So, welcome to Episode 4 of Series 3. It is good to have you back, and I hope you have been listening to the previous episodes in Series 3 of our study of 1 Corinthians. If you have, you will have noticed an interesting thing - Paul started out with a very clear theme, Chapter 8: 1 “Now about food sacrificed to idols:” 

Recap and Background 

This was a question that he had been asked by the Corinthians concerning pagan worship in the temples of Corinth, and whether Christians were free to participatein that or not. Paul addressed this question very directly and strongly advised the Corinthians not to participate in pagan worship, or in the social meals in the temples that took place after acts of worship. 

But in Episodes 2 and 3, Paul changed the subject. He moved away from talking about idolatry and began talking about his own ministry as an Apostle. Firstly, he defended his financial integrity and secondly, explained his motivation for mission in all different cultures. The last two episodes are rather separate from the first episode, which was around the question of idolatry. Now, in this fourth episode, we are coming back to the main theme - the question of idolatry and idol worship. This episode consists of stories from the Old Testament that Paul uses to illustrate the issue of idolatry.  

We need to remind ourselves of some of the things we said at the very beginning of this series. What are the issues that people faced? Every Christian community in the Roman Empire, in Gentile communities, faced a huge challenge because the Christians believed in one God only, and society in general believed in many gods. People were quite happy to sign up to worship different gods according to their preferences or their desires. In their minds that was fine. You could worship five gods or ten gods if you chose. But for the Christians, there was only one God. So, they could not participate in pagan worship. That was the question that Paul dealt with in chapter 8. I described to you the fact that this was a very practical issue, because there were big temples in Corinth to the major gods, Apollo and Aphrodite. There were little shrines on the streets, and people even had little shrines in their own houses. Paul was arguing against being involved at all in this kind of worship.  

Now he comes back to the theme, but he is looking at it from a slightly different point of view. He goes back to the Old Testament and uses a number of examples of the Jewish people in the early days of Jewish history, who didn't worship God wholeheartedly but began to worship idols - statues, gods of the other nations or gods they invented themselves, other than the God of Israel. 

It is clear from this chapter that Paul must have spent some time, while he was in Corinth beforehand, teaching about the Old Testament, because he assumes that they understand the references he makes in this passage to Old Testament stories. Paul spent 18 months in Corinth, so he had plenty of time to teach the church, and he would have told them many stories from the Old Testament and some of these are in this passage that we are studying today. 

The Exodus from Egypt 

“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 baptised 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".
1 Corinthians 10: 1 - 5 NIV

Paul was referring to the period of history which we know as the Exodus, which is told to us in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and then Deuteronomy. The basic story was that the Jewish people, having been brought together by God through Abraham and Sarah - the founders of the Jewish nation - had had to leave their land and go to Egypt because of a famine. All the people of Israel, a tribal group of a few hundred people travelled to Egypt and stayed in Egypt for about 400 years, during which time they grew to many hundreds of thousands of people. 

The book of Exodus tells a remarkable story, of a divine deliverance, of being set free from Egypt, from slavery and forced labour and harsh conditions that they experienced in Egypt. This is the story that was in the back of Paul's mind, which he had told the Corinthians about, and was now referring to in passing. They escaped miraculously, under the leadership of Moses, because God opened a way through the sea that divided Egypt from the nearby Sinai desert, which then led to the land of Israel. God made a way in the sea by parting the waves, and enabled the Israelite people to go through and then closed the sea up again so the Egyptians could not follow. 

Paul said the Israelites were ‘baptised into the sea’. That meant that they went through the sea; as the waves were parted, they walked along the seabed in order to get out from Egypt to the Sinai desert. They were ‘baptised into Moses’. In other words, they came under the leadership of Moses. He also said, strangely, they were ‘baptised into the cloud’. Psalm 105: 39, describing the Exodus, gives a clue. The writer says, “He spread out a cloud as a covering, and a fire to give light at night.” The cloud is a symbol of God's glory, God's presence. God's presence, in the Old Testament particularly but also in the New Testament, was often manifested in a powerful blazing light; sometimes it looked like a cloud, and sometimes like a fire. it tended to appear above the Israelites, or above the people, or above their place of worship - a bright, remarkable, supernatural light. They were baptised into the cloud of God's glory. 

