give the water of life (John 4:1f).
Need for the Comparison
between Christians and Israel in the Wilderness
Why does Paul need to make a type/antitype argument for the saints at Corinth. In chapter eight some of them were weak with regard to the eating of meats and the abundance of idols. Paul used himself as an example of a mature Christian who disciplined himself to better serve God in chapter nine. Now Israel is an example of spiritual immaturity, shown in their overconfidence and lack of self-discipline. Paul list the sins Israel succumbed to in the wilderness. Note, in Psalm 78:13-16 these sins are also listed as a warning.
The Corinthians were saved, baptized, well taught, lacking in no gift, and presumably mature. They may have felt confident they can handle any temptation. Yet Paul does not want them to be “unaware” or ignorant. Israel had all the aforementioned blessings from God and still fell into the same sins that were common in Corinth in association with pagan rituals and feasting.
Israel of Type Punishment for Sin
Even though “all” were blessed by God, still “many” displeased God. “But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness” (1 Cor. 10:5). The word “most” is a gross understatement as only two men arrived in the Promised Land of those who came out of Egypt. The Israelites who had been recipients of God’s richest blessings were strewn out all over the wilderness like paper littering the countryside. The Israelites are accused of five things: lusting after flesh, being idolatrous, committing fornication, tempting God and murmuring. When we read in God’s Word about the failures of others, do we respond, “That would never happen to me.” Yet Israel with all these blessings and advantages they still fell.
▸ Lust, 10:6
Israel became discontent with the food which God had miraculously provided (the manna) and desired meat (Num. 11:33,34). God sent them quails to eat but immediately sent a great plague which killed those who lusted. The Corinthians lived in a carnal world given over to wicked desires. The Greeks even had a verb to describe their behavior. To corinthianize was a term synonymous among the ancients with licentiousness.
▸ Idolatry, 10:7
The phrase “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play” (10:7) is a quoted from Exodus 32:6. The Israelites built a golden calf as their object of worship. A calf idol was a popular Egyptian god. When Moses returned from Mt. Sinai the idol was destroyed and 3000 who would not repent were put to death. Eating and drinking was feasting connected to pagan worship. The Corinthians were warned, “therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one…For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols?” (1 Cor. 8:8,10). And Paul conclude this argument based on the Israelites fall in the wilderness with this warning: “therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry” ( Cor. 10:14). Today, we must remember that covetousness is idolatry (Col. 3:5). One can make an idol out of just about anything by putting it in the place of or before God (Matt. 6:33).
▸ Fornication, 10:8
Verse eight is a reference to the occasion when the Midianites, under the counsel of Balaam (Num. 31:16), caused Israel to turn aside to false gods through the use of Midianite religious prostitutes (Num. 25:1-9). In Numbers 25:1 we hear of Israel “playing” the harlot and in 25:2 they eat and bow to the gods. The Corinthians saints had been warned to “flee sexual immorality” (1 Corinthians 6:18). At Corinth there was a temple to Aphrodite with a 1000 prostitutes. “Dio Chrysostom mentions prostitutes being taken from festival to festival to satisfy the sexual needs of the participants and those attending.” Although sex itself is not immoral, sex outside marriage is evil (Heb. 13:4). Sins involving sex are not harmless dabbling in tabooed enjoyment as is so often depicted but powerful destroyers of relationships and souls.
▸ Tempting of Christ, 10:9
Paul next accused the Israelites of tempting Christ “as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents” (10:9). This affirms Christ’s deity and preexistence. Remember Christ existed from eternity. Of course, God cannot be tempted to do evil (Js. 1:13). While the Israelites were going around Edom on their way to the promised land, they became dissatisfied with the manna which God miraculously provided for them and complained to God (Num. 21:5,6; 21:4-9). They faced deadly serpents as punishment. God sent fiery serpents among them which destroyed many in Israel. The Corinthians could put Christ to the test by carelessly dabbling in the culture and their past.
▸ Murmuring, 10:10
“Now when the people complained, it displeased the LORD; for the LORD heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the LORD burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp” (Num. 11:1). Throughout their wanderings in the wilderness, the Israelites never seemed to be able to stop their belly aching. God, the provider, became God the destroyer. The Israelites told Moses, “we remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” (Num. 11:5,6). They complained about no food. God set up fast food service through out the wilderness. They complained about no meat. “Where’s the beef”. God sent quail. They complained about wanting more water. They wanted unlimited refills.
As long as we have people in the church we are going to have complainers. Paul had to defend his style of speaking and his apostleship to the Corinthians Complaining dishonors our heavenly Father; contentment glorifies Him. Murmuring “implies that we know better what we need than He does; it charges God with placing unnecessary restrictions on our freedom and generally allows man to set in judgment of God.”
Warning
Paul finally arrives at the purpose or reason for these illustrations from the Old Testament: “now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (10:11). The Israelites’ struggle is typical of our struggle. The Corinthians were warned not to let what happened to the nation of Israel happen to them. The examples serve as admonitions to correct their mind or spiritual attitude. The age to come is the Christian age – the last age. It is the time of fulfillment of God’s promise to Abram that“all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen. 12:3). God had the aforementioned events recorded for the benefit of those of us who live in the Christian era.
The warning is to the Corinthian saints’ possibility of failure just like the Israelites. “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). Perhaps in their arrogance they might have been thinking: “We have been baptized and eat and drink the Lord’s Supper, we are in Christ and He in us; and can eat meat offered to idols and go to pagan festivals with sex and nudity and not be tempted to sin.”
The Israelites were “all” blessed by God yet “many” fell. Privileges are no guarantee of success. Good beginnings do not guarantee good endings. The good news is that no one has to fail when temptations come (cf. 1 Cor. 10:13).
– by Daniel R. Vess
News & Notes
● Morning’s Lesson: Is God Too Strict?
● Contribution Scripture: 2 Corinthians 9:6,7
● Tonight’s Sermon will be: Worship Leadership by Dan Fontenot
● Business Meeting this evening after services.
● Workday this Saturday, October 15th.