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1Corinthians 10:12 summarizes the warnings found in 10:1 through 10:12. It says Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
Part of human nature is to believe 'I'm OK. Nothing is going to happen.' Then we complain when something bad happens. What's worse is that people tend to ask 'Why didn't God keep this from happening?' Here we are told that it is our job to avoid these problems and we are told how to avoid them.
Basically, this chapter warns us: 'Don't be a Biblical fool
'. Don't do what God warns will bring a punishment from God and then think: 'I'm OK. Nothing is going to happen.' This chapter warns us about sins to not do because these sins will bring a punishment even the children of God
.
The summary of the first few sentences in this chapter are:
idolaters.
fornicators.
tempt Christ.
murmurers.
wise.
This chapter is going 'above and beyond' the prior chapter in that where the prior chapter told us to not deny God's children what is rightfully theirs, this chapter tells us to be willing to give up what is rightfully ours in order to serve God. Paul starts out telling us how God's people 'demanded what they thought was their rights' and suffered judgment from God when they were wrong. This warning is summed up with the sentence that says: Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
Paul then goes on and warns us that God put this account, of His judging His people because of their attitude, into the Bible to warns us. Instead of 'demanding our rights' we are told to whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of hrist.
While there is more in this chapter that we could cover, we will linit this messages to the warnings at the start of this chapter which lead up to Paul's challenge to be wise
. This wisdom
requires us avoiding the mistakes made by the Jews which we are warned about in the start of this chapter.
(10:1-4) tells us that beyond the reasoning of the prior chapter we have an example in scripture to teach us the same thing. Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
In our sentence we are told how Christ
provided for the spiritual needs of God's people. Here we see four Steps that Christ
did. He saved them. He identified them with the man of God for their sanctification. He provided spiritual food for their spiritual growth and physical needs. He provided spiritual water for their spiritual cleansing. We are told later in this chapter that the people failed to respond properly. However, that does not diminish the provision which was provided by Christ
.
Our sentence also tells us that the spiritual meat
provided by Christ
to all our fathers
was manna. The spiritual meat
provided by Christ
to us is bread which we break
(10:16) and body of Christ
(10:16). Just as God destroyed our fathers
for eating His spiritual meat
and then acting like devils, Paul is warning that our Lord
will do the same to us.
Next, our sentence tells us that the spiritual drink
provided by Christ
to all our fathers
was water from the Rock
(and that Rock was Christ
). In 10:21 we are warned Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils
. The spiritual drink
provided by Christ
to us is blood of Christ
(10:16) and the cup of the Lord
(10:21). Just as God destroyed our fathers
for drinking His spiritual drink
and then acting like devils, Paul is warning that our Lord
Who never changes will do the same to us. This spiritual
drink is symbolic of the Holy Spirit and the cleansing that Christ
provides when we truly Biblically repent
and confess our sin and stop doing the sin. However, as our chapter tells us, the Jews continued their sin and refused to Biblically repent
. Thus they were not spiritually cleansed and God destroyed them instead. Our chapter warns us that God will do the same to us if we refuse to let Christ
cleanse us from sin.
Next, our sentence tells us that that Rock was Christ
. Christ
is the role of the Son of God which provides our spiritual maturing and other things after our initial profession. Within this sentence and the rest of this chapter we see that God did the same role for the Jews through that Rock
. The only difference between the Jews and the church is that the Rock
dealt with the Jews under the Old Testament and Christ
deals with the Church under the New Testament.
Please notice that this sentence starts with moreover
. In Chapter 9Paul told us what happened to the Jews who ignored the spiritual lessons provided to them. Since people in the Church Age have the indwelling Holy Spirit, which the Jews did not have, Paul warns us that what can happen to us can be far worse. We have a greater help in learning spiritual lessons and, therefore, a greater responsibility to learn them. (For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required:
[Luke 12:48]).
Within our sentence we see four Steps telling us about the salvation that God provided. The first thing that God provided was removal from the path of destruction and protection from that time onward. God provides this to His people while He denies the same to lost people and while God destroys the enemies of His people.
