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First Corinthians Chapter Ten

by Paul George  
11/20/2008 / Bible Studies

I Corinthians 10:1-33

Quotes from World English Bible unless noted otherwise

In the first five verses of chapter ten, Paul follows the same general theme he has introduced in chapter nine verses twenty-four through twenty-seven, where he points out that in a race, all run, but one wins. In chapter ten verses one through five Paul turns to the ancient Israelites and points to the blessings which all experienced; yet most failed to enter the land, dying instead in the wilderness. The first blessing was that of divine deliverance, or we might say salvation. They were all under God's protection. The cloud spread itself over them as a mighty sheet, to defend them from the burning sun in the sandy desert. They miraculously crossed through the Red Sea, where the pursuing Egyptians were drowned: it was a lane to them, but a grave to the Egyptians, a proper type of our redemption by Christ, who saves us by conquering and destroying His enemies and ours.

The second blessing, they were all baptized into Moses that is, brought under obligation to Moses' law and covenant, as we are by baptism under the Christian law and covenant. It was to them a typical baptism.

The third blessing was a counterpart to the Lord's Supper or communion. At communion, we eat of the bread, and we drink of the wine. The bread symbolizes the sinless body of our Lord. The wine symbolizes the blood that He shed on our behalf, cleansing us from sin. The manna on which they fed was a type of Christ crucified the bread that came down from heaven. Their drink was a stream from a rock that followed them in all their journeying in the wilderness; and this rock was Christ, that is, in type and figure. He is the rock on which the Christian church is built; and of the streams, that issue from Him all believers drink, and are refreshed.

Now all the Jews ate of this meat, and drink of this rock, called here a spiritual rock, because it typified spiritual things. These were great privileges. One would think that this should have saved them; that all who ate of that spiritual meat, and drank of that spiritual drink, should have been holy and acceptable to God. Yet was it otherwise, with many of them God was not well pleased, they were "overthrown in the wilderness" (v 5).

Men may enjoy many and great spiritual privileges in this world, and yet come short of eternal life. Many of those "who were baptized into Moses in the cloud and sea, that is, had their faith confirmed by these miracles, were yet overthrown in the wilderness, and never saw the promised land. Let none presume upon their great privileges, or profession of the truth; these will not secure heavenly happiness, nor prevent judgments here on earth.

God supernaturally provided for all of the true needs of all the Israelites during their forty years in the wilderness. He divinely provided for their salvation, for their protection, and for their guidance, by the cloud and by leading them through the sea. God provided for the food and water that these Israelites required while in the wilderness. Yet in spite of all these divine provisions, the Israelites failed to enter into the land. Only two of all those wilderness wanderers ever entered the land of Canaan. Even Moses did not enter the land. Even though God provided for their essential needs, they did not please God, and they did not enter the land. Many left Egypt; all partook of divine blessings and privileges; only two entered the Promised Land.

God's blessings and privileges do not guarantee that one will win the race. No one can ever say they failed to finish the race because they were not adequately provided for. Those who failed to enter into the Promised Land are those who failed to appropriate God's provisions. More than this, those who failed to enter into the Promised Land were those who lacked self-discipline, and who fell due to their self-indulgence. In verses six through ten, Paul will identify those specific sins that plagued the ancient Israelites, resulting in their failure to please God and to possess the land of Canaan. Each of these failures is a sin of self-indulgence, and each point to a sin that is prominent in the Corinthian church of Paul's day, as well as in the church today.

In verse one, Paul speaks of the Israelites as "our forefather," stressing the continuity of the people of God, Old Testament and New. Paul stresses the importance of these Old Testament stories as they directly bear on the lives of the Corinthians and they have a bearing on our lives and the church in the twenty-first century. The lesson taught in Israel's wilderness wandering is that we should not crave evil things. Craving evil things is that self-indulgence which keeps us from winning the race and which kept the Israelites from entering the land of Canaan. Self-control is the discipline we impose upon ourselves so that we can win the race. In verses six through ten, Paul links the experience of the ancient Israelites directly to the experience of the Corinthians and us. They lacked self-control, and they craved evil things. Each of the failures Paul highlights from the history of the first generation of Israelites is a failure of self-indulgence. Each of the failures is associated with eating and drinking, with food. Food, that is, meat offered to idols, is still the issue at hand, and Paul now shows us what we can learn about food and self-indulgence from the Israelites of old.

The first offense of the Israelites, is craving evil things. The second offense is idolatry. What is interesting about Paul's words in reference to idolatry is that when he refers to the incident described in Exodus chapter thirty-two verses one through six, he does not mention the fashioning of the golden calf, but only the fact of Israel's sitting down to eat and drink, and then their rising up to play. The idolatry of the Israelites was clearly prohibited, and it was a most evil thing that they did. Paul seems intent upon pointing out not only their idolatry, but also what accompanied it. Their idolatry was associated with eating and drinking. They offered sacrifices to the idol, and then they sat down to eat and to drink of these foods, which were a part of the pagan sacrificial service. Following this meal they arose to play, the play referred to here is sexual in nature. Therefore, both the eating and drinking of things involved with idol worship and immorality were a part of Israel's idolatry. One further note, concerning this idol worship of the Israelites, which Moses described in Exodus chapter thirty-two verse twenty-five in their worship, the Israelites had cast aside all self-control. Their worship was not only pagan in nature it was unrestrained indulgence; there was no self-discipline.

The third offense of the Israelites is immorality. The important thing to note here is that, once again, immorality is viewed as a part of idolatry.

