Today’s message is from 1 Corinthians 10:1-13. The NIV translators—the NIV is the New International Version, by the way, the translation that we’ve been using... The NIV translators gave this passage the title Warnings from Israel’s History. In the passage the Apostle Paul talks about some of the sins that the Israelites committed while they were traveling through the desert from Egypt where they had been enslaved to the land that God had promised them. In each case Paul describes God’s punishment for their sins. He says that these things happened as warnings to us so that we would not set our hearts on evil things as they did.

As we read the passage, remember that we are reading the word of God, not the words or ideas of men, but the word that God breathed (inspired in the King James) through the apostle Paul. Paul wrote what he did in today’s passage to the Corinthian church, but these things apply to us today, also.

¹For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. ²They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. ⁵Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert.

⁶Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. ⁷Do 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 pagan revelry.” ⁸We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. ⁹We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. ¹⁰And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.

¹¹These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. ¹²So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! ¹³No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. (1 Corinthians 10:1-13)

Verse 6 says, “Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.” Verse 11 says, “These things happened to them (the Israelites) as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.” The events the apostle Paul is describing and God’s response to them happened and were written down so that we could be warned by them. We includes Paul, the Corinthians, and us, too—in fact it includes all Christians.

And Paul says, “...for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.” Do you really think that the fulfillment of the ages has come on us? It says so. God’s history, all that he did throughout history, was leading up to us. It really was. Does it sound like we are something special? We are. But don’t let it go to your head. It has nothing whatsoever to do with what anything we did and everything to do with what God did through Jesus.

Who are we? We are the church, the body of Christ, "the overflowing abundance, the wealth beyond measure and the full and perfect nature of him (God) who fulfills and completes everything in every way,” to use my “amplified” translation of Ephesians 1:23. (Ephesians 1:23 actually says the church is the body of Christ, “the fullness of him who fill everything in every way.” I looked up the meanings of the words translated fullness and fills and made the expanded translation based on the definitions of those words. I quote it every once in a while.)

God’s history is still going on. It led up to the first coming of Jesus, his death for our sin and resurrection and the establishment of the Church. God’s history is leading up to the time when all evil will be gone. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. God will wipe away every tear. Everything will be made new.

Everything will be made new. But for the present, God is sanctifying the body of Christ. He was doing this in the early church and he is continuing to do it now. The words in today’s passage are part of his way of sanctifying the church. God is telling us that he takes sin and rebellion seriously. He wants it to be gone from us completely. He is warning us through the example of how he dealt with Israel’s sin and rebellion when they were going through the desert.

Paul says (and remember, this is God’s Holy Spirit speaking through Paul), “For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.” Paul calls the Corinthians “brothers”. He is writing to them as Christians. And he speaks of “our forefathers”. The Israelites were descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and so was Paul. But most of the Corinthians probably weren’t—and neither are most of us.

But Abraham is our spiritual forefather because he believed God and God credited it to him as righteousness. Abraham had God’s righteousness, the righteousness that comes through faith. We have that righteousness, too. When we trust God for salvation, we have the righteousness of Christ. (And, by the way, in case you don’t know, there is no other righteousness. Not one person has been righteous on his own. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. If you have not trusted Jesus for salvation, you have no salvation. You are still dead in your sins and transgressions. So pray. Entrust yourself to Jesus. He will not turn away anyone who comes to him!)

Verse 4 says that the Israelites all drank the same spiritual drink from the spiritual rock that accompanied them in the desert and that that rock was Christ! Do you believe that Jesus was there with the Israelites in the desert 3,500 years ago? He was! (Only he wasn’t called Jesus then.) Jesus was with them in the desert 3,500 years ago. He was there in the garden with Adam and Eve, too. He was there when all things were created. Listen:

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. ¹⁷He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:15-20)

Jesus was there before the beginning of time. He was with the Israelites in the desert. He was with the Corinthians when Paul was writing to them. He is with us now—right here. He will be there when all things are made right. He will make all things right. Jesus always was and always will be.