In our Second Step we are told And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea
. The basic doctrinal meaning of baptism
is 'identified with'. While baptism
is part of God's plan of salvation, it is not all of it. Further, these people were 'identified with' Moses, which means that they followed Moses through the sea and, thereby, agreed to follow him for the rest of their life. When they refused to do so God did not send them back to Egypt, which would be the equivalent of losing our salvation, but God Himself destroyed them. So people who claim God's salvation but refuse to be baptized or to follow their God given spiritual leader are not risking losing their salvation (if they were truly saved in the first place) but they are risking being destroyed by God.
When these people were all baptized unto Moses
, they agreed to obey God by keeping the Mosaic Law. If they were not willing to do that they did not have to follow Moses into the sea
. No, God does not accept you making a vow because you are desperate and then using the fact that you were desperate to claim that the vow is invalid. To accept the benefit of a contract while refusing to keep your part is fraud. That makes you a liar and what is worse, you give that lie one while you are making a spiritual contract with God (with the vow). Likewise, when someone gets saved today they vow to accept the Son of God as their personal Lord
. God 'identifies us with' Jesus Christ
. If we refuse to follow Him, God will also destroy us. Thus we see that baptism
is truly a public ceremony that 'identifies us with' Jesus Christ
. Our refusal to obey Him as our personal Lord
, after accepting His salvation, is our openly challenging God the destroy us.
Our Third Step tells us And did all eat the same spiritual meat
. They accepted the provision of God. People come to the church and ask for prayers. They ask for counsel and comfort and for help with their children and for ceremonies recognizing special occasions such as marriage. Many people come to the church for these things and then object when asked to help with the costs or to become involved and help provide to others what they received in their time of need. Our churches are full of people who want God's provision but don't want to grow up spiritually and start to help with the needs of others. As our chapter warns us, that is daring God to destroy us.
Our Fourth Step of God's plan of salvation where we are told And did all drink the same spiritual drink
. This is a symbolic agreement to accept cleansing. Water, blood and oil are all liquids and used symbolically within the Bible to represent the spiritual cleansing provided by God. God does not just take away the consequences of our sin. Neither does God simply take away our sin. God removes the stain of our sin, which means He removes our addiction to that sin. However, not even God can do that while we continue to willfully do that sin. Thus, this step symbolically represents our agreement to 'stop our sinning'. Once more, we see that if we fail to 'stop our sinning', after God provides the means for us to do so, is an open challenge to God whereby we dare Him to destroy us.
(10:5) tells us that many of God's people did not please God even though God provided for them. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Our sentence starts with But
, which means it has the same subject as the prior sentence while going another way. In the prior sentence we saw how God provided all that His people would need so that they could serve Him and receive blessings as a result of that service. Instead, our current sentence says that they were overthrown in the wilderness
. Further, this result is why (for
) Paul says that with many of them God was not well pleased
. In the next few sentences we see God kill those people whom He was not well pleased
with. Further on in our chapter Paul warns us that we can expect the same result if God is not well pleased
with our service.
We find forms of the word overthrown
in 16 verses of the Bible. In each instance, God destroyed people when they were overthrown
Therefore, our warning is about sins by God's people which can result in a death sentence, like Romans 6:16 warns us about.
(10:6) tells us God wrote about them in the Bible to give us a warning. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.
Please notice that our last phrase has as
, which means 'the same way'. Our second sentence says that they were given to the intent
. God will not take away our free will. He warns us but lets us chose to do foolishly and suffered the consequence because He will never force us to do good and, thereby, take away our free will. The message from as
is quite simple. If you act as
they did then you will get the same results that they received and that Paul reports within this chapter.
(10:7) tells us how God dealt with idolaters
. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
The word Neither
means 'not either'. This sentence, and the next several, start with Neither
and tell us 'don't do any of these sins'. Our first sin is idolatry
is not what most people think is idolatry
. Notice that our evidence is The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play
. This means that living a life of pleasure is idolatry
with the idol
being our own flesh
. Eating, drinking and playing are all centered on pleasing out flesh
.