On this journey, they had not only the miracle of escaping from Egypt, but also miraculous provision from God. These hundreds of thousands of people entered the desert area from their homes, taking very few possessions with them, and had no way of producing food, and were without the availability of much water. They depended on God's miraculous provision from the very day that they entered the desert. They received, according to Paul's writing here, spiritual food. He was referring to a remarkable miracle in which every day some food came down from the sky, that had the appearance of small pieces of bread scattered across the desert and it was known as manna. When Paul spoke about spiritual drink, he was speaking about the miraculous way that God brought water to them - sometimes by a remarkable event. On one occasion, Moses was called upon to strike a large rock, and the water began to flow from it. Paul, in these verses, referred to big stories in the Old Testament. He would assume that the readers understood what he was referring to, because he would have taught them about this when he was with them. They experienced salvation. 

The first four verses speak of something wonderful that God did and yet the fifth verse brings a shocking surprise. Despite all these incredible miracles that took place, nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them. Their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. The Israelites, in fact, died in large numbers over the 40 years they spent in the wilderness. What went wrong with the ancient people of Israel? The answer to that question very simply is that they followed the path of idolatry, the very same issue the Corinthians were facing in their city in Paul's time. Paul was linking the past experience with their present experience, in order to warn them not to be like the Israelites in the past. Otherwise, they would face God's eventual judgment.  

Idolatry in the Sinai Desert 

“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. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. 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 endure it.” 
1 Corinthians 9: 6 - 13 NIV

Paul was describing several incidents in the history of Israel in the Sinai Desert, after the exodus, in which they turned away from God and engaged with other gods, causing God to judge the Israelites and causing many of them to die early as a result.. The first instance that we should note, which Paul referred to here, happened in the very early days. It is a very shocking story told to us in the book of Exodus. God appeared to the Israelites on Mount Sinai. The people had gathered around this mountain in the Sinai desert. God summoned Moses to come up the mountain, and he gave him the Ten Commandments, which were written down on two stone tablets. 

Later, God revealed many other laws for the Israelites to obey, which are recorded in the second half of the book of Exodus and in the book of Leviticus. We can see all the laws there, but they are based on the Ten Commandments. Moses spent many days, even weeks, up on Mount Sinai, praying to God, worshipping him, and receiving revelation from him. 

During that time, just after they had seen the incredible miracles – they had come through the Red Sea; water and food had been provided for them; God had shown his power to them - whilst Moses was up the mountain, the people became frustrated. There was a delay. Where had Moses gone? What was he doing? The people spoke to Moses’ brother, Aaron, and they wanted to go back to the way of life that they had experienced in Egypt, where the Egyptians worshiped many gods. They had experienced and seen this worship, and they had participated in it, and wanted something to worship. Aaron allowed them to make an image out of gold and other precious metals that they had brought with them. They gave rings and all sorts of other things to Aaron, and they created an image to look like a calf; like a calf they might have seen in Egypt, which had many cattle in a very rich part of northern Egypt. They created the image, and they began to worship it. This is literal idolatry. Images are the problem in Corinth too: the statues of the gods and the goddesses in the temples. Paul said that they were not to worship them; they are not real gods; they represent demonic power; and they are spiritually dangerous. The Christians needed to separate themselves from that because they worship the one true living God. The same issue was taking place in ancient Israel. Moses came down from the mountain and was deeply and profoundly shocked and angry with the people. He was so angry that he broke the stone tablets on the ground. He made them destroy the image, and grind it into tiny little pieces, to destroy the very memory of the image that they had created. 

Paul has this in mind. It was a dangerous moment in the life of the Israelites. Paul referred not only to this story, but also to sexual immorality at the same time. A little later, when the Israelites were traveling around the desert, they encountered a tribe called the Moabites. Numbers 25:1 says, ‘the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods.’ 