The fourth offense of the Israelites, according to Paul, was that of trying the Lord or putting the Lord to the test. There were at least ten such occasions when the Israelites put the Lord to the test (Numbers 14:22). Putting God to the test was demanding that God meet their perceived needs, in the way that they demanded. If they were thirsty, they demanded that God satisfy that thirst, or they threatened not to believe He was with them. According to the psalmist, they demanded that God supply them with the food they craved to prove He was among them. The specific instance Paul has in mind is recorded in the Book of Numbers;

"And the people spoke against God and Moses, 'Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.' And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. So the people came to Moses and said, 'We have sinned, because we have spoken against the Lord and you; intercede with the Lord, that He may remove the serpents from us.' And Moses interceded for the people. Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he shall live.' And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived (Numbers 21:5-9 NASB).

Satan's first temptation of our Lord was an effort to entice Him to cause stones to become bread. God had led Him into the wilderness to be without food or water. Satan's assumption was the same as the Israelites, if God was really with someone, they would not lack anything they needed or desired. Consequently, Satan sought to persuade our Lord to make stones into bread. Later on in His wilderness testing, Satan sought to convince our Lord to jump from the pinnacle of the temple, reminding Him of the biblical assurance of angelic protection. Jesus, still dealing with Satan from the context of the early chapters of Deuteronomy, reminded Satan of the evil of putting God to the test, of trying to make God jump through our hoops. Once again, Israel's sin of putting God to the test was closely associated with eating and drinking.

Finally, the offense of the Israelites is grumbling. In Exodus chapter sixteen, the grumbling of the Israelites was about food. They recalled the meat they had eaten in Egypt and grumbled against Moses and God for leading them into the desert to starve them to death. The incident Paul seems to have in mind is recorded in the sixteenth, chapter of Numbers. Korah, Dathan, Abiram and two hundred and fifty from among the leaders of Israel rose up against Moses, protesting against his prominence and authority. In the events that followed, the earth swallowed these rebels and their families (Numbers 16:28-35). God's act of discipline, performed at the hand of Moses, did not strike fear into the hearts of the people, who on the following day grumbled against Moses, blaming him for the deaths of those who had perished for their rebellion (Numvers16:41). Only the intervention of Moses and Aaron stopped the plague that commenced against the grumblers, but not until after fourteen thousand and seven hundred (Numbers 16:49).
The grumbling of the Israelites was occasioned by the exercise of divine discipline. The Israelites blamed Moses for the deaths of those who rebelled against God. In the church at Corinth, a man is known to be guilty of living in sin with his father's wife, yet the Corinthians do nothing about it. Rather than mourn over this sin, they are proud of it (1 Corinthians 5:1-5). Paul, even though at a distance from them, exercises discipline on his own, and urges the church to follow his example. If the church at Corinth is anything like the people of God in Moses' day, they will grumble over Paul's response to sin in the church. Thus, the Corinthians find yet another point of contact with the ancient Israelites.

The real issue is not really about what is right, or even about one's rights; the issue is self-indulgence. All of the problems exposed in the Corinthian church are really matters of self-indulgence. The kind of legalistic self-abuse that the ascetics and legalists impose does not really deal with the flesh. In the first place, many practice a form of "self-denial," which is but a mere outward appearance. They do it to appear spiritual and thus win the applause of their peers, thereby indulging themselves in man's praises. While the outward appearance is that of self-control, the old lusts are not dealt with, for they are still deeply embedded on the inside.

While self-abasement is futile and fraudulent, Paul is consistent with the rest of the Bible in calling us to a life of discipline. Discipleship is founded on discipline, not only in its terminology, but also in its essence and expression. When Jesus preached, He did not offer an easy path nor did He promise earthly prosperity. He spoke of taking up one's cross and of selling one's possessions and hating one's family. He was careful never to give the impression that following Him was going to be easy. He did not conceal the "cost of discipleship." Jesus Himself practiced the self-discipline and self-denial that He advocated, and which Paul requires of the Corinthians. From the very beginning, Jesus knew that He had come to this earth to serve, rather than to be served, and He gave His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). He consistently purposed to fulfill His calling and to carry out the will of His Father.

Our Lord's temptation in the wilderness, described by both Matthew (4:1-11) and Luke (4:1-12), is best understood in the light of those Old Testament events which Paul calls to our remembrance. Throughout that forty year period, the Israelites were constantly stiff-necked and rebellious. They continually sought to indulge their fleshly appetites, and as a result, they often rebelled against God and were stricken with various disciplinary plagues. Except for two men, Joshua and Caleb, the entire generation that crossed through the Red Sea failed to enter the land of Canaan.

Our Lord's temptation in the wilderness was a deliberate replay of that period of time. As Israel was brought forth from Egypt, so was our Lord (Matthew 2:13-15; Hosea 11:1). As Israel was tested in the wilderness for forty years (Deuteronomy 8:2), our Lord was tempted forty days in the wilderness. However, where Israel failed, our Lord triumphed. It is not by virtue of Israel's faithfulness that we have hope, but by virtue of our Lord's faithfulness. Israel was allowed to hunger and thirst (Deuteronomy 8:3), but they craved evil things and demanded that God give them what their fleshly appetites desired, loathing His provision of manna and water. Jesus was content to be hungry and to thirst, refusing to turn stones into bread. Our Lord succeeded where Israel failed. His success is the basis for our salvation, and thus for our successfully finishing our course.

Our Lord and Paul not only call us to a life of self-discipline and self-denial, they model it for us. We should set our goal on winning the race, finish the course that God has set for us. Let us deny ourselves and discipline our bodies, for our own good, for the good of our brethren, and for the advancement of the gospel.

Retired pastor,Church of the Nazarene

Author of web site Exploring God's Word

www.thewordofgodonline.net

New American Standard Bible

King James Version

The World English Bible

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