In Exodus 32:6-14 God was ready to kill the idolaters
but repented
after Moses prayed for them. Carnal saved people usually don't realize how often the prayers of a godly person is all that saves them from God's wrath. Even so, Exodus 32:28 tells us there fell of the people that day about three thousand men
. Romans 6:16 says Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
When someone is devoting their life the idolatry
of eating, drinking and playing
, they are obeying
the flesh
. These and other verses warn us that God brings sickness and death to His people who life this life of idolatry
. That us why our sentence commands us Neither be ye idolaters
.
(10:9) tells us how God dealt with people who tempt Christ
. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
This sin was recorded in Numbers 21:5-6 and is associated with God's people complaining about God's provision (And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.
The warning is simple: be satisfied with what God provides and don't complain or expect the judgment of God. We also see God's people tempt
God in: Exodus 17:2, 7; 23:20-21; Deuteronomy 6:16; Psalms 78:18, 56; 95:9; 106:14; Hebrews 3:8-11; 10:28-30.
The doctrine in this sentence is very important to understand and easy to miss. God deliberately used Christ
in this verse by itself (with neither Lord
nor Jesus
included) because this sin is complaining about the provision that God gives after we become His children. That is complaining against what God provides through His role as Christ
, which is why this sin is against Christ
. The people who were destroyed of serpents
suffered a lot of pain before they died. They could also 'look to the cross' but we need to note that it was not lost people but God's people who could do this. When we sin after getting saved the results can be far more painful than when we did the same sin before we were saved. We must 'look to the cross' and realize what Christ
paid so that we could 'stop our sinning' after we become God's children. If we refuse to 'look to the cross' after our initial profession and refuse to truly Biblically repent
for sins done after our initial profession, then we are daring God to give us a lot of pain.
(10:10) tells us how God dealt with murmurers
. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
We see this result in general with the constant murmuring
and complaining by the Jews while they were in the wilderness, and by God constantly killing some of those Jews. In addition, we have specific instances in Numbers 14:37 and Numbers 16:46-49.
God's people murmur
when they don't like what is happening but lacked the evidence or the guts that are required to openly question or challenge authority. Basically, God tells us to keep our mouth shut until we have what is required to openly question or challenge authority.
(10:11) tells us why God put these things in the Bible. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
We can see a couple of things in our sentence. God was determined that He would kill all of the Jews who refused to walk by faith
and enter the promised land. However, instead of doing it right away, God waited for them to do further sin which would justify a death sentence a second time. When they did a second sin unto death
, God killed them and used their death as an ensample
to us about the possible results of certain sins.
What is amazing is the number of people who claim to be saved and claim to know their Bible well enough to argue about the doctrine in it, and can be shown this sentence and still insist that God will not only let them live but will do nothing even while they engage in these sins in an ongoing basis.
We see that God wrote about these sins and the consequences of them (and they are written
) so that there would be no corruption in the lessons due to the lessons being passed on by word-of-mouth. God preserves His written Word and keeps it from changing. Neither man nor devil can change what God preserves. Therefore, we can be sure that these ensamples
happened exactly as written and that they are a sample
of the judgment that we should expect to receive if we do these sins like the Jews did them.
(10:12) tells us the resulting warning. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
God literally killed hundreds of thousands of His people in the wilderness. Only a fool would think they can do the same sins and not have the consequences.
Our warning is to pay attention to things that we do without thinking about them. We need to deliberately pay attention to our behaviour when we normally just react to uncomfortable circumstances. God's people were not in danger, but were uncomfortable. Their wrong reaction turned it into a life-threatening situation.
In these sentences we see the many temptations which led God's children to sin. All of these things rise up from within ourselves. We still live in sinful flesh
. Without the constant help of God through Christ
, we will each fall to one of these fleshly
sins. The first sin, which leads to all others, is pride. Therefore, we each must constantly keep in mind the warning of our last verse.