These were God’s chosen people, the nation that God had created to bring his laws and commandments to the world—and to bring his Son Jesus Christ into the world 2,000 years ago. But God was not pleased with them. Why not? Let’s look at verses 7 through 10:

⁷Do 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 pagan revelry.” ⁸We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. ⁹We should not test the Lord, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. ¹⁰And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. (1 Corinthians 10:7-10)

The Israelites were slaves in Egypt. When they came to Egypt, they were around 70 people. They grew to a nation of 2,000,000. God delivered them out of slavery in Egypt by a series of ten plagues upon the Egyptians. Plague after plague, Pharaoh, king of Egypt would not let the Israelites go. The final plague was the plague of the firstborn. The angel of death, the destroyer, killed every firstborn Egyptian male, both people and animals. Pharaoh let the Israelites go.

But after the Israelites were gone Pharaoh said, “What have I done.” He changed his mind and pursued the Israelites. The Israelites were afraid, but the Lord protected them. When Pharaoh’s army had the Israelite backed up against the Red Sea, the Lord protected them all during that night. In the morning, the Lord parted the Red Sea and the Israelite passed through it as on dry ground. When the Egyptian army tried to pursue the Israelites, the Lord threw them into confusion and closed the sea over them. They were all drowned. The Israelites rejoiced in the Lord’s salvation. Most of you know the story. I just told a very condensed version of it. Moses later said about the Israelites, “But as for you, the Lord took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are.” Egypt was the “iron-smelting furnace” where the Lord forged his nation of Israel.

Around three months after that the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai. The Lord said this to Moses: “This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” (Ex. 19:3b-6) Moses told the people what the Lord had said. They responded all together, “We will do everything the Lord has said.” And Moses brought their answer back to the Lord.

⁴“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:2-6)

Moses was up on the mountain for 40 days. Apparently the Israelites got tired of waiting for him and they got Aaron to make them a golden calf to worship. They presented sacrifices and offerings to it. They ate and drank and got up to play (or maybe to dance—the NIV says “to indulge in pagan revelry”).

After all that the Israelites had been through (and I didn’t begin to describe how they had been treated in Egypt), after they had been delivered from Egypt and from Pharaoh’s army and had rejoiced, after they were terrified at the Lord’s voice, they forgot about everything and made an idol and worshipped it. How could they do that?

Do you recall ever having seen what God had done in your life and his working and direction, what he wanted you to do or not do in some given circumstance, and that these things were absolutely crystal clear with no doubt whatsoever about anything—and then that some time later you realized that you had completely forgotten about whatever it was and done the exact opposite? Have you ever made a decision, “I will absolutely never do this or that or something else” and then later found yourself doing it? We can easily do what the Israelites did. The events in the desert happened and were recorded so that we could be warned.

When the Moabites saw what Israel had done to the Amorites in Numbers 21 they were afraid and tried to get Balaam, a pagan prophet, to curse the Israelites. But all Balaam could do was to bless the Israelites. (It’s what the Lord gave him to do.) But Balaam advised the Moabite women to seduce the Israelite men and lead them to worship their false gods. In that way they would defeat the Israelites. The Lord was angry and sent a plague against the Israelites. Twenty-three thousand died. (Numbers says 24,000, but in any case, it was a large number.) These are serious punishments. They happened and were recorded so that we on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come could be warned. Have you ever been seduced, not necessarily sexually, but maybe with money or something else, into disobeying God? (If you haven’t, by the way, you can go directly to heaven. Expect to be translated at any time.) Our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Be humble and resist him and he will flee from you.

⁴They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; ⁵they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

Do you complain about your circumstance—what this person did or that person, about your car breaking down at just the wrong time? How about food? Do you complain about food? That’s what the Israelites were complaining about. The Lord had provided for them all along, yet they didn’t trust him to continue to provide. (And even when there was plenty of food, they had complained that they didn’t like the food: “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” They would rather have gone back to being slaves in Egypt than to trust God. (Would you rather be a slave or trust God?) The Lord was very angry. He gave them meat to eat until they couldn’t stand it any more.

Do not sin by complaining. When you complain about people or circumstances or anything else, don’t you know that you are complaining against God? (It says they spoke against God and against Moses. They thought they were complaining against Moses, but they were really complaining against God.) God is sovereign over all circumstances. He is in control. Do we dare complain about a circumstance that he has put us in? Grumbling or complaining is a serious sin! Think about it. When we complain, we are complaining against God who, even when we under his wrath, loved us by sending Jesus to die for us. How can we be so ungrateful? How would you feel if you had gone to great effort to give someone a very expensive gift and then that person complained about some minor thing that he didn’t like about what you had done? (Personally, even though my wife says I’m much better than I used to be, I still think complaining is my most frequent sin.)