Idolatry linked to sexual immorality. The two things are connected. They were connected in Corinth as there were prostitutes in the temples; they were connected in the history of ancient Israel.  They committed sexual immorality, complained about life in the wilderness, complained about Moses and Aaron's leadership and this led to God judging them.  

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:6, that these examples were to help Christians not to make the same mistakes again. It is a very hard thing for people to learn from the past. I wonder whether you have learned from the mistakes you have made in the past. Sometimes people don't learn. They make the same mistakes again and again. Paul was saying, “The Old Testament has been given to us, as the church, to teach us”. We must remember that the Corinthians didn't have the written New Testament at this time. It hadn't been written. In fact, 1 Corinthians is one of the earliest letters and documents of the New Testament. As far as we know, theGospels had not yet been written. The Scripture they had before them was the Old Testament.  Paul would have been teaching them from the Old Testament and here he was reminding them of some of the things he had said, pointing out that in every era of the history of salvation, believers have a choice. They can wholeheartedly worship God, or they can mix the worship of God with a worship of their own local gods or pagan gods. 

That still applies today in your country and in mine. It certainly applied in Corinth; there was a choice to be made.  

Paul pointed out, with these different examples, that the people suffered because they compromised. If we compromise with idol worship, ultimately we suffer the judgment of God, and we see spiritual decline in the church. In fact, that was probably one of the reasons why the church was in such a crisis in Corinth which we noticed in an earlier episode in Series 2, where Paul described their situation as ‘this present crisis’. It was in a very dangerous situation. This church could have been destroyed altogether and faded away, unless something was done. God is always angry with idolatry. It grieves him deeply. 

Overcoming Temptation 

“ These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.  So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” 
1 Corinthians 9:11 - 13 NIV

There is some hope in verse 13. It is a very important verse and worth memorising it. I learned this verse as a young Christian. I was taught it by my discipler.  

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; and 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 endure it.” 

God knows that some things are very attractive to us other than following Christ. Sexual immorality is one example discussed earlier on. It was very attractive to the Corinthians, to go to the pagan temples. Why was it attractive to them? It was socially acceptable. That was where you could do business deals, and feel fully part of society, and you would avoid rejection and persecution. It was comfortable. It was easy to go to the pagan worship. It seemed a good thing to do. But it says here in verse 13, “when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” In other words, God will help you overcome that sense of wanting to go and do attractive things that make you feel happier in yourself. Sometimes we can't do those things. We have to say no. Paul was telling the Corinthians that pagan worship in the temples was a no. It was an absolute no. It was never permissible. It was never good. It would always bring destruction. He backed up this message by saying, “Look what happened to the Israelites in the Old Testament. Look what happened to them.” 

Let us conclude the story with the Israelites. Because of their idolatry and rebellion, of which there were many stages, God ultimately judged them by saying to them they could not enter the Promised Land from the desert quickly, but they had to wait a whole generation, 40 years. They spent 40 years travelling in a desert area in difficult circumstances, where almost all of them died in the wilderness. Why? Because they were not wholehearted in their commitment to the Lord, and they followed the path of idolatry. 

Reflections

This is a very long warning passage. One of the longest passages in the New Testament warning us of the dangers of sin. The church in Corinth was in real danger of disintegration and destruction because of its many sins, of which idolatry was a major one. But God always helps us when we are tempted to make the same mistake and he always blesses those who are wholehearted in their devotion to Christ.  

As we conclude this episode, I want to encourage you to think of examples in your own culture where you can enter into this selfish behaviour, where we can put other things before God. It can take a sexual dimension, as Paul mentioned in earlier episodes. It can take a religious dimension, which is what we are talking about particularly in this episode. But God always honours those who are wholehearted in their commitment to him. It would be good for us individually to work out in our own culture, in our own country, in our own situation: What does it mean to be wholehearted, following Jesus Christ without compromise in my culture? And as you ask God that question and reflect on this passage, I am sure the Holy Spirit will help you to have wisdom to know the answer to that question. 

Thank you for joining us for this episode. If you join us again next time, we will come back to the final episode about idolatry, where Paul deals with some further practical questions that the Corinthians have concerning their situation with pagan worship in Corinth.