This is where the Lord told Moses to send some scouts from each of the tribes to check out the land where he was sending them, the land of Canaan. The scouts went and explored the land. It was a wonderful, fruitful, productive land. Truly a “land flowing with milk and honey”. They brought back a cluster of grapes so big that two men carried it on a pole between them. The problem was that the land was full of giants and they lived in fortified cities. There was no way that they could attack those people and take over the land.

But didn’t we just read somewhere a while back that God chose the weak things of this world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—the things that are not—to nullify the things that are? (We did. It’s in 1 Corinthians 1:27, 28.) Two of the scouts, Caleb and Joshua, believed they could certainly take the land. Why? Because they trusted God. They believed what he had said—what he had promised. (Remember? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.) But here’s what the people of Israel said—this is from Numbers 142b-4:

^2b“If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! ³Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Our wives and children will be taken as plunder. Wouldn't it be better for us to go back to Egypt?” ⁴And they said to each other, “We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.” (Numbers 14:2b-4)

The people completely rebelled against the Lord. The Lord was going to send a plague and wipe them off the face of the earth. But Moses intervened. He pleaded with the Lord. He argued that the nations would say that the Lord was able to bring the Israelites out of Egypt but was not able to fulfill his promise by bringing them into the land he had promised them, so he slaughtered them. Listen while I read Moses’s prayer:

¹⁷“Now may the Lord's strength be displayed, just as you have declared: ¹⁸‘The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.’ ¹⁹In accordance with your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.” (Numbers 14:17-19)

The Lord told Moses that he had forgiven the Israelites, but that none of them who saw all the miracles that he had done would enter the land. Only Caleb and Joshua would. All those who were 20 years old and older would die in the desert except for Caleb and Joshua. Instead of taking a few months to go from Egypt to Canaan, it took them 40 years. They didn’t Enter Canaan until all of those who were 20 years old and older had died. (By the way, do you think the Lord would have wiped out all of Israel and broken his promise if Moses hadn’t interceded?)

Okay, complaining is a great sin because it’s complaining against God. (Complaining is okay, by the way, when you are stating your complaint in order to ask for help.) But what the Israelites were doing here was acting in fear because they didn’t trust God. Cowardice is a great sin against God. It’s unbelief. Revelation 21:8 says, “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

Verse 11 in today’s passage says, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.” ...very serious stuff. And, you know, most of us believe that the exodus from Egypt through the desert and into the land of Canaan is a picture of our release from sin and from the world and of our spiritual journey to the heavenly kingdom. (Have you ever read The Pilgrim’s Progress? That’s what it’s about—our spiritual journey.) Let’s not have our bodies scattered over the desert. Verse 12 says, “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall.”

¹³No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

God’s purpose is for us not to fall. He is faithful. We are tempted. We are tested. God allows us to be tested. The purpose is for us to grow in faith and become steadfast and mature—to persevere. He says that we should consider it pure joy whenever we are tested. Can you do that—consider it pure joy? You can if you trust God and know that he loves you. (You know, when I read verse 13, I always think, “Yes, I believe that God will not let me be tempted more than I can bear. It’s just that I don’t want to be tempted more than I want to bear. But if we think that way, we won’t grow in faith.)

God also disciplines us. He disciplines those he loves and treats as sons. Trouble that we experience as Christians may be God’s discipline. Can you accept it as God’s love? (And by the way, how can you know whether you are being disciplined or being taught to persevere? Here’s how. Are you sinning?)

Well, God loves us and sent Jesus to die for us. Jesus loves us. Here’s a quote from a website that someone wrote about theologian Karl Barth: “Dr. Karl Barth was one of the most brilliant and complex intellectuals of the twentieth century. He wrote volume after massive volume on the meaning of life and faith. A reporter once asked Dr. Barth if he could summarize what he had said in all those volumes. Dr. Barth thought for a moment and then said: ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.’” Amen!